The Secret of Bronze

A group of dwarven bronzists in the process of doing bronze swords, axes and other tools, during the Bronze Age in Aiers.

The Bronze Age is a time period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization.
The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system as proposed in modern times by John Dobesh, for classifying and studying ancient societies. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, but in some parts of the world, the Copper Age served as a transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic from outside the region, with the exception of sub-zeberran Zarhuy where it was developed independently.

Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing. According to archaeological evidence, cultures in Ushaenor (Hake dark elves), and Aels (Drow dark elf and Dwarven) developed the earliest viable writing systems.

The theories and archeological findings point out that the ones to first discover the use of Bronze where the Dwarves, thought it isn't known an exact date -as so far the only archeological findings are of dwarven bronze tools in elven archeological sites, result of dwarven-elven trade-, some think dwarves may have learnt of the use of Bronze between the 14.500-13.500 b.a.H (Before the Apparition of Humanity), but that for long they keeped in secrecy their findings to themselves, and only later would trade bronze tools with other peoples.

For long they keeped the secrecy, and the monopoly on bronze, and to ensure this many of the early dwarven settlements will rise around known mines of tin, needed for bronze alloys.

The monopoly of first the bronze technology gave dwarves a technological upperhand, which helped them to survive the until then unstopable expansion of elves, who used stone weapons and copper axes -the previous neolithic expansion of elves pushed many non-elves peoples around in Aels, Hieyoks and Ushaenor-. After some unknown amount of time, where the dwarves keept this technology only to themselves, they began to trade it to not dwarves -some suppose, only when the elves had learnt themselves the secret to produce bronze.-

While the copper was common, with the dwarves still monopolizing the tin mines, this created a wide trade network, that the first nations and empires tried to control, as with bronze they controlled the world.

Some authors suggest that was precisely in Aels that the drows adquired their own tin supplies and mines, that put at odds the diverse dwarven tribes and the Empire of Drow, reason why would the dwarves fight against the dark elven Empire.

As well, the manufacturation of bronze, and monopoly of Tin, began to make the dwarven tribes more and more of a target to rivals who seeked for these resources, secrets and mines, and despise their importance in the trade network of tin and bronze, the dwarven tribes began to be largely targeted by elves, proto-orcs and beastmen, which forced the dwarves to fortify their settlements in more easily defensive areas.

-In some theories, it's because of this external reason, that while the first bronzists, the dwarves took so long to develop a civilization (only at the 5.300 b.a.H)-

Bronze had not only several uses for weapons and tools, but having a large proportion of copper, it was a maná-conductive metal, which the elves -and Draak harg- could use for magical weapons and purposes. This meant that, while the dwarves had been the masters of Bronze, producing some of it's more fine products, it was the maná-bearing creatures that used it with better results.

It is said that this may have been the cause, why dwarves began to seek for alternatives to bronze, because while it once gave them technological supperiority, lacking maná, they couldn't use it like elves could, who surpassed them in the use of bronze because of this reason. This would finally lead to the discovery of the use of Iron, and therefore beginning the Iron Age, at 3.100 b.a.H.

Iron, unlike Bronze, was a metal that wasn't maná-conductive material, and not only that, but was cheaper and easier to produce. While elves at first didn't gave much attention to iron -precisely for his non-magical properties-, the dwarves once more time gained the technological upperhand:

as it will be with iron weapons, that the dwarves will for the first time attempt at the creation of Empires -as the Empire of the Mines of Nortunk-, which would be such a menace to the elven empires, that will force the elves to grudgingly adopt themselves the iron technology:

Because while it was easier for dwarves to control the tin, iron was easy to access, and once they began to trade it, soon the secret was out, and truly finished the Bronze Age.