Adamant

The info here is in a state of flux, everything can be changed!

The word adamant is used in two ways. Adamant (capitalized) is the name of the layer of adamant which forms the foundation of TwinWorld. The closer to Adamant, the less mutable and changeable things are. Thus, the Trolls of the deep are the most long-lived, slowest, and most un-teachable creatures. They also have the longest memories.

The material adamant is a stone which is utterly impervious to all forms of physical abuse, and almost all magical alteration. Only a few of the Fay (The Toruhl? Deep Wyrms? Elementals? powerful mages?) can shape it, usually only with the aid of the Outer Fire.

As adamant is excessively common, its value comes not from scarcity, but from the difficulty of forming it into useful shapes. Adamant spheres seperate from the walls of the world, and can be found naturally occurring in Turmoil. However, as it is not especially dense (about the same as aluminium) these spheres have little purpose other than as decoration.

Special Properties

The info here is in a state of flux, everything can be changed!

• Implements of adamant never dull, break, or scratch, but they can bend.
• Musical instruments made of adamant produce a pure tone, and the music played on them alters the nature of Faierie. Music played on bells of Adamant can aid or dispel enchantments.
• It is the most effective way of detaining Fay, since its presence constrains their mutability and forces them to maintain their true form.
• Adamant naturally forms perfect spheres, and will flow together with any other adamant it touches, like two lumps of mercury. It also is attracted to itself, so adamant tends to (when disenchanted) coagulate into spheres, and roll to the walls of TwinWorld, where it merges again with Adamant. Despite these liquid properties, Adamant is otherwise immutably hard.
• Adamant can be made mutable by exposure to the outer fire, though powerful magic is still required to shape it.

Uses

The Zarth use Adamant for anvils and heads for their ball-peen hammers. Due to the danger of merging, adamant tipped hammers are rarely used on adamant anvils (To do so is termed "mate forging"). As a large sphere of adamant is required for fairly flat piecework, most Zarth settlements combine their adamant into one anvil.

The Fay play various games with lumps of Adamant, most having to do with its effect of preventing shape-shifting. Enscorcled adamant bands are used to imprison fay, and the Nobles often require visitors to ingest a small lump of Adamant before entertaining them.

The Trolls of the Deep have adamant-based blood, and drink adamant like water, scooping it up with their hands, or swimming through it. They move so slowly, and so rarely, that few have seen this action. Regardless, their resilience to physical damage is due in no small part to their ability to manipulate adamant, and incorporate it in their bodies. Because adamant can flow in their presence, a Troll can be used to separate one large lump of Adamant into several smaller ones. Unless all the droplets are quickly collected, Trolls are easily annoyed by this (like being splashed with water) and can respond by wiping out whole settlements of "pesky" creatures if they are accosted in this way.