Carbarum
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The light-blue hued Carbarum is arguably the rarest and most prized metal, and nearly impossible to find. Colloquially called Diamond due to its hardness, rarity, and its glimmering appearance, this rare metal is as prized as those rare gems and can be used to craft hugely durable weapons and nigh indestructible armour. Carbarum smithing is almost as old as ferrum smithing, but it has changed over the years.
Aegis and Asulon Due to carbarum's rarity, any piece of carbarum is greatly prized, even if it doesn't fit properly. Dwarves tend to melt down any carbarum armour they acquire in order to reforge it in their size, and it is common practice for Orcs to tear carbarum plate from their fallen adversaries and strap it onto their armour for added protection.
Normally carbarum is mixed with Ferrum in order to make more from less of the rare metal and to make it easier to work with, but it is not unheard of for master smiths to attempt to work with pure carbarum, resulting in armour that often outlasts several owners.
Anthos, Athera and Vailor One who is skilled in the arts of forging and smithing may notice that the Carbarum native to the depths of the realms since Anthos are not like the Carbarum, or 'Diamond', found previously in Aegis and Asulon. Even when mixed with Ferrum, carbarum is a tenacious and nigh-unbreakable material. But the new deposites of Carbarum are much different- a fact quickly found out by those who attempted to forge weapons of war with them.
The Carbarum, like Glass and Obsidian, resonates when struck, with a pitch above most, if not all, of the races' of the world hearing range. Usually, this is unnoticeable when using a tool made from Carbarum, but when this certain flaw comes into play is when two tools made from Carbarum - or Carbarum against Ferrum - collide at a high speed. Upon them striking, the pieces of Carbarum will resonate at such a frequency that the tool will quite literally shatter into pieces, rendering both weapons unusable. As such, Carbarum is entirely impractical, if not suicidal, to use for forging weapons and armour, since their effective strength can be entirely negated by the use of Ferrum weaponry.
The flaw in the Carbarum is one so fine - almost to an atomic level - that it is almost impossible to discover. Thus, the outcome of shattered Carbarum is often blamed on the craftsmanship of the smith, that is, if they are lucky enough to craft the blade in the first place - many pieces of Carbarum will shatter under the blows of a Ferrum hammer, especially if they are thin enough to be used as a blade.
However, this phenomenon does not occur when using Carbarum tools on materials such as wood and stone, since they do not cause it to resonate at a high enough frequency to shatter. In time, the processes may be discovered that allow Carbarum to be strengthened or protected from this fatal flaw, although none currently exist at this time in Anthos' history.
Do not be mistaken though - Carbarum was still the strongest metal in the realms. That is an indisputable fact.
