Feb 54 min read

Embers of Blacksmithing

A blacksmith has to start somewhere. While the items being made at the beginning won’t be masterpieces, with some time and muscle memory they’ll at least be functional. Apprentices commonly are forced to make smaller items like nails, cutlery, and miscellaneous daily aids like letter openers and coat hooks. It’s tradition that a good apprentice is capable of hand forging a hundred nails a day - should that be achieved, they can then be moved onto different projects. For Lithoterrian smiths, that involves creating arrowheads, required to fill the bottomless hole that is demanded. Again, the same one hundred a day applies, with apprentices quickly becoming proficient in making the smaller items or being quickly replaced by others capable of making those items. If this demand is again fulfilled, an apprentice can then begin forging tools needed by the various professions of Lithoterria, filling tool boxes so that they can be easily sold to replace malfunctioning, damaged or old equipment. If an apprentice becomes good at it, they could quite easily make a living off repairing tools, providing ammunition, and providing miscellaneous items to their local community. In fact, that’s what many do. However, there are some out of every batch that will aspire to greater heights, and those will be given duties to begin sharpening their skills on more complex items.

Daggers for instance require a careful hand to ensure the blade is straight and sharp, and is a good stepping point for larger weaponry. Hammers and maces provide a good test for the apprentice to make solid blocks, and allows their mentors to see how they work larger chunks of metal. Bucklers also allow the apprentice to begin appreciating the fine art that goes into protecting warriors from injury. At the very peak of an apprenticeship, the prospective smith will be allowed to process softer metals. While some of the metals they process can be rare, the metals themselves are relatively easy and have uncomplicated processes. It also provides a good test of the apprentices’ ultimate skill, in seeing how they remove impurities.

As an apprentice turns into a proper blacksmith, growing their skills and making better and better weapons, they’ll start to take on their own commissions. They’ll take their pay and start investing in processing their own metal, taking on simple commissions to build a coin base before then continuing to experiment. The arrogance of youth tends to then lead them into trying new projects without the assistance of a mentor, landing them in hot water as they inevitably bite off more than they can chew attempting something like a sword or polearm. They’ll either go back to their mentor for advice or just keep trying until they get it right. Either way, they develop the experience they need to start taking on their own orders, understanding to keep a steady flow of metal coming into the workshop as well as to limit any customized commissions so that they can make sure to hit their deadlines. They’ll make more complicated arrowheads, or complicated weaponry like an axe, or sledgehammer. Taking on these larger projects is necessary for the smith’s development so that they can learn to manipulate larger blocks of metal, and the best ways to ensure the best finish on things like proper shields and chainmail armor. Creating that protective equipment as well as weaponry allows the smith to also decide if they want to dedicate themselves to weapons or armor, or if they even want to specialize at all. Those that don’t will often find themselves inside soldier armoires, fulfilling excessive orders with a decent pay due to their skill and workload. The metals they process and use also change, using more complicated recipes to create better material for their projects. Finally, their projects also expand to dealing with more unusual requests, like locks for storage and doors, as well as shackles for prisoners to restrict their movement.

Master smiths are able to create their own blacksmith shops. As they expand their skills, they’ll use more metal of higher qualities to create larger weapons, like great swords and battleaxes. They’ll also move towards making plate armor for the toughest, strongest warriors to clad themselves in, as well as plate armor for mounts so that they can be protected properly. Even the simplest of projects will look like incredibly complex masterpieces, and usually the smith is able to reinforce those items with their own personal techniques to make them even stronger than regular equipment. Not many of these smiths exist, and their commission list is almost always booked for years to come. However, finding yourself on the list will net you an incredible weapon or piece of equipment. It’s also usually made with some of the rarest materials found in Lithoterria, metals that require immense skill and often magical influence to properly melt. For this reason, it’s not uncommon for these master smiths to be decent fire prominence mages, enabling them to defend their stock with fierce power.

(A Documentation Of The Development Of A Blacksmith, Rek Sampson)

Novice Blacksmith Recipes

Toolkit Recipe