Next step of the canon rework! I won't ramble for too long as this is a long ramble anyways

Ok so! Manametal

As the other half of the chalcolithic expanse of the Quiet Age... Or should i say

The Yatalithic!?.. I'll go home its fine no worries I'll walk

But this is the next basic foundation of manatechnology which, as prior said, takes advantage of the ability of manatech to simplify and streamline logistics, allowing folks to multiply the amount of metal they can get out of a piece of metal, effectively doubling their metal... With some catches unlike Rumí


So first expanding on the info in the image

Yatal (formed from two Haida words for "Iron" and "Metal") said Yay-tal

Yatal is a generalize stabilized mana metal that can come with a wide variety of properties, colors, etc. depending on what and how its made. But above is a generic process (though not the only plausible process)

Simply you must mix one part mana, one part metal, and one part rumí into a vessel in the similar manner as Sundering, which I may just move into this process. The vessel must be something that is resonant enough to ring and sturdy enough to get metaphysically shaken without falling apart. So fine ceramics or metal, or sometimes certain species of dense hardwood are suitable options, at least for a couple of rounds before the vessel is worn out. Lastly with respect to the metal, ore can, and is presumably often, used directly in the process but you need an equal part metal, not ore. So all that extra rock which comprises the ore will be forced into the metal as a sort of slag or impurity to the metal that can effect the quality.

So if you have low quality ores, you'd best do a good job of separating as much of the rock from the high metal ore as possible. You will almost inevitably use more ore than mana or rumí due to that, its not the end of the world though


Then, much like sundering this magical mixture is heated to about 450 degress Celsius or about 842 degress fahrenheit. Once the vessel is heated to this temperature more or less the vessel is struck with a mallet to ring. Same rules as sundering, the ring excites the mana, which then resonates and bounces off the walls of the vessel, causing a feedback loop which metaphysically smashes things together (instead of apart, so I guess more merging)

The end result! If done right is a mass of Yatal

So yatal!

Its not stainless steel mind you, if you were to put it through the Rockwell hardness test it would probably be around 60HRB, which puts it in that range of metals I like.

Copper, lower quality bronze, wrought iron, with some being more comparable to high quality bronze
And Yatal can be made out of a lot of metals, the quality of the metal may vary slightly but the qualities of the yatal more come from the mana being held in the metal than the metal itself. though that metal will affect it somewhat.

Aluminum, Copper, Iron, Lead, Zinc, etc. If you want the specific properties of a metal, the metal needs to be separated on its own (and still can be of course). As once its locked into Yatal its kinda its own metal

Yatal generally comes into 3 sorts of forms depending on how you work it

Yatal that is fresh out of the vessel tends to have a sort of wood grain like structure to it. Due to the impurities that are embedded all throughout the resulting metal. This tends to result in the metal being a bit less structurally sound, it has a tendency to splinter under heavy strain. Though don't let that fool you into thinking its a terrible metal for edges, its perfectly serviceable! You just aren't using it bridges. Yatal is often worked in a basic way in this form via cold hamering. Its hammered at room temperature, annealed in a fire, hammered some more. It usually tends to result in the metal plate breaking into smaller pieces as the weakness caused by the impurities within the metal create cracks and breaks. Though if there was more quality ores or pure metals used in the mixture, thus giving a more solid piece of metal, you can theoretically go to the skies for the limit with it, with the only real hindrances being an inability to forge weld at room temperature and the worker being somewhat subject to the shape the metal is already at.

This is where a lot of that Old Copper Complex sort of metalworking comes in. Sawing out shapes from the metal, hammering it into shapes with stones, etc.

For a lot of communities, be they making axes or pendants, its a very workable and totally functional way to make objects. Especially with the advantages of needing not much more setup than flintknapping stone and metal tools made in this way are generally of a good quality

Hot hammering Is when a metalworker brings the Yatal to a temperature of around 350 degress celsius with it being hammered hot instead of left to cool down. Now this isn't actually super high of a temperature, Its a bit hotter than a good sized wood fire so, if you have a decent woodfire and some volunteer with some form of bellows to heat the fire up you're good to go. Or if you have some charcoal without bellows that will be good enough. Though you will need some more tools, such as a proper set of tongs to actually grip the metal safely and some sort of hafted hammer unless you really wanna risk your hand slipping off the rock, leaving your hand burnt.

that's happened to me before don't do that it hurts

So a bit more of a setup

Now stuff worked at the minimum temperature isn't going to look or act a lot different from cold hammered Yatal. but if you climb up in the temperature a bit to around 400 degress celsius or about 752 fahrenheit, you can do a lot more. At that temperature, working the metal will expell some of the impurities from it and the metal will start to forgeweld itself together, meaning that you can refine the basic yatal into a harder, more strucutrally sound and pure yatal better suited to dealing with stress. And again, you can forgeweld it at this higher temperature! Now forgewelding in a targeted since is actually quite difficult, but for those who put in the time and knowledge and effort can forgeweld things like sockets, tubes, or simply mix multiple pieces of Yatal together.
could probably make some really cool art by forgewelding multiple distinct pieces of yatal together.

So you can make most things you would need to with this method, although its not as precise as casting the metal into a mold.

I could see larger tribal networks having small forges in their territory that are shared by clans, such that they may do small bits of coldworking while out and about and do more hot hammering at these sorts of clan shared forges and workshops should the need arise.

Lastly there is melting and casting. Which presents you with the highest quality version of Yatal possible. As when you melt the metal, the impurities can be simply scooped out of the mixture like slag in a copper smelt.

Which can leave you with an almost pure yatal

So usually by smelting and casting yatal out you can get yourself the hardest and highest quality version of yatal possible, which is comparable to most high quality bronzes or even some modern bronzes like aluminum bronze
its a good standard for a good metal. The other big advantage is, be it a flat open faced mold or a mold made out of sand, or even a complex casting technique like lost wax casting, you can make very intricate shapes that are just not possible via hammering in most cases. So sculptures depicting complex shapes, complex sockets and forms of blades, hoops and loops, open shapes, etc. are far more easily done with casting. The downside is that you need to have some degree of prep and tools to make it work.

To melt yatal it has to hit around 500 degress celsius, around 932 Fahrenheit which, mind you, is not that hot. But its beyond what your average woodfire can reliably do. So unless you want to gamble with a bonfire, you need charcoal and you need some form of bellows. likewise you'll need a proper crucible to hold the melted metal, tongs to grasp the crucible and you'll need to make a mold which doesn't need to be complicated... but certainly can be if you want to get the most out of smelting and casting. I could see cultures going all in on casting for artistic or cultural reasons, such as statues and sculptures. Or for complex shapes that are really hard to smith out, like gun barrels and disklike forms.

But I could also see a culture simply casting yatal into ingots for trade of to be hammered out into forms as well

For overall upsides and downsides

Yatal, like all manatech is about circumventing complicated infnrastructural and logistical challenges in doing things.

If you want some Yatal you need only make some Rumí, get some metal ore, get some additional mana and a good resonant vessel and you can probably make some basic yatal in a day. From there you can turn that metal you got from the creation process into tools, wares, and objects within the next week if you keep at it regularly. Its not the best metal in the world, but it is very sufficient in being a metal for tools and has some aesthetic appeal for artistic, jewelry, or cultural related applications. Since you can make it from any metal, as long as you have a reasonably good quality ore you can probably make it well enough if you know what you're doing
and likewise it can be worked in enough ways to fit the preferences or needs of any tribal network or individual den.

The individual den who is hunting and gathering, always being on the move may just make the plates at a cave where the broader tribe shares yatal making supplies, from there they can take those plates with them and hammer splinters of that metal into basic knives, points, etc. Straightforward cold hammered tools that get the job done.

The clan may have some smithing equipment that is shared between several dens and, if they can slip by for a bit, they may take the time to refine their yatal, forgeweld smaller scraps into something more substantial, or make more substantial objects than what they could make on the road.

Whereas the chiefdom far off in some way off highland may rely on smelting and casting as the kinda expensive but high quality metal for the upper crust of their chiefdom, with the elite guard sporting casted weapons and the denarch being full of drekir clad in vibrant, colorful casted metals.

But there are downsides

and its the opposite edge of manatechnology, its easy to do on a small scale but its hard to scale up. Resonant vessels that rely on mana feedback loops can be interfered by nearby intense resonance, which means you can't just shove a ton of vessels into a workshop and ring them next to eachother, they require a substantial distance.

Like one pot per 3 acres distance, thats about 2 football fields of distance per yatal creating process.

Moreover, you need a pretty quality vessel and, unelss it itself is yatal that is lined with rubber that vessel is going to quickly wear out.

ceramic and wooden vessels are only good for 1-6 or so rounds of making yatal before they quite literally begin to crumble and break. Which means you have to make another difficult to make vessel every few rounds just to replace the last one
Lastly, while mana is technically endless, it manifests and demanifests quickly and unpredictably. That's fine if you're a small group of pastoralists or bug farmers who can quickly seize upon a mana pool and make a fair bit of Yatal for a month before that pool disappears. But your main resource being unpredictable does mean mass production is at best difficult but more realistically impossible.unless you wanna set up a foundry next to a voicelake, not a good idea either

So if you're a den of drekir who just processes yatal once a few months or less, that's not a big problem and the logistical ease of making it is a god send.

If you're a city state trying to go all out on metal, you're going to have to select which rungs of the ladder get a lot of it as you just can't rapidly produce metal.

If anything thats how I would put it, your ability to produce large amounts of metal quickly is hindered
most communities can churn out a smallish amount of yatal at a steady rate, like say 500lbs/230kgs a year which can be plenty for a tribe that dedicates themselves to that sort of thing.

But that ain't nearly enough for most larger things

So its easy to make in low amounts, difficult to make in large amounts. Easy to make on occasion, hard to make en masse
Though there are ways to get a lot of it. Namely by stockpiling, a little bit a day stacks up over a year. In fact I could see in this sort of situation traders making a killing just by stockpiling yatal and then trading it around them for various goods, services, luxuries, etc.
Where they may not care about the metal, their stone tools work fine, but they know folks who really love metal and would trade a lot of cool seashells, tanned hides, textiles, fine stones, and stable foods for it

likewise you can take the risk of living next to a voicelake to extract large amounts of mana, and theoretically have one refining vessel every 3 acres or so and dedicate a ton of folks to making it... I am not saying thats impossible! Though most folks don't have that as a realistically feasible thing.

Living next to voicelakes is innately dangerous and keeping up the production to keep up vessels to keep refining yatal takes a lot of time from the normal subsistence tribal groups need to keep going on

But in any case yeah!
Yatal being the manametal to the manastone of a chalcolithic expanse.

Or again, maybe yatalithic?

Also not covering elemental yatal as thats a whole other topic that needs a ramble
be well