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Materials
Dragging the Star Wars universe kicking
and screaming back to the Periodic Table. I’m perfectly happy to
declare that canonical elements in their universe are actually exotic
compounds, composites, alloys, or pseudonyms for more familiar
elements. I’m assuming that they have already cracked such problems
as manufacture of carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, and so on.
Some of the more exotic composites have extremely fine structure that is
created through self-assembly, whether through synthetic
biology or virufactured (keyword virus-assembled— neologism
courtesy of Chris Moriarty’s excellent novels Spin
State and Spin Control). These are good at
creating novel, synthetic materials; there are still numerous natural ones
that elude replication in the laboratory, due to the sheer number of subtle
interactions involved in their formation. Viral
nanoelectronics (23) is common.
Diamond-coating is practical
and used on many personal goods to provide durability.
Fabrics
The standard bolt of cloth in the
galaxy is 50m long and 1m wide, though there are 2m and 3m widths and 100m
lengths. In addition to the raw materials, there are also the weaves,
such as
brocart
(a brocade),
satyn
(a satin),
taffeta
(taffeta),
velvoid
(a velvet).
A 50-yard bolt of silk seems to range from $50 to $500. A bolt of cotton
seems to be $50 to $100, though I’m having trouble matching up thread counts—
looks like it can go to 1500. It looks like denim sells for $10/yard when
it’s sold separately, which would be $400; that’s probably the result of no
longer having wholesale prices. Looks like a ton of raw silk materials can go
for $45,000, and that’s just raw white silk before further processing.
One ton of processed silk is only half the price of one ton of processed titanium.
Cotton
is the Basic term for plants that yield fine fibers from their seed pods.
Several planets have produced qualifying species, including...
It is made into a number of different fabrics, such as
denym.
Linen
is the Basic term for plants that yield fine fibers from their stalks.
Linens are found on numerous planets, including Alderaan, Corellia,
Ithor...
Hemp is
the Basic term for plants that yield rough fibers from their stalks. Hemps are
found on numerous planets...
Sisal is
the Basic term for plants that yield fibers from their leaves...
Chromafiber: a transparent fiber containing millions of cylindrical
micromechanical armatures that can contract to very precise distances (at the
tens of nanometers), causing them to reflect a particular wavelength based
on the size of the gap created. Fabric woven of these fibers, given
appropriate control systems, can do anything from changing among fashionable
color schemes to functioning as dynamic camouflage.
Chromasheath is an
iridescent material with the thickness and durability of leather.
Durafiber is used in pressure-tight fabrics, such as hazmat suits and spacesuits.
Duranex is a heavy artificial fiber used in coveralls and jumpsuits.
Lashaa
Silk is a heavy silk, able to keep its elegant looks under rigorous
conditions.
Loveti moth fiber
makes an extremely fine silk, which can be woven to be anywhere from
translucent to be nearly transparent. It is often used with multiple layers
in seductive luxury clothing, hinting at what it conceals without
revealing.
Gaberwool is made from the
hair of ½-meter-long worms that thrive in the garbage pits of ecumenopolis
worlds. Washed thoroughly, it has a silvery cast.
Cheap plastic produced in the algae vats on ecumenopolis worlds and
used to produce bulk goods, ranging from clothing to consumer
electronics. Another brand name is
plastine or
plastene.
Good old cellulose-derived paper is still in use in lower-class areas where
people can’t afford datapads and shops can’t afford e-ink poster displays, and
so on. On higher-tech worlds, it has to compete with flimsiplast, which is
thinner and just as durable.
A common material for shipping containers. It’s much cheaper
than steel, almost as strong, more corrosion-resistant, and definitely
more brittle. Not useful for battle-hardened materials, but commonly
used where wooden barrels and metal drums would be used in our world.
An alloy made from neutronium,
meleenium,
lommite (an ore containing iron and quadranium),
carvanium,
and
zersium (an ore containing tungsten and frasium).
Durasteel is extremely
tough and is used in constructions that are meant to last for
thousands of years, including as rebar within duracrete.
It is a lighter, tougher alloy than
quadranium steel, suitable for use
in personal and vehicle armors.
A variant of durasteel used to make the support pylons of
spacescraper buildings, and a key to building the critical supports of
ecumenopoleis. It is a
complex weave of tungsten durasteel, ceramics, and carbon nanotubes:
extremely corrosion-resistant, an excellent conductor of heat,
and slightly flexible.
Actually a high-quality steel alloy, made from formations that provide a
convenient set of trace elements already mixed in. Though in this era,
thousands of years before Mandalore, this will be known under a different
name...
An extremely durable steel superalloy, highly
resistant to both heat and impact. Works well as armor against impact and
blasters, though too heavy for highly maneuverable vehicles.
It will be sold under the brand name Quadanium when they create
the Death Star.
Another metallic compound capable of diffusing enough lightsaber energy
to stand up to one in combat. The ingredients for the alloy are extracted
from phrikite
and tydirium
ores. It’s one of the hardest known substances in the galaxy.
RECG p126
A rare alloy of silver, gold, nickel, iron, and titanium that is both strong
and conductive; it will repel plasma bolts. (This is
not the same thing as terrestrial electrum.)
An inexpensive building material that uses an organic epoxy-like cement to bind locally
available aggregates.
Dwellings can be printed
out of the stuff. It’s lighter and stronger than normal
concrete, and less susceptible to erosion, but it still wears down
under extreme weather, particularly when freezing temperatures are
involved.
A cheaper cousin of plascrete, used to quickly form cheap buildings with
thick walls; very popular in extreme climates where the insulation is
needed. Syngranite creates the appearance
of real granite without all the effort of quarrying, and is commonly used
in building façades.
Synrock is another
brand name.
Another plasticrete knockoff popular on worlds with a high availability
of sand. Just sift the sand, mix in the binder, pour into force field
shells, let it harden, turn off the force fields, and move on.
A more expensive cousin of plascrete that uses a ceramic form of cement that requires a
fusion torch to make it set. This is used for heavy-duty roads on worlds
that have sufficiently extreme weather that goods are transported on
wheeled vehicles rather than repulsorlifts.
Heavy-duty construction material used for spacecraft landing pads and
the bases of the support pylons of spacescrapers. This is commonly
used in buildings that are designed to last for thousands of years.
(Compare modern-day
ultra-high
performance concrete.)
A hard plastic shell sandwiching a transparent aerogel core. Cheap and
popular as a window, with excellent insulative properties, strong enough
to resist the normal challenges of weather.
The toughest and second most expensive transparent substance available, used
in starship windows. This will stand up to impacts with space debris
better than permaplas or permaglass. The name is actually a brand;
it’s actually formed with self-assembling organometallic polymers
that tangle up in ways that impede crack propagation, resulting in
a material that bends instead of shattering. It still burns like
an organic, and needs special goo for repairs.
Prime elements are variants of the
ordinary elements from our familiar periodic table with a particular
form of dark matter particle wrapped around the nucleus and altering
their properties.
Aurodium (Au’?):
A metal with a sparkling lustre,
which can grant the quality when alloyed (1–10%) with other metals. Incredibly
expensive; even jewelry plated with a gold-aurodium alloy is at least
Superb in cost.
Bronzium (Cu’) has a coppery sheen but is stronger and more corrosion-resistant.
It is an excellent conductor, and is used in the housing of high-end
droids.
Terenthium: when combined with desh, the resulting alloy is extremely light,
popular for use in swoopbikes and other aerial vehicles.
Tibanna (H’?),
which can be spin-sealed in monatomic form to make a blaster gas that
combines under coherent light to provide the energy of the plasma packet
in a blaster bolt.
Durasteel—
regular steel is primarily iron with carbon, and can contain titanium,
nickel, vanadium, chromium, and manganese. Let’s say that lommite is
the primary ore, containing an iron-quadranium mix; zersium ore provides
tungsten and frasium (W’); neutronium (Mo’); meleenium (V’); carvanium (Mn’).
Mandalorian iron is as yet undiscovered. It’s an idiosyncratic mix of
iron, quadranium, bronzium, frasium, and cortosis, extremely difficult
to synthesize.
Xonolite: an exotic form of lignite that can be processed
into anything from fancy carbon-fiber composites to a narcotic liquid that
gradually liquefies the organs and can even induce spontaneous combustion.
Zersium: an ore used in durasteel, containing frasium and tungsten.
Dantari (from Dantooine; the crystals as formed are red, but the kinrath spiders place
them in their eggs, and as the spiders grow, the crystals become more
distinctive)
Bothan glitterstone is described as something you can make buildings
out of.
Durind firegems are a typo.
Lowickan firegems are undiscovered along with Lowick.
Corusca gem:
Superb–Legendary
for gem quality, though the hopelessly flawed ones have industrial
applications. They are mined by deep diving in gas giants that have
the right composition.
Diamonds,
emeralds,
rubies,
sapphires: true
gems of this sort are only interesting when naturally occurring and
containing intriguing flaws; synthetic diamonds, corundum, and beryl
are cheap to produce in any color from the palette and serve as gaudy,
sparkly jewelry for the lower classes. They are too simple to be
Force-sensitive; while some crystals, Force-sensitive or not, may be
named for their resemblance to such simple gemstones, they have a much
more complex internal structure.
Fervse:
also known as Bothan glitterstone, is a form of mica-flecked granite
used in building façades and countertops, visually spectacular in direct
sunlight.
Fire emerald:
not a true emerald; they appear emerald-green in moderate lighting, but
show a brilliant flame color under bright light. Typically
Average for a ½ carat stone,
Good for 1 carat,
Superb for 8 carats.
Firegem:
including
Hrthgingian,
Keral,
Sormahil.
Also called a Flame gem
(found on
Tatooine as well).
They act as crude antennae for hyperwave energy, making them glow in the
longer wavelengths— emitting heat and a warm orange-yellow light under normal
circumstances and glowing brilliantly on a ship in hyperspace. They should
not be brought within three meters of a fully powered hyperdrive, or they
could cause a feedback that would make either the gem or the hyperdrive
explode; taking a few minutes to carefully power up the hyperdrive will allow
the ship’s engineer to detect this sort of thing and avoid catastrophe, but
taking the usual few moments can be disastrous. (The larger the gem, the
more likely that it will be the hyperdrive that blows first; use the value
as a skill to roll against the hyperdrive, and if it wins, the hyperdrive
is toast.)
Even a 2mm (0.03 carat) chip, set well, can quite interesting, and will
tend to be at least Mediocre in cost.
3mm is Average,
4mm is Fair,
5mm is Good,
7mm is Great,
10mm is Superb,
20mm is Fantastic.
Roonstones have a
delicate, color-shifting luster when polished smooth, and carvings on them
show up with brilliant contrast; they are extremely valuable and are often
used to engrave passages from epics and holy books, then displayed under
magnification. A small one (1cm) has Superb (5)
value, a big one (3cm) is Fantastic (6).