Luca Eugenio Barlassina
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Let’s start with aluminum.
Is Aluminium used in Golarion?
On Earth even ancient Romans knew Aluminium, but usually they made use of Aluminium compounds in non metallic form, like alumen salts as catalyst to color textiles. Romans didn’t knew how to extract pure Aluminium from its natural compounds and pure metallic Aluminium is very rare in nature. For this reason metallic Aluminium was much more expensive than gold and used just in very expensive jewelry. The situation didn’t change much since the half of XIX century, when we learned how to extract Aluminium from compounds (in industrial quantities).
So, I wonder, even in Golarion is unknown how to produce aluminum or someone (like dwarves, alkemists, or alkenstari had found out a production process)? So, is something you almost never see and very expansive or more wide used and cheap?
For sure in Golarion there must be at least a source of metallic Aluminium that Earthlings didn’t had: the Numerian Wrecks.
I bet Numerians knew how to produce Aluminium and I also imagine they used both for everyday items, tech items and structures (like internal floors and walls), and Aluminium is very durable over a scale of millennials, so I guess there is still around a lot both inside the intact parts of the ship and scattered here and there between the fragments.
So, sometimes Aluminium and the (more valuable as because stronger) engineered Aluminium alloys must be scavenged, sold and smelted.
Clearly is not exactly easy to scavenge things in Numeria and then bring it to valuable markets (like Cheliax), so Aluminium must be quite expensive, but (to me) clearly not as expansive as in our Ancient Earth (so, I think with a price between silver and gold for simple aluminum and an higher price for rarer aluminum alloys), but what could be the price?
And what kind of items could be made of Aluminium (Aluminium is softer than steel so it seems not very good to do armors -it is even better in protecting you from blasting/slashing since more malleable but does a poor job against piercing- or blades, but it could be very interesting for parts of weapons, like using Aluminium instead than wood for the pole of lances -since it doesn’t break nor it rots and it is light- and, obviously it could be good both for jewelry and everyday items, like for fancy cups or doors knockers, since it never rusts. Instead if we are speaking about aluminum alloys, probably they are even better than ordinary steel available in Golarion) in Golarion and what could be their in game properties (like for swords...)?
Same considerations for metals that on Earth had been refined in their metallic form not before the XVIII century: titanium, niobium, tungsten or palladium and uranium.
These elements are costly even today, so I imagine in the Numerian wreks there aren’t amounts as great as Aluminium, but, maybe, for the aliens of the Numerian spaceship titanium wasn’t as costly and so they had great amounts of it. And certainly there must be a little in electronics or mechanic items.
For example tungsten and uranium are both excellent kinetic penetrators, so, maybe, wandering inside a Numerian space ship, you could find depleted uranium ammo or tungsten rods to be used as a kinetic mass destruction weapon (like the “Rod of God” American proposed project)
Or palladium in electronics or in batteries (if smelted pure palladium is physically similar than platinum, so, I image, it would value more than platinum-since similar but rarer-).
While titanium alloys are very rare and resistant (and maybe the famous Numerian adamant is a titanium alloy).
So, I wonder, are Natives of Golarion able to produce some of that metals (even in little quantities)?
What could be the price (x kg) of each of those metals if sold outside Numeria?
What kind of pratic uses could they have in Golarion? (In game characteristics and narrative ones)
Obviously It would to long to list all the modern metals and alloys one could find in Numeria and have little or no native production in Golarion, but you are welcome even if you have ideas for others.
And, umh, incidentally, adamant is probably an alloy (known or unknown on Earth) since is artificial, but what is Mithral? Since it is naturally existing it mustn’t be an artificial alloy, so, what is it?
The periodic table has not much empty space... Is Mithral an ordinary element (like silver, titanium or platinum) but filled with magic energies that gives to its matter new physical properties?