Strange And Exotic Materials From Faraway Lands (Part 2)

Here at Tripbase, we pride ourselves on offering everyone an ideal vacation location, be it an exotic location and dramatic change of scenery in a distant land, or something a little closer to home, but still a relaxing break from it all. The further you travel from home, the more exotic the landscape, the more the people change and the stranger and more alien the customs and mannerisms around you become.

But what if you were to travel so far that even the materials from which things were constructed started to take on an altogether different appearance? This is a list of some of those materials that you might find, were you to venture far beyond the realms of possibility and end up in somewhere completely different. Or alternatively: This is a list of wicked awesome materials that are far too epic to exist in this reality.

Warpstone

What is it?

Also known as Wyrdstone, it is a fictional mutagen found in both the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes. Warpstone is supposedly dark magic (or chaos energy) made solid, giving the appearance of a stone of pure "darkness", swallowing up all of the light from its surroundings, making it somewhat hard to visualize. However, warpstone has also been described as being green in appearance, or at least having a "green glow" of its own, so maybe it's a sort of really...dark...green color. Or something.

How/why was it made?

Whilst no one is 100% sure, the general consensus surrounding warpstone is that it was created by the collapse of the warpgates (which were themselves made from warpstone) used by beings known as the Old Ones. When Chaos entered the world, the warpgates were shattered, the fragments of which have come to be known as warpstone.

Another theory is that warpstone is (as mentioned earlier) concentrated dark magic. As dark magic users perform spells and the like, a type of "residual magic" is left behind and over long periods of time, these heavy concentrations of dark magic may condense into warpstone.

The uses of warpstone mainly revolve around magic, as that is what it's essentially made of. Warpstone is a key ingredient in many spells and as such, is found to be in the possession of many a wizard and spellcaster, particularly necromancers. Its magic-enhancing properties are well-documented, making it a highly sought-after material, even being used by the Skaven race of rat-people as a form of currency, as well as to power their infernal machinations.

Warpstone in its unrefined form can cause hideous mutations in those that spend more than a few hours in the presence of the stone itself. The refined form is less dangerous, but can still cause problems if a user isn't careful enough.

Real-world equivalent?

Seeing as we don't possess magic or such abilities as spellcasting, it's a little hard to equate warpstone to any real material. The closest probable thing with similar properties might well be radioactive material in general, as anyone in close proximity to radioactive material for any great length of time will suffer grave consequences which could involve mutations of some sort, or even death. Certain radioactive materials are also used to power and/or enhance other things, so it's a safe bet that radioactive stuff is similar to warpstone.

Mithril

What is it?

A metal found in the Middle-earth of fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien (including Lord of the Rings), it is stronger than steel and incredibly lightweight for its purported strength. Silvery and never-tarnishing in appearance, mithril would best be described as a "silvered steel".

The most famous example of mithril would be the chainmail shirt that Bilbo Baggins received from the hoard of the dragon Smaug. Bilbo wore the shirt for a while before passing it on to Frodo Baggins, who famously wore it during the Lord of the Rings saga (and even in the movie).

How/why was it made?

Mithril is an extremely rare metal which is mined in Moria, one of the ancestral homes of the dwarves, but the presence of the Balrog there cut off the potential for any new mithril to be mined, thus making it even rarer and more expensive than it already was and meaning that Frodo's mithril shirt was priceless.

Mithril armor was manufactured obviously because of its durability and proficiency in protecting the wearer, as evidenced by when the mithril shirt saved Frodo's live on numerous occasions. Mithril armor was believed to be virtually impenetrable, so was the highest quality of armor available in Middle-earth.

Shortly put: Mithril was mined and very rare because it was super tough and generally awesome.

Real-world equivalent?

Stronger than steel and kinda shiny, sounds a little like titanium, don't you think? Titanium itself is a strong, shiny metal which is also resistant to corrosion. You know it's going to be awesome when it's named after the fictional Titans of Greek mythology.

Dilithium

What is it?

A fictional crystalline mineral used to power the warp drive systems in starships found in the Star Trek universe, dilithium is a member of the hypersonic series of elements and allows for faster-than-light travel.

How/why was it made?

Dilithium is a rare mineral that is only found on a few planets in the galaxy. The chemical symbol is Dt and its atomic weight is 87. It's not to be confused with the real dilithium which is considerably more boring.

The reason dilithium is so sought after, is because to get anywhere in the galaxy efficiently, one must travel at faster-than-light speeds, thereby reducing the time to get anywhere significantly. Dilithium is crucial in this matter thanks to "its ability to be rendered porous to light-element antimatter when exposed to high temperatures and pressures. It controls the amount of power generated in the reaction chamber, channeling the energy released by mutual annihilation into a stream of electro-plasma". This seems to mean that it lets you go very fast without exploding. Always a good thing.

Real-world equivalent?

As we've discovered that I bears to real relation to real-world dilithium, it's probably more natural to assume that fictional dilithium has more in common with other, similar rare stones and minerals, what with being expensive and hard to find, just without the warp drive-aiding properties.

Necrodermis

What is it?

A Necrodermis (or "dead skin") is a false body made from a special "living metal" developed by the Necrons (formerly Necrontyr) of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

It is most famous for housing the Necrons themselves and also the C'tan to some extent.

How/why was it made?

The secret to making Necrodermis is part of the Necron technology and is known to few - if any - others outside of their race.

Originally, the Necrons were the Necrontyr, a short-lived raced that were envious of the long-lived beings known as the Old Ones. This jealousy lead to war with the Old Ones, which the Necrontyr subsequently lost pretty badly, after which they discovered an entity living within their nearest sun, which happened to be a C'tan. This C'tan would again steer the Necrontyr towards war with the Old Ones, but with the aid of the living metal-fashioned Necrodermis, which allowed the C'tan to gain physical form and considerable power. At the behest of this C'tan (known as the Deceiver) The Necrontyr race would be purged and their spirits encased in Necrodermis, losing their free-will and becoming the mindless war-mongering slave-race of the C'tan: the Necrons.

The point behind the Necrodermis, or "living metal", is that it is not only extremely durable - thus making excellent battle-armor - but also has self-repairing qualities, able to repair any damaged sustained much in the way a living organism does. The Necrodermis also has a unique feature in that the user within can alter the shape of it by whim, allowing for unique appearances and the ability to form various blades and cutting implements in lieu of an actually hand-to-hand weapon.

The Necrons also build their vast space-faring ships from this living metal, allow them to withstand the harshness of space and related combat, such is the versatility of the stuff.

Real-world equivalent?

The nearest equivalent would most likely be standard epidermis, or skin. Skin is relatively strong (although obviously not quite as durable as armor, but could be perceived as armor of a sort) and has self-repairing (i.e. healing) properties, with most damage that's sustained being repaired in time.

Ice-Nine

What is it?

Ice-nine is a fictional "invented" by author Kurt Vonnegut for his Cat's Cradle novel. It was designed to be a polymorph of water that was more stable than traditional ice as we know it, but had the property whereby it would freeze any nearby/surrounding water, turning it into ice-nine.

A chain-reaction involving freezing the Earth's oceans via one piece of ice-nine is used as a part of the story in Vonnegut's novel.

How/why was it made?

It was made by a fictional scientist in the novel as part of a mental-challenge posited to him by a Marine commander. The commander wanted a substance which could freeze impassable terrain (in this case, swampland) by freezing it and allowing soldier to cross instantly after freezing. This leads to the production of a small quantity of ice-nine that ends up in the hands of the scientist's children.

Ice-nine could also perhaps be likened to another fictional material, namely tiberium. Tiberium also has the propensity to continuously expand itself from a single point of origin, until tiberium covers everything.

Real-world equivalent?

There is a known, real-world polymorph called Ice IX, however it has none of the properties of the ice-nine in Vonnegut's novel and can only exist at low temperatures and high pressures.

As for an equivalent, we can hopefully rest assured that there isn't anything as world-devastatingly fearsome as ice-nine out there, where an accident like the mere dropping of a vial could result in the death of the planet. Oh wait, there ARE things like that. Oh well.