Sodium
(ta-metal, tan-metal)
Sodium is an exceptionally rare metal, generally agreed to be made from the bones of gods of Sky Water or Firey Water, which are most notably Tanian and his few descendants. As such, godbone sodium has never been recorded. It is generally agreed that it is also possible, like how bronze can be created by combining tin and copper, to create sodium via combining aluminum or quicksilver with gold. The precise process remains unknown to the world at large.
The most salient reason for this, as the philosopher Humphrys da Velan notes in his "de Re Foedi", is that sodium has a natural desire to embrace its true nature as burning water and become a tiny little fireberg before it uses itself up as fuel. The process of combination, the alloying secret, prevents the sodium from embracing this nature- but the slightest contact of Fire or Water will prompt an explosion and and an unquenchable flame. Sodium has thus been discovered hundreds of times in Glorantha, but for ninety-nine of each hundred, the discoverer died before passing on his miraculous discovery.
It is thought that the Middle Sea Empire learned some of the secrets of this metal, and made some use of it in their machines and rituals. It is certainly known that in their ruins it is possible to find amphorae of solid aluminum, which are filled with oil and a little ingot of sodium. The sodium is kept in such luxury by the oil bath it does not burn or explode, but as soon as the oil is taken away, the sodium once again ignites. It has also been attributed to Mostali, and at times thought to be a component of those Mostali artifacts marked with the Disorder Rune. Further information has not been forthcoming from Mostali themselves.
Alois Clarapigny, a zzaburi in the early days of the Rokari school, at great expense assembled a vessel of glass and aluminum which allowed him to observe sodium's appearance safely while it was immersed in oil. He concluded that in appearance it is a pale yellow, with a slight luster reminiscent of silver.
Sodium is without price in a fairly literal sense- most don't know what it is, most who do know have no desire to have any, and so the people willing to buy are so few and far between that no price can be assumed in advance. (The restitution needed after selling some and having it burn down an entire market or villa probably outweights what it could sell for on the open market, anyways.)
(The premise/game of this thread: if tin (Sky) and copper (Earth) can alloy to make bronze (air), what other metals might be creatable via alloying, and why are they so rare/unusual they haven't been observed in published material? This one is mostly a joke, of course. )
