Quote Originally Posted by Cleretic View Post
The Garleans being untempered was basically a freak accident born of a very specific set of circumstances, it was far more than just 'a common metal', and most likely only worked because the primal they were dealing with was specifically Varis. The warding scales are a lot more versatile and generally useful in practice. And of course then there's what both elements actually represent beyond the literal, which I think is worth remembering--the radios work because it reflects that Garlemald's national identity is at the same time grossly linked to and ultimately independent of Ascian manipulation, while the Thavnairians use Vrtra's scales to show in a very physical way that Vrtra will suffer for his people, it's basically an instant way to show that Vrtra's not the bad guy that the setup of his reveal might suggest he is.

And yes, obviously it works the way it does because they wanted untempered Garleans in Garlemald, but I don't think seeing the reason they wrote in a thing should invalidate the thing. In fact, I feel like people would be even madder if Garlemald included literally no untempered Garleans.
Ok, this is an interesting way of looking at it I never considered before.