A Nord Smith Talks About Oricalcum

They say that Orcs are the best smiths in Tamriel and, for once, “they” are right. I’m not saying they’re inherently better, but when your home has a habit of getting invaded and burnt to the ground, you get pretty proficient at building better armor to help defend it. Orcish armor offers great protection; the best Orcish smiths can make armor that rivals even Ebony in pierce and impact resistance. Your medium is, of course, Oricalcum, always attributed to the Orcs throughout history. Fun fact: the Bretons first called it that when they saw that the Orcs used it so much in their armor and weapons. Orc-icalcum. In their language, Orcs call it Maulochim, or “Mauloch’s Metal.” The Orcs don’t much care for light armor, so Oricalcum is really their ideal medium.
You have to be patient with Oricalcum; heat it too quickly and it'll get brittle on you. In fact, the longer you heat Oricalcum prior to shaping it, the stronger it’ll be. Legend has it that in the First Era, in response to the encroaching Ra Gada threat, Bortam gro-Ishka created an mythical set of armor, spending five entire days to heat the Oricalcum needed to make it While wearing the armor, he then held off the Redguards by himself for three more days while his home stronghold of Ishka evacuated towards Orsinium. I doubt it’s true, but the principle of forging oricalcum remains the same in the tale. Nobody has the time or patience for that anymore, so most smiths settle for anywhere from thirty minutes to a couple of hours which is sufficient for your purposes. Some really posh smiths maintain special furnaces that can heat their Oricalcum for days on end, but I think that’s a waste of time and septims. Oricalcum is probably the densest material you’re going to work with. As a result, maces and warhammers made of Oricalcum are arguably the best there are, if you can lift them. The big drawback to working with Oricalcum is that it’s ludicrously heavy; you either have to be an Orc, or else be as strong as one if you’re going to even stand up in armor made of pure Oricalcum. Most non-Orc smiths are sparing with Oricalcum, usually melding it with iron or steel to make it more bearable. The result is about on par with high-quality steel, just heavier. Pure Oricalcum gives fantastic protection, but don’t expect to win any races in it.