Lore talk:Ebony

Ebony = Jet?

Hasn't Bethesda got ebony confused with jet? The former, in our real world, is a living dark hardwood (used to make the black piano keys, for example) and can only be produced by chopping down ebony trees. The latter is a mineralised fossil wood (a form of very hard coal, in fact), which is, indeed, mined from underground, and can be carved and polished into precious objects. -Amod195.92.67.65 08:42, 25 March 2007 (EDT)

See my response on Oblivion Talk:Ebony Blade. Ebony in the Elder Scrolls universe is more like obsidian, in that it is volcanic glass, not fossilized wood. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 10:28, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

Cleanup

This page has been tagged for cleanup, but it is not specified why. Can anyone tell? Apollo Quinn 18:21, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

I assume that it is due to the articles length. A stub would of been more appropriate. It could of also been the lack of sources. In fact judging by the edit summary provided when Riddle added it that is the reason. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 18:27, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

A lack of references is the main problem. I'm fairly sure there's more information out there, too. rpeh •T•C•E• 19:14, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Glass

Shouldn't we make a page describimg glass/malachite as well? — Unsigned comment by 219.88.64.227 (talk) at 21:28 on 11 December 2011 (GMT)

Probably, although this article is a bit of an oddity currently. However, I'm not sure you could write much about malachite. --Legoless 21:02, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Ebony=Obsidian/Hard Jet, Glass=Malachite

It is just the way Tamriel calls these. Glass armour is made out of malachite stone, and the wonderful Ebony armour is made out of volcanic glass - Obsidian. — Unsigned comment by 124.187.20.91 (talk) at 05:16 on 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Maybe so, but ebony is never referred to as obsidian in the TES universe, while the glass/malachite situation was cleared up in Skyrim. Unless this changes, we shouldn't assume a real world equivalent material. —Legoless 13:32, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

ESO just threw another wrench into the definition of what "Ebony" is. All of the Ebony items in the game are referred to as "Ebony Steel [Item]". So now it's not wood like real life, it's not glass as previously established in the series, it's now metal. What the hell, Bethesda? A little consistency maybe? Maybe somebody will fix this before it goes full release, but I doubt it. — TheRealLurlock (talk) 18:17, 11 March 2014 (GMT)

Maybe it's just a variation of steel with a strengthening additive that makes it look darker, so it is called Ebony Steel as a result? That being said, Ebony being a metal is a fairly common thing in fantasy, so I don't see this as being a HUGE issue. Jeancey (talk) 18:22, 11 March 2014 (GMT)

Not huge, no. Just inconsistent. Ebony Ingots are created from Ebony Ore, and used to make Ebony Steel gear. No actual steel is involved in the process, so that theory might not hold water. Then again, the crafting system in ESO seems to be much simpler than Skyrim in this respect - no item takes more than one type of material to craft, so you don't have a mix of items like Skyrim had. (It does create some confusion such as the fact that Shields are created using wood, but the names of the shields are all metal. In fact all of the metal gear in ESO seems to be steel except for the first one which is iron (which of course is a component of steel in real life, so really, it's all iron.) This is of course all pre-release info, which may prove inaccurate by release day... — TheRealLurlock (talk) 18:47, 11 March 2014 (GMT)

There is also a large number of specialty steel ingots, needed to craft specific high end items, such as multiple types of Oricalc-steel and dwarven-steel. Jeancey (talk) 19:04, 11 March 2014 (GMT)

"Crystallized"?

This has been on the page since its inception, but I can't find a source for it.

Alos, the cite for ebony being the blood of Lorkhan specifically does not support the assertion. Insignificant Revisions^{Threats•Evidence} 15:14, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

All I can find at the moment is:

• Raw ebony itself is an extremely hard, durable, black glass-like substance, said to be the crystallized blood of the gods.
• Various naturally occurring minerals and crystals, like glass and ebony, glow in the dark by their own light -- without being magical.
• Magicka fused the Lorkhan blood. To crystal red and strong

"Blood of gods" or "a god" is the Bethesda stance, "Lorkhan" is OOG unless there is some MW dialogue i'm missing.

--Jimeee (talk) 17:54, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

Never mind, here it is. The spelling was just different. Anyway, the Lorkhan thing seems unsupported? I think it's simply an assumption based on Lorkhan's history with Morrowind. Insignificant Revisions^{Threats•Evidence} 19:11, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

What other god's blood would one expect to find in the Heart-Wound? Seems like a safe bet to me, especially if you choose to liberally interpret that ESO ballad. —Legoless (talk) 19:29, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

Just saying, it doesn't seem to be stated anywhere. There's no cite to support it; we'd have to have an explanatory note instead. I don't want to overstate what we know precisely because there are a lot of inferences fans could make and I don't want the page to be misleading. Insignificant Revisions^{Threats•Evidence} 19:49, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

(←) ESO dialogue: "Yes, ebony. It's a rock found around volcanoes in the Dunmer lands. Its raw ore looks like black glass, but it's incredibly durable. We use it to make armor. The Dunmer believe ebony is the crystallized blood of the gods. Whose gods, they don't say." Seems to be reinforcing the above description from MW, so I would support genercising the statement to gods' blood rather than Lorkhan's specifically. -- Hargrimm^(T) 20:12, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

Hmm, that does seem purposefully vague. Might be best to remove Lorkhan from the opening paragraph, although given the sheer amount of it within Red Mountain as well as the current citation on the page, explaining its connection to Lorkhan further down the page would be prudent. Do you know who says that line of dialogue, Hargrimm? —Legoless (talk) 20:20, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

ESO make it lore: Lore:Divayth Fyr Answers Your Questions (the fourth question) --Lady freyja (talk) 20:37, 31 March 2015 (GMT)

Thanks, Freyja. Judging by the time-stamps, I'm guessing that's what actually motivated Lego to make the Lorkhan addition.

Kind of off-topic now, but "Mr. Flippers" treated it as a given that we know ebony is Lorkhan's blood, solidified, but as far as I know, this was not the case. It was just a longstanding fan assumption. Was that actually the state of things here, or is there an earlier corroborating source I'm missing? Insignificant Revisions^{Threats•Evidence} 00:24, 1 April 2015 (GMT)

It was actually the Hrorvild Blackrock ref that (for the first time I believe) stated it was the blood of "a god" rather than "gods". I'm 99% certain there was not an earlier corroborating (official) source about it being specifically Lorkhan's blood. The old assumption (backed by MK) was put to Zenimax, and they confirmed it in that answer. Side note: the Hrorvild Blackrock ref should probably stay on the page or be worked in.--Jimeee (talk) 00:56, 1 April 2015 (GMT)

Ebonysmiths in Arena

I don't know why this was reinserted. The linked page does not say anything of the sort, and Daedric armor (or Daedra) didn't even exist in Arena. --Ethruvisil (talk) 03:39, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

I moved the sentence so it isn't placed after the Daedric smithing part. I think it's fine now, since the point is to bring up Arena's mention of the term "ebonysmith". —Dillonn241 (talk) 04:22, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Ebony Blade section repeated

Looks like the section meant for ebony mail is a repeat of the ebony blade text EliJuggernaut (talk) 00:39, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

Looks like it's been fixed. Thanks for pointing it out! — Wolfborn^(Howl) 05:03, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be a note about Fools' Ebony?

This has been marked as a question that needs to be answered.

Fools' Ebony, as described in the book[1] of the same name, is obviously an in universe nickname for coal. Apparently some people may mistake coal as ebony, but many others such as mages can recognize it and value it for its uses as fuel.

I think that this page should make mention of this misconception. And that the lore page for coal should also mention this along with using Fools Ebony (the book) as a source for information about its uses in Tamriel. --107.161.231.106 14:01, 19 May 2024 (UTC)