I want the elves in my book to be weak to iron and steel, to become nauseous in its presence. But why iron and steel? I need a reason. Can they be averse to all metals instead?
Give me some good (pseudo)scientific reasons why elves might hate iron or metals, IQfy.
iron and steel are associated with industry and machinery wich are antithetical to nature and hippie-shit that elves are associated with. and old euro folk tales say that fae are weak to iron
Wouldn’t they die from having it in their blood?
Maybe they have super absorbent/permeable skin so they have super high levels of metals in their blood and if they touch metal too much they eventually die.
Maybe the frequency of the natural movements of the atoms within it interferes with elven telepathy.
Maybe they think it’s super tacky.
not all blood has iron in it, blue blood has copper for example
Yeah, and if a race is adapted to use copper instead of iron to transport oxygen in their blood, it would make sense for them to not be able to tolerate iron. Iron is actually quite toxic to human cells, and there’s a lot of complex biochemistry that goes on to keeps it safe during transport in the blood and storage in the liver. A species that uses copper in blood would have no reason to express the enzymes involved in the iron transport and storage pathways
It's too "crude" to them. It's like a weird meta physical allergy that has been with them since day one. They are fine with the materials that they are actually born to use.
i interpreted weakness to iron and steel as being symbolic of physical violence itself. Copper, silver, bronze, etc they aren't weak to because these are metals commonly used in art and trade (because it's so malleable), but iron and steel is much harder to manipulate for artistic purposes, so it's primarily used in pursuit of war.
It's implying that elves are not war-like, and their weakness is to cultures that *are* warlike. (and their proclivity for magic and how they typically are shown as having an advanced culture also makes sense, since this is very typical of cities, which are generally culturally advanced but weak when it comes to war, whereas rural people are culturally backwards but strong in war.
It's fantasy's version of what Spengler talks about in Decline of the West, the rural-urban dichotomy.
>It's fantasy's version of what Spengler talks about in Decline of the West, the rural-urban dichotomy.
>Spengler
and ignored.
>stop interpreting things in ways i don't like.
okay, i'll try not to. Please tell me how to think for myself in just the same way that you do 🙂
(*gets notepad and pen*)
Same. Good to see not everyone on this board is a Soingler tard.
I don’t even know who he is.
This sounds like more /tg/ question. But maybe use Chinese alchemy in your worldbuilding, and make elves be from element of wood, which is weak against metal.
just don't make it scientific you autismo. It doesn't need to make scientific sense you soulless husk
but surely a symbolic sense at the least, neh? Or are you saying no sense at all, just accept the myth and stop talking about what it might or might not mean?
just accept the myth
the symbolic sense is that iron is very often used as the antithesis of nature. It's an unnatural material. You can even make some parallels to lead poisoning if you really want to go that way
>unnatural material
why not gold or copper or silver? Is it metal itself that is unnatural, or just iron? Is iron not natural to earth like other metals? (is it from outerpsace originally or something?)
iron is associated with progress and warfare. You can make it be metal in general, but iron seems to carry that symbolism most of all (and steel by extension). Maybe iron is the only metal where the effect is strong enough to really matter. So the superstition would extend onto gold and silver which are also somewhat symbolic of civilization and becoming out of tune with nature
homie why am I doing all your work for you. Grow a creative muscle
>iron is associated with warfare
which is exactly what i said here.
>homie why am i doing all your work for you
as i said, i already said this
why are you trying to sound black? Wait, are you black? Am i actually having a discussion on IQfy with a black person?
I'm black in all the ways that matter, homie
so you've been to prison. How wonderful. I'm debating with an ex con who thinks they're well read and that their opinion matters, and that acting black online in a literature forum sounds cool.
standards have really gone to crap
>Am i actually having a discussion on IQfy with a black person?
Why does that matter.
why does it matter if i think it matters 🙂
and you forgot to say "homie". You're slipping up.
Elves could have a heightened sense of magnetoreception which allows them to navigate the world and return to their home. This could make them excellent guides but the abundance of metal nearby could cause nauseating effects. Hence could be reason why they avoid city life. Ofcourse variability in this magnetoreceptical could allow lowered sensing elves (or hybrids) to thrive in cities just fine.
And if elves do have cities, the cities could be build up with trees/crystals/etc as basis for structure
or out of stone
why the frick are people so averse to writing stonebuilder elves?
Tad Williams and Tolkien had stonebuilder elves. Not all elves in fantasy have been depicted as treehugging hippies.
stonebuilder elves are kino. Ever since I was a kid I've had a hard on for elven cities made of stone. No idea why people never do it
>Tad Williams and Tolkien had stonebuilder elves
We know, but this is IQfy so the thought of anons here reading are next to zero.
Anymore authors that do stonecutter elves?
yeah, me
I meant good authors.
yeah, you
let's see...
Raymond E Feist did in his Midkemia series, there were multiple factions of elves, one of them would build these monstrous cities/fortresses out of stone, huge blocks like it was made by giants or something (He also had the hippy tree hugger type, and other types too).
I think Janny Wurts did stone building elves, not exactly sure on that, i just seem to remember there being ruins in the land, stone ruins, statues, and about how it was from "the lost Faerie people" or something like that. (but i never finished that series so i don't know)
Terry Brooks had stone building elves, they had trees and stuff too of course. Honestly elves are typically depicted as being more advanced than humans, and the magic can just as easily be depicted as "science". Which is why i made the Spengler analogy with his rural-urban dichotomy, since there seems to be the same thing going on often with elves in fantasy. They're technologically advanced (magic or a science so advanced it appears as magic to the backward humans), but they're not fond of war, and often get worn down through sheer numbers, even when fighting against the equivalent of cavemen.
is that you Sanderson?
>Elves/Fae are nature spirits/magically endowed creatures
>Primarily using tools of natural materials, trade for bronze with early non-elven societies as its better than flint, bone and obsidian but are wary of the sedentary farmers that developed it and their mining the earth
>Non elven civ develops iron and brings about the age of large military empire, ala earth circa Qin China and Rome, advances in agriculture and sciences of the iron age, mass plantation farms and strip mining mountains, the remaining friendly non elven bronze age barbarians are wiped out by the iron men
>Iron represents man's progress in all its horror and glory, knights and legions are nigh invulnerable, steel swords cut through hide and bone and retain an edge better, big psudo industrial devices can now be supported with this new material, the cities of iron are filthy and covered in soot and clouded in black smoke, while elven towns are simple affairs of wood, hide and unmortared stone holdfasts or just nomad camps
>Thus the metaphysical form of iron is opposed to the metaphysical form of nature and thus interacts accordingly on a material and civilizational basis being driven into the deep woods and the swamps where steel rusts, without a need for the magic of the green iron and organised religion becomes the power of man as opposed to the olden ways of spirit and the forces of the gods of storm and wild game
too late! our boy Mike Shevdon is all about some iron bad for elves.
>Mike Shevdon
Who?
Write a real book about shit like the fact we're all gonna die. Are you ok with aging and death? Doesn't it occupy your every waking moment? Eventually your body will decline until you can't move or think anymore and you will die. That's it.