My main character is classified as 'semi-mortal' in the story and is burned by iron like the full-blooded Faeries. The problem is that, as he is one of King Arthur's knights, he needs to handle a sword and wear armor which would be made of steel. Do alloys count? Is there a more modern alloy I could use (conveniently saying that magic caused allows more advanced technology for non-mortals)? And how would iron-burning affect the Lady of the Lake? Because she gives Arthur Excalibur, does it also have to be non-steel? Would it make any sense just to put in that the grip is made of copper or something? And are there other materials for armor that he could be using in his armor (I don't think that leather or hide would have the same protective capabilities, but I am not really up on the details)? He wears black armor at the Battle of Camlan, because he is Mordred, the "villain", so the issue of the symbolism of shining armor is not what it is for the other characters. TIA for any feedback!
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0 / 50,000
Apr 25, 2008 - 17 12
The major thing you have to remember is that it's your story. The legends of Camelot are muddled and confused, and there are tons of spinoffs, so there aren't really any set "rules" for you to follow.
After that note...
I think that having alloys would be a good idea, though instead of not burning the half-faerie at all, it could burn him less, or just irritate him. Perhaps he would get a rash from prolonged exposure, or it would give him something akin to a sunburn, though nothing nearly as severe as the pure iron would be to a full faerie.
As for the Lady of the Lake, that is also completely your decision. You need to first decide if she is a faerie or not. Perhaps she is not a faerie, and is something more like an angel, and thus can touch iron. Perhaps she is Queen of the Faeries, and therefore cannot touch iron at all. That's all your decision as well.
I haven't really got any help with the armor, sorry.
Sorry I didn't help much, but what you really have to remember is that it is all your decision, since it is your alternate world. Good luck!
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7,740 / 50,000
Apr 25, 2008 - 19 07
He could have a "fairy" sword and no one needs to know that but him or you can work it into the storyline somehow. Maybe when someone else tries to weild it its too heavy or it burns humans, there's a lot you can do with that, good luck!
52,832 / 50,000
Apr 26, 2008 - 13 25
I had an idea about this (that I never ended up using) several years ago after seeing the movie Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. In that movie, the heroine's sword is ceramic instead of metal, and her people use the carcasses of giant insects for building material. It occurred to me that faeries, being allergic to metal, may use ceramics and insect-hide armor in place of iron. Of course, if your character is human-sized, it'd have to be a pretty big bug.
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20,212 / 50,000
Apr 28, 2008 - 10 44
Well, knights didn't just wear the metal parts of the armor. They had all that padding too, to keep from the armor digging into sensitive bits. So as long as the metal doesn't actually touch his skin he should be fine. Maybe he has more padding than anyone else, to cover all those joints and things. You'd have to be really creative on the part of the helmet though...maybe it's leather with copper plates on it painted black.
4,468 / 50,000
Apr 29, 2008 - 23 34
I think the reason fairies are allergic to iron is because iron represents more advanced technology, a serious dominance by humans over nature. Stone (including obsidian aka volcanic glass, which holds a very sharp edge but is quite brittle), copper and bronze came first, because those metals are easier to get out of rock and they melt at lower temperatures, so can be used in a lower-tech environment.
The earliest good-quality iron tools may have been made from meteorites (I've often heard in fantasy stories of special weapons made from "fallen stars," because the heat generated by a meteor falling is hotter than anything humans could produce at that time, so the quality of the metal is better.)
Your Mordred could try using bronze weapons and armor, which (if you're playing historical accuracy) are likely as good as the arms of most people around him ... but a really superior sword like King Arthur's could be made of steel, which is stronger. If you wanted to go for a prize real-life metal that only modern technology could produce, you could give him a weapon made from a titanium alloy. The stuff is lighter than steel but just as strong, and it doesn't corrode as easily as iron does.
You could also try giving him a standard iron weapon, and let him wear gloves when he wields it. Or, as you suggested, plate the handle in some other material (I wouldn't suggest making the handle itself out of copper -- too weak. But they can wrap or cover it if they want.)
http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/def_en/kap_5/advanced/t5_1_4.html
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60,054 / 50,000
May 1, 2008 - 07 44
The way I've always understood the faerie iron allergy is that iron disrupts magic; and as the faeries are magical beings, it disrupts their very basis for living.
----------Heather
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50,249 / 50,000
May 1, 2008 - 20 02
I've actually had this conversation a few times. No source really ever bothers to fully explain the dislike of iron. Some fair folk have the ability to handle it and other do not.
As one with some understanding of alternative spiritual practices and a decent grasp of alchemy there are many possable explanations.
Now here is my way of looking at it.
Iron isn't so much the issue as is COLD iron. The differance is very real, put an iron trivet in the fridge for a few hours verses one that has had a hot pot on it for a few mins.
Close your eyes and try to explain how they feel differant. To me the one from the fridge seems to gnaw at my flesh in a slightly painful way where the warm iron can be pleasant at first if it's not too hot. But as it cools it too can start to get that heat sucking gnaw to it. Now if it behaves like that to heat and it's darkened surface behaves like that to light what other energies does it absorb and bind.
I would imagine it would be like a syphon and a binding in one that might be like tieing someone up too tightly and causing burns and bruises and poor circulation that may not fully get restored and thus leave dead spots. The inherant nature of the fair folk varies from tradition to tradition as well. so they may fester and die if thusly bound, or they may become twisted beasts as their magic dies and all that is left is the physical and not the higher self.
Solutions to the problem might be as simple as enanaling or plateing or gilding the grips to wards that heat the iron with a magical radiance.
I like the idea of using the bounty of nature, where a porcupile qill of unusual size might serve as a spear and such.
Rapiers made from a large blade of grass bound by fairy magic.
But truthfully if you gave me enough time and money I could beat your steel and iron blades hands down with a well crafted brass, or even create certain crystals from easy to find minerals and a furnace of a differant type.
Ceramics would chip and shatter too easily on their own but ceramic-metals are a bit more resiliant.
0 / 50,000
May 2, 2008 - 05 21
Or you could go the Jonathan Stroud way and make it the pure metals. Touching a modern day nickel wouldn't do anything because it's very blended.
But then again, those were demons and Camelot is a very different setting.
All in all, it's up to you. You're writing it so it's your choice.
50,689 / 50,000
May 12, 2008 - 20 41
Bronze might be good -- it's an older technology, and I think the switch to iron was partly because it was easier to work (aside from needing higher temperatures): making weapons-grade bronze may have been more difficult than weapons-grade iron.
461 / 50,000
May 13, 2008 - 17 26
You could have it not be an 'allergy' from touching but a reaction within the blood from metal. He could still wear armor and have a sword, but would be much more debilitated from any sword wounds. (And the faeries dont want to touch metal at all because it is one of their superstitions that grew out from the actual harm of getting cut.)
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