Discovery of iron in the East Hu-Balai

Technological achievement

How iron entered the scene in the East Hu-Balai.

A potter in the East Hu-Balai who used a blue glaze that contained iron accidentally discovered iron. His apprentice put a layer of blue glaze that was much much too thick on a pot and when came out of the blazing kiln they found hard metallic beads on the bottom. They tried to get rid of it themselves but to no avail. They took it to a local blacksmith who was able to remove it. He was successful and thought he could turn it into jewelry for his wife. As he experimented, he saw it was a strange metal with strange properties. He got his hands on the glaze recipe and experimented with the ingredients to see which was the source of this metal with the potter's help and the two of them found the source. They saw the potential of the discovery and decided to to present it to the king. The smith was unsure as to the success of the action so he convinced the potter to to the king so that he would take the fall if things went south. However, the king was impressed and the iron became a secret metal produced in the city and appeared to be magic when made into weapons due to it's hardness and strength. However it's tendency to corrode heavily stunted it's popularity.