Re: But what does it look like?

From: Mikko Rintasaari <mikrin_at_...>
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 05:20:26 +0200 (EET)


On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Andrew Solovay wrote:

> Mikko Rintasaari wrote:
> >
> > Adamant: Frankly I have no idea. It seems such a dwarfish thing it
> > should propably be a metal. It's refined truestone though, so I
> > suppose that would make it a gemstone of some sort.
>
> In our world, mages can make metals by refining stones (special stones,
> called "ores"). So there's no reason why dwarves couldn't do the same.
> Adamant could be a metal and still be made by refining truestone.

!! True. Was getting a bit tired there. Most of the Mostali (appart from rock) are named after metals. Parhaps adamant is their philosophers stone, the ultimate metal.

There's some attraction with the cristalline or jade like approach though...

> On the other hand, my online dictionary gives this etymology for the word
> "adamant": "Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin adamant-, adamas
> hardest metal, diamond, from Greek."
> http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=adamant
>
> "hardest metal, diamond". Okay, that leaves the options nicely open.
>
> I'll also note, FWIW, that the English word "diamond" derives from the same
> root, the Latin "adamant".

True. The hardest stuff around (though hard doesn't of course mean it would be especially durable. Diamonds are all too easy to destroy...)

        -Adept

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