So, it's official. King Tut had a meteoric iron dagger.
Dagger in Tutankhamun's tomb was made with iron from a meteorite
And one made out of gold.
Both decorated.
Clearly, were-creatures weren't a big concern in the Egyptian afterlife, or he'd have had silver. Status clearly was (gold, decorated knife means Ornate). And so was killin' wizards, thanks to his Meteoric blade.
This is good to know, because if there is one thing we've determined in our years of gaming, is that Magery, magical aptitude, sorcery, etc. of any kind is an evil trait. King Tut was well equipped to fight evil in the form of wizards.
Stab away in the afterlife, boy king! Don't listen to Malak - it's good luck to kill a wizard!
Meteoric Iron Dagger: Cheap Quality (without the price drop), Presentation Large Knife.
ReplyDeleteBased on my experience with high-nickel steel, at least. Pretty, though!
That said, not sure why this is in the news again. This was spoken about more than ten years ago.
I am pretty sure that is because in those times (1300 BC) the Egyptians were unable to extract iron from iron ore.
ReplyDeleteSo the only iron that was accessible in a pure enough form was that from meteors. Which made iron weapons more rare than those made out of gold - and much more useful, too.
So game wise it means: If your setting plays before the invention of blast furnaces (Bronze Age setting) you can have "special" weapons made of meteoric iron.
Kind of a "magic" weapon, even in a super-realistic set-up.
You don't need a blast furnace to make iron instruments; a bloomery will do just fine. Further, I'd wager on bronze being more useful than nickel steel for most practical purposes of the time, but I don't recall the exact mechanical properties of the specific dagger in question. Steel like this tends to not temper well at all.
DeleteI washed iron from red iron oxide clay soil through cloth. Nice iron that I was able to powder down with a stone pestle...so you know haha!
DeleteWhat enchantments are on the gold knife?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Actually, it might be his power item for his cleric spells. Or Wizard spells, if he's an evil King Tut.
Delete_Evil_ Cleric King Tut.
DeleteOh, good call, a power item. Pharoahs were heads of the religion, as well as political-military leaders. A dude with a club foot was almost certainly more on the squishy caster end of that spectrum, though.
DeleteAnd another thing that's long been established is that mummies know how to cast spells, so he's prepared to fight off other mummies. It doesn't matter if the person in life was a non-spellcaster, mummies = mages.
ReplyDeleteOh, see, I grew up with the Abbott & Costello mummies and AD&D mummies and the fake ones on Scooby Doo. They didn't come with spells, so to me, "mummy spellcaster" is an enhancement, not a basic assumption of the word, mummy.
DeleteI have been reading a lot of stuff about ancient Egypt because I am making a DF Arabian Nights setting where the players are exploring the ruins of pre-Islamic civilizations. So this is interesting to me.
ReplyDelete