Heartwood Metal
TTRPG Fictional · Rare · Timeless
Found at the petrified cores of ancient world-trees that have stood for ten thousand years or more, heartwood metal forms when divine life-force saturates wood over millennia until the boundary between living matter and metal dissolves entirely. It is simultaneously wood and iron: it grows slowly, heals minor damage and responds to the emotional state of whoever holds it.
Identity
- Source
- Original by MGS
- Aliases
- Living metal, Ironwood essence, Sylvan iron
Physical Properties
- Appearance
- Dark amber-brown with visible wood grain running through it, warm to the touch, occasionally shows slow movement within the grain like sap flowing
- Luster
- Waxy
- Density
- 3.2 g/cm³
- Melting point
- 600 °C
- Boiling point
- 1100 °C
- Lighter
- Mithral
- Denser
- Moonstone (Tamriel)
- Magnetism
- Non-magnetic
- Electrical conductivity
- Low
Mechanical Properties
- Mohs hardness
- 7
- Tensile strength
- 480 MPa
- Softer
- Vanadium
- Harder
- Tungsten
- Workability
- Moderate
- Brittleness
- Tough
- Malleability
- Moderate
- Ductility
- High
Chemical Properties
- Corrosion resistance
- very high
- Reactivity
- very low
Lore & Narrative
A blade of heartwood metal cannot be used to strike a living tree without shattering. It will also refuse to be used against an innocent creature, and not metaphorically: it physically resists. Smiths who work it describe the sensation as carving something that is still deciding whether to cooperate.
- Notable uses
- Druidic weapons, nature-bound armor, living tools that maintain themselves
- Forge uses
- druidic weapons, nature armor, living tools
- Worldbuilding traits
- living, druidic, sentient-material, nature
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