In my realm, all of those who are in direct lineage of nobles possess a gene which gives them a psychic power. During battles, these nobles wear an armor made of a metal which on one side, repells psychic attack, and on the other side, amplifies it. I'm just wondering, how technical do I have to get on which two metals I choose? My original idea sprouted from one in which all nobles originated in a high concentration of ley lines, but that was when the genre was sci-fi instead of fantasy and the story took place in present day. Now it takes place in a fantasy-ish land. But it IS NOT magic. It just is what it is. Thoughts?
It's fantasy. Don't try to get too technical. Technobabble is bad enough in science fiction. Just make it a magical metal, all or part of which is rare and only found in certain mines (you don't want it to be plentiful).
You should chose something like Carbo-Tanium which is a Carbon-titanium material. It's the strongest and lightest material used today, and it's used on the fabulous Pagani Zonda cars.
Yeah I wouldn't go into any great detail about it. If you want you can come up with a myth or legend about some Entity creating it or something. But I wouldn't be bothered in the least if it wasn't really explained beyond it being found in rare areas.
No offense intended, but this is exactly what I mean by technobabble. It's every bit as much a groaner as dilithium or tritanium or transparent aluminum. Mithril was much better. It was a name, a set of properties, and a lot of mystery wrapped in dwarvish secrecy.
It is magic, hiding under the careful guise of science. And there's nothing wrong with that, if it's done properly. Even 'The Force' in Star Wars is magic, though the films as a whole would probably be classified as science fiction. Only say what needs to be said about these metals. Make sure you, the writer, have a clear idea of what these materials are capable of, where they're from, how they're forged/refined, what their limitations are, etc. It might help to write a brief encyclopedia entry about it, and stow it in a folder with your other research, but this is only so you don't contradict yourself later on. You almost certainly won't need to bore your readers with every detail. Also, keep in mind that if this metal is as rare as you say it is, not every person in the world will know about its properties. For example, walk up to an average Joe on the street and ask him to tell you everything he knows about uranium. I guarantee it will be a very short conversation. Be mindful of these things. Rambling off a long, detailed explanation about this metal will probably seem very out of place unless the speaker (or narrator) is an expert on the subject. This is one of the reasons infodumps are so jarring in a non-omniscient POV (and they're not much better in an omniscient POV either).
I have to agree with Cognito. If there is one place techno-babbel does not belong it is a fantasy novel. Even if the method by which the metals neutralize and enhance psychic attacks is not magic, it is effectively magic if the users don't understand this method.
