Iron and steel working

In the beginning it was a closely guarded secret, but as time progressed it slowly spread and certain things like the expansion of the Berini Empire caused it to become widespread.

Iron is a complicated metal. Bronze remained widespread for a few centuries after the discovery of iron because it was easier to work with and people understood how it worked really well. Iron on the other hand, wasn't fully realized and experimented with yet and there wasn't a lot of understanding as to it's mechanics.

It originated in a few places independantly at different times. In the East Hu-Balai a potter who used a very hot furnace and glazed his pottery with a dye that contained iron ore once put a layer of paint that was too thick on one of the pots and discovered a hard silvery residue on the inside. In Lefan a glass maker used a certain red sand one time and found out that there was a metallic chunk in the ashes of his furnace. Steel discovery in Lefan happened when people selected certain bits of the iron chunks created in bloomery furnaces by hardness, color etc. In the East Hu-Balai blacksmiths experimented by putting different combinations of materials in the crucibles and seeing what and how they worked and what was the most suitable for their needs. In the Zagr region, iron was discovered earlier as the Zagro people learned of bronze but couldn't produce it because they had no tin deposits in the region and a substitute for copper and stone was needed. As a result, smiths experimented with different materials until they found iron. They developed the iron further by adding to it trace elements that made it harder, stronger and immune to corrosion. The secret of Zagro steel was so strongly kept from outsiders that it was forgotten in the 5th century A.B when the smiths who knew how to make it died in a major Pigeon Fever pandemic in the region. As there was a naughty student who wrote down a very vague recipe, it was successfully recreated in 1208 A.B by a guild of master smiths who found the vaguely written recipe.

• Berini Axepick
• Ferrogladia
• Twisting thunderbolt

• Zagro Steel