Orichalcum

Orichalcum, known scientifically as electronium and among Oceanyka's electrical engineers as voidgold, is a deep purple supermetal produced from refined electrite ore. Its defining property is electrochemical: orichalcum is an exceptional conductor under normal conditions, and achieves full superconduction at a threshold of approximately -50°C, a temperature that, while cold, is achievable with industrial refrigeration rather than requiring cryogenic extremes. More significantly, its electrochemical potential exceeds that of lithium by a margin that algeochemical theory cannot currently explain, making it a natural candidate for energy storage applications of unprecedented density.

An orichalcum battery of conventional dimensions stores multiples of the charge that any lithium cell of equivalent size can hold, with no observed degradation in capacity under repeated cycling in laboratory conditions. The implications for electronics, vehicles, and military equipment are considerable enough that orichalcum is, of all the Oceanykan supermetals, the one most actively sought by foreign intelligence services. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has made the furthest inroads, and is known to operate experimental computing architectures using orichalcum components, a fact that has made Oceanykan export controls around electrite and orichalcum among the most aggressively enforced of any strategic resource.

Germany's electronics industry is more sophisticated in most respects, but without access to the ore, its engineers can only theorise about what orichalcum-based computing or power systems might achieve. Both blocs maintain active programmes attempting to synthesise the material from known elements, though none have succeeded.