Fantastic Metallurgy: Dragon Bone   

Being a series of notes on a lecture of ungiven.

I must confess that as a boy I was fascinated by the tale of Siur, who slew a dragon and took one of its ribs to replace the sword he lost slaying it, according to one variation his doughty companion, the Dwarf Thur Irongrip hammered it into shape for him... it was a story that helped bring me to the study of alchemical metallurgy.  As an adult I was mildly disappointed to realize that the tale of Siur, despite the many variations I had heard, was limited to the Vale of Hironi, where I spent my youth, and that tales involving dragon bones were scant.

As a metallurgist, the idea that the bones of a creature might also be a metal is exciting. Barring elementals of the earth and artificial constructs, both of which merely transpose more inert terrestrial metals into their physiology by well known means, the process by which the bones of a more energetic creature might become a metal, particularly a unique metal, is a mystery that cries out to be solved!

It is lucky that Dragons, for all their intellect, are still beasts, red of tooth and claw.  Provided the dragon in question does not believe you intend to take his bones, and isn't inclined to eat you anyways, they are remarkably willing to discuss the properties of their bones and allow samples to be taken from existing corpses, or the corpses of their rival dragons, without undue excitement. Sadly, they are also not prone to self-reflection and are remarkably uncurious about their own natures, thus there are few enough answers to be gleaned from even the most forthcoming of their kind.

What seems curious to me is that only a tiny handful of legends, such as the Siur saga, and its variants, deal with Dragon Bone, while a shockingly large portion involve the use of scales and skin...  Thus it is that despite my intention, as a metallurgist to further our knowledge of the metallic properties of Dragon Bone and its uses, I must perforce address this alternative topic first, and to do that I must turn to a topic quite far afield from our intent and address the biology of Dragons... a study somewhat more esoteric than the typical biological studies. Rest assured I will gloss over those details and mysteries that are not relevant to our topic.

A dragon's skin, scales and even bones continue to harden through out the Dragon's long life.  They do not, as some suggest, thicken... this is believed to be due to their affinity for the Aetheric Air. Of course, as a you know, the heart of a dragon is an engine of powerful elemental energies, which must be contained by the flesh around it, and as the dragon ages, so to does the power which must be contained.  As you might be aware, all dragons are powerfully attuned with all the aetheric elements to one degree or another, though the exact balance is not fixed.  As they are intelligent, many, if not all of them eventually dabble in thaumaturgical studies, though rumors of dragon mages hurling fire or lighting via spell utterly neglect the absolute arrogance of the species... their firm and unwavering belief that their own innate powers far outway any puny skills learned from lesser beings... But I digress.

As dragons are utterly unconcerned with the disposition of mortal remains, aside from potential meals one supposes, it was simplicity itself to acquire a wide sampling of skin, scale and bone from dragons of various ages, once you've made the admittedly insane first step of, er, befriending one of the beasts.  By comparing these samples I found that while even the skin of bare hatchling dragons, often slain by 'clutchmates' over the right to feed, is tougher than ordinary leather, and that the skin of an elder wyrm is hard enough, yet oddly supple, to resist all but the most extreme abuse.  Their bones are likewise hard, but actually turn quite dark and blackish, taking on a metallic luster only after several centuries of age, but even then they are not truly a metal. Their scales, however, occasionally shed and regrown, do harden to a metallic state.

Having found a smith how was said to be expirenced in the workings of dragon scales and hide I was able to learn that the scales may be beaten and moulded as any other metal, requiring only an intense enough flame. While still quite hard, and naturally resistant to a variety of elemental effects, the scales could be moulded with some difficulty, though if deformed enough they would, eventually, chip and crack.. thus no scales could be turned into swords unless the scale was already of the correct size and shape. While dragon's scales, particularly those of an elder wyrm, can be quite large, they do not naturally take those dimensions.  Working the skin is not unlike most leatherworking, though the process of curing the hide, and sewing it relies almost as much on the metalworkers craft as the tanner's... rivets being more common than thread in those rare garments made of the stuff.

Of bones I was able, by ransacking an old draconic... er... dueling ground, find bones of an ancient which had lain dormant for some time. It was here that I found the first signs of the metallic substance I had heard of as a boy. It appeared that the true metallization process took some time after death to truly work, and even then only in the oldest of the creatures.  However, as the legends had stated, such bones were a metal in truth, and could be treated as such in all ways.

Alchemical expirementation shows that if one dissolves the scales, skin and bones of a wyrm in a potent enough acid, the result is that each are made of the same metallic salts, the difference being, one supposes, the aetheric attunements of each, with the bones obviously resonating most strongly with the earth, the skin with air or possibly water, and the scales with fire, and of course the exact impurities of each.. as the waste residue in each case is different, just as the salts remain the same. The metal in question is undoubtedly unique, not being simply and alloy or an unusual formation of an existing metal.

And what of that metal?  To start with it is unusually light, which is understandable given the powerful attunement to the air it must have compared to other metals, by virtue of its origins.  While being as light as some hardwoods, it does not float, which is only proper of a metal, though strictly speaking it does not sink, either. Left to its own devices it achieves a sort of neutral buoyancy within the water at whatever depth it is left too, which may be attributable to the Dragon's attunement to water. It is regrettable that I was unable to learn anything of value about the dragon from which my sample came aside from his general age and size, but my guide and host was looking a bit peaked and more than a little bored with my investigations by that point and I felt it prudent not to press too strongly for more details.  It would have been fascinating to compare the aetheric resonances of the sample with the attunement of the originating dragon, and were I able to convince a wyrm to study metallurgy, I am certain we would, eventually, learn more of this mystery.

Regardless.  As metals go, Dragonbone is dark and does not polish to a shine. Keener eyes than mine have pointed out that regardless of how heavily worked it is, it always manages to retain some vestige of it organic origin, it always seems to resemble some formation of bone.  The smith whom I employed in working my larger samples reported, after some experimentation that it actively resisted being formed into hard angles and other unnatural shapes, and if forced to those shapes would either break or deform under the slightest provocation, yet more natural curves and angles remained fixed as if set by the gods, resisting any attempt to alter them once the forging was complete.  

As with most of the more exotic materials that enter the legends and history books, dragon bone has many properties that make it superior in applications of war, being harder than the best steels, resistant to damage and deformation, and able to hold a keen, some might say 'supernatural' edge, as if it carried the bloodlust of the original beast within it, a not unheard of phenomenon.  A blade made of dragon bone will part dragon hide much easier than an ordinary blade, for example, or pierce dragon scale.  

Unlike many, however the applications for the arcane arts is much greater than usual. As with all remanents of living creatures, it is simple enough to attune to necromantic purposes, with the great spiritual power of the Dragon making their bones powerful relics for those who dabble in dark arts. The resistance to elemental effects makes powerful wards, while the source of that resistance, the dragons natural aetheric attunements, means that it can also serve as a conduit for thaumaturgical tools used for dealing with the elements and elementals of all sorts.  The list goes on. As the greatest of beasts, their bones have thaumaturgical and theurgical links to the beast realm, as the mightiest hunters... needless to say a comprehensive course in sympathetic thaumaturgy is the purview of other instructors, and not my humble self!

As a metal, the bones can be, with difficultly, smelted together to make greater pieces.  Typically it is easier to work with a single large piece of nearly the correct dimensions due to the tendency of the metal to return to its original shape until it is... and forgive this shameless animism... in a shape it is happy with.  I have discovered a single legend, the Lay of Mighty Ulugez, for the curious... though one requires familiarity with base and unpleasant, not to mention archaic,  tongues to truly read it, as it lacks a contemporary translation... which speaks of a palisade wall formed of the bones of dragons, welded and lashed together.  At one point the Lay waxes quite eloquent about the wall itself, in such a way as to suggest Ulugez did not attempt to have his artisans forge a wall but simple used the bones in the shape they found them in.

By some expirementation I was able to easily place base enchantments upon the bone by simple use of a few more esoteric techniques of Aetheric Alchemy. Further research, and assistance from trained thaumaturgis, shows that the metal is quite easily, even eagerly, enchanted, obviously preferring sympathetic resonances.   This too is supportable in legend, as my own humble example from the beginning of this lecture, that is Suir the dragonslayer, found that his sword from thence on contained the spirit of the savage beast, and that its fury and bloodlust carried him through battles he alone would have thought lost, it warded him from fear.... But I wax overlong.  

As you can see, not even the most exotic metals, or the most unusual sources is beyond the scope of an alchemical metallurgist.  Even the most obscure mysteries can be solved if one is willing to work to unearth them, and it is only our own fragile limits that prevent us from unlocking the secrets of the Gods themselves should we pursue them.  

.