Can alchemists canonically transmute iron (or what ever metal) into gold? If so this would have interesting consequences for the Warcraft lore economy. If its done on a large scale, the price of gold would plummet, and it wouldn’t really be a precious metal anymore, though if its done in small amounts by only a handful of alchemists who keep the knowledge of that ability secret, then it could feasibly make them immensely wealthy without diluting the value of gold.
Well I don’t know how money is even made in WoW. There could be more to that than simply having gold, silver and copper.
Actually, now that I think on it, we don’t know how WoW’s economy works. Where our coins actually come from and who standardized it as the world’s currency.
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Do we have any reason to doubt that the gold coins in game are anything more than…gold coins?
People who can make gold with other things than gold would get dispatched asap.
No kings/leader would accept the destruction of their economy.
This is true IRL also.
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Not all things called Gold in the real world are actually made from gold.
Thats fair, its been a while since I played a dwarf, but wasn’t there a quest in wetlands I believe where you recover Ironforge gold ingots which were on there way to a mint (or the treasury it self) I cant remember which. Ill see if I can find it when I get a chance.
You’re assuming that the economy is cash based, which is a fairly modern development. And that transmutation alchemy is common, which is doubtful at best.
The farmers of Goldshire and Westfall pay their taxes in kind… in what they produce.
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The goblin alchemist from Warcraft 3 could turn people into gold! Really wish that was still a thing.
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Best WC3 ability ever!
Given what we know gold coins are… made of gold. But, I would suspect likely they have some manner of unique magical insignia stamped onto them that only a mint is able to produce and other similar measures to prevent easy counterfeiting.
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This is basically a fantastical version of a counterfeit operation, and presumably the various kingdoms have a defense against this, presumably with magic users or court alchemists being on staff to look out for transmuted gold. Or official coinage has unique or identifying markers, which is what paper currency often does in reality so people can’t just print cash.
Fun fact, a solid gold bar sells for 6 silver pieces. No, really.
Well for one thing, if your character has 0 gold, 99 silver and 99 copper and picks up just one more copper, they suddenly have 1 gold, not 99 silver, and 100 copper. In WoW, you can never have more than 99 copper/silver coins because they’d all turn instantly into silver/gold!
So obviously, the values displayed in the corner of your UI doesn’t actually correlate to the actual number/material of the coins currently on you.
And we’ve seen other monetary systems. In Bilgewater Port, they used Macaroons.
Now whether or not that means the coins are/aren’t made of gold/silver/copper is one thing, but it leaves plenty of room for multiple denominations. A coin worth 2 copper, silver piece, or 100 gold.
It’s never been stated outright, but we have heard people quoting prices as high as hundreds/thousands of gold and it’s hard to imagine those transactions taking place using hundreds/thousands of individual coins.
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You guys all say it would ruin the economy but don’t forget transmutation in most cases typically takes additional resources on top of what you’re trying to transmute. Even the less fantastical version of it in real life requires additional inputs.
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Okay, so…
Look around. Take like, a few minutes. Cick any thread you like about hte current storyline, where it’s gone, where it’s going, and peoples’ opinion of that.
Do you think that at any point, the people behind this charlie foxtrot of a story have ever devoted a fragment of their time to determining the in-world economies of Azeroth?
I mean literally everyone’s maintained a fully-equipped standign army of professional soldiers, complete with modernized mechanized units, for like… twenty years world-time. Even after capitals are sacked, farmlands are incinerated, planets explode, millions die…
Economics does not really exist in Azeroth.
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I doubt the actual lore value of a bar of gold is six silver coins. People talk about gold in lore like its just as valuable as in IRL. Though I could see a good method of telling natural gold from transmuted gold by looking at how pure it is. Thats how they tell manmade diamonds from natural ones, the manmade ones are nearly pure carbon and almost flawless, while the natural ones are full of impurities and imperfections in the structure.
Maybe transmuting common metals into gold or silver isn’t an interesting thing to do from an economic perspective.
I suppose that transmutation requires 3 things:
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A Transmutation Stone
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The material you’ll transmute
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Very special reagents
Depending on the reagents required, the whole process would be viable only if the material you want can only be produced this way.
Even though most transmutation recipes in the game require only items 1 and 2, some actually require special reagents, such as Truegold. Lorewise, I think this is the case for any transmuting process.
It’s universal currency, as we’re paid in gold on other planets like Draenor.
Are you sure the character simply wouldn’t have 1 gold, 0 silver, 0 copper?
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yes, meitre discovered this secret and wrote it down in his scrolls. Aegwynn used that spell to prove her ability and knowledge as a kid. another student of her master try it too, and failed, he create false gold
Are you sure about this? I’ve never heard of Aegwynn being an alchemist who made gold?
Its a spell. In circle of hatred.