Fantasy Metals · 4:49pm Sep 30th, 2017
Even though no fantasy metals have been named in the series proper, to my best recollection, there are still some metals from fantasy settings that do pop up in fan works, while not always being outright named. While metals like Iron, Steel, Gold, and Silver are all real world metals and are shown or inferred to exist within MLP FiM there are other metals that some fans have implied could exist in the world of the series as well, I haven't found any immediate examples to use but I am quite sure there are some out there. Now, the most well-known fantasy metal is Mithril, mostly due to the popularity of the Lord of the Rings films as a recent example, which has a number of properties that are named and make it highly sought after, as whether or not we can make an artificial facsimile is still being explored and debated. In the world of comics we have the metal Adamantium, and its fantasy counterpart Adamantine. Both of which derive their name from Adamant, which as mythical stone in Greek lore that was unbreakable and was also used to make Chronos's scythes, adamant is also an old name for diamond. However, there is one fantasy metal that does exist in the real world, just not with the properties it is exposited to have. This metal is Orichalcum, in a fantasy setting Orichalcum is stated to be on par with or just shy of the strength of Mithril, commonly shown as the most powerful fantasy metal ever. But as stated earlier, Orichalcum does actually exist in the real world, just without its insane strength properties. Orichalcum is actually described by dictionary.com as a kind of "brass rich in zinc, prepared by the ancients"
So here's a question, why with all these tales of fantastical metals is there one that is caught between fantasy and reality? Feel free to add your own comments and possibly keep this discussion going, I just wanted a good starting point that has some people thinking.
What about vibranium? That's what Captain America's shield is made of.
4682963
As far as I know that doesn't have a real world counterpart. But the ones I named were just examples, mostly. I was fully aware there are other fantasy metals, like Vibranium, that weren't outright named, mostly because I wanted to get a discussion going. But vibranium in and of itself has some pretty incredible properties, so much so that if it did really exist or we managed to make an alloy in the real world that replicates its abilities to some extent it would be highly sought after. Think about it, vibranium actually has its strength increase through vibrations, which is why it is so difficult to mine and work with in Marvel's continuities. Sound waves cause things to vibrate at varying frequencies, which is why everything that we hit has different sounds, which is why vibranium is often closely related in have its power increase with sounds. However, in one of the animated Avengers movies it was revealed that when exposed to high or concentrated levels of gamma radiation the metal becomes extremely brittle and even goes from being one of the strongest materials around to one of the weakest.
4683096
Yeah, but it's really cool.
4683114
True, but so is DC's Nth metal, which is outright stated to have incredible properties. Nth metal is openly stated to be highly effective and resistant against magic, but there's more to it than that now. It's been stated in DC Rebirth, which I've only gotten the cliffnotes summary of so far, that Nth metal is actually responsible for the abilities of all Meta-humans. Which means when exposed to various stimulus Nth metal can have its abilities drastically change based on the situation.
4683121
Yeah, Nth metal is cool.