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[flieroflight]

Armok is not an entity, but rather an idea.  Armok spans across all worlds, even those with no religion, and exists as an ever-present force of conflict and expansion.  Elf slaughter, dwarven axelords, human adventurers who strangle dragons, babies who punch HFS and win, the rising of necromancer towers and the plummet of goblin dark spires, even the megaprojects themselves and the mechanisms that we seek to create and elaborate.

This is Armok incarnate.  Not a singular entity, but a pervasive attitude that turns otherwise rational situations into something violent or constructive - usually both.  In essence, Armok is a Strange Mood.  All are constantly under a mild mood, it's only when purity of spirit strikes that a true mood arises and a dwarf has no choice but to create an artifact.  This is the true meaning of "Slaves to Armok".  Dwarves, the chosen race, are slaves to Armok's pervasive drive to construct artifacts.

I usually think of Armok as the pure essence of FUCK YOU!

[Oliolli]

Now I'm not sure, but I may have found some candidates for Girlinhat's artifact post.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=86474.msg2342457#msg2342457

What that post caused made it a candidate.

...let me get this straight.

You first blockaded your entire landmass, planting statues along the edging to prevent any wildlife from entering, disrupting the migration habits and breeding of local terrestrial creatures, as well as probably annoying caravans to no end.

Then, you drained the ocean so that you could attempt to catch TWO animals only, with supermassive whales and sharks as a mere byproduct and entire freestanding structures in the middle of the ocean being mere attempts.  And after all this, you're still capable of draining the entire ocean at will.

Now, do it again.  Except add [AMPHIBIOUS] and [TRAP_AVOID] to the serpents!

She was working with what materials she got, and this is quite an early post of her's. As far as I know, it was her 10^th post.

I'm still looking. She'd probably know better though, after all, it was her artifact.

[Girlinhat]

Eh, y'know.  It's in a stockpile somewhere.  Hell, I probably left it in the workshop.  Those "Forum Post Large Cut Gems" are always a pain.

Although I'm rather proud of (effectively) single-handedly causing a 96 page derail, that was not an artifact so much as a kitten.  Which I killed.  And caused a spiral.  Yes, that's a 96 page tantrum spiral.

[Oliolli]

Hell, I probably left it in the workshop.  Those "Forum Post Large Cut Gems" are always a pain.

So now you're telling us you have the perfect response to a year-old post saved in a text file (made with notepad?) somewhere on your computer that was never posted?

Cool.

[Girlinhat]

Glorious response, it'd blow your mind.  But in this version I don't carry it around anymore.  Just make it and drop it.  I mean hell, if this were 40d or whatever I'd be hauling that thing around and smacking goblins with it!

[Oliolli]

Well Blizzlord, you heard it. It was never posted, and as it was written after 40d, Girlinhat doesn't even keep it in her sig. Shame :/

[Blizzlord]

I like the Bay12 habit of derailing threads. We should be talking about theories of theories of macro scale quantum physics and instead we babble about a post that was never posted.

[Gizogin]

So, outside of weaponry, what uses could adamantine have?  I'm thinking space elevator.

[TheLinguist]

So, outside of weaponry, what uses could adamantine have?

Wait, OUTSIDE of weaponry? What, you mean, like... something that has to be weaponized post-creation? This community doesn't seem to have a category for "not a weapon", after all.

There's "definitely a weapon", like swords and magma; there's "double-edged sword", like tame dragons and magma; there's "nuclear option", like wild dragons, the circus, and husks; there's even a category for "could be made into a weapon with great effort", such as soap, kittens, and jeweler's workshops.

But things that are NOT weapons? Never heard of such a thing in DF.

[LordSlowpoke]

But things that are NOT weapons? Never heard of such a thing in DF.

I think the only things that weren't made into weapons yet are vermin and sponges. However, I am currently in the process of creating a device that will drop hostile sponges on enemies at will, while attempting to save said sponges for another launch later. So, if my plan goes well, and someone makes a launcher firing live ants, we'll already have all the new features weaponized.

[Gizogin]

vermin and sponges

Both of these are trivial to weaponize.  Vermin create negative thoughts, which can drive a dwarf to insanity.  Sponges are basically unstoppable killing machines, and can be turned on your enemies with only a little bit of planning.

[Amallar]

Should I be happy or sad that I'm a purveyor of theoretical physics, as opposed to practical physics?


In any case, we can't find significant non-violent uses for adamantine because we have not even decided what kind of substance it is. It's all well and good to theorise that adamantine has permutative effects on gravity, but at the same note, there are other valid possibilities for its properties that could lead any application of adamantine to ruin.

I cannot imagine adamantine would make for a good space elevator; adamantine does not disperse energy well, in that any structure that adamantine is anchored to would receive the full brunt of the energy exerted upon any point of the stalk. Essentially, this amounts to the shattering of anything attached to the adamantine and the falling to earth of an indestructable superpole that impacts with the force of asteroids across a continent (or the world, as depending upon the extraterrestrial anchor chosen).   

Again, though; this makes assumptions as to important material properties of adamantine, such as whether Adam is actually infallibly rigid. In circumspect, this makes adamantine hand-cannons dubious (but not actual cannons); the rigidity would send a fair amount of energy to the hand firing the gun, to the extent of <The arm sails off into an arc! The 'Urist McArtillery' arm penetrates the 'Urist McNapoleon' skull, bruising the brain!>.

[Amallar]

Hmm... That brought to mind the fact that an Adam cannon would, if mounted upon a gravitic brace (so as not to touch anything), completely distribute all of the energy of a reaction forward. Fission beams, anyone?

[Girlinhat]

I'm not exactly sure how an adamantine firearm would handle.  On the one hand, it's got light weight and nice rigidity, you'd think it to be durable, and it would be for traditional fire.  But once you get into large bore and higher calibers, then you hit adamantine's shatter point and you deal with recoil.  Any force imparted on an adamantine object goes directly into anything it's touching.  It has no sway, so a crowbar would not flex at all and instead transfer all the force to the pivot.  Similar,y a space elevator demands that the stalk be able to flex slightly in orbit and accommodate small tidal shifts, while adamantine would simply gouge out whatever it's anchored in and float away, or else crash down, depending.

An adamantine firearm would transfer 100% recoil into whatever is catching the recoil.  In pistols that's your arm, flexing slightly as you fire to adjust for the force.  Adamantine's hilariously low weight and perfect rigidity means that any small arms fire would have ridiculous knockback.  It would prove good for a revolver, as it can field large rounds while being thin and lightweight, but for semi automatic or full auto, you'd have so much recoil as to make consecutive shots impossible, and any hefty rounds would risk damaging the user.  One reason a desert eagle can fire large rounds is that it's a heavy gun and helps to absorb and dissipate the force more fluidly.  An adamantine desert eagle would fly back so hard it'd probably break your wrist.

For a mounted cannon, it'd fair well if it had springs and a heavy casing.  An adamantine barrel wrapped in lead would have the weight to distribute recoil and would have the strength to endure heavy shells without warping.  The largest artillery ever fired would actually fire progressively larger shells, as the barrel would enlarge under the force and warp.  Adamantine would have no such issues.  The issue is that recoil would be a bitch.

For that matter, an adamantine jackhammer may perform exceedingly well, and a large adamantine rod being pneumatically driver would ensure a 100% force delivery to the point of impact.  It would make a great wedge for splitting lumber, or for cracking open bunkers by ramming tanks against a wedge.

[Amallar]

... :/


I'm fairly sure I just said that

Also, from a practical standpoint, we have to discount adamantine's fracture point as listed in game as incomplete in macroscopic perspective; we don't know how adamantine potentially structures itself on the atomic scale, so by all possibility, adamantine's listed fracture point could just be indicative of its least optimal structure.