Metal

Metal isn't strictly necessary for any Athasian culture to survive, but it's a great benefit to those that have it. Hunters know that metal arrowheads and spearheads are sharper and more enduring than those made of stone or bone. With metal shoes, herders can protect the feet of their mounts from the rigors of the desert wastes. City dwellers use metal to fashion tools that make backbreaking farm work easier and more efficient. Metal even facilitates commerce between societies, for merchants and traders use it as a universal currency. Unfortunately, metals are rare. In my voyages I have been lucky enough to actually see the iron mines of Tyr, something few outsiders are ever permitted to do. They are grand affairs with hundreds of slaves toiling to bring scant traces of metal to the surface. I have come to the conclusion that the ancient societies would have considered this mine too worthless to operate. In our age, however, it is a treasure grove that has provided the sorcerer-king of Tyr with wealth and power almost unmatched in the world. The scarcity of metal retards commerce on Athas. Without an abundance of currency, we must often resort to barter - a cumbersome affair when a merchant must haul both the goods he sells and those he receives in exchange over great distances. The scarcity of resources hampers industrial and economic development as well. In Tyr, one maltreated but better-equipped slave accomplishes twice what his well-fed counterparts do in cities like Urik and Balic. The only reason for this is that his tools are better. Mills and workshops that are able to glean a handful of metal tools almost always have an edge on their competitors. In war, the advantages of metal are also plain. Tyr's army has never numbered more than ten thousand, but its elite units are composed of highly trained men, each of whom carries a steel sword and an iron-tipped javelin. Often it has destroyed an army five times its size that was armed with bone battle axes or even obsidian-edged sabers! Who can doubt that Athas would be a very different place with an abundance of metal? Commerce would be easier and less hazardous, slaves more efficient, wars quicker and more decisive. As I have stated earlier, it is my belief that metal was not always scarce on Athas. For the last few centuries, our main source has been debris from the ruins of ancient castles and cities. Apparently, our ancestors devoured Athas, ore supply, leaving to us little but their scrap. Now, even that meager supply is all but exhausted, and with it fades the ghost of civilization. There are those who say that our cultures and technologies can survive without metal. but I believe that they are wrong. Still, lucky treasure hunters have been known to return from a ruin with a hoard of steel swords and shields, roviding they are resourceful enough and brave enough to explore ruins that others have missed or been too frightened to enter. I have heard tales that suits of clothing fashioned from metal have even been found from time to time. It is generally agreed that these were worn by warriors to protect against the blows of enemy weapons. I can only speculate that the climate must have been far cooler in those ancient days. Any fool that would wear such clothing now would die faster from heat stroke than he would have from the weapons of his foes. Still, the idea that there was once enough metal in the world to allow such a garment to have been manufactured astounds me. There are even rumors that mounds of steel, silver, and gold lie hidden in the deepest tunnels of certain forlorn cities. I have never seen such a thing myself, but if such treasures exist, they will reward those who find them most handsomely. Those who control such stores of metal can buy food, power, influence, and sometimes even the sorcerer-king's protection.