Debet, called Altyn Debet or Golden Debet, opens the Karachay-Balkar Nart epic as the first blacksmith and forefather of the heroic race. Sprung from stone and heavenly fire, he drew iron from the mountains and taught its working to men, forging the weapons and tools of the Narts and, in the epic's telling, shaping metal with his bare hands without tongs or bellows. He is father of a great brood of sons, among them the giant Alaugan, through whose line comes the champion Karashauay, so that as smith and progenitor Debet unites the crafts of fire and the founding of the Nart lineage.