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Notreallyhere77
2011-09-19, 05:32 PM
So, I'm getting ready to start a new campaign, and wanted to flesh the world out a little bit by deciding what adamantine should look like. The problem is, I've seen it portrayed a few different ways, depending on the artist, and I can find no concrete description in any books that is not contradicted in another artwork.
Should the system be relevant, It's going to be a Pathfinder game.

What I have seen so far is:

Black
Chrome
Just-like-steel
Bluish

...and the last world I made, I decided it looked like black iron with a layer of glass over it (the explanation being that the process that turns coal into diamonds is the same process that turns iron into adamantine). My usual DM imagines it as golden (though that's now the official appearance for orichalkum, which I always pictured as blue).

So, I turn to you guys (and gals) for inspiration. Please feel free to either vote on the appearances I have listed, or add a new description that I can add to the list. If you like, you can provide pictures to support your ideas. My next session starts during Thanksgiving break (that's November 23rd for non-US), so I have time to prepare and gather plenty of votes.
Thanks in advance!

Voting space:
Just Black: 9.5
Black subtypes:

Blue-black: 3
Silvery black: 0.5
Red-tinted black: 1

Green: 3.5
Gold: 3
Grey: 3.5
Dark purple: 3.5
Ultraviolet/Infrared: 1
Dark diamond: 1
Like steel: 1
Cyan: 1
Bright pink: 1
Silver: 0.5
White: 0.5
Crystal: 0.5
Gunmetal blue: 0.5

Ravens_cry
2011-09-19, 05:48 PM
Dark, dark grey, almost, but not quite, black. Why? To be in contrast with mithral which, according to source material, is a gleaming silver, as mithral is as strong as steel but lighter, adamantine is heavier than steel but stronger.
Besides, I like the look of dark heavy blade. It means business, like a closed fist held tight.

Chilingsworth
2011-09-19, 05:50 PM
What's wrong with the book standard black?

If you really want something different, go with a "gunmetal blue" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluing_(steel)) look (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Niter_and_Color_Case.jpg)

Whatever you do, don't go with chrome, since that would look too much like mithril.

Prime32
2011-09-19, 05:58 PM
the explanation being that the process that turns coal into diamonds is the same process that turns iron into adamantine...my chemistry teacher is crying. :smalltongue:

I support blue-black myself.

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-19, 06:49 PM
What's wrong with the book standard black?

Which book is this, and where is it referrenced?



Whatever you do, don't go with chrome, since that would look too much like mithril.
Too bad. Chrome was going to be my first choice, but I don't want it to get confusing. I kinda pictured mithral as being more pearlescent, but that's just me, I guess.

@prime32
I'm no chemistry student, I just figured the massive crushing forces of the elemental plane of earth, and some heat or whatever, could condense iron into adamantine. Diamonds have an adamantine luster, as your geology teacher can tell you, so the material should have a similar backstory.

Chilingsworth
2011-09-19, 06:53 PM
Which book is this, and where is it referrenced?


Special Materials are discussed in the DMG, after the section on magic items.

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-19, 06:56 PM
Oh. Well, I guess it's been a while since I've read that section. Is it in the SRD, too?

Deth Muncher
2011-09-19, 07:09 PM
Personally, I see it as green (http://runehq.com/database.php?type=item&id=000014)...

kieza
2011-09-19, 07:14 PM
Raw adamantine is matte black. It's almost useless, because it's insanely hard, but equally brittle. It snaps too easily to use it for weapons and armor.

Processed adamantine is an alloy, the exact composition of which is a lost secret. Depending on the exact process, it's either glossy black or blue-black, and it sacrifices a little bit of hardness for much-reduced brittleness.

Crasical
2011-09-19, 09:01 PM
I like my Adamantine black and my Mithral chrome, my Orichalcum gleaming gold, and my women like I like my coffee: Covered in bees.

Togath
2011-09-19, 09:03 PM
I usually imagine adamantine as either a crystal(sort of like a diamand) in it's natural form, and as a silvery black metal(in alloy form)

Captain Six
2011-09-19, 09:19 PM
I played a lot of Runescape as well, and a mining specialist at that, so you have another green vote. Hours upon hours of digging that stuff up has burned that green into my head and nothing else will replace it.

deuxhero
2011-09-19, 09:31 PM
Daggerfall style dark purple.


For what it's worth, that's what Neverwinter Nights uses (not sure if ToEE has the material) as well.

Fendalus
2011-09-19, 09:37 PM
Special Materials are discussed in the DMG, after the section on magic items.

Only problem is that the color of Adamantine isn't listed in the DMG, nor the SRD.

I see it as a deep black with a slight red tint visible when it catches the light, with how shiny it is depending on exactly how it was forged (read: whatever looks better for the item in question).

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-09-19, 09:51 PM
I always imagined it as more like a matte gold-like color, as my first exposure to the term "adamantine" came from Age of Mythology, when Athena explains that Zeus sealed the entrances to Tartarus with adamantine doors. The gates in question appeared to be made of wood and gold, so that literally colored my interpretation of adamantine until I later played Neverwinter Nights 2, which depicted it as black, and learned about Wolverine, Marvel depicting it with a silver color.

I still like the matte gold-like color, though. Something different than expected.

Togath
2011-09-19, 11:44 PM
A red-gold coloured metal usually represents orichalcum(not sure if I’m spelling it right, damn spellcheck doesn’t know the word), which is often used(name-wise) interchangeably with adamant/adamantine/adamantium in video games and books, though it is a distinct metal in legends.
Adamant/adamantine/adamantium on the other hand has a different description depending on the writer, about any colour could be good, but a blue, green, purple, black, or grey color could fit with a lot of modern representations of it, while a white or silver colour, or it being a gem, could fit with greek and roman legends.

Tvtyrant
2011-09-19, 11:51 PM
I vote blue black, though I always thought it was green...

Mr.Bookworm
2011-09-20, 12:32 AM
I'm no chemistry student, I just figured the massive crushing forces of the elemental plane of earth, and some heat or whatever, could condense iron into adamantine. Diamonds have an adamantine luster, as your geology teacher can tell you, so the material should have a similar backstory.

Overused meme? Morbo?

http://images.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/10120835.jpg

Thank you, Morbo. :smalltongue:

But yes this is D&D, so it doesn't really matter. If any of your players are chemistry/science nerds, though, don't actually tell that to them unless you particularly want a lecture.

On the actual topic, I've always personally favored making it look like an incredibly dark diamond. It's kind of unique and actually references (one of) the original meanings.

Sith_Happens
2011-09-20, 12:59 AM
I like my Adamantine black and my Mithral chrome, my Orichalcum gleaming gold, and my women like I like my coffee: Covered in bees.

http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/d/d4/Beeweapon.jpg

EDIT: One more vote for green. Silly Runescape.:smallbiggrin:

Tvtyrant
2011-09-20, 01:06 AM
Crystaline iron is very real, it appears in asteroids. It is also very ugly.

Mr.Bookworm
2011-09-20, 02:23 AM
Crystaline iron is very real

Crystallinity is the degree of order in a solid. Crystalline iron is plain old regular iron.


it appears in asteroids. It is also very ugly.

Iron asteroids/meteorites are composed of a nickel-iron mix.

You can't make iron like a diamond, at any rate. It can't form the proper molecular pattern or covalent bonds to get the strength.

Eldan
2011-09-20, 02:32 AM
I ignore the part that says "metal" and make it just naturally occuring carbon-nanothingies.

Yes, they are sharp in my world. In my fantasy world, no one can hear your science scream.

Dimers
2011-09-20, 09:34 AM
I ignore the part that says "metal" and make it just naturally occuring carbon-nanothingies.

Yes, they are sharp in my world. In my fantasy world, no one can hear your science scream.

As I understand it, something that's good at holding its shape despite being one molecule wide would indeed be pretty sharp. Maybe I've just read too much bad sci-fi. The nanoconstruction idea is also good in other ways, like making adamantine immune to metal-affecting spells and giving it outlandishly good saves against transmutation and other such debasement. And you could make adamantine cloth, adamantine staves, adamantine rope ...

I've now stolen this idea for an endgame across-the-board equipment upgrade in my current campaign. :smallbiggrin:

OP: I've always favored a low-shine black or dark grey for adamantine, and for the raw ore, a sort of pearlescent version of anthracite (http://www.pitt.edu/~cejones/GeoImages/6MetamorphicRocks/Anthracite.html). Mild coloration in the finished product doesn't bother me but doesn't attract me either -- very dark purple and very dark green are both decent. I think I actually get the dark purple thing from the old Sid Meier's Civ / Magic The Gathering crossover, Master of Magic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Magic).

Fouredged Sword
2011-09-20, 12:15 PM
A very thin bundle of carbon nanotubes would cut through iron like a cheeze wire. Very, very sharp. Most aplications of nanotubes therorise useing them as the weave in a composite becuse they are to sharp to use effectivly without a covering.

It is literaly a dimond edged wire.

The trick is getting them to be long enough to be useful.

Mustard
2011-09-20, 12:49 PM
A few takes on the matter where I didn't consider its "traditional" appearance.

Raw or unpolished, it's gray, very likely confused with other metals. When worked and polished, it reflects light of the opposite color (e.g. as with film negatives).
Does not look special at all. Looks exactly like iron, except under certain lighting conditions. To discern it from iron visually, you need an expert on the matter, or some form of chemical test. For example, acid tarnishes it non-permanently.
Black, with a slight hue of some other color. The secondary color reflects some sort of special property inherent to the metal, or the way it was smithed.


Picking from the specific list you have, though, I'd go with: Black.

Eldan
2011-09-20, 01:25 PM
The trick is getting them to be long enough to be useful.

Tiny earth elementals are collecting carbon and sticking it into tubes.
Moradin did it.
A wizard did it.
Fantasy carbon grows by itself, like roots.

Knaight
2011-09-20, 01:37 PM
You can't make iron like a diamond, at any rate. It can't form the proper molecular pattern or covalent bonds to get the strength.
Basically any transfer from a series of "layers" stacked upon eachother (iron, graphite) to a crystalline structure that extends in three dimensions (diamond) would work. Iron can't do that however, or if it can there is no data that points to it, and our theories regarding the behavior of metals are incredibly wrong.

Fouredged Sword
2011-09-20, 01:59 PM
You can get amophus Iron to work though. That goes the other way though. You get very sharp blades, but it is very very brittle.

In theory you could get iron to form a crystalin structure rather than grains. Such a item would be very brittle and shear if struck along the crystalin lines as well, but the surface hardness would be very high.

Iron gets a good deal of it's toughness and hardness becuse it forms little crystals that stick together into a solid mass. Any break continuosly gets directed through new crystals and there is no direction with a tendency to shear like you see in dimonds.

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-20, 03:59 PM
Okay, chemistry discussions aside (my players don't care where it comes from unless it affects the price), I have gotten a lot of good input so far.

As the edited voting space shows, black is in the lead, and with the subcolors is doing far better than any other color.
Green is second, and equal to blue-black.
Keep it up, I want to see where this goes!

dsmiles
2011-09-20, 04:49 PM
I've always used: "a purple so dark that it looks black in anything less than direct sunlight," as the description for my adamantine items.

Knaight
2011-09-20, 05:14 PM
Translucent grey, but made of chiral particles. It bends the light, say, 60 degrees.

dsmiles
2011-09-20, 05:37 PM
Translucent grey, but made of chiral particles. It bends the light, say, 60 degrees.I'd think it would be more like 47.23 degrees.

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-20, 05:42 PM
Aesthetic qualities only, please. No need for sciency stuff here; adamantine doesn't come from the material plane and as such has no special need to conform to our physics. "Bends light" is enough for me.
Not yelling, just trying to keep things on track.

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-09-20, 05:47 PM
A red-gold coloured metal usually represents orichalcum(not sure if I’m spelling it right, damn spellcheck doesn’t know the word), which is often used(name-wise) interchangeably with adamant/adamantine/adamantium in video games and books, though it is a distinct metal in legends.
Adamant/adamantine/adamantium on the other hand has a different description depending on the writer, about any colour could be good, but a blue, green, purple, black, or grey color could fit with a lot of modern representations of it, while a white or silver colour, or it being a gem, could fit with greek and roman legends.

Something I forgot in my previous post: In Edmund Spenser's famous poem The Faerie Queene, the Knight of Justice, Artegall, recieves the sacred sword Chrysaor, which is described as being of most perfect metal, an alloy of "adamant" and gold which can cleave through armor easily. Again, a weapon made of what's basically adamantine, recorded as being golden.

flumphy
2011-09-20, 05:47 PM
Translucent grey, but made of chiral particles. It bends the light, say, 60 degrees.

Hmm. I wonder what D&D monsters, if any, can see the polarization of light.

Anyway, despite the oh-so-very-many hours I wasted mining in Runescape as a preteen, I must acknowledge that D&D adamantium is black, perhaps with a slight hint of another color depending on what it's alloyed with.

Knaight
2011-09-20, 05:51 PM
Aesthetic qualities only, please. No need for sciency stuff here; adamantine doesn't come from the material plane and as such has no special need to conform to our physics. "Bends light" is enough for me.
Not yelling, just trying to keep things on track.

Bends polarized light. Well, noticeably bends polarized light, it bends all light, but if its not polarized its not noticeable.

NNescio
2011-09-20, 05:55 PM
Most books with Drow in them describe adamantine alloys as being black, and the ur-example, IIRC, is in Volo's Guide to All Things Magical, where adamantine is described as being deep black in colour, while having a purplish-white sheen when viewed under magical light and a green sheen under candlelight.

Mando Knight
2011-09-20, 07:15 PM
Metallurgically? It makes sense that you really wouldn't be able to tell. Get chunks of polished aluminum, iron, nickel, and silver, and put them next to each other. Now scramble them. Without touching them or picking them up, can you tell the difference? Probably not, unless they've been alloyed or dyed to specifically give them a color.

For rule of cool, though, I'd go with metallic black.

Tiki Snakes
2011-09-20, 07:34 PM
Most books with Drow in them describe adamantine alloys as being black, and the ur-example, IIRC, is in Volo's Guide to All Things Magical, where adamantine is described as being deep black in colour, while having a purplish-white sheen when viewed under magical light and a green sheen under candlelight.

For some reason this just inspired an idea; What if it was Ultraviolet in colour? It could look black in normal light, but in certain conditions (A night-club? >_>) would either look all shiney or even have hidden inscriptions and patterning. It would make sense that some creatures, perhaps any famed for working it, could see in that spectrum.

Jude_H
2011-09-20, 08:12 PM
Huh. I'd always assumed it was supposed to be golden-colored. I have no idea why.

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-09-20, 11:33 PM
Huh. I'd always assumed it was supposed to be golden-colored. I have no idea why.
Well, then that makes two of us pal! We should form a club or something. :smallbiggrin:

Ksheep
2011-09-21, 01:41 AM
I always thought of it as a dull gray, similar to pewter or leadin appearance. No luster, no streaking or color variation, just a uniform gray.

Surrealistik
2011-09-21, 01:42 AM
Black. 10blacks

Eldan
2011-09-21, 03:54 AM
Can't go with green, though. Greensteel is green already. As is Starmetal, IIRC. Get's confusing after a time.

Haarkla
2011-09-21, 04:45 AM
Similar to steel, but slightly darker.

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-21, 11:23 AM
The voting space has been updated once more. Thanks again!

Well, black is in the lead, more than doubling any other color, but some interesting variations have shown up.

@tiki snakes: I like the way you think. Inscriptions on the blades that only those with darkvision can read! Great for drow and dwarves who don't want topsiders knowing command words to magic items.

@Eldan: Yes, I'd forgotten about greensteel, orichalkum is gold (unless I change it) and I had already decided years ago that obdurium was purple, so that will either make for a confusing world (if one of them wins against black), or adamantine is just a different shade of the same color.

Magesmiley
2011-09-21, 11:43 AM
I've always used a dark, metallic purple (and painted miniatures with an adamantine weapon that way).

stack
2011-09-21, 12:17 PM
Glad to see this thread. I just made a warforged with adamantine body. I described him as black (with silver lines to make pictures, pure fluff), which seems to be the consensus.

Studoku
2011-09-21, 01:19 PM
Cyan. Because dwarf fortress says so.

Cyan is always the colour of the best metals- whether it's Runite in Runescape, Adamantite in DF or Diamond in Minecraft.

Eldan
2011-09-21, 01:29 PM
@Eldan: Yes, I'd forgotten about greensteel, orichalkum is gold (unless I change it) and I had already decided years ago that obdurium was purple, so that will either make for a confusing world (if one of them wins against black), or adamantine is just a different shade of the same color.

Was Orichalcum ever statted up for D&D? And yes, it would have to be somewhere between Copper and Gold in colour.

Volthawk
2011-09-21, 02:00 PM
Was Orichalcum ever statted up for D&D? And yes, it would have to be somewhere between Copper and Gold in colour.

TDO did stat up Orichalcum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5836926), but that is the Exalted-style version of it (I guess you could take out the restrictions on it that link it to his other Exalted stuff).

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-21, 04:46 PM
Was Orichalcum ever statted up for D&D? And yes, it would have to be somewhere between Copper and Gold in colour.

Pathfinder did it. Can't give you the reference off-hand.

Also, the last two votes have been added to the roster.

Redshirt Army
2011-09-21, 06:26 PM
For some reason this just inspired an idea; What if it was Ultraviolet in colour? It could look black in normal light, but in certain conditions (A night-club? >_>) would either look all shiney or even have hidden inscriptions and patterning. It would make sense that some creatures, perhaps any famed for working it, could see in that spectrum.

Stealing this for my campaign.

Iamyourking
2011-09-21, 08:25 PM
Was Orichalcum ever statted up for D&D? And yes, it would have to be somewhere between Copper and Gold in colour.

Immortal's Handbook has it being 209 million times heavier than iron and made from white dwarf stars. You have to have a minimum strength of 115 to use a weapon or armor made of Orichalcum, but it multiplies the armor and damage of anything made out of it by 12 and cuts through anything with less than 100 hardness. Plus golems made out of it explode with a megaton of force when destroyed, can shoot plasma beams and punch a planet to death in about two minutes.

Eldan
2011-09-22, 03:44 AM
Immortal's Handbook has it being 209 million times heavier than iron and made from white dwarf stars. You have to have a minimum strength of 115 to use a weapon or armor made of Orichalcum, but it multiplies the armor and damage of anything made out of it by 12 and cuts through anything with less than 100 hardness. Plus golems made out of it explode with a megaton of force when destroyed, can shoot plasma beams and punch a planet to death in about two minutes.

Ah, Immortals Handbook. The result of taking normal things and adding zeroes to them. How exactly did they think "Mountain Copper" translated to "Neutronium"?

Iamyourking
2011-09-22, 01:16 PM
Well you did ask, and I'm pretty sure that any depiction of orichalcum in an RPG is going to possess some sort of mystical powers. In any event, it's still a few billion times lighter than neutronium and has a reddish-copper appearance.

lightningcat
2011-09-22, 07:14 PM
I always saw Adamantine as black, looking like metallic obsidian.

mootoall
2011-09-22, 07:16 PM
Runescape always ruined it as green for me, but something in the Chronotyrin description mentions it being purple.

Ravens_cry
2011-09-22, 07:18 PM
I always saw Adamantine as black, looking like metallic obsidian.
I imagine a duller, dark grey, like new asphalt, or a cast iron gate.

NineThePuma
2011-09-22, 07:22 PM
Bright Pink.

dsmiles
2011-09-22, 07:27 PM
Well you did ask, and I'm pretty sure that any depiction of orichalcum in an RPG is going to possess some sort of mystical powers. In any event, it's still a few billion times lighter than neutronium and has a reddish-copper appearance.Well, the BESM: The Slayers d20 book has orichalcum as granting spell resistance the way adamantite grants damage reduction. (A certain amount of SR for light armor, a higher value for medium armor, and another higher value for heavy armor.) It also weighs (IIRC) 1.5x normal weight for the listed armor.

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-22, 07:54 PM
Hate to break up this insightful and enlightening discussion (really, it's good stuff), but this conversation is best saved for the next thread.
Orichalkum, as far as I know, was statted for Pathfinder, and is supposedly golden in color, and much like adamantine, but harder. And since I'm playing a 3.5/pathfinder blend and not using the book of immortals, this is what 'msticking to.
So far, black is leading the most. I washoping for more votes for chrome, but it looks like the darksteel look is more popular. The new votes have been added in.

Ksheep
2011-09-22, 08:00 PM
Looking around online, I couldn't find anything definitive, but it seems that there are a number of discussions like this on various forums, including one from this very forum from a couple years ago. If you want to go through and add that as input…

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77248

EDIT: Looking around a bit more, I decided on a whim to look at Drow of the Underdark. In it, there is a construct called the Adamantine Spider, which is made from Adamantine. The description states that it is "wrought in dark, gleaming metal". I guess this rules out the dull or matte ideas.

Notreallyhere77
2011-09-22, 08:10 PM
Thanks all!
After skimming through the old thread, I have come to a decision: Everyone has their own adamantine, and they are all equally valid. I have decided to use the input that you all have given me, and say that adamantine, in my world, unless I make some last-minute changes, is...


is...



IS...


Metallic black, with green or purple glinting in the light, and bright pink under darkvision!
Thank you very much.

Next thread, orichalkum stuff!

Chilingsworth
2011-09-22, 08:31 PM
Thanks all!
After skimming through the old thread, I have come to a decision: Everyone has their own adamantine, and they are all equally valid. I have decided to use the input that you all have given me, and say that adamantine, in my world, unless I make some last-minute changes, is...


is...



IS...


Metallic black, with green or purple glinting in the light, and bright pink under darkvision!
Thank you very much.

Next thread, orichalkum stuff!

:smallbiggrin:

flumphy
2011-09-22, 08:53 PM
Metallic black, with green or purple glinting in the light, and bright pink under darkvision!
Thank you very much.

Next thread, orichalkum stuff!

Glad you reached a decision you're happy with. But...darkvision is black and white only. :smallconfused:

Hiro Protagonest
2011-09-22, 08:57 PM
Glad you reached a decision you're happy with. But...darkvision is black and white only. :smallconfused:

Not for adamantine! Or pre- and post-3.X!

Seharvepernfan
2011-09-29, 12:20 PM
Wow, this is weird. I always pictured it as brownish, and nobody here thought so. I guess its from playing baldurs gate dark alliance.

The Reverend
2011-09-29, 02:16 PM
Adamantine- always thought of it as perfectly white, because its so hard light rays bounce off.

Orixhalcum- according to our historical texts was a red bronze or brass color. Very different from gold or silver, but somewhat similar to copper in appearance. Several ways have been stated that it comes about naturally, called mountain copper, can be made mixing it with silver to make white oracalch, by artificial means by mixing "calmia" with copper under certain special conditions. Was considered nearly as valuable as gold and not quite as mystical.

Fiery Diamond
2011-09-29, 03:08 PM
Adamantine- always thought of it as perfectly white, because its so hard light rays bounce off.

What.

What was that picture earlier in the thread...

*Facepalm*

Knaight
2011-09-29, 04:09 PM
What.

What was that picture earlier in the thread...

*Facepalm*

Actually, that has more merit than you are allowing. Basically, to be a color, you have one of two options. One is to emit photons, done by exited electrons dropping back down to their normal state. The other is to absorb photons, done by exiting electrons (and sometimes chemical bonds, but that is, for the most part, outside of the visible spectrum). If adamantine is dense enough for electrons to be pushed into the nucleolus, it would be white. It would also be neutronium, and collapse outside of a neutron star, due to the lack of sufficient gravitational forces in the bunch of neutronium, but it would be white.

Hiro Protagonest
2011-09-29, 04:11 PM
Actually, that has more merit than you are allowing. Basically, to be a color, you have one of two options. One is to emit photons, done by exited electrons dropping back down to their normal state. The other is to absorb photons, done by exiting electrons (and sometimes chemical bonds, but that is, for the most part, outside of the visible spectrum). If adamantine is dense enough for electrons to be pushed into the nucleolus, it would be white. It would also be neutronium, and collapse outside of a neutron star, due to the lack of sufficient gravitational forces in the bunch of neutronium, but it would be white.

It would also weigh a ton.

Ravens_cry
2011-09-29, 04:16 PM
What.

What was that picture earlier in the thread...

*Facepalm*

Good sir, do you mind if I join you in this metacarpus/facial interfacing? It also fulfils a similarly felt need.

Knaight
2011-09-29, 04:16 PM
It would also weigh a ton.

Technically, it would weigh about 2.2*10^6 metric tons per cubic centimeter. Though, strictly speaking, 5*10^5 metric tons per cubic centimeter is possible as the lower limit, with the upper being about 4*10^6 metric tons per cubic centimeter. Meaning that it would weigh about a ton if measure a .1 millimeter cube, at a bit lower than the average density

All of this assumes earth gravity, which is why I can even use metric ton as a unit of weight, as it is more properly a unit of mass.

Coidzor
2011-09-29, 05:00 PM
For some reason this just inspired an idea; What if it was Ultraviolet in colour? It could look black in normal light, but in certain conditions (A night-club? >_>) would either look all shiney or even have hidden inscriptions and patterning. It would make sense that some creatures, perhaps any famed for working it, could see in that spectrum.

Ooo, that works even more well with the idea it's caused by magical radiation in the underdark... :smallbiggrin: Me Gusta!

The Reverend
2011-09-30, 04:03 PM
No, adamantine happens under very specific conditions none of which have to do with such fantasy as " neutronium ", from the only one that counts in DND magic not your phantasm of "reason" and "logic" that is "physics, I would explain it thusly.

Adamantine happens under very specific conditions, first it is elemental earth that has been exposed to energy from the elemental planes of law and force at the same time. This exposure must have taken place in an area of fundamental chaos, and is critical for this rare materials formation. The elemental earth forms natural pico-runes of force that imprint the two forces on the structure of the elemental earth giving its impossible hardness. Now as these runes precipitate in the fundamental chaos they are not allowed to string together properly or in an orderly fashion and form haphazard sheets, scrolls, circles and other "orderly" structures. This disrupted structure imparts its brittleness as the "structures" do not make whole verses of runes of force.

To make adamantine into a usable alloy a number of different techniques can and are used but all are variations on either ordering the structures into larger verses of material or providing a binding substance to join the structures. For example Drow use shadow magic and shadow touched metals that flow easily between the structures binding them together. This process is significantly cheaper than other methods but has its drawbacks as should be immediately obvious. Dwarves on the other hand use a slower, but more reliable technique of processing the adamantine under strong runic and law energies designed to align the structures of runic force so they support each other and concatenate them into large verses. The Elven process, the slowest of all, uses sustained chanting and rhythmic strikes on the metal to bring the verses into harmony with each other along with expose to life magics to encourage the structures to reconcile into larger structures.

Ashram
2011-09-30, 04:34 PM
No, adamantine happens under very specific conditions none of which have to do with such fantasy as " neutronium ", from the only one that counts in DND magic not your phantasm of "reason" and "logic" that is "physics, I would explain it thusly.

Adamantine happens under very specific conditions, first it is elemental earth that has been exposed to energy from the elemental planes of law and force at the same time. This exposure must have taken place in an area of fundamental chaos, and is critical for this rare materials formation. The elemental earth forms natural pico-runes of force that imprint the two forces on the structure of the elemental earth giving its impossible hardness. Now as these runes precipitate in the fundamental chaos they are not allowed to string together properly or in an orderly fashion and form haphazard sheets, scrolls, circles and other "orderly" structures. This disrupted structure imparts its brittleness as the "structures" do not make whole verses of runes of force.

To make adamantine into a usable alloy a number of different techniques can and are used but all are variations on either ordering the structures into larger verses of material or providing a binding substance to join the structures. For example Drow use shadow magic and shadow touched metals that flow easily between the structures binding them together. This process is significantly cheaper than other methods but has its drawbacks as should be immediately obvious. Dwarves on the other hand use a slower, but more reliable technique of processing the adamantine under strong runic and law energies designed to align the structures of runic force so they support each other and concatenate them into large verses. The Elven process, the slowest of all, uses sustained chanting and rhythmic strikes on the metal to bring the verses into harmony with each other along with expose to life magics to encourage the structures to reconcile into larger structures.

Or, you know, it could just be really hard space metal found in meteors.

Optimator
2011-09-30, 06:15 PM
Adamantine is super super dark green. So dark it looks black except in direct light where its green shimmer can be seen.

Fayd
2011-09-30, 06:53 PM
I've always seen Adamantine as a dark-green crystalline metal. Dunno quite why.

Orichalcum, from what I remember, is Atlantean Steel, formed from an alloy of regular steel, gold, and silver. ... That entirely assumes I remembered correctly. This would make it a very shiny, silvery metal with a golden sheen, if not a golden color.

Eldan
2011-10-01, 01:59 PM
In Greek mythology, at least, it's bronze, not steel.

Emperor Ing
2011-10-01, 08:00 PM
I've always seen adamantine (or adamantium :smallamused:) as a very, very dark grey. Not quite sure why, but I have trouble seeing it any other way.

Fayd
2011-10-01, 08:04 PM
In Greek mythology, at least, it's bronze, not steel.

*facepalm* Yeah, bronze sounds a lot more likely... We didn't have the capability for steel for a LONG while after the Greeks. I studied metallurgy, I should have remembered that.

Defiant
2011-10-01, 10:20 PM
Since I played Runescape at a younger age, adamantine will always look green to me.

Swooper
2011-10-01, 10:32 PM
Didn't read through the entire thread so I don't know if this has been suggested, but I like fluffing it as appearing slightly differently depending on the light source. It's always black, but in daylight or moonlight it takes a slight bluish hue. In firelight it's more purple, and in magical light it seems green.

...Would kind of explain the different versions of how it looks I guess?

Edit: Did some research, apparently this idea is not originally mine though I've changed the colours around: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Adamantine

Seb Wiers
2011-10-02, 08:16 PM
Diamonds have an adamantine luster, as your geology teacher can tell you,

Or your English teacher, seeing as one of the meanings of the word "adamantine" is "resembling the diamond in hardness or luster". Same word root.

Yora
2011-10-03, 03:47 AM
I say obsidian-black with a slight blue-purple tint.

magic9mushroom
2011-10-03, 04:47 AM
IIRC "adamant" means "diamond", so I see no reason it should look like anything else.

magic9mushroom
2011-10-03, 04:51 AM
IIRC "adamant" means "diamond".

I see no reason for "adamantine" materials to look like anything other than what they are - diamond.

Yora
2011-10-03, 05:01 AM
But a sword made from diamond would probably break on impact.

Eldan
2011-10-03, 05:04 AM
IT doesn't literally mean "diamond". "Adamas" means "invincible" or "untamable" in Greek, and basically just "hard" in Latin. Similarly for the adjective "adamantine". Yes, Diamond comes from the same root, but it doesn't have to mean that the metal Adamantine, i.e. the metal hard as diamond, literally has to be diamond.

magic9mushroom
2011-10-03, 05:12 AM
But a sword made from diamond would probably break on impact.

No more than an obsidian or untempered steel blade from what I remember. You could also reinforce it.