ON METALS
Thought I'd send in something completely new (to the Digest anyways),
just to interrupt our normal discussions. This was written in 1985, while
I was stationed in Hawaii with the Marine Corps. I have revised it a
couple of times, and a small section of it appeared in Notes from Notchet
awhile ago in Tales.
I don't claim to be completely satisfied with it in the form it is in now, but thought some might find it interesting. Suggestions and corrections are welcome.
On Metals
One may wonder, if the Ancient Metals are all Mostali gods, why they are claimed by other pantheons, notably the elements. Here is the story,
as it is told by the dwarfs.
In the Golden Age, the beginning of the Godtime, Gata the Broad Earth
joined with Acos, Celestial Court god of law. From their union came two
gods, Stone and Mostal. Stone was a great and living being in those
days.
It could move and communicate, and could change its texture and density.
The cold, hard stone of today is a sorry remainder of its former
grandeur,
and only the rare Truestone fragment retains any of the former
properties.
Mostal was the Maker, and foremost among his creations were the
Mostali races. He formed the Rock Bowl out of Stone, and from it came
the
Rock Mostali. With their help he invented the metal Lead, and formed the
Leaden Pot from it. This process continued until all of the Eight
Ancient
Metals had been created: Rock, Lead, Quicksilver, Copper, Tin, Brass,
Silver, and Gold. Some peoples claim that these metals originate as the
bones of dead gods. This is only partially true, for the Ancient Metals
existed long before some of the gods learned to change part of themselves
into these metals.
These gods spent their time in Mostal's laboratories. taking one form
or another as Mostal and his children desired, testing all of their
ideas.
It was then that Brass invented (or became) the first weapon, and Rock
shaped himself into the first wheel. Soon metal tools and implements
were
all over the Spike for everyone to see.
Lokarnos, a child or friend of Yelm, quickly copied the wheels he
saw,
attaching them to a platform and making the first wagon. He was
fascinat-
ed by the god Gold, who so resembled his father the Sun. He went to the
Mostali and tried to bargain with them for it. He offered to trade them,
one god for another, and showed them Gustbran, one of the Lowfires.
Gust-
bran melted the metals easily, allowing many more shapes and tools to be
made much more quickly. The dwarfs were impressed, and quickly agreed.
The elves, at this time still only rivals of the dwarfs, saw their Sun-friends with this metal, and decided they wanted one too. They took some wood from broken trees to trade for the god Copper, who most re- sembled their grandmother the Fertile Earth. Fascinated with wood, which
was hard and stable, and yet so much more workable than metal, the dwarfs
agreed, and traded Copper for it. After Trickster brought Death into the
world the elves, seeing the dwarfs killing more trees for wood, changed their mind and wanted it back. They killed Mostal and Stone to get it, and so started the ancient Elf-Dwarf War; they didn't even give Copper back. (The elves say that the dwarfs tried to melt the wood and ended up
with ashes, and so tried to steal Copper back. The only thing a dwarf is
worse at than gardening is stealing, and they bungled the job. They wounded Elder Sister in the process, so that plants die a part of each year. The elves retaliated, and the war escalated from there. This is how the elves tell the story, but everyone knows what liars elves are).
The trolls, seeing their enemies with this metal which made their
axes
and arrows so deadly, decided that they needed a metal too. They invaded
the workshops of the dwarfs under cover of Night, and killed many dwarfs
while stealing Lead. The dwarfs were unprepared for such a sneak attack
(the elves at least were honorable in battle, but what can you expect
from
barbarians like trolls?), and so lost their god. They became enemies of
the trolls for ever after; they also increased their security.
The former brothers Orlanth and Humakt, travelling together for a time, saw this new substance, and wanted to make swords out of it. The dwarfs had just finished making Iron, and the two gods wanted that metal,
but the dwarfs had made it specifically to work against elves and trolls,
and refused to give it up. The gods chose Silver instead, and paid for
it
by helping the dwarfs against some of their enemies in the Godswar: Hum-
akt helped them fight the trolls, and Orlanth kept his kinsmen Vadrus and
the Storm Bull from bothering them. Later on, after Time began, an up- start goddess attempted to steal Silver from the storm gods. Her success
resulted in Silver being considered the Moon's metal; it is one of the many prizes in the battle between Orlanth and the Red Goddess for the Middle Air.
Seeing all of the other elements with a metal but themselves, the sea
gods, led by Wachaza, beseiged the Mostali workshops in the Spike. They
surrounded the dwarfs, and threatened to drown them all if they weren't
given a metal too. Specifically, they wanted the mutable Quicksilver,
since they couldn't use Gustbran's fires in their realm. The Mostali
sent
Iron out to fight them, but they beat the fledgling god. Since then, the
sea has been the only power which can defeat Iron easily; Wachaza was
able
to steal a part of the god's power, and even today his worshippers can
learn the secret of enchanting iron. The dwarfs, faced with drowning,
had
to give Quicksilver up, but as a final revenge they made him stable and
unchanging, giving him the new name Aluminum. The sea gods had to buy,
steal, or develop special magics to work their metal without fire. When
they came back to finish the dwarfs off they found Humakt and Orlanth
protecting them. Now, as the sea folk avoid fire, so too do most dwarfs
avoid water, out of fear of the Sea's anger. Even today in Glorantha it
is considered bad luck to take a dwarf aboard a ship, and only the
bravest
(or most foolish) of them will take to the sea in their Floating Castles.
Other gods would probably have stolen Tin and Brass, but by then the Godswar had escalated into the Greater Darkness, and the gods had aband- oned their arguments to fight the greater menace of Chaos.
When the dwarfs saw how Lokarnos kept gold in large wheel-shaped
disks
of even weight, they thought of coins. So they made little brass disks
to
buy and trade with, called Clacks, after the sound made in their minting.
Lokarnos noticed this and quickly copied them, making his own coins out
of
gold. He called them Wheels, after the tool he claimed to have invented.
Other peoples copied this idea as well, and so metal coins are found in most parts of the world.
The elves, out of pure spite, convinced everyone to make clacks out
of
copper instead of brass, in honor of the Mother of All, the Earth; they
neglected to mention that both metals were originally owned and invented
by the Mostali. However the dwarfs, also children of the Earth, had to
go
along or look bad, and dwarfs hate nothing more than looking bad. The
elves, after a short while, had given Copper as a present to Asrelia, the
Grandmother of Wealth. She was their great-grandmother, and cousin to
the
Mostali. So brass clacks are a great rarity, although some dwarfs stub-
bornly insist on minting them. They are usually only worth their weight
in metal even to other dwarfs, and often less. Where they can be found
they are usually worth about 1/2 that of a copper clack.
To spite the elves in return the dwarfs offered Brass to men to use
as
their metal. But men refused, preferring Iron, Silver, Gold, and even
Copper to Brass. They don't mind using it though, and steal it from the
dwarfs along with the other metals, whenever they can.
Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com
- -----------------------------------------------The Book of Drastic Resolutions
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