Gemstones

[redrick]

In my D&D game, and I assume most D&D games, players are always coming upon "a gem worth 500 gp" or something similar. Most DMGs include some tables on this, so, for instance, I can open up my 5e DMG and pick "aquamarine" from a table. It even tells me what color it is.

Most of the time, that's fine, but while doing a little research for a slavic-inspired campaign I've been kicking around, I came to appreciate just how important amber was in the history of eastern and central Europe. For an eastern european campaign setting, amber becomes an adventure seed unto itself. This got me to wondering about other gems. Where do they come from? What was their historical significance? What made the particularly precious gems so precious? Were they only found in one very specific region, or did they have other properties that made them more prized than another comparably rare gem?

Has anybody ever put together a supplement or a website that just does a good overview of all the gemstones used in fantasy games, with the mind towards interesting background and plot hooks for RPG gamers?

(And yes, I know, I could spend a day or two plugging every gemstone listed in my DMG into Wikipedia, but maybe somebody else has already done that work for me.)

 

[Celebrim]

Most of the time, that's fine, but while doing a little research for a slavic-inspired campaign I've been kicking around, I came to appreciate just how important amber was in the history of eastern and central Europe. For an eastern european campaign setting, amber becomes an adventure seed unto itself. This got me to wondering about other gems. Where do they come from? What was their historical significance? What made the particularly precious gems so precious? Were they only found in one very specific region, or did they have other properties that made them more prized than another comparably rare gem?

Wow, that's a bundle of information there.

In general, Europe is not exactly awash in sources for gemstones. I don't think there is a single gemstone that Europe is a commercially important source for. So you have that sort of scarcity itself.

Most European gems probably only had single or few sources within Europe itself. For example, Habachtal, Austria was and remains the only viable Emerald mine in Europe. Garnets came from what is the modern Czech republic. Topaz came from Egypt and later Schneckenstein, Germany. Most gems - gem quality sapphires or diamonds, for example - would have had sources outside of Europe - probably Russia or India via the Silk Road.

I do know that for most of European history the pearl was considered the most valuable of gems. In general, the value of a gemstone was largely ornamental, as a display of power and wealth. How valuable a gemstone was depended on how brilliant its color was and how sophisticated the cultures techniques were for working it. For example, in ancient Egypt the Lapis Lazuli was considered the most valuable of gems, less for its scarcity than because it was brilliant blue and could be worked and polished with existing techniques in a way that harder stones couldn't have been (most hard stones like rubies or diamonds would have at the time had to be left in a rough cut that left them without luster). Many stones were considered to have magical properties - Gygax does a good job of listing these in the 1e DMG - but in the middle ages the main source of 'legitimate' magic was relics and more pagan traditions would likely have been secondary in most cases.

Has anybody ever put together a supplement or a website that just does a good overview of all the gemstones used in fantasy games, with the mind towards interesting background and plot hooks for RPG gamers?

I doubt it. Sounds interesting though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I kno of no game resource that has a general overview for anything beyond a single RPG setting, but if you do a search for "mystic powers of gemstones", you will find a veritable avalanche of sites describing the powers ascribed to precious and semiprecious gemstones in various cultures.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Ed Greenwood has created dozens of gems for the Forgotten Realms--and written a few articles in Dragon magazine, the campaign guides, and probably elsewhere, too.

So if you're looking to create your own gems, you might research that.

Also, what DannyAlcatraz wrote. That is probably more relevant to your question.

 

[redrick]

Wow, that's a bundle of information there.

In general, Europe is not exactly awash in sources for gemstones. I don't think there is a single gemstone that Europe is a commercially important source for. So you have that sort of scarcity itself.

Most European gems probably only had single or few sources within Europe itself. For example, Habachtal, Austria was and remains the only viable Emerald mine in Europe. Garnets came from what is the modern Czech republic. Topaz came from Egypt and later Schneckenstein, Germany. Most gems - gem quality sapphires or diamonds, for example - would have had sources outside of Europe - probably Russia or India via the Silk Road.

I do know that for most of European history the pearl was considered the most valuable of gems. In general, the value of a gemstone was largely ornamental, as a display of power and wealth. How valuable a gemstone was depended on how brilliant its color was and how sophisticated the cultures techniques were for working it. For example, in ancient Egypt the Lapis Lazuli was considered the most valuable of gems, less for its scarcity than because it was brilliant blue and could be worked and polished with existing techniques in a way that harder stones couldn't have been (most hard stones like rubies or diamonds would have at the time had to be left in a rough cut that left them without luster). Many stones were considered to have magical properties - Gygax does a good job of listing these in the 1e DMG - but in the middle ages the main source of 'legitimate' magic was relics and more pagan traditions would likely have been secondary in most cases.

Cool, yeah, that sort of stuff is a great start. I'm also interested in settings going beyond Europe. Personally, when putting together a setting, I'm always drawn to the economy of the different regions, and systems like the Silk Road, the Amber Road, etc, are just fascinating examples of ancient economies that tied incredibly disparate regions together. I mean, the idea of goods getting from India to Greece in the -1st millennium... (This coming from one who took one history class in college and ultimately doesn't know much of anything about history, economics, etc.)

I kno of no game resource that has a general overview for anything beyond a single RPG setting, but if you do a search for "mystic powers of gemstones", you will find a veritable avalanche of sites describing the powers ascribed to precious and semiprecious gemstones in various cultures.

Haha, yes, that was what I found with my initial google search... I guess I shouldn't scoff at that stuff as source material. Maybe there's something there to spark me.

Ed Greenwood has created dozens of gems for the Forgotten Realms--and written a few articles in Dragon magazine, the campaign guides, and probably elsewhere, too.

So if you're looking to create your own gems, you might research that.

Also, what DannyAlcatraz wrote. That is probably more relevant to your question.

Man, there's enough exotic-seeming gems that actually did exist without creating new ones, but, on the other hand, those articles still sound like a great resource when it comes to thinking about medieval and ancient economies, so, I'll check them out.

Thanks, folks. Always appreciate your thoughts.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Are there any kinds of gemstones in particular that you'd like to use in your game?

 

[Celebrim]

Azurite: Deep blue, usually subgem grade mineral, often banded due to inclusion of other minerals. Most commonly powdered and used to make paint. Widespread in Europe but most significant deposits near Lyons, France.
Agate: Banded or mottled semi-precious stone. Part of the quartz family of stones. Very widespread, and not particularly rare. Virtually any color. Each location tends to produce different ranges of colors and patterns. Quality depends on size, how pleasing the pattern is, and how well the stone takes polish.
Lapus Lazuli: Deep blue stone. Imported to Europe from Afghanistan.
Turquoise: Fragile light blue stone. Quality depends on hardness, size, and lack of inclusions. Imported to Europe from what is now modern Iran.
Carnelian: The bright red form of agate. Quality depends on the purity of the color. Imported from India but also found in Germany.
Chalcedony: The pure white form of agate. Quality depends on the purity of the color. Imported from what is modern Turkey.
Sard: Dark red agate. Imported from Turkey.
Sardonyx: Banded agate of white and some shade of red or brown. Imported from India.
Onyx: Banded agate of white and black. Imported from India and Tunesia.
Smoky Quartz: Part of the large family of colored crystalline quartz. Fairly widely distributed. Scotland was a major source in the middle ages. It is also found in Switzerland.
Zircon: Pale translucent stone similar in appearance to diamond. Quality depends on size and color. Widespread but rare as a crystalline inclusion in many rocks.
Jasper: Like agate, a large family of opaque semi-precious stones that can be almost any color and are often patterned. In fact, can be patterned together with agate.
Amesthyst: The purple form of crystalline quartz. During the middle ages, was extremely rare and prized as a stone of the first rank alongside diamonds, rubies, and the like. Stones would have been imported from as far away as Korea. Believed by the ancient greeks to prevent intoxication, foolishness, and cure hangovers. Very common in Brazil, and mining there has rendered the stone semi-precious.
Aquamarine: The blue form of beryl. Imported from east Africa and Madasgascar.