
Gluttony |
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I always had it in my head that adamantine was a green metal for some reason, and for that matter that mythral was blue. Not sure where I got those ideas from.
It's hard at times to keep in mind that adamantine is the black one and mithral is silver.
...Honestly I kinda like the idea of brightly-coloured metals resulting in armour of similar colour.

Loup Blanc |

I typically run various strains of metals with different appearances in my games. Like Gluttony said above, I typically think of adamantine as greenish, whether brighter or deeper. I have a player in my game right now who thinks of it as black. I could see it being more silvery or even purple or--yes--hot pink, so adamantine from different regions of the world looks different. Probably same with cold iron (which I usually picture as bluish), although to me mithral is almost always silvery.

Adjule |

I always had it in my head that adamantine was a green metal for some reason, and for that matter that mythral was blue. Not sure where I got those ideas from.
It's hard at times to keep in mind that adamantine is the black one and mithral is silver.
...Honestly I kinda like the idea of brightly-coloured metals resulting in armour of similar colour.
Funny, those are the colors they are in my setting (adamantine = green, mythril = blue).
As for in Golarion, I believe adamantine is black in color. At least, every picture I have seen of something made of adamantine, it is blackish colored.

Dungeon Master Zack |

As someone said Wolverine's claws.
Adamantite is Adamantium (or Inertron it does the same stuff and looks the same) by another name.
Not sure what edition it came out in (3.x?), but I dare the devs who put it in to tell me with a straight face they didn't read comics.
"Adamant" as a type of mineral is a concept that long, long predates Wolverine.

Te'Shen |
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Mithral is Silvery (truesilver).
Adamantine is Gold (true gold).I used ot always imagine it as black. . . .
I picture adamantine as being the same color as the blade of Sokka's sword from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Seeing as that sword was made of ore taken from a meteorite and was able to slice through the metal hull of an airship, it seems appropriate. :)
Same here. I've always pictured adamantine a charcoal gray to black. I've always pictured mithral as uncorrodeable (?) bright silver. I'd say that's Tolkien's impact of calling it true silver.
I'd want to see Orichalcum. Shadowrun, if I remember correctly, describes it as metallic orange. Though if you go back to Plato, no body quite seems to agree what Orichalcum is.

Adjule |
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most sources have Orichalcum as coppery in color, that I have seen. My own setting has it as a red color. I have seen it referred to as "mountain copper".
Adamantine has been described in Golarion sources as blackish in color, and mithral is typically a purer, brighter silver color. And adamant has been around longer than Wolverine and his adamantium bones. But you can color adamantine any color that you like, really. The "canon" description is dark gray to black.

Black Dougal |

I see it as flat black..as was first descibed in G3 hall of the fire giant king.
In NWN 2 computer game you can craft items of adamantine, and they are always pure black.
To be honest, I am surprised to read so many different interpretations of what I have assumed was a common fact for the last 30 years.

Artemis Moonstar |
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I always viewed Adamantine as a dull, light-absorbing black. Mithril, for it's part, was a bright silver with a blue sheen.
That said, I shall now make all Adamantine in my game pink (which used to be saved for a special homebrew copper that radiated anti-magic). Thus, the big-bad general of the latest massive orc uprising shall be clad in Hot Pink Adamantine! Fear the Pink Orc!

Kirth Gersen |
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"Adamant" as a type of mineral is a concept that long, long predates Wolverine.
On mighty columns rais'd, sublime are hung
The massy gates, impenetrably strong
In vain would men, in vain would gods essay
To hew the beams of adamant away.
--The Aeneid (ca. 29-19 B.C.)

Rynjin |
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I picture adamantine as being the same color as the blade of Sokka's sword from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Seeing as that sword was made of ore taken from a meteorite and was able to slice through the metal hull of an airship, it seems appropriate. :)
I alternate between this and green, whichever is coolest for the item in question (generally, black for weapons and green for armor).
Dunno where green comes from though. I never played 3.5 (or previous editions) so it's not a leftover from Forgotten Realms as someone said.

williamoak |

I like the 'shiny black', but am happy to accept flat black, gunmetal grey, Excalibur style green/blue hued steel color.
Basically anything (except hot pink...)
There is a Pathfinder Society Scenario that calls adamantine 'silvery'.** spoiler omitted **
NO! BAD MAJUBA! You will have your hot pink adamantine and you shall LOVE IT! :P

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It's flesh toned with white stripes
That's terrible. And now I have Goody Two-Shoes running through my head, for which I curse you.

Liam Warner |
Majuba wrote:NO! BAD MAJUBA! You will have your hot pink adamantine and you shall LOVE IT! :PI like the 'shiny black', but am happy to accept flat black, gunmetal grey, Excalibur style green/blue hued steel color.
Basically anything (except hot pink...)
There is a Pathfinder Society Scenario that calls adamantine 'silvery'.** spoiler omitted **
I've always pictured Adamnatium as black, however strangely enough I picked up the idea that Orichalcum is a pinkish colour from somewhere.

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It's flat black. As pictured with the adamantium golem and the adamantium tine of the Shattered Star.
Golarion is your baby, so on Golarion adamantine is whatever colour you say it is.
But you've role-played for a lot longer than Golarion has been in your imagination, and played in other people's campaigns too. What colour(s) did adamantine have in your gaming experiences?

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I have worked with a large variety of metals, so I sort of have a decent idea of what these metals could look like.
There are not any naturally occurring metals that have a polished color that wouldn't be a variation of silver or red. More than likely Adamantine and mithril would follow close to one of those two.
I like to think that adamantine is a green silver (looks silver with a very slight lean towards green,) and that Mithril is more of a blue silver.
James Jacobs's statement still makes sense, because all metals rust or patina. Bronze, for example, turns from a soft red to a deep green if you let it patina. Steel goes from grey silver to reddish brown. Adamantine could be a metal that is difficult to keep untarnished, and which could patina quickly, going from its greenish silver to a matte black. Most metals patina or rust because of oxygen, so I guess this would mean that adamantine reacts very quickly to oxygen. It reminds me of silver, which can turn black if it isn't kept cleaned and polished.
Mithril could also have a patina, possibly becoming a deeper purple or blue.
There is also unnatural patinas, which I once made a living doing on bronze art. With a large variety of chemical applications, both hot and cold, we were able to turn bronze nearly any color. Not all of them "stuck" on very well. The crimson red, for example, had to be handled with great care if you didn't want it to rub off, while the deep gun metal blue was a very strong patina and could take a bit more handling. Unnatural patinas are for both protection and decoration, and were done to armor and weapons in ancient times.
There are metals that are of some interesting colors without any patina, like purple or black but most of them are alloys of gold.