Advice for my 'magic' system wanted! Or you can just read about my prototype "Zap Metal" that's cool too

[AltonicKeys he/him]

I hit a wall in my funky little electromagic system and would love some help! This is kinda the natural evolution of an older thing I did, but more interesting and less "Cosmere influenced." It is very electrical, and can get physically technical. The problem is that I did not pay attention at all during high school physics, and not enough during chemistry.
My goal is to have a magic system that's as grounded in reality as possible. It's much more sci-fi than fantasy tho.

The basics: 
A metal found underground, tentatively called zap metal for now, can absorb different forms of low-powered energy (like low heat, or sound and light to an extent), and then discharge that in the form of electricity when met with high-power energy (like striking it (kinetic energy) or really high heat). A discharge would essentially be strong electrical arcing, which follows the same rules as normal electricity, but the lightning direction can be somewhat controlled.
Slightly more complicated shenanigans: (It's a lot so you can just skim through it)

Spoiler

Larger pieces of zap metal can hold slightly more charge, and the power ceiling is higher so it can absorb faster energy rates, but the required power threshold for discharging gets exponentially higher. This means that a massive hunk of zap metal can have tons of stored energy, and you can keep dumping more into it, but you would need a nuclear bomb to discharge it and release it.
Also there IS a minimum charging rate, so zap metal isn't sucking up every ounce of energy it gets 24/7. So "room-temperature" heat isn't being absorbed. (Consult the chart down there that I made just now).

The strength of the discharge is proportional to the impact it's given. Scraping it against the concrete will give a few sparks, a golf ball of zap metal will knock you out.

Different types of energy have different power absorption ceilings and discharge thresholds, but once it's all converted to electricity, there's only one energy limit.

If you try charging more than what it can hold, or charge faster than the rate ceiling, BUT the rate of charging is UNDER the discharging threshold, then that overflow energy will just leak out into the environment. Sound and light will bounce back and behave normally. Heat will just start making the metal hotter, but if there's still room for more power, it will slowly start absorbing that leftover heat around it and cool down. (Consult the diagram I also just made because that can be kinda hard to digest)

Spoiler

Chart of rate ceilings, discharge thresholds, and energy caps.
Don't mind the flip flop of terms sometimes. Keep in mind that power means the rate and current (eg. kilowatt hours, and ampere), while energy usually refers to the total 'stored' electricity (eg. calories).

Diagram of what happens when you charge stuff. Chart axi, though unlabeled, are the same.

I know these are somewhat incomprehensible but you opened the 'more complicated shenanigans' box. That's on you. The fact that I can't make graphs is irrelevant.

Zap metal does also have some pretty funky interactions with electricity as an input, and electricity as an output. I won't go into too much detail, but the gist is that electricity as an input has a disproportionately higher rate ceiling than other kinds of energy. You can dump a ton of wattage into zap metal and it wouldn't blow up. The discharged electricity is also more "pure," and less energy is lost through light, sound or heat (until it hits something ofc). This also means that energy converted from heat light and sound is "impure," and the discharged arc will give out a lot of heat light and sound (kinda like lightning I guess?), and the actual electrical output is lost through that. I'd rather keep this funny interaction, can lead to some hijinks I think.

Also. Two different zap metals touching will VERY slowly share their stored energy. Typically, a full metal will try to give power to an empty metal, based on raw voltage and not percent fullness. If that's comprehensible at all. But it's not like they'll try to share until they're both equal. They'll share either until giver's empty, receiver's full, or they're "close enough." But that's enough about silly made up physics. The speed of transfer is usually very slow, but it can be affected through factors like contact area, shape, air pressure, temperature, and of course magnets. The temperature of the metals will be slightly hard to manipulate though.

The setting is somewhere around mid 1800s, early 1900s America. So around the time that electricity was being commercialized. Invention of the lightbulb and all that. Takes place probably in New York, Chicago or Boston (or at least some fictional equivalent). New Chicoston would be the continental hub of electromagic or whatever. The world hub of innovation but also crime and danger, because give a bunch of people access to bombs and they will use them. It's the best place in the world to invent stuff, full of powerful people? Great, they can invent bigger bombs and extort bigger guys.

Other materials exist around the world that discharge heat, sound, light, etc, but in the forms of crystals, flowers, oil, yada yada. But they aren't really relevant to the main story, they'll barely be acknowledged. For now at least. It's just the next logical step in the system, but frankly I don't need them at all and I wouldn't miss them.

If it's helpful to know, at this time no one is an expert, they're p much learning this stuff along with us. Story prob won't be all that serious, and it's not like zap metal and its origins is going to be investigated like crazy, but I just don't want any glaring holes in the system. It will spend a lot of time on screen though.
And about the conflict, I want less political drama and more "these guys are just plain evil".

The problems:
Feel free to suggest solutions to any of these however you please, there are no bad answers. At the very least this will be a helpful brainstorm session.

Spoiler

0a. I want this to be as chemically and physically accurate as possible. I don't want to chalk everything up to "secret third force called aether or investiture or mana or something", I want it to make as much sense as possible in the context of real life.
The sub-atomic mechanics of zap metal doesn't have to be too in-depth, the POV character(s) won't be investigating too hard into it. But when shenanigans happen, I want the audience to think "oh yeah I can see that happening, that makes sense given the context."
0b. I want this to blend in well with the setting. Again, it shouldn't feel "magic," it should feel like something Nikola Tesla would find and experiment on, to rival Thomas Edison. It should also be something that Tesla can use to build a weapon to zap Edison. so uh yeah we gotta weaponize zap metal.

1a. Would this zap metal be found unrefined and impure in the dirt and stone, like iron deposits, to be ground into a powder and melted down? (Might not work too well with the energy thing, RIP all blacksmiths ever.)
1b. Or would it form naturally, pure(ish), embedded in the stone, like you would find pyrite or bismuth? (Could have stored energy up from the centuries of seismic activities)
1c. OR would it only be man-made through some chemical process like irl synthetic elements, and not found in nature? (That could mean its probably radioactive and I kinda like this option, something Marie Curie woulda died for)

2. Should this be an ancient thing that people have been using for ages, and just now realized its potential use in machinery and weaponry? Is it something that would just be recently discovered that happens to be really useful? (This would work well with 1c.)

3. How well does it work with that idea of energy conversion? Does that make thematic sense? Are there any other types of stimuli that zap metal should respond to? Heat works (zap metal is always cold), sound and light can work (dampens noise that hits it, it's dark colored), but other forms of power don't really work. Same goes for the discharge trigger. Hitting it (kinetic) makes sense, extreme heat and sound can be iffy, but can be cool for a gimmick. Bright light and other radio waves are just kinda dumb and don't make sense. 

4. How can people control the arcing? Like, if you had a sword forged out of zap metal, great, you can hit someone and they'd be tased. But this isn't medieval England, we need something actually ranged? If you pointed a rod of zap metal and struck the end, wouldn't it just go straight to the ground? Worst case, current would go back down the rod, into your hand, through your body and out your feet? Like sure this can be mitigated with chain mail or something but that would not fit with the setting. (Chainmail under clothes will be a thing but it makes you look like an idiot.) I REALLY don't want it to be controlled with your mind and willpower. Again, needs to be ground in reality.

5. This ties back to 3 and 4, and is kinda a big one. Mechanics wise, it's just kinda a battery with energy shenanigans, and the capability of being a bomb. To make it more interesting, what can I add to the zap metal, or what can I add to the setting? Maybe something magnet related, since those are fundamentally tied together. This needs to be something worth fighting over at least.
If you are trying to solve this, ignore problem 6. You don't need to be tied down with that. If needed I can just get rid of them, they don't add much anyways.

6. Much less relevant issue. How can this system mesh with the other "elemental batteries?" Heat and light batteries make sense. A sound battery would be kinda dumb. Can there be more? Traditional elemental magic is kinda weird. Fire is just heat. Air can be a physical pushing force. "Cold" is just heat in reverse, but that doesn't really work. And I don't want to just "create" water or earth out of thin air, from destroying energy and conjuring matter. If y'all got any ideas, they'd be welcome, but I'd be satisfied leaving it at electricity, heat, light and sound too. Or if getting rid of everything makes more sense that works too.

I like the charging mechanic, that's fairly fleshed out. I am having a lot of fun with the setting. But don't let these two things be hard requirements. The only thing I don't want is medieval fantasy magic.

Any advice or feedback is welcome. Or just any questions, comments or concerns would also be cool. Really any interaction at all would be great. hm.

 

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

2 hours ago, AltonicKeys said:

4. How can people control the arcing? Like, if you had a sword forged out of zap metal, great, you can hit someone and they'd be tased. But this isn't medieval England, we need something actually ranged? If you pointed a rod of zap metal and struck the end, wouldn't it just go straight to the ground? Worst case, current would go back down the rod, into your hand, through your body and out your feet? Like sure this can be mitigated with chain mail or something but that would not fit with the setting. (Chainmail under clothes will be a thing but it makes you look like an idiot.) I REALLY don't want it to be controlled with your mind and willpower. Again, needs to be ground in reality.

5. This ties back to 3 and 4, and is kinda a big one. Mechanics wise, it's just kinda a battery with energy shenanigans, and the capability of being a bomb. To make it more interesting, what can I add to the zap metal, or what can I add to the setting? Maybe something magnet related, since those are fundamentally tied together. This needs to be something worth fighting over at least.
If you are trying to solve this, ignore problem 6. You don't need to be tied down with that. If needed I can just get rid of them, they don't add much anyways.

What if magnetic fields controlled the arc?

Edited September 30, 2025 by ThatOneWorldhopper

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

8 hours ago, AltonicKeys said:

I hit a wall in my funky little electromagic system and would love some help! This is kinda the natural evolution of an older thing I did, but more interesting and less "Cosmere influenced." It is very electrical, and can get physically technical. The problem is that I did not pay attention at all during high school physics, and not enough during chemistry.
My goal is to have a magic system that's as grounded in reality as possible. It's much more sci-fi than fantasy tho.

The basics: 
A metal found underground, tentatively called zap metal for now, can absorb different forms of low-powered energy (like low heat, or sound and light to an extent), and then discharge that in the form of electricity when met with high-power energy (like striking it (kinetic energy) or really high heat). A discharge would essentially be strong electrical arcing, which follows the same rules as normal electricity, but the lightning direction can be somewhat controlled.
Slightly more complicated shenanigans: (It's a lot so you can just skim through it)

  Reveal hidden contents

Larger pieces of zap metal can hold slightly more charge, and the power ceiling is higher so it can absorb faster energy rates, but the required power threshold for discharging gets exponentially higher. This means that a massive hunk of zap metal can have tons of stored energy, and you can keep dumping more into it, but you would need a nuclear bomb to discharge it and release it.
Also there IS a minimum charging rate, so zap metal isn't sucking up every ounce of energy it gets 24/7. So "room-temperature" heat isn't being absorbed. (Consult the chart down there that I made just now).

The strength of the discharge is proportional to the impact it's given. Scraping it against the concrete will give a few sparks, a golf ball of zap metal will knock you out.

Different types of energy have different power absorption ceilings and discharge thresholds, but once it's all converted to electricity, there's only one energy limit.

If you try charging more than what it can hold, or charge faster than the rate ceiling, BUT the rate of charging is UNDER the discharging threshold, then that overflow energy will just leak out into the environment. Sound and light will bounce back and behave normally. Heat will just start making the metal hotter, but if there's still room for more power, it will slowly start absorbing that leftover heat around it and cool down. (Consult the diagram I also just made because that can be kinda hard to digest)

  Reveal hidden contents

Chart of rate ceilings, discharge thresholds, and energy caps.
Don't mind the flip flop of terms sometimes. Keep in mind that power means the rate and current (eg. kilowatt hours, and ampere), while energy usually refers to the total 'stored' electricity (eg. calories).

Diagram of what happens when you charge stuff. Chart axi, though unlabeled, are the same.

I know these are somewhat incomprehensible but you opened the 'more complicated shenanigans' box. That's on you. The fact that I can't make graphs is irrelevant.

Zap metal does also have some pretty funky interactions with electricity as an input, and electricity as an output. I won't go into too much detail, but the gist is that electricity as an input has a disproportionately higher rate ceiling than other kinds of energy. You can dump a ton of wattage into zap metal and it wouldn't blow up. The discharged electricity is also more "pure," and less energy is lost through light, sound or heat (until it hits something ofc). This also means that energy converted from heat light and sound is "impure," and the discharged arc will give out a lot of heat light and sound (kinda like lightning I guess?), and the actual electrical output is lost through that. I'd rather keep this funny interaction, can lead to some hijinks I think.

Also. Two different zap metals touching will VERY slowly share their stored energy. Typically, a full metal will try to give power to an empty metal, based on raw voltage and not percent fullness. If that's comprehensible at all. But it's not like they'll try to share until they're both equal. They'll share either until giver's empty, receiver's full, or they're "close enough." But that's enough about silly made up physics. The speed of transfer is usually very slow, but it can be affected through factors like contact area, shape, air pressure, temperature, and of course magnets. The temperature of the metals will be slightly hard to manipulate though.

The setting is somewhere around mid 1800s, early 1900s America. So around the time that electricity was being commercialized. Invention of the lightbulb and all that. Takes place probably in New York, Chicago or Boston (or at least some fictional equivalent). New Chicoston would be the continental hub of electromagic or whatever. The world hub of innovation but also crime and danger, because give a bunch of people access to bombs and they will use them. It's the best place in the world to invent stuff, full of powerful people? Great, they can invent bigger bombs and extort bigger guys.

Other materials exist around the world that discharge heat, sound, light, etc, but in the forms of crystals, flowers, oil, yada yada. But they aren't really relevant to the main story, they'll barely be acknowledged. For now at least. It's just the next logical step in the system, but frankly I don't need them at all and I wouldn't miss them.

If it's helpful to know, at this time no one is an expert, they're p much learning this stuff along with us. Story prob won't be all that serious, and it's not like zap metal and its origins is going to be investigated like crazy, but I just don't want any glaring holes in the system. It will spend a lot of time on screen though.
And about the conflict, I want less political drama and more "these guys are just plain evil".

The problems:
Feel free to suggest solutions to any of these however you please, there are no bad answers. At the very least this will be a helpful brainstorm session.

  Reveal hidden contents

0a. I want this to be as chemically and physically accurate as possible. I don't want to chalk everything up to "secret third force called aether or investiture or mana or something", I want it to make as much sense as possible in the context of real life.
The sub-atomic mechanics of zap metal doesn't have to be too in-depth, the POV character(s) won't be investigating too hard into it. But when shenanigans happen, I want the audience to think "oh yeah I can see that happening, that makes sense given the context."
0b. I want this to blend in well with the setting. Again, it shouldn't feel "magic," it should feel like something Nikola Tesla would find and experiment on, to rival Thomas Edison. It should also be something that Tesla can use to build a weapon to zap Edison. so uh yeah we gotta weaponize zap metal.

1a. Would this zap metal be found unrefined and impure in the dirt and stone, like iron deposits, to be ground into a powder and melted down? (Might not work too well with the energy thing, RIP all blacksmiths ever.)
1b. Or would it form naturally, pure(ish), embedded in the stone, like you would find pyrite or bismuth? (Could have stored energy up from the centuries of seismic activities)
1c. OR would it only be man-made through some chemical process like irl synthetic elements, and not found in nature? (That could mean its probably radioactive and I kinda like this option, something Marie Curie woulda died for)

2. Should this be an ancient thing that people have been using for ages, and just now realized its potential use in machinery and weaponry? Is it something that would just be recently discovered that happens to be really useful? (This would work well with 1c.)

3. How well does it work with that idea of energy conversion? Does that make thematic sense? Are there any other types of stimuli that zap metal should respond to? Heat works (zap metal is always cold), sound and light can work (dampens noise that hits it, it's dark colored), but other forms of power don't really work. Same goes for the discharge trigger. Hitting it (kinetic) makes sense, extreme heat and sound can be iffy, but can be cool for a gimmick. Bright light and other radio waves are just kinda dumb and don't make sense. 

4. How can people control the arcing? Like, if you had a sword forged out of zap metal, great, you can hit someone and they'd be tased. But this isn't medieval England, we need something actually ranged? If you pointed a rod of zap metal and struck the end, wouldn't it just go straight to the ground? Worst case, current would go back down the rod, into your hand, through your body and out your feet? Like sure this can be mitigated with chain mail or something but that would not fit with the setting. (Chainmail under clothes will be a thing but it makes you look like an idiot.) I REALLY don't want it to be controlled with your mind and willpower. Again, needs to be ground in reality.

5. This ties back to 3 and 4, and is kinda a big one. Mechanics wise, it's just kinda a battery with energy shenanigans, and the capability of being a bomb. To make it more interesting, what can I add to the zap metal, or what can I add to the setting? Maybe something magnet related, since those are fundamentally tied together. This needs to be something worth fighting over at least.
If you are trying to solve this, ignore problem 6. You don't need to be tied down with that. If needed I can just get rid of them, they don't add much anyways.

6. Much less relevant issue. How can this system mesh with the other "elemental batteries?" Heat and light batteries make sense. A sound battery would be kinda dumb. Can there be more? Traditional elemental magic is kinda weird. Fire is just heat. Air can be a physical pushing force. "Cold" is just heat in reverse, but that doesn't really work. And I don't want to just "create" water or earth out of thin air, from destroying energy and conjuring matter. If y'all got any ideas, they'd be welcome, but I'd be satisfied leaving it at electricity, heat, light and sound too. Or if getting rid of everything makes more sense that works too.

I like the charging mechanic, that's fairly fleshed out. I am having a lot of fun with the setting. But don't let these two things be hard requirements. The only thing I don't want is medieval fantasy magic.

Any advice or feedback is welcome. Or just any questions, comments or concerns would also be cool. Really any interaction at all would be great. hm.

 

note to self: look at this

ping me and ill look it over tomorrow its 9:30 rn

[Seonid he/him]

So, I also didn't pay attention in high school physics, but I have the advantage of also not paying attention for an entire bachelor's degree worth of physics after that. Unfortunately, I was focused on space-time stuff, not materials science, but I'll see if I have anything useful to drop.

My first thoughts are that you are looking at some kind of natural capacitor (rather than a battery - capacitors are capable of rapid discharge, unlike batteries which provide a steady current). Stored electrical energy in a capacitor is done by separating electrical charges - there are two plates of conductors, one negative, one positive, separated by a thin layer of something called a dielectric.

A dielectric is something that can't conduct electricity, but when it's exposed to an electric field, the charges separate - positive charges to one side and negative charges to the other. 

Now, natural capacitors can happen, and do all the time. Thunderstorms are natural capacitors - two clouds act as the separate conductors, while the air acts as a dielectric.

As far as storing energy from outside disruptions, you might look into thermopiles, piezoelectric materials, and photovoltaics. These are constructions that directly convert heat, vibration, and light into electrical energy. So you're in luck, in that literally all of the things you want zap metal to absorb energy from happen in the real world! It's only a minor handwave to have them all show up in the same material. 

Now, to your questions: 

Spoiler

0 - I think I accidentally answered that above - the unrealistic thing about zap metal are combining all the properties in a single material. I guess there might also be another handwave with the magnitude of the effect - it looks like zap metal is going to gather much more energy than normal. But we aren't after hard sci-fi levels of fidelity here, so I'm not too worried about it.

1 - I recommend having this be a synthetically created material - you already mentioned you like the idea, and it fits very well. A lot of the properties you are describing need multiple types of conductors in them, so it might not even be a pure element; instead, you might be looking for some composite of multiple elements that, when constructed correctly, ends up becoming zap metal. You'll have to decide how tight the tolerance are, of course - how far off can they be before it's just non-functional? But having it be synthetically created in a lab or factory goes a long way towards that "non-magic" feel you are looking for.

2 - This is going to depend heavily on what level of tolerance you end up deciding on. If it is really hard to get the mixture exactly right, then the aren't likely to be many examples of ancient/medieval cultures creating it, and whatever they have might be accidental creations, and have status as mythical (or even divine!) relics. If it's relatively easy, then you should expect this to have been weaponized and used in technology for a long time. Though, having an ancient guild of secretive alchemists who figured it out long ago and got wiped out with their knowledge, so modern scientists have been competing to try and reproduce their discoveries is always an option.

3, 4, 5 - I'll take these on all together. For photovoltaics and thermopiles, you generally harvest the energy by connecting them to a circuit. The light/heat creates a potential difference, which we harness using a circuit to get a current out of it. Basically a renewable battery kind of thing. 

However, if zap metal is also a natural capacitor (kind of necessary if you want explosive discharge, and explosive discharge always makes things more interesting!), then you have automatic built-in storage without needing a circuit to be attached. You could attach it to a circuit along with an inductor to get an oscillating AC power source, which you could keep charging by feeding it low levels of heat/light/vibration, etc. 

I don't think you need much more to work with methods of discharge. Kinetic force is right-on, and high heat is already known to cause catastrophic failure in some kinds of capacitors, so using high heat to liberate all the stored energy at once is definitely on the table.

So that gives 3 discharge methods - electric circuit (either dumping it all at once or using an inductor to get a long term oscillating source), kinetic force, and high heat (the last 2 being likely to liberate most or all of the stored energy at once).

As for humans controlling it? That's a real question. It probably depends on the tech level. At a medieval level of tech, you probably put a strong insulator on the hilt of your sword and hope for the best (or make wooden-shafted polearms - wood is a good insulator and even better the more of it there is between the user and the metal).

In an early modern setting? One thing that jumps immediately to mind are zap metal bullets/cannonballs. They would turn into explosive rounds very, very easily, and you could get a lot more destructive power out of them than a regular bullet. The problem being that you have to make sure that the kinetic force propelling the bullet down the barrel is less than the threshold to discharge the energy. But that just introduces a risk of catastrophic failure into your weapons, and isn't that a place for high drama in a story?

In a modern/future tech setting, you could use lasers to ionize the air between you and your target and get lightning bolts on demand, following a brand new (temporary) path-of-least-resistance between the metal and the target (assuming the user is well-insulated).

But beyond these direct applications (and I'm sure there are many more) - there are millions of ways to use these indirectly. Zap metal instead of flint and steel? Of course. And that also means that zap metal firing mechanisms in your "flintlock" equivalent firearms is a thing. 

Zap metal ignitors in gas-powered *anything*. Lamps? Why use a candle when you can push a button and get sparks on demand? Stoves/grills? It's much easier to get modern-style ignition buttons with zap metal around.

Zap metal spark plugs in internal combustion engines. And even zap metal "batteries" - storing up energy from all of the bumps along the way and then able to discharge it by connecting it to a circuit. 

The possibilities are endless!

In conclusion - this is a really cool idea, and I don't think you need to add much more to it to get something really functional for an early modern setting. And it's already close enough to what we can do with modern materials that you don't need much handwaving at all.

I'm excited to see what you come up with with it!

[DrPhysics he/him]

So, what @Seonid says about capacitors is true, but you run into a problem where the capacitors will only discharge from one plate to another and you wouldn't get a big arc like you are hoping for, instead you would end up with a tazer (which uses a capacitor). Lightning arcs because the ground acts as one plate and the clouds/atmosphere as another. 

You also can't just say it uses it's energy to build up a big store of charge. That would explain the arcing (the wack breaks the hold on the excess electrons so they can fly free) but if you built up a charge big enough, the zap metal would start to be strongly attracted to any neutrally charged or opposite charged objects (think rubbing a balloon on your head and sticking it to the wall, but hundreds to thousands of times stronger.

 

At some point, you just need to say it's "magic".  If you ground it too much in real world physics without physics expertise, you're going to alienate anyone who does have that expertise. 

 

Marvel's arc reactor is a great example of this. It's essentially a magic power source. Yes, it's supposedly based in technology, but they never dive into how it works and it becomes easy to suspend disbelief when you're presented with "this machine makes power because it does" compared to "this machine makes power because of some nonsense reason that doesn't make any sense".

On the other hand, you have stories like Project Hail Mary, where he tries to describe the science behind everything and fails horribly. The story is amazing, but I almost couldn't finish it because every few pages I'd be screaming in my head "That's not how the universe works".

 

I think you are in a good spot with this magic system. Make sure your devices function consistently (that they follow their own rules), and don't worry so much about the physical details of how they work because there isn't anything that would do what you describe without introducing many other problems. 

 

[AltonicKeys he/him]

Oh that's a lot more help in a couple of days than I was expecting to get!

5 hours ago, Seonid said:

My first thoughts are that you are looking at some kind of natural capacitor (rather than a battery - capacitors are capable of rapid discharge, unlike batteries which provide a steady current). Stored electrical energy in a capacitor is done by separating electrical charges - there are two plates of conductors, one negative, one positive, separated by a thin layer of something called a dielectric.

A dielectric is something that can't conduct electricity, but when it's exposed to an electric field, the charges separate - positive charges to one side and negative charges to the other. 

Now, natural capacitors can happen, and do all the time. Thunderstorms are natural capacitors - two clouds act as the separate conductors, while the air acts as a dielectric.

As far as storing energy from outside disruptions, you might look into thermopiles, piezoelectric materials, and photovoltaics. These are constructions that directly convert heat, vibration, and light into electrical energy. So you're in luck, in that literally all of the things you want zap metal to absorb energy from happen in the real world! It's only a minor handwave to have them all show up in the same material. 

Now, to your questions: 

  Reveal hidden contents

0 - I think I accidentally answered that above - the unrealistic thing about zap metal are combining all the properties in a single material. I guess there might also be another handwave with the magnitude of the effect - it looks like zap metal is going to gather much more energy than normal. But we aren't after hard sci-fi levels of fidelity here, so I'm not too worried about it.

1 - I recommend having this be a synthetically created material - you already mentioned you like the idea, and it fits very well. A lot of the properties you are describing need multiple types of conductors in them, so it might not even be a pure element; instead, you might be looking for some composite of multiple elements that, when constructed correctly, ends up becoming zap metal. You'll have to decide how tight the tolerance are, of course - how far off can they be before it's just non-functional? But having it be synthetically created in a lab or factory goes a long way towards that "non-magic" feel you are looking for.

2 - This is going to depend heavily on what level of tolerance you end up deciding on. If it is really hard to get the mixture exactly right, then the aren't likely to be many examples of ancient/medieval cultures creating it, and whatever they have might be accidental creations, and have status as mythical (or even divine!) relics. If it's relatively easy, then you should expect this to have been weaponized and used in technology for a long time. Though, having an ancient guild of secretive alchemists who figured it out long ago and got wiped out with their knowledge, so modern scientists have been competing to try and reproduce their discoveries is always an option.

3, 4, 5 - I'll take these on all together. For photovoltaics and thermopiles, you generally harvest the energy by connecting them to a circuit. The light/heat creates a potential difference, which we harness using a circuit to get a current out of it. Basically a renewable battery kind of thing. 

However, if zap metal is also a natural capacitor (kind of necessary if you want explosive discharge, and explosive discharge always makes things more interesting!), then you have automatic built-in storage without needing a circuit to be attached. You could attach it to a circuit along with an inductor to get an oscillating AC power source, which you could keep charging by feeding it low levels of heat/light/vibration, etc. 

I don't think you need much more to work with methods of discharge. Kinetic force is right-on, and high heat is already known to cause catastrophic failure in some kinds of capacitors, so using high heat to liberate all the stored energy at once is definitely on the table.

So that gives 3 discharge methods - electric circuit (either dumping it all at once or using an inductor to get a long term oscillating source), kinetic force, and high heat (the last 2 being likely to liberate most or all of the stored energy at once).

As for humans controlling it? That's a real question. It probably depends on the tech level. At a medieval level of tech, you probably put a strong insulator on the hilt of your sword and hope for the best (or make wooden-shafted polearms - wood is a good insulator and even better the more of it there is between the user and the metal).

In an early modern setting? One thing that jumps immediately to mind are zap metal bullets/cannonballs. They would turn into explosive rounds very, very easily, and you could get a lot more destructive power out of them than a regular bullet. The problem being that you have to make sure that the kinetic force propelling the bullet down the barrel is less than the threshold to discharge the energy. But that just introduces a risk of catastrophic failure into your weapons, and isn't that a place for high drama in a story?

In a modern/future tech setting, you could use lasers to ionize the air between you and your target and get lightning bolts on demand, following a brand new (temporary) path-of-least-resistance between the metal and the target (assuming the user is well-insulated).

But beyond these direct applications (and I'm sure there are many more) - there are millions of ways to use these indirectly. Zap metal instead of flint and steel? Of course. And that also means that zap metal firing mechanisms in your "flintlock" equivalent firearms is a thing. 

Zap metal ignitors in gas-powered *anything*. Lamps? Why use a candle when you can push a button and get sparks on demand? Stoves/grills? It's much easier to get modern-style ignition buttons with zap metal around.

Zap metal spark plugs in internal combustion engines. And even zap metal "batteries" - storing up energy from all of the bumps along the way and then able to discharge it by connecting it to a circuit. 

The possibilities are endless!

In conclusion - this is a really cool idea, and I don't think you need to add much more to it to get something really functional for an early modern setting. And it's already close enough to what we can do with modern materials that you don't need much handwaving at all.

I'm excited to see what you come up with with it!

I'm pretty wishy washy with my terms. It's been a while since I've done much electrical engineering stuff so capacitors and batteries, potato potato. But it looks like I'll have to do a lot more research into the properties of electricity because I barely know how ionization works. I know, bare minimum requirement for lightning magic but whatever. And yeah, you're right, looks like I'm lucky with this one, since there's already some similar materials out there. I actually had no clue those were real things. Upon brief research on piezoelectricity, I'm surprised that crystals are involved. 

I've actually not considered the synthetic route too much, but I do really like how you proposed it. Not even a pure element or alloy, but something more complicated to make is a really fun idea. I've heard somewhere, something like "Aliens would have found the same elements that we have, but they just put them together differently, and that's what we need to find." and I love that concept. That "accidental" discovery that would be hailed as mystic is something I've thought about a lot, but maybe it can be something that inspired modern zap metal.

I've been trying to think about how to slot this into normal electrical circuits. Maybe there's always one positive end and one negative end, no matter how you split it up? Kinda like magnets... But I'm not sure how to go about it. At the current moment, zap metal is just a homogeneous hunk, no prong things like normal circuit components.

On 9/30/2025 at 2:08 PM, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

What if magnetic fields controlled the arc?

That's the logical solution yeah, but from a ranged, offensive standpoint that'd be hard to control. If you were at the receiving end of a zap, you can probably nudge the arc trajectory around yourself by pointing the south end of a magnet at the arc? But in order for the arc to get to you in the first place, you'd have to be lying on the ground or something...

Maybe what I can do is have zap metal try to put positive magnet fields on a higher priority than the 'path of least resistance to the ground." So if there was a magnet hanging from the ceiling, positive pointed to the zap metal, the arc would travel towards the magnet first, and then target the ground? And if the arc reaches the magnet first, then it destroys the magnet and renders it a lump of non-magnetic metal? So then it can't just keep travelling to the same location.

A rather poorly thought-out mechanic on my part, but I'll put some more time into it.

2 hours ago, DrPhysics said:

So, what @Seonid says about capacitors is true, but you run into a problem where the capacitors will only discharge from one plate to another and you wouldn't get a big arc like you are hoping for, instead you would end up with a tazer (which uses a capacitor). Lightning arcs because the ground acts as one plate and the clouds/atmosphere as another. 

You also can't just say it uses it's energy to build up a big store of charge. That would explain the arcing (the wack breaks the hold on the excess electrons so they can fly free) but if you built up a charge big enough, the zap metal would start to be strongly attracted to any neutrally charged or opposite charged objects (think rubbing a balloon on your head and sticking it to the wall, but hundreds to thousands of times stronger.

At some point, you just need to say it's "magic".  If you ground it too much in real world physics without physics expertise, you're going to alienate anyone who does have that expertise. 
...
I think you are in a good spot with this magic system. Make sure your devices function consistently (that they follow their own rules), and don't worry so much about the physical details of how they work because there isn't anything that would do what you describe without introducing many other problems. 

No, you're totally right. I've been trying to make a 'plausible sci-fi' look cool, while trying to stay away from magic, but I guess it's a tricky rope to balance on. Thing is, I totally could just stop here and say "Everything else is just magic," but that feels like the lazy way out. I'm not going to try to explain all this in-story of course, but when zap stuff goes down, I want it to stay consistent, and make surface-level sense at the very least. But I'll try to stay away from the sub-atomics, because I'm sure the deeper I delve, the less sense it will make.

Going back to that first problem you brought up, this has been a problem since day one. I can't do anything without a positive charge and a negative charge, cathode and an anode, etc. My first thought was that the energy released isn't actually real electricity, but a "magic abstraction" that mimics the original thing and shares a lot of behaviors, but lets me make it do whatever I want. My second thought was that this sounded lame and I should forget about it. eh. I just hope that I'm compensating enough with all these other dumb mechanics, if that makes any sense.
And I haven't actually considered static electricity. That's actually a really good point, but I can really use that. I think in that regard, I can say "magic" and tone down the effects a tad, but that is 100% a mechanic I can get behind.

You are right though, the more I dig into the physics, the harder it gets for me to dig myself back out. Especially since I never learned how to hold a shovel properly. I think the best course of action is to just address the biggest, most glaring issues. Everything else can be inexplicable magic I suppose. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

On 9/30/2025 at 9:32 PM, CoderDrag0n8 said:

note to self: look at this

ping me and ill look it over tomorrow its 9:30 rn

achoo

All in all, this was actually very helpful and eye-opening. Thank you everyone for the help, and thank you for the interest in zap metal! I'll try to do much more with this, and maybe even. Writing the actual story?! Gasp!

I might be posting some updates about the system itself here, but I dunno. This whole thing now moves down on my priority list, purged from my mind, but I'll try to remember to keep working on it. But feel free to keep suggesting and giving feedback, it's always welcome! It'd certainly give me an excuse to be on this site more.

[DrPhysics he/him]

1 hour ago, AltonicKeys said:

So if there was a magnet hanging from the ceiling, positive pointed to the zap metal, the arc would travel towards the magnet first, and then target the ground?

Magnetic forces are perpendicular to magnetic field lines (which would point directly at the zap metal if the magnet was pointed towards the zap metal), so the moving electricity would feel no force as they flowed towards the magnet. 

 

1 hour ago, AltonicKeys said:

I've been trying to make a 'plausible sci-fi' look cool, while trying to stay away from magic

The problem here is that there is no physical mechanism that could explain what you want the zap metal to do (even piezoelectric materials), nor could we create one. It goes too strongly against the rules of the universe (aside: I'm a physics professor and teach this stuff pretty regularly).

 

Learning is great, so keep digging. 

 

And before when I said "magic", I really meant phenomenon unexplained by physics. Many sci-fi stories (including some hard sci-fi) have no problem pulling the "unobtanium acts like x because it just does" card. I've just taken to calling that tech magic because it lacks and/or defies explanation.

 

What you have is awesome. Let the rule of cool win and don't worry that it breaks the laws of the universe. 

[Seonid he/him]

I completely agree with @DrPhysics here (side note - that's awesome that you're a physics professor! I wanted to do that as a career path once upon a time, but I burned out trying to juggle a full-time job and full-time college, and didn't end up going to grad school). DrPhysics uses the term magic to describe "phenomenon that don't follow the laws of physics as we understand them" - I used the word handwave, but the idea is the same.

Any story that isn't explicitly set in the world we live in (and many that are!) have magic or handwaves of some kind, and it's not a crime to use them! You have an awesome system here - I think that spending your time developing what the rules are rather than trying to make it work within physics-as-we-understand-it will give you a better return on your investment.

If you really want to ground it in physical principles, I wouldn't look into the causes of the "magic/handwave", but rather into firming up it's effects. Like, if the effect of zap metal is to let someone fire off otherwise-normal arcs of electricity, you get better results from making sure you understand how electricity behaves as it arcs and interacts with a human body or the armor the target is wearing instead of trying to figure out how zap metal could create that effect.

As an example - my hard-(ish) sci-fi setting incorporates a widely distributed set of stations around the galaxy that create stable wormholes through which you can pilot a spaceship and travel to far-off star systems. How does it do that? An ancient alien civilization did it. Can the people who live there reproduce it? Nope! It's literally beyond their understanding of physics (and mine!). But instead of spending a lot of energy figuring out exactly how whatever advanced alien materials work and produce their wormhole effect, I figured out what they did and then built the universe from there.