Is cold iron poisonous for unicorns? · 3:53pm Nov 25th, 2017
I was researching on an old trope regarding how the Fair Fold are supposedly weak to iron, specifically 'cold' iron, popularized through DnD games as a handy gimmick inspired from an old poem that only used the attribute for the sake of flow, not due to any actual intention of any kind of specificity. The general consensus was that whether it's because of the metal's nuclear stability, or ferro-magnetism, or due to its literal heat conductivity, or possibly some combination of those conditions, whatever the reason, 'cold' iron hurts the Fair Folk, by apparently sucking the magic out of them (my head-canon is that the 'cold' bit can mean 'non-enchanted' iron, since it's naturally magically conductive/absorbent).
So by that idea, would it be safe to assume that creatures with a lot of magic in their bodies (like unicorns, or perhaps even creatures made of magic, like Discord) would be susceptible to this stuff?
As a side, I finally cleaned up my story a bit. A bit across the chapters, a LOT in the beginning chapter, and medium-large amounts during the beginning of 'Bell Chimes'. Hopefully this is the last I'll be hearing about too much description, which I admit was objectively annoying for readers to shift through in the first chapter. I done did some of that there stuff that needed doing, so there.
Honestly I believe the feys weakness to cold iron is just an allergic reaction, like werewolves and silver.
4734478
Well yeah. Maybe Fey creatures specifically have iron intolerance, or maybe magical creatures do. As in, creatures that literally have magic making up their tissue. That's what I was wondering about.
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Unicorns are not fey creatures if I recall, but the alchemically enhanced metal, if i recall also has a higher effect upon the undead and can effect ghostly enemies.
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Another idea: Guts' Dragonslayer sword is actually made out of cold iron.
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Might just be true, I doubt it was intentional but it does share the same effects, as Guts does battle fey creatures nearly the same amount as he battles demonic.
Though I do note cold iron does not effect demons the same as it would others.
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Fair enough.
Depends on the universe you're basing it off of.
In the Dresden Files Unicorns are creatures of Faerie (specifically the Seelie Court) so yes they are weak to 'Cold' Iron (any type of iron, the cold is just poetic description, Iron actually burns the fae and drains away their magic)
In the Discworld the Unicorn is a fey creature, so it has to be shod with silver in order to break it as iron would weaken, if not outright kill, it dramatically.
D'n'D just treats them as magical beasts, so there's nothing about cold iron in there, and they're actually pretty damned tough, immune to a bunch of magic types, and no physical weaknesses.
What ever happened to shoving them into a barrel of animal fat?
It depends on how you look at ponies as a whole. Humen and elven mages are not effected by iron beyond the get stabbed and die thing. So the question that needs be answered is do you want all ponies to be fey?
4734779 It does help when deep-frying them...
4734934 No to bind them with out too much iron you shove them into barrel full of animal fat and nail it shut with iron nails.
4735394 I think that works for most critters...
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I'm pretty sure the werewolf-silver weakness is due to silver's oligodynamic antibacterial properties, what with werewolf myth being at least partly rooted in disease.
This reminds me of "Low Background Steel" in that it would have had to have been made before the massive amounts of magic in the air could contaminate the metal.