Had these gathering dust in a text file somewhere, but The Alexandrian's post on fantasy materials (like "elfin gold" and "liquid light") finally got me to translate, develop and post what I had.
Some of these get pretty in-depth. Some... don't. For now, at least.
For some reason this was "reported as spam" and Blogger took down the article. Not sure why. I've edited the post so that image/blog post credits no longer link back to the creators.
1. Magewater
A slightly opaque liquid, seeming to be red, green and blue all at once, shining like motor oil.It is arcane residue, found in concentrated form in natural reservoirs below the earth (from when the world was young and charged with magic), and in diluted but still useful form in ancient spell-scarred battlefields. It can also be created on purpose, by an exhausting, demanding, years-long process involving spell-infusions.
Magewater is of great value as ink for magical scrolls, rune or glyphs, as fuel for arcane machinery, and (most of all) as a highly flexible potion ingredient.
Touching magewater with your bare hands is a one-way ticket to mutation town. Touch it with a staff, or a quill, drag it up and out, and it will become viscous. Drag viscous magewater outward, and it will hover in the air like a tube of shifting jelly, following your instrument into the air, the tendril bending at sharp angles and making loops with no regard for gravity. A tendril of magewater may grow for a dozen feet if drawn from a diluted potion, a dozen yard from a diluted pool, and a good half-mile from a pure vein.
Magewater tendrils sometimes form by themselves. Do not approach natural magewater tendrils near large pools, especially the pure reservoirs found underground. The last few who've been grabbed off and dragged into the pools were never seen again. Not in any recognizable form, at least.
Video by David Ridlen.
2. Meteoric bronze
An alloy of bronze and sky-fallen iron, it could be mistaken for ordinary metal if not for the way it sparkles an iridescent blue.
Meteoric bronze is bound to the heavens and intensifies any star- and moon-light it reflects. Any respectable mage-astronomer's telescope will make heavy use of meteoric bronze.
Elves sometime use meteoric bronze to create lanterns, which bathe their gardens in refracted star- and moonlight. A sufficiently powerful set of bronze reflectors can also concentrate such light into blinding beams, but if such a strange weapon has already been considered, it has yet to be forged.
(In my game, meteoric bronze can also be used as a portal to the Night World, an alternate dimension where no sun shines. I might talk about it in a future post.)
3. Scalesteel
Steel, blurry and indistinct to mortal eyes.
Dragons are sanguine creatures in more ways than one. A dragon's feelings flow not through its head, but through its blood. Few people know this.
Dragons are creatures of fate, inextricably tied to it. Only the most erudite sages know this.
A dragon's disgust and hatred carries magical power. As its claws and fangs tear through flesh, its grudges can tear through a soul and sever its fate-strands. One who miraculously survives a dragon's true anger thus becomes a walking, living, breathing ghost, unaffected by gods and prophecy. No mortal knows this, though certainly dragons do.
It is not uncommon for oracles to foresee the rise of a dragon-slayer. When the news reach the dragon, its obedient followers are given gifts of scalesteel - weapons bathed in the dragon's grudge-bearing blood, and consecrated in white-hot fire.
To strike such a prophecized hero with scalesteel is to tear at the hero's future as if you were the dragon itself, as long as the dragon's anger holds true.
If the dragon's high priest's downfall is, too, prophecized, that devout, trusted follower could receive a shield or armor of scalesteel, which will protect them against fate as if it were the dragon's own scales, as long as the dragon's trust holds true.
And a dragon's feelings hold true even in death, as long as its spirit lingers.
4. Saint Orthon's stone
White marble. Pink veins intensify in color and become hot to the touch as nearby creatures fall deep in thought or meditation.
Saint Orthon's stone is used by many to reach a trance-like state. Its only other property, other than its soothing, fluctuating shade of pink, is its ability to jog memory. If you've forgotten something, if you've lost your way, if you left your possessions somewhere just minutes ago and can't remember where, Saint Orthon's stone will help.
Many easily-distracted wizards, troubled friars, and elves would pay good money for a head-sized chunk of Saint Orthon's stone, let alone a beautiful statue carved in it.
Reduced to a fine powder, Saint Orthon's stone is an overly expensive but effective treatment for headaches, and serves as an ingredient to cure amnesia and madness.
Edit of "Blue marble", by Dawn Hudson, CC0
5. True ice
Like aurora borealis, frozen solid.
Anything kept inside a block of true ice is perfectly, cryogenically preserved - certain to last millennia, for true ice melts under nothing but the heat of volcanoes, flaming swords, and dragonfire, releasing the trapped, benevolent aurora-light spirit within in the process.
True ice is a vista into the era it was originally formed in. Gaze into true ice, and you will see what stood behind it thousands, if not millions of years into the past. A slab of true ice is a historian's dream come true.
True ice can be worked into weapons; wounds inflicted by such a weapon do not heal, unless the victim is bathed in the heat of fire strong enough to melt it.
6. Chrysomele
(Okay, this one isn't really a material. Sue me.)
A golden scarab-fruit. Chrysomeles grow in far-off, forgotten jungles, and those who bite through the egg-like shell and into the soft, sticky, sour flesh underneath find themselves blessed with the gift of tongues for a day and a night.
Chrysomeles, properly dried and preserved, are of interest to many, including scholars and mages. They are also rarely served in banquets foreign nations hold with each other. More than one peace treaty has been brokered with the help of chrysomele juice, liquor, puree or sorbet, earning it the name of "diplomat's delight".
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