Black Bronze

Black bronze, known in the far-off lands of Greece as Corinthian Bronze, is a copper-silver-gold alloy composed of approximately 80% Copper, 12% Gold, and 8% Silver by mass. In Oceanyka during the Ancient Age, it was the most prized metallic material available to craftsmen, valued for its extraordinary aesthetic qualities: when polished, it displays a complex interplay of golden, reddish, and silver tones, and when treated with traditional patination solutions (a technique preserved in unbroken tradition by a small number of Oceanykan master smiths) it develops a deep, lustrous black or blue-black surface with gold highlights that no other material can reproduce. The technique for achieving this patination is closely guarded and represents one of the few pre-colonial Oceanykan metallurgical traditions that survived the 19th century intact. Additionally, its physical properties are notable, being stronger, less vulnerable to corrosion and more flexible than Bronze. As such, before the advent of steelmaking, it was the finest material from which a noble could have their arms and armour cast.