It’s called Horacalcum in PF 1e but it’s Orichalcum in PF 2e.

[The_Minstrel_Wyrm]

Hi everyone.
I just noticed this while leafing through the PF 2e Core Rulebook. (I was instantly curious as I intend to make use of the various Skymetals in my home brew Pathfinder/Starfinder crossover adventure path). Orichalcum seemed so familiar, the description, even the spelling ... so I grabbed my Shattered Star AP volumes (Shards of Sin had what I wanted) and yes, within those pages it was called Horacalcum (different name, basically same description/properties). Why the name change?
I’m mostly just curious.

Thanks

[Eltacolibre]

If I had to guess orichalcum is definitely the most popular spelling in popular media.

[TheGoofyGE3K]

They're even pronounced essentially the same. Same material, different spelling, yeah.

[PossibleCabbage]

Plato spelled it "ὀρείχαλκος" (approx "oreíkhalkos") so having the O at the front seems preferable to me.

[theelcorspectre]

A dwarven blacksmith once got an order for some high-quality arms and armor from some local elves. After reading through the order list he notices one of the desired items is half a dozen Horacalcum Shields, and this confused him as he had never heard of such a material. After asking one of the elves to describe the material, the dwarf began laughing and told the confused elf that the material he was thinking of was orichalcum and it is not spelled that way. The elf did not find this funny and demanded for the dwarf to apologize. The dwarf refused to do so, thus
began a war between the two people, a war that would jokingly be referred to by humans as the "Super Serious Seven Season Skymetal Semantics Squabble". Everyone else finds this name hilarious except for dwarves and elves who will usually point out that it was more like eight seasons.

[The_Minstrel_Wyrm]

Well for what it’s worth I’ll probably just use “Orichalcum” since it’s what it’s being called in the new Core Rulebook.

[Pan, definitely not a Kitsune]

Also, there are no Ioun Stones any more. They're now called Aeon Stones.

[Animism]

"Ioun" stones have also changed to Æon stones!

:p

[Pan, definitely not a Kitsune]

This time, I have become the ninja!

[Ed Reppert]

James Jacobs, in his "ask James" thread, mentioned a while back that "ioun" is/was a variant spelling of "aeon".

[The_Minstrel_Wyrm]

Pan, definitely not a Kitsune wrote:

Also, there are no Ioun Stones any more. They're now called Aeon Stones.

Yup. Already noticed that. ; )

[Doktor Weasel]

I figure the Ioun to Aeon change is likely connected to making the game their own and having names with no Intellectual Property baggage that can be used in other material like novels and video games and such.

Horacalcum to Orichalcum on the other hand is less clear. Mostly in that I'm not sure why they didn't use Orichalcum in the first place. The similarities in names really looks like that's what they had in mind, most likely with the Atlantis connection. Maybe the original intent was to just play on the name, but eventually they decided that it's so close, and orichalcum a well known name for a mythical metal that there was no point with the variant name? And PF2 is a good enough point as any to go about with name reforms (see all the monsters getting unique names along with the OGL names). A new edition gives a bit of a fresh start.

[Zwordsman]

Yu Giii Oooooohh.

(Couldn't help it. But yeah its likely related to the popularization of one version over the other.
Though. I'd only heard of the H version as a refined orichilum in Exalteed actually.
I never once noticed it was H in p1. I always wrote the other way)

[Jason Bulmahn]

To be honest, Horacalcum was a mixup that has existed in the game for years now and the launch of a new edition was as good a time as any to fix it.

Orichalcum is by far the more common spelling of the word.

[Zaister]

It was Orchicalcum in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis too, so that's good enough for me.