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Legends: Origins of HattiFactual: Copper was an abundant resource in Egypt. This served to fuel their bronze age.Hatti was the homeland of the Hittites, a warlike people credited as being the first to work iron. The Hittites at one time warred with Egypt. Fictional: Long ago, the people of ancient Cheopia discovered a great wonder. Certain stones, when used to ring a campfire oozed a reddish substance that could be bent or molded into any shape until cooled. So began the copper age. Copper is abundant in many of the lands of Cheopia. Methods of burnishing and hammering evolved to a high art. Later, wise men discovered that adding tin and several other ingredients to the copper yielded a harder alloy (bronze) that could keep a sharp edge. Empires rose and fell on this knowledge. Cast iron never developed here due to scarcity, but it and its descendent (carbon steel) were somewhat known via sea-trading with nearby Aegea. Its high expense as an import still kept steel fairly rare in Cheopia until the advent of the Hittites. Armed with steel, these invaders fell upon the unprepared kingdom of Kharfar, an eastern neighbor of Omolara. Pahraza-Ra was the pharaoh of Omolara (at the time a much smaller kingdom). He rightly chose to join forces with his brother pharaoh to help repel these invaders. The combined forces of Omolara and Kharfar were still slowly losing ground to the Hittites until Pahraza-Ra was sent a dream by the gods. He dispatched the Champions of Osirus to the distant mines of Syrtica bringing numerous rare gifts to bestow upon the Dwarven rulers of that land, to soften their stony hearts. The Champions left Syrtica at the front of a Bedouin caravan ladened with ingots of a very rare and precious metal called Adamantium. Though the expense of using pure adamantium in weapons and armor would have been horrific, the gods had gifted pharaoh with the secret blend of metals and a special tempering process that would produce byzantium (sometimes called "high bronze"). Pharaoh knew that fairly small amounts of adamantium would lend its strength to other metals to produce this light, strong new alloy for his armies. At the same time, and also at great expense, pharaoh imported the strange beasts known as "rust-monsters" from accross the seas. He ordered these released at several key battles... The Hittites were contained in the land they had redubbed 'Hatti'. Olomara grew to include the remains of the kingdom of Kharfar after the pharaoh of Khafar and both of his sons were killed in battle. Today, Omolarans use Byzantium as well as traditional bronze and imported steel. Anyone may transport, purchase, and work the metal. The mystery of its casting, however, is still a close-held secret of the Olomarian pharaohs.  Alchemical Symbols |
House Rules on Special MaterialsI am adding two more special materials for Cheopia, Bronze and Byzantium. These are both freely available. In Olomara, The purchase or transport of pure Adamantium is restricted to those having pharaoh's direct approval. He can be petitioned for this or any other matter every Wednesday in Giza. Mithril is unrestricted and sometimes becomes available in extremely small amounts for 340GP/lb. All hardwood is scarce, and thus Darkwood is terribly difficult to come by naturally. It can be obtained as an item of trade from Nubia.Armor (Hardness) Light Medium Heavy Cost Weight ---------------- ----- ------ ----- ---- ------ Bronze (8) - -1 -1 -40% +12% Steel (10) - - - +0% +0% Mithril (10) - - - /DMG -50% Byzantium (12) - - +1 +10% +10% Adamantium (20) +1 +2 +3 /DMG +0% Weapons Tiny Small Med. Large Cost Wt. ----------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ---- Bronze - - -1/-1 -1/-1 -40% +12% Steel - - - - +0% +0% Mithril - - - - /DMG -50% Byzantium - - - +1/+1 +10% +10% Adamantium +1/+1 +1/+1 +2/+2 +2/+2 /DMG +0% *Byzantium: Armor and weapons made of Byzantium are not automatically assumed to be of masterwork quality. Such items can be masterworked, but note that 'heavy' items do not benefit from this other than reduced armor check penalties for armor, and as a pre-requisite to being enchanted. Like bronze, byzantium is not subject to rust attacks or magnetism. |
Some New Light ArmorsLight Cost Armor Max Armor Arcane Weight Armor (GP) Bonus DEX Check Fail (lbs) ------------- ---- ----- --- ----- ------ ------ * Stonecloth 120 +0 NA 0 0% 8 Padded 5 +1 +8 0 5% 10 * StonePadded 240 +1 +8 0 2% 14 * Assuit 80 +1 +7 0 5% 16 * StoneAssuit 320 +2 +6 -1 7% 22 * MithralAssuit 1320 +2 +7 0 2% 18 Leather 10 +2 +6 0 10% 15 Studded 25 +3 +5 -1 15% 20 * BronzeShirt 60 +4 +4 -2 20% 28 ChainShirt 100 +4 +4 -2 20% 25 * ByzantiumShirt 110 +4 +4 -2 20% 28 MithrilShirt 1100 +4 +6 0 10% 10 AdamantShirt 2100 +5 +4 -2 20% 25Stonecloth is not an armor per se, but rather a kind of cloth made with the alchemy and weaving skills. Though time-consuming and costly to manufacture and a bit heavy to wear, stonecloth confers one important advantage. It will not burn. It confers no armor class or elemental resistance to you, but it will not be set aflame as a side-effect of certain fire spells or greek fire. Stonecloth is dark grey in color. Though it can be dyed, the resulting garment is always a dark, somber hue. 
StonePadded armor is thick, quilted armor made
entirely from two layers of stonecloth stitched together
around a padding material. To confer an effective armor
bonus, the wearer must have the feat or class feature, 'Light
Armors'. Though slightly heavier than standard padded or
quilted armor, it is somewhat more compact making it
less obstructive of arcane magic. StonePadded can be
masterworked for an additional 150GP to allow
enchantment. Assuit cloth is usually just a decorative or ceremonial form of embroidering with thin soft metal strips. Typically these are silver (hardness 2). Assuit armor consists of many finer strips of a somewhat harder metal (typically copper - hardness 5) woven into a mesh withing a cloth garment and then rolled very flat by heavy rollers. To receive an effective (albeit minor) armor bonus, the wearer must have the feat or class feature, 'Light Armors'. Assuit armor can be masterworked for an additional 150GP to allow magical enchantment. StoneAssuit armor is simply assuit armor made using the outer layer of stonepadded armor as its basis. Although very costly it is generally inferior to cheaper leather armors, and is favored mainly by nobles for its beauty and impressiveness. StoneAssuit can be masterworked for an additional 150GP to reduce its armor check penalty, and to allow enchantment. MithralAssuit armor uses StonePadded armor for the basic garment and mithral for woven metal. Though mithral is a harder metal (hardness 10), it is so light that extremely fine filaments can drawn and used. MithralAssuit is considered to be already masterworked for the purpose of adding enhancement armor bonuses. This kind of garment is especially beneficial to bards because of its suitability with arcane magic. |
