History Main / ElementalCrafting

* Zig-Zaged the sequel series ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'', aluminum highly valued because aluminum and a few of its alloys are the only metals that steel and iron can't push or pull, and it can block emotional allomancy. With the technology only at a roughly wild-west level, it is still very expensive to produce, but it is noted that guns and bullets made of pure aluminum are not actually very effective, and it takes a considerable amount of experimentation to create guns and ammo with that have enough aluminum to resist allomancers while still functional weapon.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': Yje general rule of thumb that "Adamantine > Steel > Iron > Bronze > Copper > Wood/Leather" still holds, but silver weapons are ranked alongside wooden ones, being next to useless for edged weapons. Material properties such as density are factored in, meaning that conversely, adamantine is near-useless for blunt weapons, while a silver hammer is actually relatively damaging due to its density (greater than iron). However, quality factors into weapons too, meaning that a "Masterful" or artifact iron sword is far preferable than a plain steel sword, although both are inferior to any admantine, which is ridiculously strong for edged weapons. Wood (and silver) weapons are useful as training weapons, much like how they would be used in real life, because of the fact that they suck and are thus much less likely to cause serious sparring accidents.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': You can make tools out of Wood, Stone, Iron, Gold, or Diamond and armor out of Leather, Iron, Gold, or Diamond. However, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Gold is soft and lasts no better than Wood]], although gold tools are faster even than diamond, though still rarely used due to gold's other uses and the low durability.

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIIIReignOfChaos''': The upgrades for the Alliance use iron, steel and mythril (what the swords are made of prior to iron is not addressed). The Horde uses steel, thorium and arcanite instead.

*** Interestingly, in RealLife, gold-titanium alloy is stronger then than titanium by itself.

* ''Stone'' -- Plain ol' stone, like flint or obsidian, is usually only found as part of heavy weapons like axes or [[DropTheHammer hammers]]. Historically popular in areas lacking easily accessible sources of metalcraft, such as many natives to the western hemisphere.

*** ''Steel'' -- An iron alloy that contains enough carbon to allow heat-treatment. Steel was (and still is) so widely used for weapons and armor that the word has become almost synonymous with weapons. It is often the best of the "normal" materials. If the work is trying to be realistic, steel will probably be the best material because even today it is difficult to argue that anything else would be better.[[note]]It should be noted that in modern-day settings, steel is only "the best" because is is all-around good and useful, as well as being easy to produce on a massive scale. There are other metals that better for certain applications -- aluminum is less strong, but light, cheap, and easy to work; titanium is light and very strong, but more expensive; vanadium steel is very hard and heavy, but also more expensive; tungsten and its alloys are extremely strong, heavy, and essentially impossibly to melt, but are very hard to work for the same reason; and many rare earths have no contest with steel of structural properties but have very varied magnetic ones.[[/note]] In more fantastical settings, steel might be merely the most common or even the weakest material because it is the standard to beat for everything below it on this list.

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' has this in a slightly unusual form; they have a rather standard set of metals and gems, but mechanically they're treated like any other magical item power, so an "Iron Short Sword" or "Bronze Dagger" is considered a magic item by the game. In the original ''Diablo'', the useful metals are Bronze < Iron < Steel < Silver < Gold < Platinum < Mithril < [[ThunderboltIron Meteoric]]; the negative ones are Tin and Brass. Gems provide elemental resistances; Topaz < Amber < Jade < Obsidian < Emerald give across-the-board resistance to everything. The specific resistances are ''colors'' (Red and Crimson for fire, White for magic, Blue for lightning, etc.) at the lower levels, but become gems when more powerful; Pearl < Ivory < Crystal < Diamond for resistance to general 'magic', Garnet < Ruby for [[PlayingWithFire fire]], Lapis < Cobalt (OK, it's a metal, not a gem) < Sapphire for [[ShockAndAwe lightning]]. ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' adds upon the original game, but also changes the meaning of some of them. The "blue" series (Lapis, Sapphire etc.) becomes [[AnIcePerson cold]] resistance, as that [[ElementalPowers element]] was added for ''Diablo II'', while Lightning instead got the "yellow" series (Topaz, Amber, etc.), and "magic", which previously had yellow colours, was removed as its own element. Finally, Poison was added as an element, which got greens such as Jade and Emerald.

*** Basic 'iron' armors may also fall into a hierarchy. Chain mail is usually the weakest type, and may be reserved for light-weight warriors. This extends all the way up to scale, and eventually the sort of plate armor you think of when people mention the KnightInShiningArmor. Just as with all examples, the historical design or function is moot. It doesn't matter that a breastplate defended against arrows well or that the buckler was the most advanced [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shield type]] (during the Renaissance) -- materials and type have a defined hierarchy that ignores this.

** ''How'' the leather is worked into armor never, or rarely, comes up. Soft leather, even thick hides, makes for relatively poor armor. It might be better than nothing, but is poor protection nonetheless. Real leather armor is cuir bouilli: boiled, hardened and formed, whether as scales or plates. At best you'll get "leather" and "studded leather," which itself isn't very helpful since in Real Life, studded leather armor does not enhance protection. [[note]]See [[http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Studded_leather_armor]] for details[[/note]]

** As with cloth and leather above, items made primarily from wood will often have a hierarchy where an item is more powerful depending on what type of wood it is made from (e.g. a yew bow will be better than an oak bow). Similarly, at higher levels, you get things like Treant wood or wood from the WorldTree.