Willow's End - Jera Skyspear
Elvish words/phrases linked to Glossary OR hover mouse to see translation.
Jera and the Mithril Myth

Mithril, also called Moria Silver or true silver, is a highly unusual metal. It is easy to work and can be polished to a high silver-white sheen much like ordinary silver, but will never tarnish. It also surpasses silver by being as strong as steel.

Dwarves have been particularly drawn to mining useful metals, but they have done so to their greatest benefit when they came across veins of mithril silver. While silver itself is precious, mithril silver's rarity and special qualities make it more so. In fact, its value exceeds even gold, many times over.

The information thus far is commonly known, but what is misunderstood, or completely unknown by most, is how mithril silver comes to be.

Silver is silver. However, when silver is infused with light, in a particular way, it becomes mithril. Yes, mithril silver is the fusion of the metal with light. Many would not even accept this notion, assuming 'light' is no more than sunlight or candle light, a something which we do not understand but allows us to see the world around us. There is so much more to light than this.

Just as sand can become glass when sufficient heat is applied, silver becomes mithril when light is properly applied. Mithril is this special application of light. But, we have forgotten more about the manipulation of light than we have ever learned of the manipulation and applications of heat. Yet both are forces, energies of the universe, and there are others.1

In mithril silver, particles of light literally support particles of silver, suspending it to make it lighter, as in weighing less, increasing volume, while reducing mass. But the light particles also fortify by increasing density, being able to fill in the 'spaces' between silver particles, giving it more structure.2

The light's effect allows mithril armor to deflect blows better, in that light always and ever works outwardly, literally reflecting or dispelling. Thus light- or energy-imbued silver is not as likely to allow an impact to gain purchase... at least not as much as with ordinary, lifeless silver. Similarly, mithril weapons can carry far more power in a strike than ordinary blades.3

Despite the enhanced strength and fortitude of mithril silver, the light still lends flexibility to the metal. It is less stiff and solid than if the silver were amalgamated with another metal and yet it is ultimately woven more tightly. This is a feature and ability of light... This is Mithril.

Other metals could be mithril. There could theoretically be mithril gold, but gold is softer than silver and hardly serves as well for armor or blade. There seems no advantage to making gold stronger and more flexible, not to mention more expensive, especially considering its already high value and preferred uses. Mithril iron is not practical either. The light's effect on such a dark and heavy metal is a negligible change. Other materials, living and non, could be imbued with mithril qualities by an infusion of light, but... it can be difficult and there are weighty considerations, even dire hazards. For the most part, it is not done.

Mithril silver can and does occur through natural circumstances without any intervention whatsoever, yet it is an extremely remote possibility, precisely as remote as a lightning strike in just the right place. This is indeed what makes silver into mithril --- the application of light, particularly through the force and power of lightning. If a lightning strike taps a vein of silver, then the light energy is conducted into that deposit. Even if the strike taps another conductive ore, such as iron or copper, it may ultimately feed into a connected silver deposit. Silver has a definite affinity for, a receptiveness of, the light energy. So, if possible, the lightning will likely find a silver home.

Fortuitous but erratic lightning strikes are not the only way however. Aiding the formation of mithral silver has been a well-kept secret. It is nearly a lost art. In fact, it has been mostly unknown to be an art or possibility. It is a gift that was little known to begin with and has since gone into hiding, beginning to disappear altogether. The consequences of mithril silver are now considered too high by those to whom the gift was originally given. And in truth, the gifted have been scattered around the world, as they themselves seem to be fading from existence.

Who can change silver to mithril? Well, there has oft been a reason that dwarves worked so diligently in the belly of the same mountains which were occupied in the heights by elven-kind. The fair folk do not function well within deep caverns, but they surely thrive upon a mountain top. These high perches are also particularly good places to find lightning in the skies and with the right knowledge, direct it down into the earth... into veins of silver.

Why did elves start doing this originally? It developed accidentally and not all clans shared in the discovery. A portion of elves having knowledge of Light workings learned to redirect lightning via focus, in order to spare crops and homes from storms. At first it was merely to ward off strikes, pushing them away. Later they learned to draw them too and apply their power to specific locations.

It's not terribly different from working with ambient energy or tapping into leylines, but of course there's an element of danger and a wildness to lightning. It's not the gentler, ever-present sort of energy which most magic users employ. However, the hazards were mitigated somewhat as the elven practitioners learned to manipulate just the light involved, rather than handling the full raw power of the lightning. The residual or fringe benefit is that they can manipulate 'ordinary' light quite easily.

In the mortal plane, it all began in an almost forgotten place, which some called Moria.4 The dwarves were greatly rewarded for drawing the true silver from the mines. The elves were thrilled with the new lighter, shinier, stronger and non-tarnishing material to be used for crafting beautiful ornaments as well as battle gear. Initially there were peaceful and mutually beneficial agreements between the two peoples, though only a few knew of the truth in the association. Alas, the cooperation and amiable arrangements did not last.

Much later, leagues away, Jera's clan had a prime location for sending the lightning into the ground, into deposits of silver beneath their mountain. Naturally it was dwarves who had discovered the wealth of raw silver there and had been mining it for some years. The elf folk called their home Raumo Korda, the Storm Temple. The name came from a natural rock formation in one area which made the crude steps of a terrace, graced here and there with standing stones resembling columns. A semi-circular bank of roughly stepped stone seemed perfectly situated for the clan members to take their positions for the execution of their one collective purpose.

What would have been the floor of the Temple was a nearly perpetual pool of water, just at the base of the steps, partially filling the depression in the cap of the mountain. The stone and ore beneath this pool reached down to where the veins of silver spidered throughout the mountain and traced deep into the earth. This natural temple served to enhance the clan's work, giving them a veritable funnel through which to send the power and energy of any lightning they might manage to direct. The water pool helped draw and channel the lightning, making the site that much more sacred.

So, when a storm rumbled on the horizon, all other activities ceased in the mountaintop elf village at Raumo Korda. The designates went to the Temple while the rest prepared for the coming storm and appropriate rituals to support the clan's Temple endeavors.

As with other associations before, the clan's ultimate intent was a mutually beneficial cooperation with the dwarves living under their mountain. The leadership of the dwarves recognized that while the elves shared their mountain, the silver and particularly the mithril, was abundant. Both races benefited as the elves were given some of the profit and trade resulting from the dwarves' wealth, as well as a generous portion of the mithril silver. The elves certainly had no interest in mining it themselves. It all seemed a suitable arrangement. But of course, where there's money and a variable resource, there can be trouble.

The story Jera usually tells of the scattering of her clan is almost a cover. She speaks of a war with humans who accused her kindred of stealing the rain before it reached their valley crops. While humans were indeed involved in the struggle to hold Raumo Korda, it was the dwarves who put forth the notion that the elves had more control over the storms than merely redirection of the lightning. They thought they were summoning as well. So, during a long period of severe drought, the humans began to hate the elves for what they perceived as thievery. The shortage of storms, and therefore lightning, left a corresponding shortage of mithril veins developing. The dwarves became convinced that the elves were holding out for more control and a bigger cut of the profits.

In truth, the elves were relieved by the shortage. They finally realized that the world's major use for mithril silver was armor and weapons, which meant war, which was being waged between all the races and nothing was coming of it but death and destruction. They had no wish to continue participating in that.

The dwarves, detecting this rebellion, decided to try controlling the elves, but their efforts seemed to change nothing. In the end, and in league with the humans, the dwarves invaded and destroyed Raumo Korda. Many prisoners were taken as the dwarves still hoped to force the elves to do whatever it is they did to foster more mithril in the mountain. The captured elves withered and died in the dark cold stone caverns, especially under rough treatment. The dwarves had not understood that the elves could not execute their magic from there, even if they wanted to, and in fact most of the captives were warriors of the elf clan and not lightworkers. So, none got what they desired out of the travesty. The refugees of the mountain village took their secret skill with lightning and scattered to the four winds. Of course, the humans eventually felt justified as the drought cycle ended and the rains came once more.

How ironic it seemed that Jera's clan, Hyandakalan, the Clan of the Blade of Light, would virtually cease to exist because they would no longer help make the light into blades. Jera tells her clan's story carefully so she is not associated with mithril for there is still the fear that someone would want to employ her knowledge. More than fear is the loathing of what vicious weapons they might create from her workings. Instead, she prefers to gather herbs and support the healing arts.


1 But until recently we were unaware of electricity and mostly clueless about magnetism and gravity and even elasticity.
2 Big alchemical, metaphysical knowledge implied here, not to mention Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics? (It's part of what we've 'forgotten' but we're trying to remember it now.)
3 Ref: Excalibur in later history.
4 In Tolkien's LoTR, mithril was mined by dwarves in Moria under the Misty Mountains, with Grey Elves living above them and Lothlorien nearby. It is likely then not just coincidence that this location yielded unfathomable wealth in true silver. Incidentally, one of the Elven Rings (Galadriel's) was mithril silver. The word 'mithril' was coined in "The Hobbit".

Note concerning mithril gold and other metals or substances: Because lightning is in essence natural electricity, the mithril effect would be dependent on the conductivity of the substance in question. Gold is not a good conductor. Many other substances, while being reasonable conductors, may be too insubstantial to retain the 'charge' or their overall structure could not withstand the power of the infusion. For example, water conducts too well and passes off electrical current, unable to hold it. A human(oid) body may not tolerate the process at all.


DHP © 2002