Foodstuffs II - Distilling

This post is a continuation, intended to describe various foods which I have found mentioned in my Colliers 1952 Encyclopedia, references upon which I have based my trade system.  The foregoing link will explain how these references fit into determining the relative value of goods from one location to another.  For a general idea of how many references for various goods might exist, I suggest the gentle reader have a look at this page from the Same Universe Wiki, and the links included there ... which may in turn be compared with this previous post I wrote last year on metals and minerals.

I certainly hope that the deep structure of my world can be gleaned from how these various elements fit together, from references of a random unfamiliar kingdom such as "Hoth" in the above linked metal and mineral reference pages, to the cities of which can be found here, which can then be compared with a history I wrote on the founding of Hoth by dwarves here and a reference to my offline party's fleeing to Hoth here.  I grant that these things can appear on the surface to be random collections of disconnected items, but I assure the reader that they have each been carefully thought out, pieced together and allotted their place as a single whole.  I have worked to create a clear, structured idea of every location, its production, its government, its people and its place in the whole milieu ... so that as I consider each element that might change the rules or the fabric of the game, I must further consider how those elements will also change the world I've created.

In the same fashion, each item described below serves its little part to enhance the fabric and intrisicality of the world - making the experience tangible, while rich in scope and emotional tone.  This cheese or that particular truffle may seem purposeless and easily dismissed in light of fighting dragons and rescuing princesses, but the very food that is served at the table of the local bar seems every bit as important to me as the number of plusses after the name of the sword in the player's scabbard.

So we begin.

Distilling

Virtually every place on Earth has produced its own unique variety of distilled liquor, while at the same time spirits can be made out of anything.  My first wife Michelle, now passed away, told me once of how when she and her co-workers were teenagers and working at a food court bakery, they mixed sugar and yeast together with fruit juices in plastic cups and stored them up on the high shelves, where the managers did see and which were generally never cleaned.  Every six weeks or so they'd have a late night 'party' following the cleaning schedule the company insisted (where everyone had to stay and clean), without anyone knowing.  You see now why I married her.


This is something to think about when hearing that Islam countries, quote, "do not drink."  Yeah, sure they don't.


At any rate, locally there would always be liquor of some kind served at the local tavern, made of whatever fruit, grain, nut, wood or other vegetable material available.  I assume a price for this locally produced liquor, and it is generally lower than the price of any of the specific types listed below ... though the local stuff often resembles (poorly) the better liquors when made of the same root materials.  So please understand, if the reference is for, say, 'gin,' we are speaking of quality gin, not prohibition gin.  Liquor, more than most things, is a matter of taste.

Arak.  While Wikipedia describes this as a distilled wine beverage flavoured with anise, or dates in the case of Iraq.  I suspect the names Iraq/Arak have something to do with one another.  Arak is fairly strong, about the level of ouzo, and reminiscent of it - in that anise is an herb with a taste much like licorice.  The substance is widespread throughout the Muslim world, so there goes the no-drinking thing right out the window.  The gentle reader will no doubt hasten to mention that it is only certain countries which certain rabid right-wing Islamic governments that actually ban liquor ... let me say that I am aware of this.  I mention it here because no everyone is.




Pirates probably made due without the fruit.

 



Arrack.  This is an entirely different substance, produced in a different part of the world, created from coconuts, sugarcane and various other substances (whatever is convenient to mix into the mash).  Wikipedia explains the etymological association between Arrack and Arak, so I feel I need to specify that the difference between Arrack and araka, araki, ariki, rak, raque and so on is the difference between a quality liquor being made from coconut milk and the local varieties as described above.  I've never tasted Arrack, but if someone wants to send me a bottle, I'm open to it.  Will it ever replace mountain dew as a D&D staple?  Only if we try, children.  Only if we try.


 



Brandywine, not Brandy



Brandywine.  I will insist on using the older name, simply because it has round tones and is vaguely reminiscent of times gone by.  I remember when taverns actually used to list it as brandywine on the menu.  Brandywine is, of course, distilled wine, and most everyone has an easy opportunity to test it.  I have two specific kinds of brandywine referenced in my world: Cognac and Armagnac, both named after towns in France.  Armagnac certainly has the lower profile, but either are astounding if you can afford a taste.  Take note of the various 'rules' in the storage of brandywine, and how "damaging the stopper" positively destroys the beverage.  In other words, not something for the pack on one's way to the dragon lair.





Elixir de Spa.  Ha, the only wikipedia link I could find to it was in French.  I confess, i haven't the slightest idea what this tastes like - perhaps one of the Dutch, Walloon or German readers could enlighten us poor souls in North America.  I can say that the village of Spa is in Eastern Belgium, and doesn't appear on my D&D map of the region (which only means its very small, not that it doesn't exist).  It's not a bad cost ... perhaps I can order a bottle.



Gin.  Yes, it's here.  Being a heathen, my preferred brand is Bombay Sapphire, which I prefer to drink straight out of a short tumbler.  Most other gin tastes like swill to me, which must be mixed with tonic to be consumable.  Gin is made from juniper berries, and was developed by the Dutch.  It's prevalent use in English culture resulted from the necessity to take quinine to reduce the effects of malaria in equatorial regions, which represented a large portion of Europe's colonies.  Quinine tastes godawful horrible, much worse than tonic water, but gin cut the flavour nicely and made taking medicine a decent practice.

Kirschwasser.  Literally "cherry water," often called simply Kirsch, this is an example of my learning about and trying something specifically because I stumbled across it while making these lists.  And now I like it very much (star points for the filmophile who can name the movie referenced there).  It is a hard, strong flavour, not as reminiscent of cherries as the reader might expect, but highly addictive once the taste for it is gotten.

Plum Brandy.  Slivovitz is a popular Eastern European liquor, with a quality distribution reflecting the Germanic occupation of various parts of Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia.  My relatives on my mother's side, those who were women and old, used to sip this similar to the way English people will sip sherry.  I never developed a taste for it.  If you want a legitimate taste, find it from the old country - the stuff produced in North America and Western Europe is not the same drink, though it may be made from plums.

Rum.  I think I should pause here and point out that there are several large areas of the globe which I have not researched in terms of the production there: specifically, most of Africa, all of the Western Hemisphere and all of the Pacific Islands, including Australia.  So there are items which are not going to show up on my list because they are produced no where other than, say, the Congo.  It was a long time before I found anywhere that manufactured rum ... when I ever do get around to graphing out the Caribbean, I'll get a lot more references to it.  Rum is made from sugarcane, and has always held a special place for certain ex-British patriots.  As a Canadian once told me, if Jamaica had hockey, he'd go there and never come back.  I myself liked it as a kid.  Doesn't hold much interest for me now.

Perhaps it's the little cups?

Sake.  Obviously, this showed up on the list as I added Japan.  Sake is mistakenly thought of as a 'wine' because the term 'rice wine' apparently causes cognitive dissonance in the minds of some people.  No, seriously, I've had this argument with people twice.   Some people get terribly addicted to it, but it has never been extensively distributed here in Canada - the States may be different.  As a liquor, it is fairly meh ... along the lines of ordinary rye or scotch.

Speaking of which, although I combed through more than 300 city, county and regional articles in the aforementioned encyclopedia covering the British Isles, I did not find one single reference to a specific location producing either rye or scotch.  There were plenty of generally references to 'distilling' in this town or that, but none of the articles referred to either of these two distilled beverages by name.  Therefore, as much as it will probably anger a certain portion of the liquor-drinking gallery, neither rye nor scotch have any special notariety in my world.  Those who take umberance at this situation will please provide me a with a specific reference to either rye or scotch printed prior to 1650 (the date of my world) by a source other than one that derives from the British Isles, to prove that the non-English speaking world thought anything of these two rather common liquors.  As it happens, I was able to find a number of references to whiskey ... perhaps that might alleviate the concern that rye and scotch are not given their own special categories (irish or bourbon either, for that matter).  Not to worry, they can still be bought ... as 'local distilled liquor.'

Strega.  Once again, something invented in the 19th century turns up in my world ... but I have already explained about the druids, and I like Strega.  So it stays.  Not a hard sell, I should think, since Don Corleone and the boys also drank Strega, and the Godfather is aped by most would-that-were-me fanboys.  It's a strong Italian liquor, but old Hollywood used to enjoy putting it in the hands of young actresses to show how European and worldly they were.  As it happens, I haven't had any in years.

Vermouth.  For the record, I detest vermouth.  It is a 'fortified wine,' which means that a quantity of distilled beverage has been added to it ... similar to Madiera, Marsala or Port.  But while I consider those others to be wines, I just can't bring myself to put Vermouth in the same category.  I know, I know, but sometimes we must fight the wind.  The fortifying liquor is typically Mistelle, which is excellent in Madiera but somehow produces an terrible concoction - to my palate - when creating vermouth.  My personal tastes aside (warped as they may be), I have a reference for vermouth, so it exists in my world.  That's how simple it is.

The reason sherry isn't on this list is simply because I have not yet added Spain.  Whenever I get the time, I will include it ... perhaps I will make space to write about new substances when that time comes.

And now, I am just exhausted.  It will take a long time to get through these lists, I can see.  But I'm in no hurry.  I don't expect to die soon.  And I'm sure people will wait.

Foodstuffs I

I had never intended to produce this post; the first effort that I made along these lines received all of one comment ... which at the time was sad for me, as it took a lot of hunting around and work and I wound up writing it over a period of four or five days.

But then I added the tool from blogger on the weekend that installed links for popular posts - and I found that it was actually one of the five most popular posts I've written.  Go figure.  I don't know how this fits into Cyclopeatron's assertion that blog readers don't want creative content ... can you call something which is just plain scholarship creative?  The combat simulation is much more creative (and equally time consuming), and though it doesn't generate many comments there are 20 plus people who at least vote.  On the other hand, metal and mineral descriptions are different from what most of the bloggers blog about.  So there's that.

This post (and I shudder as I start it) includes those foodstuff products which have arisen from the encyclopedia from which I get my industrial product references for my trade tables (which I haven't mentioned in months).  It does not proport to include all foodstuffs, or varieties of foodstuffs, for that would be insane.  But I wager there will be some mentioned of which the gentle reader will not have heard.  I certainly hadn't heard of some before starting this process.  The point is that everything common will be included, and uncommon things only as they happened to be mentioned by said source.

Food is any substance that is consumed to provide nutritional support for the body, which may be ingested and assimilated by the organism's cells.  I stretch the point in bits, including items which derive from animals and plants, but which would not necessarily be considered edible.  Through the post, I'll color code sections so as to make things clearer.  When the color is blue, we've returned to the main alphabetical list.  Grouped items will appear as a different color under a black heading.

Brewing.  The production of beer through steeping various plant material, commonly cereals, the result of which is then fermented with yeast.  I don't know how deeply I have to get into this.  Beer has been brewed for thousands upon thousands of years, and is sometimes said to predate cooking in the technological history of man.  You can, if you wish, make beer from virtually anything, because virtually anything edible contains sugars which provide the fermentation that gives beer its purpose for being.  Most worlds insist on beer made from either grains or honey (mead), but it can be made from most vegetables and starchy plants, including tubers.  Just 'cause its interesting, the Sumerians had a god of brewing, Ninkasi, which for reasons unknown didn't get into the Deities & Demigods supplement.

Caviar

Caviar.  Caviar is a luxury delicacy deriving from the roe, or fully ripe internal ovaries/egg masses, of - traditionally - sturgeons in the delta of the Volga river where it debouches into the Caspian Sea.  Caviar has come to refer nowadays to a wide variety of other fish sources, including salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish and whitefish ... all of which this particular author refuses to eat.  Even alternate forms of sturgeon, not deriving from the Caspian, are intolerable to me ... and yes, I can taste the difference.  While it sounds horrific to some, the option of including caviar as a valuable treasure has come up in my world often, though not since my party left Russia.  People asked me once about the influence of magic upon farming production - if you ask me, some Khazar mage centuries ago is certain to have invented a summon monster derivative spell that only summons Caspian sturgeon ... it would only make sense.

Cider.  A fermented beverage made from apple juice - in effect, beer made from apples.  While cider can be made from most any apple, its generally made now of apples specifically cultured to produce specific flavours.  A medieval apple - prior to widespread cutting and recutting to produce varieties - would have been more likely to grow wild, though of course many areas of Europe had orchards prior to the fall of Rome.  It must be remembered that Rome was subtropical, however, and not ripe with apples ... in large areas of northern Europe, cider would have been brewed long before apple orchards would have been common.  No doubt, the brew was less namby-pamby than modern cider ... and heavier on the alcohol content too.  It would not be the medieval equivalent of ordering 'milk.'

Confectionary


I include seven varieties of 'unusual delicacies,' some of which might not seem correctly widespread in an Earth-based world due to their western hemispherean origin ... to which I have one answer: druids.


Chocolate.  We're all familiar with the old saw about chocolate originally not being sweet and being drunk as a coffee alternative in a Mayan world that did not have coffee.  The people of the Andes and Mexican highlands probably still drink the bitter brew of the Mayans, but for me that seems boring and dull.  And there are druids.  So I accept chocolate's existence in the form we know it today, because that's fun and because it makes a really different treasure type.  There's really no limitation on the portion size, either ... dungeon made of chocolate, anyone?


Candy.  The Arabs had candy before the west did, and would have been most likely what we would  call 'rock candy' ... hard sucking lumps that could be carried on long journeys in a very hot and dry climate with little trouble.  The explosion of variety we're familiar with post-dates my world, so with the exception of the other confectionary listed here, I don't offer for sale anything in this category but hard candy.  I suppose if a player made an argument for some other reasonable type, I'd be willing to give ground ... but no one has.

Edible Bird's Nests

Edible Bird's Nests.  This is one of the strangest things on my list.  The taste for bird's nests is something that dirives from Southeast Asia, where gatherers risk their lives crawling down cliff faces in order to nests, consisting mostly of bird saliva with little or no plant materials.  The nests are most commonly made into soup, but not necessarily.


Glazed Fruit.  "The continual process of drenching the fruit in syrup ..."  Mmm, sounds good.  This is distinctly a European thing, and not easily found in North America.  Once the fruit is sugared, allowed to dry and solidify, then powdered, it can be kept in a saddle bag for many months, ready for handing out to various orc children on the journey.  Longer, if the mage has the right cantrips.


Peppermint.  Not to be confused with the naturally occurring plant, the candy's origin is non-specific.  The link says 1670, but that's only the confirmed date.  For myself, I can't think of any two things more at odds than a D&D paladin and a sack full of candy canes ... but then I like mixed up images like that.  Eh, treasure's treasure.

Perigord Truffles

Truffles, and specifically black Perigord truffles, must be the druidical contribution to the delights of man.  I wonder if plant growth allows for the creation of thousands of instant truffles - it shouldn't, since technically fungus isn't a 'plant' in the understood sense of the word.  On the other hand, medieval science didn't make modern distinctions about such things.  In the Great Chain of Being, truffles ranked somewhere just above rocks, and just below mosses.  At any rate, they're an acquired taste.  I'll stick to caviar.

Treacle.  Sort of a medieval equivalent to molasses, not as dark and not as thick, but syrupy and meant for eating with bread.  A barrel of this stuff would go for a fair price and be a real pain to roll around, since the center of gravity doesn't shift as fast as it does with water ... the barrel would have a tendency to wobble, you understand, and even 'get away.'  For reasons surpassing all understanding, treacle became known as a medical cure all ... so obviously it ought to be important to magical research, too.

Copra.  Note that we've returned to the main list, and left confectionary behind.  Copra is the dried meat, or kernal, of the coconut.  While it can be eaten, and even stored, it's typically dried and cleaned as the first stage in producing coconut oil, in which state it is used extensively (to be discussed later).  Copra can be used as an animal feed, and apparently - according to this - is highly combustable.  A mage with a dry cantrip and some black powder could have a field day.  Give me two druids with the ability to change into swallows and I'll destroy your field artillery in short order.

Dairying

Cream.  Straightforward and something we're all familiar with, a very common substance that doesn't seem to occur all that often on equipment lists.  Why would it?  It is not adventure friendly.  You can't wipe out a band of roving goblins and then take their cream to market.  Goblin ranchers, sure, but not goblin rovers.

Milk.  More boring than cream.  But if I can make a comment on those bloggers who are busily calculating the number of calories that can be obtained from 30 acres of medieval yield wheat, the addition of milk or cream to the diet of your average cotter or villein deserves its due.  A single cup of whole milk contains 146 calories and 8 grams of protein ... and therefore a village cow goes a long way to increasing the health of everyone in the community.

Kumiss

Kumiss.  Then again, if you want to take a left turn away from sanity, you might want to consider a glass of this stuff: a fermented beverage made from the milk of a horse.  It's popular among Turks, Mongols and Hungarians - and yes, there is certainly a cultural connection there.  Any further discussion I will leave to the link.  I have yet to have a party member develop a taste for it.

Butter.  Produced through the thickening, or churning of whole milk to transform it from fat mixed into water (milk) into water mixed into fat (butter).  Obviously, I don't have to explain what butter is ... but I recommend looking into how its made, how much trouble it takes, how widely it would influence a culture that prized the substance and why your peasant women have more to do than sit on the porch greeting character travellers all day.



Ghee



Ghee.  Clarified butter, or butter 'without the pulp' (hah hah, I'm just being clever).   Milk solids and water are separated from the butterfat in order to obtain a clear liquid (which, when solidified, turns opaque).  It is popular in South Asia, in part because it can be kept longer in a warmer temperature.  In North American culture, is occurs most commonly in association with seafood, such as shrimp, lobster and crab.

Cheese.  The perfect marriage between bug and cow.  The coagulation of milk protein which, after allowed to get suitably moldy, hardens into a wonderful substance without which my life would be horribly empty.  As complicated as it is, cheese offers no end to possibilities for deep dungeon industrial production, since once the milk is obtained it can be manufactured virtually anywhere.  I'm afraid I don't have any 'poison' cheeses on my list today ... though one wonders what kind of cheese either yellow mold or brown mold would bring into existence, and which kind of creature would eat it.  Still, I have a list of cheeses that my world does include, as listed below.  I'm not sure how many of these reach back into the medieval age ... this is one case in which I'm ready to make exceptions.  The reader will please note that not every cheese is added here ... only those which, according to my 60-year-old encyclopedia, were worth mentioning.  Other cheeses would exist and be available in my world, but these would be the more expensive:

Camembert.  With strawberries, please.  Wikipedia says it was invented in either the 18th or 19th century in Normandy, but with cheeses I just can't believe there wasn't a peasant equivalent around for centuries beforehand.  Perhaps that is just wishful thinking.  One way or another, I repeat, my world has druids.

Cheddar.  The association between this cheese and that called 'cheddar' in North America makes the fantasy of D&D look staggeringly scientific.  It originates from a town of the same name in west England.  I would wager that most persons in the world's western hemisphere have never actually tasted cheddar cheese ... I did once, years ago, but I can't seem to find it where I am.  I repeatedly stumble across groups swearing up and down that they make cheddar, and then it turns out that, well, they don't.  Trust me, you bastards reading this in England have my envy.  Note that the picture on the link isn't orange.

Edam.  Named after the Dutch city, a total failure as cannon ammunition and still, marvelous with wine and pears.

Ewe's Milk Cheese.  The encyclopedia isn't specific, except that the reference I have comes from Aveyron, France.  If any gentle reader would like to identify which ewe's milk cheese Aveyron is famous for, I wouldn't mind hearing about it.

Gorgonzola.  An Italian cheese for which I have a medieval origin (AD 879, according to Wikipedia), in the town of the same name.  I have places of production including Nuara (modern Novara) and Lecco, both in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy.  This is definitely leaning into my cheese favorites.

Gouda.  An excellent cheese from Holland, the city of the same name, and for my money superior to Edam (when you can get it from a Dutch maker).  I like that "pungent, underlying bitterness."  The hardness would make it a most excellent choice for dungeoneering.



Gouda



Gruyere.  Named after the town of the same name in Switzerland, produced throughout the low lying valleys of that country.  The French have perfected many sauces from it, making me wonder why I don't live in France.  Ah, yes, it's my lack of desire to weigh 400 lbs.

Limburger.  And here I draw the line.  I detest Limburger cheese.  It's described as being first produced by Rudolph Benkerts in 1867, but yada yada druids yada yada.  Some people like it.  I can do without.  I'm not saying its quite the same as other evils Germany has perpetrated on the world (sauerkraut, liederhosen), but it's close.

Parmagiano.  Excessively common now, parmagiano is heavy on maintenance, takes a long time to produce and includes issues such as what fodder cattle are raised on.  It's an excellent cheese for long-distance travel, as it is hard and remains edible for literally years.  .  Ah, the best for last.  Stilton is a blue cheese, traditionally invented in the 18th century, and must be eaten to be believed.  Though I understand some do not like it.  Baffling.

Pont-l'Évêque.  Another French cheese originating in Normandy, said to date from the 12th century, and similar in texture to brie and the above-mentioned camembert.  I haven't actually tasted this, but it is very popular.  An alternate name for the cheese is 'angelot.'

Red Leicester.  This, I admit, I haven't tasted.  If anyone wants to send me a sample, I'm certainly ready for it.  Please, not aged less than six months.  Might as well be effete about it.  Leicester is a large city in central east England, for those who don't know.

Red Leicester



Stilton.  Ah, the best for last ... a blue cheese, nominally created in the 18th century.  But since this is my favorite cheese, I'm certainly going to include it.  If you haven't had Stilton, you must try it ... though I understand some people do not like it.  Baffling.

I want to make the brief point that while there are ongoing issues with Stilton and other cheeses regarding the dangers they present in not being pasturized, none of the cheeses mentioned here would have been pasturized during the middle ages.  Perhaps a cantrip could make them safe, but certainly some people would feel that unmagicked cheese tasted better, and would be aware they were hazarding their lives in eating cheese.  But what D&D player would tolerate their 9th level fighter kicking it after a few bites of Stilton?  Unimaginable.

This is a long and grueling task, and I will continue.  Aside from a few random items, the larger categories yet to come include distilling, baking, meat, oils and wine.  About 75 more foodstuff types.

Mining - Metals & Minerals

Ever since I wrote this post about ornamental gems, I've been thinking about what else I could do.  I have a number of substances, commodities, products, services and so on that I've made reference to regarding my train system, and I've been making unconscious plans (the best kind) to eventually describe them all.

The problem has been that the task is tremendous in scope ... the gentle reader just cannot imagine.  It's not something I can do in an afternoon.  Moreover, I don't want to wait for the whole thing to be finished before getting feedback.  And I want to be able to rest.

So this will be a series, and it will get done in sections ... but since each section I plan is still considerable in scope, I'm going to be posting this in the middle of working on it.  That is, I'll update the post daily until I'm ready to move on ... so check back from time to time, there will be new stuff.

So here goes.  I'll start with mining - though this particular grouping does not include ALL the mined substances in my world.  Some are included elsewhere, because of their peculiar industrial application.  However, most are included here.

I carve them up into sections to make easier reading.  Where helpful, I'll add a picture.  Overall, I'm going to keep descriptions to a minimum.

NATIVE METALS

Gold.  What can I say about this that hasn't been said?  It is the most important commodity in D&D and in any medieval economic system, useful in it malleability, reliable nature and its ease of smelting.  Gold ranges in color from bright yellow to white gold, and in Medieval settings is found mostly in placer deposits, or as 'native' gold.  I've often thought that a logical advantage for dwarves would be their ability to 'mine' gold, which was not generally done except in the New World, where said deposits were easily worked.  This is not to say it wasn't done ... but panning was much easier than mining.

Silver.  Like gold, this too was more commonly found in native form - significant mining operations for silver in Europe began in Saxony and Silesia in the 14th centuries, when silver was the relied-upon economic standard.  The 'taler' was a silver-coin, and the word that gives us 'dollar.' 

Copper.  Far more common and less precious than either silver or gold, copper has historically been considered a precious metal due to its potential lustre for ordinary objects and jewellery.  It too is found in native form, but copper ores like chalcopyrite (copper-iron) or cuprite are so common (and easily smelted) that copper mining was common even in periods going back to the Phoenicians and Mesopotamians, 5-6 thousand years ago.

native platinum

Platinum.  For ages platinum has been mistaken for silver and white gold ... so that even though its been mined since ancient times, its actual 'discovery' - when it's nature was understood - did not occur until the 17th century.  The Spaniards kept coming across it, considering the platinum to be a 'nuisance' to their gold mining, that sparked the investigation.  It's easy enough to understand the error - platinum is wildly rare, occurs in similar circumstances to silver and looks like silver.  It is more lustrous, however, and has other unique properties.  'Platinum coins,' therefore, never existed (it's too rare a metal anyway).  I only have the metal in my world because my present takes place in the 17th century, and I use a rule that any metal 'discovered' prior to 1800 would be known to the mage profession, who are better alchemists than those of Earth ever were.

ANCIENT METALS

Gold, silver and copper along with lead, tin, iron and mercury (quicksilver), were known in prehistory, and have since been described as "the Seven Metals of Alchemy."  Each were assigned to 'planets' ... silver with the Moon, gold with the Sun, iron with Mars, quicksilver with Mercury, tin with Jupiter, copper with Venus and lead with Saturn.  They're included here in order of their rarity.

Iron.  I've written about iron before, and I don't need to go on about it here.  It is the most common metal, has endless applications and is pretty nigh useless until it is founded and forged.  The most common ore is hematite, but pyrite and others are also widespread.  Iron also occasionally turns up magnetized, as 'lodestone.'

Lead.  While tremendously dense (heavy), lead makes a poor metal for the fabrication of most everything ... plus the fact that it is poisonous.  Lead dust can be breathed into the lungs, lead can rub off into the skin, it can be transferred to water when used as a container - yes, lovely stuff.  But used extensively in the Medieval world for anything that could be heavy and didn't need working parts - bullet stones, goblets, water pipes, cisterns ... and because of its low melting point it made good soldering for window glazing.

Tin.  The inordinate value of tin is largely overlooked ... in fact it was a very rare metal, and very expensive.  The English economy was founded upon it (but they had conveniently conquered the world before the supplies irrevocably ran out).  A considerable portion of the world's present supply comes from parts of the world (China, Malaysia, Zaire) that were beyond European tradesmen until the 16th century.  Silverish, it is much too soft to be mistaken for silver, and does not occur natively.

Mercury.  Or quicksilver, as it was known for most of history, due to it's splendid habit of remaining a liquid at room temperature or lower.  Almost as poisonous as lead, which didn't keep it from being used as a medicine to heal a wide variety of diseases, where it was introduced directly into the body.  it was included in medicines as late as the first half of the 20th century.  Your grandmother was probably fed some as a child.  Which might explain a great deal.  In a D&D world, it seems a natural additive to everything magic.

LATE METALS

Presented in order of identification.  Many of these were used long before the nature of the metal was identified ... mostly because the ore was recognizable and could be used in the smelting process, even if the metal was not.  The ores served as chemical agents, to enable copper to become brass, or to harden iron, or to otherwise change the cohesive qualities of recognizable metals such as those above.

sphalerite



Zinc.  The principal use of zinc was for the manufacture of brass, the most common ore being sphalerite.  The triangular crystal of the ore is instantly recognizable.  The metal itself was not identified until the 14th century in India, and the 16th century in Europe.  While zinc has some marvellous uses as spelter - an alloy that allows hard soldering or brazing, such uses were not widespread until the 19th century.  However, it might be a talent elves, or some other races have for the use of zinc.

Antimony.  Isolated in the 16th century, the metal increases the hardness of lead, has practical applications in the coloration of glass, as a substitute for tin (when tin is present).  It's highly toxic, similar to arsenic poisoning ... read the link for more about that.  It is a soft metal, and although it has been used for coinage the coins do not last.

Bismuth. Lustrous silver in color, the ore was used in cosmetics, medicines and as a substitute for poisonous lead ... though it is by no means as common. The metal was known to the Incas. It was often confused with both tin and lead in ancient times, but became a distinct metal in its own right in 1546.

Cobalt.  Used as a pigmentation in jewelry, glass and paints since ancient times to give a deep, blue color; the isotope cobalt-60 is radioactive ... something I use to justify cobalt's importance in the making of magical ink.  Curiously, the word comes from the German kobalt, or the very familiar 'kobald,' which was an appellation used to describe the bent over miners of the ore.  The isolation of the metal was accomplished in 1735.

Nickel.  Used as a hardener for many metals (gold is soft and useless for jewellery without it), the red mineral from which it comes, nickeline, was commonly mistaken for copper.  Since the mineral would beset copper (make it unmalleable) when mixed, or so German alchemists discovered, they blamed a mischevious sprite who was believed upon occasion to inhabit instances of copper ore.  Nickel wasn't identified as a metal in its own right until 1751.

Manganese.  As an agent Manganese (manganesum or pyrolusite) was used primarily to decolorize glass, as 'glassmakers soap,' thus cleaning it and making the glass clear.  As manganese dioxide it was used in experiments for centuries, tht the actual metal was not identified until 1774.  It would later become useful in steel production.

Molybdenum.  Yet again a silvery metal, with a very high melting point, it was formerly known as molybdena, which comes from the Greek word for lead - with which molybdenum even today is often confused (and with graphite, too).  The Japanese used it to alloy with steel as early as the 14th century (though rarely).  It produces superior armor plating.  The metal was isolated in 1781.

Tungsten.  Remarkably dense, heavier than lead, the metal was known better as an ore than a metal - wolframite, which in German is lupi spuma, or "wolf's froth" (froth being a clean word for 'sperm'), the name suggested by Georgius Agricola.  The ore had few historical uses, but at present it is importantly alloyed with steel.  It was not isolated until 1783.

Chromium.  A highly lustrous metal, it's speculated that the ore was used as an anti-corrosive - however, the metal has very little history at all until the 18th century, and was not identified as an isolated metal until 1798.

FANTASY METALS

I don't dare to list all the fantasy metals that are out there.  I use only two: adamantite and mithril.  all my magic items are made with the latter ... and I don't play adamantite as a substance that 'breaks down in daylight' as suggested by the fiend folio - merely as a kind of intensified iron that doesn't break (which I believe was the original concept.

The correct term is adamantine, as described by Virgil describing the gates of Tatarus.  Cronus, or Saturn, was said to have castrated his father Uranus using an adamantine sickle.  The term 'adamantium' was invented for use by the Marvel Universe.  Adamantine had developed a reputation by the middle ages for being as hard as diamond, and it was believed to have the power to block the effects of a magnet (something I've never seen proposed in a D&D campaign).

Mithril was invented entirely by Tolkein, and as far as I know it has no historical precendents whatsoever.  But it's such an accepted metal, I've always included it.

ABRASIVES

An abrasive is a substance that is used to shape or finish a workpiece by grinding, polishing, buffing and a variety of other means.  Abrasives are added to gemstones for tumbling, and made adherent to paper as sandpaper or incorporated into polishing cloth.  They're also used for cleansing and scraping our own bodies.  But when does a player buy a nail file?


Emery.  Used most often in crushed form, emery is a very hard rock that can be crushed to form various sizes of grains, from coarse to fine, each of which can be used to smooth to a differing degree.  The island of Naxos has been a source for emery for over two thousand years.



pumice



Pumice.  A volcanic rock that is solidified in a frothy condition, trapping air and making pumice a rock that floats in water (makes a good 'magic stone' and with a string, as an aid to detect movement in apparently still ponds).  Although it is soft, it makes an excellent abrasive.  It can also be added to cement, and a particular variety, pozzolana, can be mixed with lime to make concrete.

BUILDING STONE

There are four primary building stone types that I use: granite, limestone, marble and slate.  Each has a variety of forms, as described below.  Following those four are three additional kinds of 'hard stone,' which are much rarer in occurrence.

GRANITE.  Forms I call 'granite' include basalt, porphyry, sandstone, syenite, trachyte and tuff.  I know better, but I enjoy being able to use the simplicity of Renaissance catagorization in order to lump most volcanic materials together.  Hey, any way I'm willing to simplify this system is good, right?

Basalt is an extrusive volcanic rock (meaning that it's formed from magma), forming a variety of interesting rock formations, including the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and pillow basalts on the Pacific seafloor.  It is used to make building blocks, cobblestones and statuary.

Porphyry is a large grained igneous rock, purplish-red in color, prized for monuments and projects in Rome.  The Hagia Sophia made extensive use of porphyry.  Roads, columns, stone decorations and sarcophagi are among the stone's uses.

Sandstone is a long way from granite, being a sedimentary rock and not igneous.  But it's red (or reddish) - remember, Renaissance period science.  In any case, as an easily carved or cut stone, it has a variety of building uses.  Sandstone includes brownstone, popularly used throughout America and parts of Europe.

Syenite is granite-like, with ancient quarries in Upper Egypt (Syene, from where the name comes).

trachyte



Trachyte quarries have been exploited in a considerable number of places, however unfamiliar the name sounds (most everything gets ascribed to 'building stone.'  To the layman, it is often indistinguishable from porphyry.

Tuff is formed from lava and tephra (solid material ejected from the volcanic cone), pressed into stone.  It is fairly soft, useful for carving, and was used for portals and key points in cement buildings for strength.  The term 'tuff' is used loosely, and sometimes applied to tufa (which is a limestone) ... and often contains trachyte, andesite, basalt and other minerals.  Basaltic tuffs were used to fashion the heads on Easter Island.  Artyk (mentioned in my encyclopedia but not in wikipedia) is a common form of tuff used in Armenia.

LIMESTONE.  Forms I call 'limestone' include dolomite, gypsum and tufa.  Limestone is a sedimentary rock, very common, and often associated with stalactites and stalagmites in caves.  It's available in great amounts, cheap, and therefore excellent for massive structures.  The Great Pyramid at Giza is made mostly of limestone.

Dolomite is a carbonate rock common to the Dolomite Alps of northern Italy, ranging fron yellow to brown tint, even a rosy pink color.  It is sometimes used as an ornamental stone, as flux for making iron, an aggregate for concrete and of course for construction.

Gypsum is common stone, central in the production of cement, concrete and plaster, occurring naturally in crystalline form (unsuitable for gems, but used in ornamental work).  It isn't actually a limestone, I only lump them together due to their mutual use in making concrete.  Other uses are extensive, as indicated by the link.  Alabaster is a remarkably white gypsum, commonly used for stone household articles and decoration.

Tufa, often confused with tuff, and sometimes called travertine, is a precipitated limestone commonly associated with springs, waterfalls and other bodies of water ... wherever bits of calcium are allowed to build up in the form of reefs or stromatolites.  It's used for stone articles and as a mix for concrete.



A particular form of limestone that I've found references for is lithographic stone, a hard limestone sufficiently fine grained to use for carving printing plates.  Lithography is in fact a late invention (1796), but Earth did not have the benefit of magic.  As I said above, anything before 1800 is a potential technology, and so I include the use of stone-based lithography (albeit used rarely).  Wood-block printing is far more common.



MARBLE.  Marble is a metamorphic rock commonly made from compressed calcite or dolomite, used most commonly for sculpture and construction.  For colors (and there are a lot of them in the real world) I willingly provide prices for black, brown, crimson, green, grey-pink, white and yellow (this isn't as hard as it sounds).  No doubt the gentle reader is familiar with many of the different colors, and with veins in marble, of varied color.

SLATE.  Slate is a metamorphic rock that cuts so that natural, smooth flat sheets of stone are produced, suitable for flooring, roof tiles, wall coverings and so on.  Slate can be split from the quarry in very thin sheets.  It appears in a variety of colors from green and grey to black ... but unlike marble, I don't give separate costs.  It makes excellent tombstones.

That wraps it up for building stone; I don't have prices for gravel, sand or ordinary clay in my world because I consider them so common in a Renaissance economy that the only worthy mention for construction cost would be paying people to dig it up.

HARD STONE

Flint.  A non-gem form of the mineral quartz, useful in making cutting tools and crude weapons, such as those used by primitive man.  The flint edge is also useful in the production of fire, sinde striking a flint against steel will produce sparks.  Flintlocks were fashioned so that the hammer, holding a piece of flint, would strike the 'frizzen' and produce a shower of sparks which, hopefully, would ignite the powder of the weapons.  Flint, when available in great supply (as England has), has been used to build stone walls.

Magnesite.  This has few Renaissance applications, the chief among them being its use in making fireproof bricks for kilns, as the stone has a high melting temperature.

Obsidian.  Naturally occuring volcanic glass, generally black in color and potentially sharp to the touch.  It was used to make weapons and edged tools throughout history, and has ornamental applications as a gemstone, objects and for floor tiles.  It can be polished and rounded with abrasives.

SOFT STONE

This are a collection of minerals that have other applications than construction.

Chalk.  A soft white sedimentary rock, resistant to weather and useful in the making of quicklime (a component of cement), as a writing (tailor's chalk in particular) and artistic tool, as a restorative for soil and for the making of putty.  The application of powdered chalk to the hands is an aid to climbing (but when does a thief ever buy it?).

Coal.  A black or browning sedimentary rock used chiefly as a fuel - it is falsely believed that coal was not used extensively throughout history, but evidence of its use reaches back up to five thousand years.  The dependence was on outcroppings of coal.  Deep coal mining, on the other hand, occurred with the start of the Industrial Revolution when easy sources of coal quickly played out.  Dwarves would certainly mine coal for their furnaces.  Hard coal, or black coal, is called anthracite, with a high energy content.  Brown coal is lignite, which has a low energy content.

Kaolin.  A hard clay material, chiefly mined for the purpose of making porcelain, dependent on the higher quality clay.  It is soft, earthy and usually white, though iron oxide will color it pink, orange or red.  Beyond its use in ceramics, it has been used in medicine, cosmetics and in the production of paper and smoking pipes.  It has been used to fashion masks, and believe it or not, eaten for pleasure or to suppress hunger.



floating meerschaum

Meerschaum.  One of the more bizarre productions I've found, meerschaum is a soft white mineral which is found floating on the Black and Aegean Seas (and elsewhere), suggestive of sea foam.  If you're ever looking for a justification of the Aphrodite birth-from-the-sea myth, in which she was created from the sea and her father's ejaculate, the existence of meerschaum is probably the source (in Sweden its called aphrodite).  The material is hard enough to carve into pipes and other objects (it hardens when allowed to dry in the sun).

Salt.  A mineral essential for human life, of great value in tropical and deserted parts of the world (where the inhabitants sweat a great deal), and yet with world-wide distribution.  It is useful in curing food and in the processing of animal hides and skins.

Talc.  A soft metamorphic rock used in paper making, paint, cosmetics, ceramics and otherwise, and for ornamental carvings.  It is widely used in the glassmaking industry.  The rock is soft enough to be scratched with a fingernail, can be cut easily with a knife, and is not soluble in water.  Soapstone is composed primarily of talc.

BIO DEPOSITS



guano deposit

Guano.  The excrement, both feces and urine, of seabirds, bats and seals, collected for its nitrogen content for the regeneration of soil.  Guano is an important gunpowder ingredient.  The accumulation of thousands of years of deposit creates significant collections of guano for economic recovery.  The Inca civilization mined guano extensively.  By and large, however, a cart full of guano is not an ordinary party's idea of treasure.



peat brick

Peat.  Forming in wetlands - bogs, moors, muskegs and peat swamps, peat is harvested as a source of fuel.  Once compressed to remove water and allowed to dry, it forms bricks sufficient to heat kilns and everyday firepits.  It is formed by the thick layer of plant growth and decomposition of the lower levels - in effect, a short term form of the same sort of energy that over millions of years eventually becomes oil.

ALCHEMICAL MINERALS

Hooray ... this being the last section for this post.  These are minerals chiefly mined for their chemical properties.

Alum.  Obtained from a mineral called alunite (among others), this is a terrifically useful substance which was well known to the ancients.  It mades an astringent that stops bleeding in small cuts and canker sores, a flame retardant (and a component of baking powder) and the purification of drinking water.

Arsenic.  Known first and foremost as a poison, arsenic is a metalloid (qualities of both a mineral and a metal.  It also hardens bronze and lead alloys (good for sling bullets).  Like lead, arsenic was once used in a variety of products without the users being fully aware of its inherent danger (even in very small amounts).

Niter.  More familiarly known as saltpeter, niter has been known since ancient times.  It is a principal component of gunpowder and was likely used as soap (or at least as a bathing additive).  It has been famously attributed to suppress the sex drive, but according to snopes it's pure fiction.

Phosphorus.  The first form of phosphorus was isolated in 1669 by Hennig Brand, an alchemist who was working with urine under the mistaken belief that the golden color of that fluid would somehow lead him to the distillation of gold, ala the 'philosopher's stone.'  In the process he distilled out phosphorus.  The element burns super-brightly, but not for very long (the reader can find films on youtube).  It a feature in explosives, nerve agents and fireworks.



Danikil Depression, Ethiopia

Sulphur.  A bright yellow crystalline solid, an essential element of life and a component of black gunpowder, matches, poisons and fungicides.  It would be effective like holy water against a wide variety of monsters: green slime, violet fungi, shriekers and yellow musk creepers, to name a few.  It is abundant in native form, and whole landscapes (the Danikil Depression) are composed of it.

Witherite.  A colorless, milky white, grey, pale yellow, green or pale brown mineral - and shades in between.  It is found in low-temperature hydrothermal vein deposits, particularly the shorelines of alkali lakes.  it's primary use is in the manufacture of glass.