So this is one of the main things that has been bothering me in Skyrim.

Maybe it's only a problem to me because I have misconceptions about what glass was in Morrowind, so we'll start with that first. I have always gotten the idea that glass was a material specific to Red Mountain and that it was as strong as it was because it was enriched by Lorkhan's heart. This thread is about glass mostly, though I would also like confirmation that Ebony is also enriched by the Heart (supposedly the hardened blood veins of the gods, assumedly Lorkhan again since in Morrowind it was mentioned that almost all of the deposits on the continent are in Red Mountain).

So, if I am right about what glass is, what is malachite? It's not the same glass as we saw on Vvardenfell; glass there is mined out in shards and not ore. Is the glass armor in Skyrim really just 'malachite armor'? Or is it assumed the whole glass stuff has been retconned to more easily fit the new crafting system?

It seems like they decided to pick a real world mineral (It is green though so it matches what the "glass equipment" looks like). They probably did just want everything to have an associated ore, etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachite

Glass ore sounds odd.

It's not that contradictory, it's still "some green mined ore". We can assume the weapons & armor can be called "glass" because they somehow remind of colored glass; but that the ore of which they are made is called malachite. And besides, of what we know, tamrielan malachite could be green glass, or tamrielan glass could be malachite. Real life malachite is really impossible to smelt into durable weapons.

Don't worry, the day the Creation Kit comes out I'm making a "Glass Armour is made from Glass" mod. Malachite is stupid, is what it is.

(And Rainbow Daedroth: it'd be "Raw Glass", since that's what it was in Morrowind. I guess it'd be smelted into Refined Glass, or something).

Glass is a similar material to ebony. It's gods blood.

I agree. Bethesda is simply retconning old lore and putting in new stuff in its place. It's all part of this dumbing-down process the games are having.

A lot of people seem confused and cite that malachite looks like real world glass (and is based on a real world mineral) but you're missing the point of my question. 'Glass' in TES referred to literal glass shards mined out of Red Mountain used to make glass armor in TES3. I'm trying to figure out what malachite's relationship to this volcanic glass is if it has one at all.

@Jara
Sounds great in general but I get the feeling that 'raw glass' is specific to Red Mountain, and so therefor it wouldn't make a lot of sense for it to be in Skyrim. Malachite seems to be a cheap substitute to 'real' glass for light armors; I think "Glass Armor" should be renamed "Malachite Armor" to make the difference more clear. Maybe someone will redo the glass armor models from TES3 for Skyrim and add it as a craftable set instead.

@Cecilff2
Alright, so then is that 'god's blood' glass specific to Morrowind/Vvardenfell? Shouldn't Ebony also be? Or do these minerals have nothing to do with Lorkhan's heart and have more to do with the fact that Mundus is made from the flesh of Aedra in general.

Hopefully, the god's blood glass from Vvardenfell is different from the malachite that's used to make "glass" objects in Skyrim. It's a horrible retcon otherwise.
However, that leaves us with the question "What the hell is malachite?" It's clearly not real-world malachite. So why name it that at all when we *already* had a form of "glass" that had nothing to do with its real-world counterpart?
Bethesda should've just not called it malachite and used a "raw" precursor instead of an ore.
Malachite is stupid, is what it is.

btw, are you that Knots that's behind the knotstheinane modding guides?

Could be mining natural glass became a problem after the Red Year if natural glass deposits weren't spread out as widely as ebony deposits apparently are. Malachite could be an alternative. It's certainly heavier than glass used to be.
Or alternatively, it's just a retcon

That was the impression I got too, although it seems that Glass Armour is actually a High Elven invention:



I know that NPC was from Morrowind, and it definitely seems that Beth is retconning the idea of Glass being Glass (even though we've seen Raw Glass in-game), but it's something to consider.

Besides, I'm sure there's still Glass mines on mainland Morrowind, and if we can get Ebony in Skyrim, it's not a stretch to assume Glass is available too.

Large ebony deposits were also found in Solstheim, and were the economic basis for the Raven Rock colony established by the East Empire company.

Anyway, about glass, I see no reason to think that the glass featured in morrowind was a substance unique to red mountain. A volcanic glass is simply something that is uncrystallized as a result of rapid cooling of magma. That doesn't tell us anything about what Tamrielic minerals it's composed of. It's quite possible that Skyrim's Malachite is the mineral substance that Morrowind's volcanic glasses are composed of, and is simply in a different type of rock due to more extensive cooling or other environmental factors.

It's likely that malachite is the same material as glass in the TES universe. Neither Malachite or Ebony match up to their real-life counter-parts that well, let's remember Ebony in real life is a type of wood, not an ore or a metal as it seems like it is in the TES series. Obsidian would probably have been a better material to use instead of malachite due to the fact Obsidian is actually a type of glass, but it's black and not green like malachite is.

Has it ever been confirmed how far the "blood of Lorkhan" can travel from the heart? If we look at distribution, the isle of Vvardenfell alone has five glass mines and six ebony mines. Looking at the uesp page, the entire province of Skyrim has one glass mine (although there are veins on the Throat of the World and in Labrynthian) and two ebony mines (although there are veins on the Throat of the World and in a few Dwemer ruins). Furthermore, the highest concentration of veins seems to occur in the volcanic tundra around the border to Morrowind, with the richest ebony mine, Gloombound mine, sitting on the Velothi mountains and holding more ebony veins than the rest of Skyrim combined. Apart from the malachite veins in Labrynthian and a single ebony vein in Mzinchaleft (near Dawnstar), there does not appear to be any veins west of the Throat of the World.

I have no idea why it's called malachite though. Perhaps that's just the Nord's word for it.

@the2crow
Hopefully.

Yes, I am the same person. Have my own site now, not running off blogspot anymore. It's nice.

@Jara
That is some damn good insight.

@DarthRavanger
You say you can't think of a reason it'd be unique to Red Mountain. What I want to know is if Lorkhan's Heart had a direct influence over the appearance of glass and ebony or not. That would be the reason it was unique to RM if it is.

It's never implied that the heart of Lorkhan caused glass to form. It has been implied that Ebony is god's blood, and if so, then it's deposits would have been formed when Auriel shot the heart into red mountain.

Ebony comes from an ore in Skyrim as well, though it was found "raw" in Morrowind.
So I'm guessing that Darth Ravanger is correct in saying that these may just be the mineral varieties of the substance that formed the volcanic flows in Vvardenfell.
Why it's called Malachite is beyond me. Maybe Bethesda thought that calling something "Glass ore" didn't sound very good, so they just co-opted yet another real-world substance to come up with a better name.


Excellent examination. I knew about Gloombound and wondered if the Ebony in Skyrim was just an extension of that in Morrowind based on that mine's location, but didn't have anything else to go off.


Awesome! Your guides are great. I always enjoyed talking to you in Morrowind threads on /v/ too, though I don't go there much now.

I agree. All that we really know about Glass is that it's volcanic. Glass was just a name applied to how it looked, the implication was that it was a light volcanic mineral that could be sharpened immensely, but was relatively fragile (like most glass). They needed some kind of real-world name for a mineral and Malachite took. Although Orichalcum has more in common with glass (both being mythical minerals) than Orichalcum with Orcish armor. But I think that's delving into "game mechanics" territory.

As for the question of "what is a volcanic mineral doing in Skyrim, a relatively un-volcanic region, that'd rely on an understanding of Tamrielic Geology which, frankly our understanding of it is stalled at "Is the planet round?"

Perhaps a better question is what is Quicksilver and why is it named as such when it can be formed into armor?

I feel like they really screwed up with the materials in this game.

I think Skyrim may actually be the first mention of orc armor designs using an exotic material.

A possible answer is that the malachite deposits are igneous intrusions into the rock.

No idea what that is. Quicksilver is another name for mercury, which whatever quicksilver is in skyrim obviously isn't.

Quicksilver is an older term for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28element%29.

Right, but a liquid metal doesn't really scream "armor" to me, so like malachite, skyrim's quicksilver probably doesn't have much to do with any real life substances.

I hope Bethesda appreciates what massive headaches they give us over this stuff.

I think it must be deliberate. Especially with 'quicksilver'. It's like they're taunting us.

A book in Skyrim whose title I sadly cannot recall at the moment indicated that Glass armor was originally an Aldmeri invention before a smith's Dunmeri slave escaped with the secret to Morrowind and the rest of the world besides. Given that, it seems we have a few possibilities. Firstly, the Glass armor in Skyrim is a misnomer, and it should be called Malachite armor as its not manufactured from volcanic Raw Glass. Secondly, that Summerset/Alinor does, in fact, have deposits of volcanic material and Malachite is a misnomer. Thirdly, that this is a retcon, and glass has always been made of Malachite, raw glass itself being a misnomer. I cannot recall any mention of Raw Glass being connected to the Heartsblood like Ebony is, though, so I see no reason why deposits of it shouldn't be occasionally found outside the province of Morrowind in other volcanic locations or deep within the earth.