Why Osmium?

[Sunken Valley]

Out of all the high density elements in the world, why did Redcloak pick Osmium?

[Mutant Sheep]

Why not? It shows he hasn't forgotten his Chem notes since the siege, and its shiny and scary. Better than any classic elementals, and he already used clorine and titanium. What, you want him to use a fire elemental?

[Phoenix Xul]

It's the highest density, slightly more dense than Iridium. As a result, it would have the best resistance to the Resistance.

[Iamyourking]

Obviously he's a Zoofights fan and is summoning osmium from there.

[Kareasint]

It's the highest density, slightly more dense than Iridium. As a result, it would have the best resistance to the Resistance.

Given what RC knew about the Resistance, the elemental probably has damage reduction to normal weapon attacks as a result.

[Math_Mage]

High density, oxidizes to a poisonous gas (useful for dealing with swarms of mooks).

[rewinn]

Out of all the high density elements in the world, why did Redcloak pick Osmium?

It's an anagram for "I so mum!" ...

...which is either a reference to its silence, or a tribute to RC's mother, slain by paladins.

[NerfTW]

Probably just for the further humor value of Redcloak summoning obscure elementals. Rich probably just picked a dense metal. I doubt there's anything behind it.

[Soylent Dave]

Out of all the high density elements in the world, why did Redcloak pick Osmium?

Osmium is both highly dense and stable (which would translate to hefty damage reduction and no stupid weakness like exploding when you throw water at it)

It's incredibly hard, has a ridiculously high melting point and doesn't compress under pressure (until you get silly).

Osmium is king of the super-hard metals, basically - we don't use it much in the real world because it's so hard and brittle that it's really difficult to work it (and it's pretty heavy); when you're summoning elementals that probably isn't too much of a concern...

[edit: it's also one of the high-density metal elements which is easily recognisable from its abbreviation, which is probably something to think about when you're doing a comic strip you want people to find accessible]

[Hecuba]

Osmium is the densest naturally occurring elements. As such, it pops up in cat-girl killing conversations with some regularity in reference to true creation and matter/anti-matter explosions. The crux is that true creation is volume based, thus making the heaviest naturally occurring element (osmium) and its anti-matter equivalent (anti-osmium) the most efficient use of the trick that your dm will never let you use anyways.

[Howler Dagger]

Why not? It shows he hasn't forgotten his Chem notes since the siege, and its shiny and scary. Better than any classic elementals, and he already used clorine and titanium. What, you want him to use a fire elemental?

Fire is a reactional/nitpick

Isn't Osmium really dense? I would guess that would be why.

[King of Nowhere]

Probably just for the further humor value of Redcloak summoning obscure elementals. Rich probably just picked a dense metal. I doubt there's anything behind it.

Probably that is the rigth answer

Osmium is both highly dense and stable (which would translate to hefty damage reduction and no stupid weakness like exploding when you throw water at it)

It's incredibly hard, has a ridiculously high melting point and doesn't compress under pressure (until you get silly).

Osmium is king of the super-hard metals, basically - we don't use it much in the real world because it's so hard and brittle that it's really difficult to work it (and it's pretty heavy); when you're summoning elementals that probably isn't too much of a concern...

[edit: it's also one of the high-density metal elements which is easily recognisable from its abbreviation, which is probably something to think about when you're doing a comic strip you want people to find accessible]

That's not the reason at all. the reason it is almost never used is that it is the very rares element on heart, so it is quite expensive and hard to get. If that elemental is not empty inside, i would surmise that all osmium mined on heart in all of history would suffice to create no more than a couple of those elementals. Maybe it won't be enough to create one. I don't really want to check right now, but I'm pretty sure it's much more expensive than gold too. Damn, now i want to mine that elemental.
Anyway, osmium has very good mechanical and chemical properties. I guess it it was more common it would be used for almost everything where wheigth is not a concern. I suppose an Os elemental would be similar to an heart elemental, but far stronger.

It is also the densest stable element, but Iridium (another metal with very good properties but extremely rare) is very close to that, with a ddifference in specific weigth of a few dozens grams/dm^3, and many metals are not far behind, so I would not think osmium was used for the weigth

[Mutant Sheep]

Fire is a reactional/nitpick

*cough* classic elements* cough*.

[KoboldRevenge]

I've got a question! Why does it not have slanted evil eyes? Like others have here and here. Do elementals have different alignments based on this?

(Also @^ why the hearts instead of earths?)

[Chronos]

(Also @^ why the hearts instead of earths?)

I'm guessing he's posting from a tablet or phone that autocompletes words to make typing easier. Those can make silly decisions sometimes.

[Dr.Epic]

Out of all the high density elements in the world, why did Redcloak pick Osmium?

It's the densest. Thus is packs the most punch. Has the most momentum.

[Dalenthas]

I've got a question! Why does it not have slanted evil eyes? Like others have here and here. Do elementals have different alignments based on this?

(Also @^ why the hearts instead of earths?)

I'd guess it would be to help differentiate it visually from the Titanium Elementals.

[Grimly Feendish]

Possibly because of Os - Order (of the) stick

[Zeful]

It's probably a reference to the Anti-Osmium bomb Swordguy devised on this forum.

[Gift Jeraff]

(Also @^ why the hearts instead of earths?)

There's already a planet named Earth, so why not have planets named Fire, Water, Wind, and Heart?!

[KillianHawkeye]

There's already a planet named Earth, so why not have planets named Fire, Water, Wind, and Heart?!

Bad idea. That would just lead to somebody trying to smash those worlds together to form some kind of super PLANET.

[Dr.Epic]

Bad idea. That would just lead to somebody trying to smash those worlds together to form some kind of super PLANET.

They already kind of did:

Spoiler

Show

[rewinn]

The basic elements of an computer system are the hardware (HW), Operating System (OS), and Application Software (SW).
An OS elemental should be able to multitask and facilitate recovery after TPK.

[Esprit15]

3,141st person to say "Heavy metal that's highly poisonous yet stable."

[Soylent Dave]

That's not the reason at all. the reason it is almost never used is that it is the very rares element on heart, so it is quite expensive and hard to get.

I don't want to flash my 'chemist' card around, but I will anyway.

The least abundant elements on Earth are astatine, polonium, francium, radium, actinium, and protactinium - there's almost none of each (except as by-products of fannying about with other radio-active elements)

Iridium (next to Osmium in the periodic table) is also less abundant than Osmium - most Iridium in the crust probably comes from the asteroid(s) that killed the dinosaurs - but is slightly easier to work with.

(Not that Osmium isn't ALSO pretty rare, just that there are still plenty of elements which are harder to find - on Earth, at least)

Osmium has a spectacularly high melting point, is supremely hard and not very reactive - this makes it incredibly difficult to work. Osmium tetroxide is also toxic, so it's pretty much universally useful as an alloy.

If you do make the effort of working the Os into an alloy with another tough metal, you can use it for incredibly hard-wearing applications (pacemakers, fountain pen nibs etc.) - but let's not pretend heating things up to 3300K and working them while avoiding oxidation is straightforward!


-

[as a side point, I'm still holding out for a Wolfram elemental]

[Adoendithas]

If you have elementals like Osmium, could you combine them into Compoundals?

[Nekron 99]

Finely divided metallic osmium is pyrophoric. Highly reactive with water...so you attack it with a file and bucket of water.

[RaggedAngel]

Finely divided metallic osmium is pyrophoric. Highly reactive with water...so you attack it with a file and bucket of water.

That would work, if it didn't have the responds of "Osmium smash."

By the way, am I the only one who finds it oddly cute? Because it seems incredibly cute, partially due to the way it's drawn, but also because of its plodding, slow nature.

[ExuroCastellum]

does it have to be naturally occurring on earth to be valid as an elemental in OOTS? regardless of properties and usefulness or actually managing to exist for longer than several negative orders of tens of seconds (magic!) i want an unununium elemental. unununununuumium. unumiumuniumununium. fun.

EDIT:

That would work, if it didn't have the responds of "Osmium smash."

By the way, am I the only one who finds it oddly cute? Because it seems incredibly cute, partially due to the way it's drawn, but also because of its plodding, slow nature.

No, not even close. As soon as i saw him (...it?) i immediately passed out from the psychological struggle of deciding whether it or the Celestial Tree Sloth was cute. I decided Celestial tree Sloth b/c i have no doubts about getting it tattooed somewhere (the attack formation, not hanging)

[One Skunk Todd]

Out of all the high density elements in the world, why did Redcloak pick Osmium?

So that Rich could make a Donny and Marie joke. ~rimshot~ Thank you, I'll be here all week, try the veal. :)