this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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In a world where gold can be fabricated with magic, I imagine it would work like IRL diamonds. Synthetic diamonds are relatively cheap to make and just as (or even more) beautiful, but the only ones that have 'value' are the ones extracted destructively and with awful human conditions.
So you could make the caveat that because his gold is not 'genuine', it doesn't have market value.
He's not making gold, he's making useful things he sells for gold. Fabricate turns an equivalent value of raw material into a crafted object, so to make 50 lbs of gold bars you'd need 50lbs of gold, but to make a piece of furniture you'd just need part of a tree and 10 minutes.
Just as a note, there's actually too much gold that exists in the Forgotten Realms. IRL humans have only mined 187,000 metric tons of gold, and 2/3 of that was mined since 1950. Without getting into the nitty gritty too much, let's just say there's not nearly enough gold for every monster to have even a small collection of coins, much less every adult dragon falling asleep on a golden pile while everyone else works just fine on a gold standard or something like it.
Is it the dwarven kingdoms out mining humanity? Is gold simply more common or perhaps available in easier, more concentrated ores?
Or are wizards adding more gold from thin air, and dragons provide a natural deflationary pressure by being obsessed with making great hoards of coins?
So you're saying the wizards and dragons are coordinating their efforts in an attempt to keep scarcity artificially high?
I KNEW IT
Relax, they're just implementing rational monetary policy to keep the economy healthy.
Of course their version of inflation reduction involves dragons burning down a significant part of the land, but it works. Nobody is complaining about the price of groceries anyway.
Well, they are, but the town guards beat them if they try to protest.
Probably a bit of both I'd imagine.
There's a limit to what people can afford to buy, though. "Hey I made this sweet artifact it's worth 1000gp" "Cool, I can give you uhhh...THREE chickens for it?"
No, no, they sell synthetic diamonds at jewelry stores now. They just cost the same as the mined ones, because of course they do.
Moissanite is better anyways.
Say it again for the people in the back!
I've been a woman for 37 years and I have never found a boring white diamond to be appealing. It's a rock. It's a boring color. Even as a little girl being shown the first real diamond I've ever seen in person, by my materialistic mother who made quite the to-do, I couldn't understand the appeal.
When I saw the first moissanite in person? I didn't know what it was, but I couldn't stop staring at this woman's ring! It was so... I had to apologize for staring, and when I told her I didn't know why I couldn't quit staring, she told me.
"It's moissanite," she said, grinning. Apparently, this happens to her four times a day. She told me all about it and even how to spell it. I popped it in my phone.
"I've never wanted to spend a fortune on a rock before in my life but I must have one."
"That's the best part," she said. "They're synthetic. This ring cost me less than $100."
Since then I've put moissanite next to a diamond and the moissanite shines brighter, and more importantly, has a gorgeous rainbow flash. The moissanite wins every time.
And no child slaves. Amazing.