Real world obsidian is brittle and fragile and it would make for some terrible armor.

Corundum and malachite are smelted into blatantly metallic ingots, not to mention that "glass" in TES is semi-metallic (Light Armor Repair), not ceramic. And in what way does http://images.uesp.net/c/c8/SR-item-Corundum_Ingot.jpg correspond with http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Several_corundum_crystals.jpg/240px-Several_corundum_crystals.jpg. So they are similar in name only. And the colour of malachite ore but not the processed material.

Moonstone is worked into shapes that are hardly possible for a mineral like it (assuming the gold coloured parts of elven armor is moonstone).

Ebony in TES is metallic as The Armorers Challenge and Heavy Armor Repair describe techniques to work it like it is a metal.

Dwemer metal is not explicitly described as made from souls but the lore-forum has a general consensus that that is the case, an alternative theory is that it is simply some common alloy but the Dwemer changed the laws of nature as how they apply to the metal.

Orc metal is obviously based on the real-world fictional metal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orichalcum although it doesn't share many traits with orichalcum as it is normally described, Dwemer metal actually has more in common with common descriptions of orichalcum than the orichalcum in Skyrim.

And mithril is LIGHT, that is a consistent part of its properties wherever is appears.

Ok... Let's have a look at this with some detail.. yes?

Malachite in skyrim
- Colour is like the real world
- Looks like it does in the real world
- Properties are nowhere near what it is in the real world (it's a brittle Stone)
- Lore is poor in explaining these faults
- SHould probably abandon this foolishness and go back to glass.

Moonstone
- Looks like it does in the real world
- Properties are nowhere near what it is in the real world (it's a Stone) (cant become a metal)
- Lore is poor in explaining these faults
- SHould probably abandon this foolishness and Create a new explanation for the yellow metal.

Corundumn
- Looks.. Similar
- Properties Not similar
- Lore is poor in explaining these faults
- Should probably abandon this foolishness.

Quicksilver
- Colour is similar (not the same)
- Properties are nowhere near similar
- Lore is poor in explaining these faults
- Again, abandon the foolishness

-Ebony
Properties are completely different. Name is shared
Lore is excellent at explaining why it's different. The wood probably exists in tamriel too
- Metal is completely justified, All it needs is a position on the periodic table

Glass (morrowind)
See "ebony"

Addamantium
- Not a real metal
- It's been dropped since morrowind

Red addamantium
- Only used in Tribunal. Assuming it's an alloy

Mithril
- Based of tolkien. No harm done.

Orichalum
- Taken from real world legends
- Properties are new and inconsistent. (for armour, it is grey, for weapons, it's a shiney green. In daggerfall orcish items were very green)

You destroy the heart in Morrowind. At least disable it.

Then Red Year comes, rocks fall everyone dies and so does the Heart.

---

Sigh, guys, I'll have to use the it's a game argument.

The stars are holes to Heaven. You know. Magic runs through them. They are not the leftover visions of exploding spacethings.

There are different realms.

Oh, and CHIM.

You never destroyed the heart(Mundus would've been unmade if that were possible)

You remove the enchantments that Kagrenac had put on it thousands of years ago(The enchantments that allowed Ur and the Tribunal to access its power).

The heart is not gone.

Addy been around since Daggerfall and it is a real metal actually. It is a human-made metal and one of the only metals that can break a diamond (Note: Break, not scratch. Only a diamond can scratch a diamond). Idk the process of making it but I do it is real and rarely used. If I am correct, it is used for the most important buildings as well as used on diamonds for jewelry. I mean, they gotta break diamonds some how, right? This is what I've learn!

Diamonds are actually not that difficult to shatter. They may be hard but they are also brittle.

Dwemer, elven and orcis is just probably just alloys and design, it might well contain ebony or other exotic materials or require an special/ magical way to make it.

Ebony is an super metal, tungsten is probably the closest you get in real world, not titan as it's heavy.

Glass is not an metal, if you look at armor and weapon it look more like it's cut and shaped not melted and hammered like metals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantium Stop getting you education from comic books. And as Cecilff said, diamonds are quite easy to break, they have a "grain" to them and if you strike along that grain you can split it like a log. Across the grain you cut them using tools coated with diamond dust.

W/e and btw, don't assume stuff. I have NEVER read a comic book before cause I don't like comic books. I prefer to read real books with no pictures and like 1,000 - 5,000 pages.

Most of my knowledge is what I got when I looked it up.

Okay, clearing this up.

Ebony is a volcanic metal, share name but not properties of real world ebony. Originates from Lorkhan's Heart.

Glass is a volcanic crystal, share name but not properties of real world glass. Originates from Lorkhan's Heart.

Mithril is a light metal, to quote Tolkien "Lighter than a feather, yet tougher than dragonscales". It is fictional in name, but might be similar to real world materials. Not in Skyrim, but have been featured earlier.

Orichinalcum is a heavy metal, fictional in name, but real world materials could share properties.

Moonstone is probably a light metal. Little is known, first time appearence for the name. Could be a metal forged into arms, or a stone/crystal shaped into form.

Quicksilver is probably a light metal. Used together with Moonstone to make Elven weapons and armour. Share name but not properties of real world quicksilver. (Quicksilver is the same as mercury)

Adamantium is a heavy metal, it is purely fictional. Not featured since Morrowind.

Dwarven Metal is a heavy metal. Name is unknown, therefore named as it is. Might be similar to real world materials.

Daedric is a heavy metal. Ebony infused with the essence of a Daedroth. Purely fictional.

I'm pretty sure I got them all.

How do you know you dont like them if you never read one?

Fixed your post for you. If you wont add anyhting constructive, not even to the lore debate, dont post.

Also, in case your wondering, Corundum can indeed be used to make armor (theoreticly), although im really not suprised people dont know this. Corundum look like Corundum (Guess what? It doesnt come out of the ground as gleaming polished saphire) with crystals in its ore. Other than the veyr sharp edges on the ingot thats not much off either. Compare:
http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/wiki-api.ign.com/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim/thumb/d/d0/Corundum_ingot.png/468px-Corundum_ingot.png

to

http://www.khyberminerals.com/madagascar_2011_files/IMG_5548_small.JPG

And here, for anyone interested: http://www.ikts.fraunhofer.de/en/research_fields/materials/oxide_ceramics/ceramicsonbasissintercorundum/transparmorceram.jsp (this is a Corundum armor link)


See my above comparison. Corundom, if you look outside of one wiki article, comes in many colors and shapes.

And Cecil is correct in that diamonds are (relativly) brittle. When was the last time you saw someone use a diamond knife in their kitchen?

I always thought Dwarven metal was some sort of magically reinforced combination of brass, gold and steel. I don't think there is anything lore-wise that really says what metal it is...

Names are arbitrary, that's why I never bought into the whole "TES Malachite = RL Malachite", though I would prefer them to go back to just "Glass", given the Lorkhan origins of the material.

Finding "Real World" anologies to TES weapons is a bit difficult. As far as I know, the best metallurgists in the world, given the whole periodic table still go back to steels. (High-carbon steel being the best, or the now-mythical Damascus steel) Most of the "Power" Of a blade comes from the physics of it's cutting edge, not the material.

Oh, i should note that Adamantium is ficitonal indeed. Goes back to the ancient greeks. First "pop culture" use might be Paradise Lost, but im not sure. Adamantine (not ium) is a real thing. Its...well...Corundum again.

Also, more Corundum, for that whole "doesnt look alike" thing. http://geology.com/minerals/photos/corundum-ruby-zoisite-3-d.jpg

Um... no. As has been previously stated in the real world quicksilver is another name for mercury. And since Mercury is both liquid at anything near room temperature (it solidifies about three dozen degrees below zero) and highly toxic I kind of doubt you'll find it in much jewelry.

Of course, processing crystals into ceramic materials using high-end chemistry has very, very little to do with "melt it in a forge and hit it lots with a hammer."

Face it.... yes, they used a name from real life. That doesn't mean that the material in-game has any particular connection to the real-world item.

(Kind of like "Cobalt" and "Thorium" are crafting materials in a World of Warcraft expansion. But you sure as heck wouldn't forge big armor plates out of it, to wear.)



interesting trivia. Melting point of corundum? 2044° C. Somehow, I don't think that's a safe (or possible) temperature for a blacksmith's forge.

Good point, although the game has no fewer than three magic forges. The one in Riften actually uses a magical heating element.
Since you clearly DO melt these meterials (you can smelt them) your character (somehow, against all logic) does have the means needed to create high tensile layered ceramics and other advanced armors (the Bonded armor is explicitly composite armor). Look at Glass items in Skyrim. They are clearly this. And you can smelt Malachite and Ebony. The smelters and forges in this game can melt and re-shape the crystalized blood of a dead god.

My guess is that Nords are just so awesome fire burns hotter in Skyrim.


He was probably thinking of Sterling Silver and mistook it for Quicksilver. Although if you lived in a VERY cold place, you could male elemental mercury jewelry. In its elemental form it isnt terribly dangerous unless you ate it. In methyl compounds it is one of the most deadly things on earth.

Maybe.. i was right? Please point out the part that is completely inaccurate and offensive to one of such keen intellect?

The issue was the post in question was essentialy "I dont like speculation"

If thats the case then dont post on the thread. This thread is about seculating possible equivalencies and who they may or may not work. The conclusion drawn in that post for each material was to not bother trying to figure it out. If you dont want to think about it, then dont, but their isnt any reason to bother posting at all in that case.

Your being sarcastic, but yes, I do have some intellectual power. I enjoy the chase, the comparison, the conflicting lore, the trying to reconcile the parts that dont fit, the alternative answers. All of it. But your alternative is "dont bother trying," so the part that offends me is that. The giving up. This-is-hard-it-doesnt-work-perfecly-so-i-wont-try attitudes are fine, but if thats all you have to offer, your better off not posting here. Inflate your post count somewhere else.

No, by that i meant the following

- Something should be used instead of corrundumn, Quicksilver... etc. Because they are.. half right and so causes a little confusion towards the real world. For instance- You can't mould moonstone into a metal, Yet in it's raw form it looks exactly like moonstone. Bethesda should try to either make up their metals or think of alloys that would give them desired properties.
- As for glass- I want morrowind's glass back. I simply prefer everything about morrowinds glass. I liked the lore written about it, i liked the properties assigned to it and the armour both matched the loor and looked signicantly better than it's skyrim and oblivion reincarnation. However- Id be perfecttly open to glass not appearing in another tes game.
- Orichalum- It's the inconsistent colour that bothers me. That and the logic for why only orcish use. It's something to make an alloy so i assume that you could make low grade items with iron and high grade with mithril or adamantium. Just a small retcon would do it well.

Mithril/ adamantium. It's fine that these exist. They are simply names commonly used for fictional metal. Mithril conotates a lighter metal and it wouldn't have hurt for a more unique name- But they are part of the lore. How is there an adamantine tower without adamantium? What happened to the materials used in morrowind/daggerfall and even arena?!?! If they were used in alloys, i wouldn't care about how unoriginal they are at all.

Red adamantium- incase you were wondering... Was my attempt at inventing an alloy for the explanation of royal guard armour in the tribunal expansion of morrowind (similar to addamantium in stats, red in colour, probably an alloy) It's fine if you think im speculating to much. I bring it up because i wouldn't mind myself making red armour and weapons in future tes tittles.

The other Towers stand, to a degree.

And it is plunged into lava with Akulakhan.

And then Red Year comes.

Mundus would not have been unmade.

"But when Trinimac and Auriel tried to destroy the Heart of Lorkhan it laughed at them. It said, "This Heart is the heart of the world, for one was made to satisfy the other." So Auriel fastened the thing to an arrow and let it fly long into the sea, where no aspect of the new world may ever find it."

The enchantments on the Heart were sundered and it was set free.
It did not plunge into lava.

To destroy the Heart would be to destroy the world.

This is a strange debate. I mean comparing fantasy game metals to real world metals? Chances are fantasy metals win every time. I don't really think there are any equivalents with the exception of the only metals in Skyrim that aren't fantasy being Steal and Iron. Even than, it's a game and the metals could be made to be stronger than they could in real life. Especially with Skyrim, apparently nothing in the world of Nirn breaks anymore. Sometimes the line that balances realism and fantasy in a video game is crossed and stupid features like not being able to repair your weapons, happens...FISH PASTE!