Magnum Steel

A highly durable metal used on worlds across the Toa Confederacy.

History
Magnum steel was first forged following the initial defeat of the Toa Confederacy by the Brotherhood of Makuta in the Second Insurrection. The elemental energies exhumed by the Makuta were far too destructive for ordinary metals to cope with, and there was not yet an easy way to forge protosteel in large amounts. With little options, the Toa Nuva began experimenting with harnessing their elemental energies onto other elements, and they were met with little success, until a plentiful but mostly useless strain of ordinary steel which formed near the protodermis pools of Onu-Wahi was found to contain enough energised protodermis to react explosively with elemental energy. There was, at first, no easy way to keep the metal stable, but expert blacksmiths eventually found that by holding it in a pool of energised protodermis after infusion, the newly created metallic element would not undergo combustion and would, instead, stabilise and be usable in forging.

From that point forward, Toa armour, which was still mostly protosteel, began having trace amounts of magnum steel; this vastly increased the survivability of Toa teams in the field, and the Nuva's armour was reforged altogether to be made entirely from the almost indestructible metal. The ways in which the metal was forged were discovered by Teridax (Spherus Imperus) and his Brotherhood, and before long they, too, were using magnum steel in weapons and armour. Teridax used magnum steel as the basis for his forgeries of artefact weapons like the Black Hole Scythe.

Due to the unique tool which was the only known type of forging hammer which could successfully bend the material, a characteristic orange marking appears in the centre of forged plates; in most armours, this is removed in the post-forging process, which also involves changing their colour to suit the user. The Brotherhood initially carved their symbol into the shape, but this eventually gave way to more efficient mass production methods.

To this day, magnum steel remains one of the most desirable and sought-after metals within the Toa Confederacy, with pirates, traders and even other Toa going to great lengths to obtain shipments of the metal for their own personal usage. A new law was passed throughout the Confederacy which made it illegal to possess more than a certain amount of the metal without a permit, essentially dragging smugglers into the mix for persons interested in its sale.

Powers and Abilities
Magnum steel was renowned for its fearsome durability, said to be at least three times harder and tougher than even refined protosteel. It was much harder to produce than protosteel, as there needed to be a being or group of beings who possessed enough elemental strength to charge, and then highly trained, highly specialised blacksmiths were the ones who had to then forge it into the necessary tools.

It has been shown that some weapons with a magnum steel core magnify the elemental energy coursing through, allowing for Toa and Makuta to use far more potent abilities than without; however, unlike via physical pressure, constant usage would eventually discharge all the energy held by magnum steel, rendering it effectively useless unless recharged sufficiently.