Kadarsi Ore and Qalashi Steel
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Used in the creation of Qalashi Steel, Kadarsi Ore is a moderately uncommon ore. Found mainly in small patches in desert climates, the ore appears to be crystalline, dark, and opaque, allowing light to pass through similarly to bog water. It can be found running through sands in vein-like formations as opposed to crystalline formations.
Contents
History
Kadarsi Ore is used mainly in alloying various elements. The ore is naturally a very rare element, generally found in the desert climates. Due to its weak properties, the ore itself doesn't generally have many attributes outside of decoration and alloying with other elements to form Qalashi Steel.
Appearance
Solid but brittle, Kadarsi ore appears as a dark and opaque crystal-like ore. Kadarsi ore forms more like the appearance of a vein or river than a crystalline formation. Once the ore is alloyed and smelted into Qalashi Steel, it takes on a gray or silver hue. If refined using the proper techniques and the proper materials (Kadarsi Ore and ferrum), the Qalashi Steel presents a wavy, gray appearance. If struck with great enough force the Qalashi Steel would, unlike plain steel, bend instead of break. However, the bending will remain permanent until properly repaired.
Rarity
Kadarsi Ore is relatively rare, found in desert climates sitting under layers of sediment. It is difficult to harvest due to the fact that the structure of the ore itself is very brittle, though this proves to be somewhat valuable.
Usage
Due to it's brittle and weak crystalline form, the stone around Kadarsi Ore needs to be slowly chipped away so as not to break the Ore.
When in its raw form, it reflects light similarly to bog water and breaks very easily upon any forceful contact. In its refined form, it is not particularly strong in terms of breakage, however its flexibility makes up for easier repair. Alloying this material with anything other than ferrum removes the aforementioned properties and allows the new Kadarsi alloy to have steel like properties, while still behaving like Qalashi Steel. When Kadarsi Ore is alloyed with aurum, the metal keeps the aurum properties of breakage and weakness. However, when another additional metal is added to the Kadarsi-aurum alloy, the new metal will allow the alloy to drop the effects of the aurum completely.
The forging process is often a long and tedious one, which doesn't always provide much payout apart from the unique patterning and flexibility of the metal. Sometimes stone may be left on the ore during the forging process, and this generally contributes to the weakening of the alloy and further impurities. The forging process begins with first firing the ore until it takes on a dull rose-red color. When this is achieved, a flux is then applied to the center of the steel which greatly increases the heat. Even heat must be achieved across the entire piece of metal. At this stage, you are now able to begin forming the steel by hammering and heating it; However, excessive hammering will cause breakage and further aggravate impurities in the metal. During this hammering process, the hot metal is to be folded over itself continually, which includes several other separate pieces, creating an alloy.
Kadarsi Ore, once refined into Qalashi Steel, is a good replacement for regular steel in some cases. Instead of breaking or shattering like plain steel, Qalashi Steel prefers instead to bend and warp, making it much easier to repair given a bit of extra Qalashi Steel is provided at the time of reconstruction. However, Qalashi Steel does not have any other recognizable advantages (besides easier repair) over regular steel.
