View source for Steel, noon-forged

In [[metallurgical wizardry]], a reference (generally) to ferrous metals worked at a time when natural forces best favor maximum effectiveness and potency when later used in spellwork.

Each [[chemical element]] has a time of day (depending on the planet involved) that expresses an affinity or similar close correspondence to the [[physical element]] which generally represents the chemical one. This period is referred to as the chemical element's [[periodic exaltation]]. Any chemical element manipulated during such a period will acquire superior properties of [[channeling | power channeling]] and resistance to the forces of darkness, especially to creatures or objects that have fallen under the domination of the [[Lone Power]].

The physical element most closely associated with worked metals, especially the ferrous metals, is [[fire]]. (For wizardly purposes, the more active element involved in a metal's history supersedes the more passive one, which in this case is [[Earth element, the | earth]]).

Iron and steel forged in fire or otherwise manufactured using heat at a time when the [[Sun, the | Sun]] is at midheaven -- i.e., local noon, when the Sun's presence and influence are least interfered with by intervening masses of [[Earth | earth]], [[Air element | air]] or [[Water element | water]] -- become unusually powerful when used as weapons against the Lone One and Its minions. Noon-forged steel is therefore a material much in demand among wizards: but getting hold of it can be difficult, especially in modern times when so much manufacture is carried out at great distances from the end user, and there's no easy way to determine when the metal was forged except by asking the metal itself. Sometimes a wizard will simply get lucky* at finding some, as [[Kit]] did when his [[Rodriguez, Juan C. | Dad's]] old [[Edsel]] donated him its [[Antenna, Kit's | antenna]] for use as a [[Wand | wand]]. But luck or other random forces can't normally be depended upon to come through in a pinch... which is possibly why so many wizards in earlier times got involved with blacksmithing at one point or another: to the point where one old Russian folk saying states flatly that "All smiths are shamans".

Noon-forged steel would also have been a preferred material for magic swords, possibly superior even to meteoric iron for this purpose.  ([[SYWTBAW]])


*Insofar as anything such as luck exists.

[[Category:Theory of wizardry]]
[[Category:Materials]]