Meteoric iron immunities

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I like this idea. I think the webcomic DMFA does something similar - in that, materials with no magic are markedly more effective against Creatures (basically, the class of sapients that are inherently magical, such as demons; null magic weapons treat them as Beings, the human-analogues), but interacting with magic causes some of it to kinda rub off on the material (which makes it really hard to get items with no magic). As one character describes, you then need to remove the tainted layer for it to be effective again, so you eventually end up with daggers instead of swords.

For some reason, I'm reminded of low-background steel, "harvested" from sunken ships that have spent the entirety of the nuclear age under a protective layer of water.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I am curious how meteoric iron became associated with antimagic. In folklore, it is supposed to be inherently magical, which was why it was capable of overcoming magical defenses, as its divine magic was stronger than the mortal magic of sorcerers and witches. The idea that meteoric iron is antimagic is much more of a modern conceit.

My pardon for the thread necromancy, but I just read R.E.Howard's The Devil In Iron, and it contains a knife "forged of a meteor which flashed through the sky like a flaming arrow and fell in a far valley." We also learn that "against that unearthly knife the magic of Khosatral was impotent." Khosatral is some kind elder god who has formed himself a body made of (normal) iron - only the knife is able to dispatch him. So meteoric iron being antimagic is at least 85 years old (the story was published in 1934).

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anders

My pardon for the thread necromancy, but I just read R.E.Howard's The Devil In Iron, and it contains a knife "forged of a meteor which flashed through the sky like a flaming arrow and fell in a far valley." We also learn that "against that unearthly knife the magic of Khosatral was impotent." Khosatral is some kind elder god who has formed himself a body made of (normal) iron - only the knife is able to dispatch him. So meteoric iron being antimagic is at least 85 years old (the story was published in 1934).

No, not what happened. The Yuetsi shaman who forged the knife used it to amgically bind Khosatral Khel in a sleep-like state. Conan, having no idea hw to work magic just used it gut him.

So it was definitely anti-KK but not generally anti-magical since it was part of magical spell.

Also, "Elder God" might over-rate KK. He had no special powers beyond the strength and durability of his manifestation. Even Conan wonders about a devil having to break a door down like a normal man. Probably just an extra-dimenional "demon" of low to middling rank.

Even jsut "meteors" isn't that old an idea. You can see G:Arabian Nights for theSword of Antar 'Adi (which was strongly amgical rather than non-magical)?) but "educated" Europeans didn't even beleive in stones falling from the sky until the late 1700s.

So it was probably into the early 1900s when meterors penetrated the mass consciousness but even when they were truly amgical rather than sut Superscience they weren't necessarily anit-magical. See the Golden Age Green Lantern for an example.

The general anti-magical properties of regular iron go back into folklore but anti-magical iron as seen in DF? I think it post-dates depeleted necronium from Technomancer. :)

[SolemnGolem]

As a separate matter, I have discovered that Corrosion Crawlers (Pyramid 3/98) can digest meteoric iron. They exude an aura that causes metals to decay.

So if we're wondering how to go about actually mining this dead iron star, this may be a way to do it.