▣ ARTIFACTThe Smithing Stones
The mineral economy of strengthening, from common shards to time-twisting Ancient Dragon scales
The Smithing Stones
'Stone used to smith a variety of armaments. A shard found in plenty. Strengthens armaments up to +3. Smithing stone is found throughout the Lands Between, and mining galleries built to excavate it can be found everywhere.' The Smithing Stones are the canon's tiered upgrade economy. The shards run from [1] (common, +3) up through [8] (semi-vitrified polar specimens, +24) ; the higher tiers are progressively rarer and progressively more historically loaded. The [5] and [6] stones are mined near the foot of the Erdtree and were used to bolster the Royal forces ; [7] and [8] are polar, semi-vitrified, and were used at the Erdtree's birth to hone the weapons of the War against the Giants.
'Smithing stone made by polishing a golden Gravel Stone. A scale of the Ancient Dragonlord, and hidden treasure of Farum Azula. Strengthens armaments to +25. The Ancient Dragonlord's seat is said to lie beyond time. This stone lightly twists time, allowing the creation of a weapon capable of slaying a god.' The pinnacle is the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone, a scale of Placidusax himself, polished to a smithing stone. Its canonical effect is the canon's most extreme metallurgical claim : it lightly twists time. A weapon strengthened with this scale is capable of slaying a god, because the stone introduces a small temporal misalignment between the weapon and the world it strikes. The Tarnished's god-killing arc is, in this technical sense, made possible by Farum Azula's hidden treasure : a single dragon-scale that bends time around the strike.
Stone used to smith a variety of armaments. A shard found in plenty. Strengthens armaments up to +3. Smithing stone is found throughout the Lands Between, and mining galleries built to excavate it can be found everywhere.
Ancient Dragon Smithing StoneSmithing stone made by polishing a golden Gravel Stone. A scale of the Ancient Dragonlord, and hidden treasure of Farum Azula. Strengthens armaments to +25. The Ancient Dragonlord's seat is said to lie beyond time. This stone lightly twists time, allowing the creation of a weapon capable of slaying a god.
