Foregone Fables Dust Guide - Metal

Unlike Earth, Water, Air and Fire, Metal is something hard to come about naturally, and is much more often seen in artificial constructs and as such associated with human construction and technology. However, most types of Metal are naturally occurring and existed long before mankind learned to harness them. The first and foremost instance of humans using metal unsurprisingly manifests in the form of a magical Dust made to contain and release it.

Metal Dust is less common than Lightning Dust, but not as rare as Crystal Dust. It's usually a liquid. Solid Metal Dust is more common in comparison to solid Glass Dust, but is still quite rare. For understandable reasons, Metal Dust is less used for Huntsmen and similar elite warriors, and is much more frequently used for construction of objects and buildings.

Metal Dust is similar to Glass and Earth Dust in that it creates a large, solid quantity of metal out of itself when agitated. The type of metal created from a simple triggering is usually plain, albeit pure and clear iron. Unlike Earth Dust, Metal Dust is more prone to change its density to fit in the vessel it is poured into, and it can also reinforce existing metal if used in its proximity.

When a human or faunus infuses Metal Dust into their body, it causes their skin to gain a metallic hue and their body to become much harder and stronger, granting them a dramatic increase in strength and durability, along with the ability to form parts of their body, primarily their limbs, into weapons and tools made of metal.

When used in a controlled way, Metal Dust can be used to produce liquid metal, as well as metal from different types than iron, and control the shape and movement of the metal produced. This allows the user to encase people in metal, fire bullets that explode into sharp metal shards, and create any object made of pure metal, such as rods, balls, weapons that can extend and change shape, bullets, metal shards and spikes, fountains of liquid metal, metal shields and walls, metal shovels, pickaxes, a metal drill, metal cables and tendrils, a metal armour, and disks and saucers of metal. High levels of mastery allow users of Metal Dust to create lifelike golems made of metal, that are able to fight and perform other tasks for the user, and sometimes are able to shape-shift their own bodies.

Like most lesser-known types of Dust, Metal Dust is rarely recognized in popular culture; that is despite it being one of the Dust types that are most connected to the lives of civilians, whom rarely understand their metal comes from magic. Such is humanity's ingratitude, as humans take what they have for granted, and almost never acknowledge what it costed them and what they've done to obtain it.