Orihalcon

Orihalcon (Japanese: オリハルコン Romaji: oriharukon) is a rare and valuable metal. Aside from its strength and durability, it is highly valued for its magical properties, which include the ability to seal in magic.

It is common belief among humans that orihalcon was created from the bits of skin, nails and blood lost by Flare Dragon Ceifeed when it battled Ruby Eye Shabranigdu during the Shinma War, although given the general inaccuracy of such common legends, the veracity of this claim is questionable. It is never outright stated in the source material whether the metal can be mined from some rare veins, or whether it can be found in nature in other forms, but small amounts of orihalcon had been found among natural rock. The discovery of a small nugget near Bezeld led to many prospectors mining there, but after the initial discovery no more was found.

Orihalcon is far rarer than gold, and is worth twice its weight in platinum.

In The Ruby Eye, a statue made of orihalcon was used to conceal the magic energy put off by the Philosopher's Stone. However, when it fell into the hands of Rezo the Red Priest, the energy buildup was too great for even orihalcon to contain, and the statue shattered.

In Slayers RETURN, Lina Inverse fights an elf-made golem that was constructed using orihalcon. Because of this, it is impervious to most spells. Lina hopes to scavenge orihalcon from the golem after defeating it; however, orihalcon was only one of the materials used to construct it, and it turns to worthless slag upon its destruction.

Trivia

 * The name "Orihalcon" is a corruption of Orichalcum, a legendary precious metal mentioned by Plato as being used in Atlantis. It means "golden stone" in Greek.