Adamantine

Adamantine is the most common of the incredibly rare skymetals, and is known for its incredible hardness, strength, and ability to hold an edge. It is sometimes loosely known as Numerian steel, after the land where the largest known deposits are located; see Glaucite for a more accurate use of that term. Adamantine is not native to Golarion but rather brought to this world from outer space in the form of crashed spaceships or meteorites. It is so tough that it often survives the brutal entry through the atmosphere. The metal is magnetic.

Appearance

Adamantine is a shiny black metal.

Crafting weapons and armor

See also: Category:Adamantine armor and Category:Adamantine weapons

Weapons made of adamantine are incredibly hard and durable, and adamantine blades can cut through almost any material with ease. It can also be fashioned into incredibly dense, protective armor. Manipulating the metal requires special forges capable of reaching extreme temperatures due to its high melting point. The dwarves long-ago discovered that carbauxine gas could be collected and used for this purpose.

The Numerian town of Torch is also equipped to work with adamantine and other skymetals. Indeed, the town is founded on its capability for metalworking and smithing, even though the strange purple flame in the town that is used for forging can be dangerously unstable.

Glaucite

Glaucite is a dark and dull grey alloy of iron and adamantine and nearly synonymous with "Numerian steel" when distinguished from pure adamantine. It is used in the creation of spaceships, hence its relative abundance in Numeria where the spaceship Divinity crashed during the Rain of Stars. Extracting the pure adamantine from glaucite is prohibitively expensive, so it is rarely performed. Glaucite's properties are equivalent to steel for weapon and armor manufacture but tremendously more difficult to fashion—three times more expensive to do so—and it weighs 50 percent more than steel. It is therefore rarely used for armor or weapons except for affectation. In addition to spaceships, glaucite is the material of choice for crafting robot frames.

Historical uses

In the ancient Thassilonian Empire, adamantine was associated with transmutation magic, generosity, and greed, most likely because it was the most sought-after and valuable of the skymetals.