Talk:1114: Metallurgy

"extraterrestrial metal was often more refined and plentiful than man-made metal ingots." -I'd love to read about this. Citation needed! --Buggz (talk) 08:59, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Sure. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_meteorite. It was mostly cultures with little industry picking up meteorites and finding that the stuff lying on the ground was miles better than the awful fragile metal that they were making from rocks. Davidy22 (talk) 09:06, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

In fantasy stories, the world is usually much more complicated place. Meteorite, which may have easily traveled billions kilometres going through places with environment greatly different from anything available on the planet, can easily develop interresting properties. Still, for every super-cool super-effective sword, there must be many other meteorites whose properties make them LESS usefull for weapons. Even in our universe, meteorites may went through temperatures and magnetical fields much greater that available for preindustrial civilization. -- 89.177.52.2 10:42, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

That salesman was likely to sell a flashlight as a lightsabre.--DelendaEst (talk) 11:20, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

It is possible that Randall drew inspiration from the piece of news that was making rounds yesterday, best exemplified by an article in The Register titled STATUE found by 1930s NAZI expedition is of ALIEN ORIGIN. Many publications ran a similar headline, stating that the statue, and not the material it is made from, is of extraterrestrial origin. mem (talk) 13:46, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

The explanation should perhaps also address how in various computer/fantasy games one will often come across a weapons dealer, a non-player character who will happily sell you whatever he has in stock. CityZen (talk) 20:06, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

You know, the shopkeeper struck me as a particularly jaded individual, perhaps tired of the RPG fan-boys (and -girls, judging by Megan's presence) looking for a real-world souvie of their gaming exploits. He gives some half-hearted patter, but is completely forthcoming in unsalesman-like fashion: I'm going to lay this out without misrepresentation, and if you're dumb enough to buy this.... But that's just me. -- IronyChef (talk) 14:15, 29 September 2012 (UTC)

Hey! The word "eldritch" is actually more pertinent than I thought it would be:

"eldritch"

Origin: 1500–10; earlier elrich, equivalent to Old English el- foreign, strange, uncanny ( see else) + rīce kingdom ( see rich); hence “of a strange country, pertaining to the Otherworld”; compare Old English ellende in a foreign land, exiled (cognate with German Elend penury, distress), Runic Norse alja-marki r foreigner" Woot.Noni Mausa (talk) 12:07, 29 September 2012 (UTC)