In real life, metal or metal is one of the elements in the periodic table. That belongs to one particular group / column and have a certain type of crystal lattice with free electrons.
While in fiction, especially fantasy, metal is often associate with shiny objects that have extraordinary properties. Such as super strength, resistance to magic, and so on. It often does not resemble any of the metals found in the periodic table.
Metals that are brittle, flammable, react violently with water or air or are useless for forging swords and shields never appear in fantasy. although there are many things like this in real life, such as mercury.
The type of metal that is often found in fantasy allusions is usually the “shiny and stunning” one. Here are three types of fantasy metal that are most often found in works of fiction.
Mithril
It is a light, very strong, and silvery metal that also uses various spellings including mithral, mythral, and mythril. This fantastic metal is comparable to real-world titanium metal. The name is derive from the fictional language Sindarin, and means ‘silver gleam’. Mithril first appear in the famous work of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings as ‘Infinity Plus One Metal’.
Yet in examples of post-Tolkien fiction, Mithril is only consider a mid-level magic metal, above steel but below the mighty adamantium.
Orichalcum
This metal first appears in Plato’s version of the Atlantis myth. Also spell as orichalcum, orihalcon, or orichalc, this name means ‘mountain copper’ in Greek. This color often appears as a copper or bronze color.
Orichalcum is consider a fairly dynamic fantasy metal due to its highly variable properties. Sometimes the main properties of orichalcum lie in its strength, high value, room temperature superconductivity, or miraculous resistance. Also, sometimes orichalcum is say to be a floating metal.
Adamantium
Adamantium, also knows as adamantine, adamantite, or adamant, is a popular fantasy metal in pop culture. This fantasy metal is very well known, one of which is found in the bones and claws of the character Wolverine in X-Men.
Its name comes from the Greek word ‘Adamas’, which means ‘diamond’. The name makes sense, as this metal is as hard as a diamond and much stronger and tougher than an actual diamond.
If adamantium is describe as an indestructible metal and have a more down-to-earth nature, adamantium roughly resembles the real-world metals tungsten and rhenium.
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