"You’ve seen all those red rocks in Plakand, haven’t you? “Oh, yes. Plakand’s red from one end to the other.” There’s a metal called iron in those rocks. Men couldn’t smelt it out of those rocks until they learned how to make hotter fires. Iron is harder than bronze, but it’s brittle. It has to be mixed with other metals to make weapons or tools. “It’s completely replaced bronze, then?” For most things, yes. “It might be better than bronze, but it’s not as pretty.""