Monetary System

Precious metals: Stuff which is of no or very little use by itself, but doesn't degrade much in typical conditions and is rather hard to find or labour-intensive to acquire.

List: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, Aluminium (pre-Hall-Héroult process), Copper, rare fantasy metals

Common alloys: Electrum (Gold-Silver 4:1 to 1:1), Rose Gold (Gold-Copper 3:1), Red Gold (Gold-Copper 1:1), White Gold (Gold-Palladium or Gold-Nickel 9:1), Spangold (Gold-Copper-Aluminium 15:4:1), Purple Gold (Gold-Aluminium 4:1), Billon (Copper-Silver 3:2), Brass (Copper-Zinc 3:1), Bronze (Copper-Tin 7:1), Aluminium Bronze (Copper-Aluminium 9:1), Cupronickel (Copper-Nickel 3:1), Nickel Silver (Copper-Nickel-Zinc 3:1:1), Duralumin (Aluminium-Copper 19:1)

Translated to game terms (assuming a 2x2 matrix - four items - and a "dotting" matrix adding one item to nine):

"Pure" metals and transformation results

Base materials

• Carbon (6)
• Aluminium (13)
• Silicon (14)
• Sulfur (16)
• Titanium (22)
• Chromium (24)
• Manganese (25)
• Iron (26)
• Cobalt (27)
• Nickel (28)
• Copper (29)
• Zinc (30)
• Arsenic (33)
• Palladium (46)
• Silver (47)
• Tin (50)
• Antimony (51)
• Iridium (77)
• Platinum (78)
• Gold (79)
• Mercury (80)
• Lead (82)
• Bismith (83)

Transformed materials

• Steel
• Orichalcum (magical)

Fantasy stuff, unsorted

• Adamantium
• Mithril
• Carmot (base element of Philosopher's Stone, for advanced transmutations)
• Ebony (Elder Scrolls, heavy durable metal)
• Glass (Elder Scrolls, light translucent metal)

Alloys

Alloys of base metals

• 3 Gold + 1 Silver -> Electrum (1)
• 3 Gold + 1 Copper -> Rose Gold
• 2 Gold + 2 Silver -> Electrum (2)
• 2 Gold + 1 Silver + 1 Copper -> Cheap Gold
• 2 Gold + 2 Copper -> Red Gold
• 1 Gold + 3 Silver -> Golden Silver (1)
• 1 Gold + 2 Silver + 1 Copper -> Golden Silver (2)
• 1 Gold + 1 Silver + 2 Copper -> Billon (2)
• 1 Gold + 3 Copper -> Orichalcum (mundane)
• 3 Silver + 1 Copper -> Sterling Silver
• 2 Silver + 2 Copper -> Tibetian Silver
• 1 Silver + 3 Copper -> Billon (1)
• 3 Gold + 1 Alumnium -> Purple Gold
• 3 Copper + 1 Nickel -> Cupronickel
• 2 Copper + 1 Nickel + 1 Zinc -> Nickel Silver
• 3 Copper + 1 Zinc -> Brass
• 2 Copper + 2 Zinc -> Naval Brass
• 1 Copper + 3 Zinc -> White Brass
• 3 Copper + 1 Tin -> Bronze
• 3 Copper + 1 Arsenic -> Arsenic Bronze
• 3 Gold + 1 Palladium -> White Gold (1)
• 3 Gold + 1 Nickel -> White Gold (2)
• 3 Iron + 1 Carbon (Coal) -> Pig Iron
• 2 Iron + 2 Chromium -> Ferrochrome
• 2 Iron + 2 Nickel -> Ferronickel
• 3 Iron + 1 Nickel -> Invar
• 1 Iron + 3 Silicon -> Ferrosilicon (1)
• 2 Iron + 2 Silicon -> Ferrosilicon (2)
• 3 Iron + 1 Silicon -> Ferrosilicon (3)
• 3 Iron + 1 Manganese -> Spiegeleisen
• 3 Iron + 1 Copper -> Oilite
• 2 Mercury + 2 Silver -> Amalgam (1)
• 2 Mercury + 1 Silver + 1 Tin -> Amalgam (2)
• 2 Mercury + 2 Gold -> Gold Amalgam
• 2 Mercury + 2 Tin -> Tin Amalgam
• 1 Gold + 1 Silver + 1 Copper + 1 Mercury -> Orichalcum Base

Steel mixes (high-alloy steels)

• 3 Steel + 1 Nickel -> Maraging Steel
• 3 Steel + 1 Chromium -> Stainless Steel

Fantasy alloys (unsorted)

• 3 Iron + 1 Orichalcum (magical) -> Orcish Steel (Elder Scrolls)

Dotting

Dotting works by adding a small amount (less than 10% and usually less than 5%) of another material to an already existing one, and re-smelting it at the same time. Consequently, it's done at a smelter capable of working the base material.

How much of the dotting material is needed depends on the skill of the one working the formula. Least-skilled workers need 4 base items for every dotting, producing 4 dotted alloys in return, though having a chance to produce some slag containing the dotting material too. Most-skilled workers can go down to as little as 24 base items per item of dotting (still gaining just 24 items in return). Waste dotting material is lost in the process, and all dotted material is considered the same, no matter who made it.

Freshly extracted base material is considered "pre-dotted" with impurities; the kind and distribution of the impurities depends on the ore composition and quality.

Dotted base materials (like Pewter and Duralumin) can be combined directly into dotted alloys if the dotting material is the same (in this case, in an alloy of Aluminium and Tin dotted with Copper); else they create a base alloy and the dotting materials are retained as slag in the furnace/smelter. This is also a way to gain pure base metals or alloys; for example, alloying Aluminium Bronze (Copper with Alluminium dotting) with Gliding Metal (Copper with Zinc dotting) produces pure Copper in addition to slag containing some Aluminium and Zinc.

There is a special generic "waste" pseudo-material used as dotting for unpure materials which doesn't have any purpose besides making sure that, with time, non-recyclable slag will build up.

Base Metal Dotting

• Aluminium with Copper -> Duralumin
• Copper with Aluminium -> Aluminium Bronze
• Copper with Zinc -> Gliding Metal
• Tin with Copper -> Pewter
• Silver with Platinum -> Platinum Sterling

Alloy Dotting

• Cheap Gold with Palladium -> White Gold (3)
• Rose Gold with Aluminium -> Spangold
• Brass with Aluminium -> Nordic Gold
• Brass with Manganese -> Manganese Brass
• Brass with Nickel -> Nickel Brass
• Brass with Tin -> Red Brass (1)
• Bronze with Zinc -> Red Brass (2)

Steel alloys

• Steel with Aluminium ->
• Steel with Chromium ->
• Steel with Copper ->
• Steel with Manganese ->
• Steel with Nickel ->
• Steel with Silicon -> Spring Steel

Fantasy dotting (unsorted)

• Iron with "Moonstone" -> Elven Steel (Elder Scrolls)

Transformations (with catalysts)

Transformations are special-purpose reactions which create special base materials. Transformations aren't easily reversible, as opposed to general alloying.

• 4 Pig Iron (with flux stone: Limestone, Marble, Dolomite, Chalk, Calcite) -> 3 Steel
• 1 undotted Orichalcum Base (with magic) -> 1 Orichalcum (magical)

Fantasy Transformations (unsorted)

• Ebony with Deadric Power -> Daedric (Elder Scrolls)

Coins

Coins are made of precious metals or their alloys, they have a *value* equal to its metal's value and a *form*, including *marks* which determine who *minted* them. Usually, a coin is accepted only in the origin territory for its full value, everywhere else you have to accept (up to 50%) less value.

Slag and Clinker

Slag forms in furnaces and smelters from a bunch of processes:

• Smelting ore
• Purifying materials (by combining differently-dotted materials and smelting them together)
• Non-perfect dotting
• Some transmutations (in particular, the steel one)

Slag keeps track of which materials are inside each volume. In addition, there is a special "waste" material which occurs only in slag, chiefly as a result of impurities found inside nearly every ore. The useful materials can be recycled (in a specialised filter) when they build up enough to fill at least one full item in the slag volume. "Waste" can't be recycled into anything at all.

Slag (of any composition) can be baked in a furnace to form Clinker, which is a rough, glassy building material.