Magical Materials

Magical materials are physical substances that possess stable, inherent mana constructs within their molecular structure. The flow of mana across the world produces many strange materials with anomalous properties.

It is generally easy for a mage to tell when a material is magical rather than mundane. Magical materials resist magic in the same manner as living beings, and they cannot be reproduced through alteration. A spell that can shape normal steel will fail when presented with magical steel, and there is no known way to make a piece of normal steel innately magical. Magical materials can be combined and processed with alchemy to change and refine their properties, and certain procedures can strip them of their magic and render them mundane.

Magical materials are still made from normal atoms and molecules – no unknown magical elements are involved in their construction. Magical silver is still silver, and will behave like one in most ways. Rather, their magical properties seem to be a consequence of stable mana constructs imbued into the material. These mana constructs tend to be extremely complicated and hard to study, and have never been successfully reproduced by a human mage.

Characteristics

• Stable Spell Matrices: Unlike mundane objects, magical materials can hold complex spell matrices without the magic bleeding away over time.
• Resistance: These materials are naturally resistant to Alteration Magic. This is why mages cannot simply turn lead into gold if the lead is magically treated; the inherent mana structure of the material rejects external "pushed" magic.
• Scarcity: Due to centuries of over-mining and the relative lack of new "growths" outside of deep Dungeon areas, these materials are becoming increasingly expensive and scarce.

Common Types

• Mithril: Renowned for its extreme mana conductivity.
• Adamant: Extremely hard and spell-resistant.
• Crystalized Mana: The most common and essential magical resource in the modern era.