Alchemy is a discipline of world magic that allows the user to transfer attributes/aspects between objects using glyphs and focusing rings. Ingredients are chosen based on the attributes that the Alchemist wishes to transfer into the target. Glyphs are used to focus and filter the very essence of the ingredients/objects into the Alchemists target. An alchemist grimoire contains ingredients and the best aspects they hold, while also giving the best filtering glyphs for them.
A grimoire is often the most guarded secret within Alchemy. Alchemist grimoires describe the ingredients, glyphs to be used, and the order to draw the glyphs from the ingredient to the target. The symbol for an Alchemist is a ring. To perform an Alchemist transfer the Alchemist will first start with a target aspect, writing the glyphs outside the circle and then setting the target in the circle. The alchemist will then draw aspect rings (no more than
outside of the circle for the ingredients that contain the aspect to be transferred. The Alchemist will then write his filtering glyphs on the floor between the two rings. Once done he will go to each aspect ring and speak the activation words.Be worn though, Alchemy has hidden dangers, even though an apprentice of this magic can transmute lead into gold with the proper ingredients and filter glyphs; there are inherent contaminants within the ingredients and the purity of the surroundings. Example of this is that bog peat lifted from the swamp’s waters under a moonless night, has the greatest chance of transfer the attribute of light absorption. However, if the alchemist is not careful he will also transfer the horrible stench of the bog to the target. Substituting ingredients for another less costly one or less pure is possible but the same filtering glyphs will most likely not work as well.
Contents
• 1 Overview
• 2 Theory
• 3 In Practice
• 4 Scrolls
• 5 Progression
• 6 Roleplaying Tips
o 6.1 First thread
o 6.2 Roleplaying progression
o 6.3 Transferring
o 6.4 Can I do this?
Overview
Long ago, before the Valterrian, Alchemy was used to create purest ingredients and later a sense of justice. Alchemist’s practiced their trade within the capital city of Suva. They could provide expensive ingredients to mageforges and deal justice for the nobility. When the world went mad, contamination of the ingredients increased and many alchemists died trying to prepare the most simple of transfers, and with their death, thieves would enter the workshops and steal the priceless Grimoires. As less experience alchemists tried their hands at the stolen Grimoires, they found that the Valterrian had changed some of the attributes within the ingredients, making some priceless transfer’s useless. In today’s world, and alchemist’s shop may be found in a greater city, and probably some of high purity ingredients/transfers.
Theory
The most well known theories describe that any material object (living, dead, or inanimate) has properties that can be transferred into your target. Also aspect circles are usually chosen to rid the target of properties one doesn’t want. In the end an Alchemist cannot create or destroy aspects merely transfer them, and often the transfer will lose some of the energy of the aspect.
In Practice
Though there are many theories on ingredients, filtering glyphs, and even activation words, in practice most Alchemists follow the Grimoires of their masters, rarely deviating from them. A master will teach an apprentice how to read and write glyphs, math, ingredients and activation words.
Alchemist glyphs channel the attribute into the target while transferring the undesired aspect back into the ingredient. The target glyphs are usually thought as of pulling all the wanted essence into them and filtering glyphs keep other aspects that are joined to the essence from flying into the target.
Math is used in calculating amount of aspect transfer, balancing the aspects so one doesn’t dominate the target, and studying the success. Example: An Alchemist wishes to transmute lead into gold. Seeing that gold has three different aspects then lead, three circles are chosen. The Alchemist calculates how much energy needs to be given into the target for it to gain that aspect and how much energy must it lose. He then calculates the right amount of weight per aspect needed and finds his ingredients.
Arguments on how much an ingredient has of an aspect and what are the aspects are in Alchemists Grimoires. If a student is so inclined using math and Auristics he might be able to better calculate the correct amount of the aspect and how much is needed.
Activation words are taught by the master to a student and differ based on the ingredients, depending on how exotic the ingredient is the activation word will be written in the Grimoire.
The technique is for the Alchemist to draw a circle around his target, place the aspect(s) wanted in glyph form on the outside of the target circle. Depending on how many aspects are needed for the transformation, aspect circles will be drawn with its own aspect glyph on the outside. The alchemist will proceed to write the filtering glyphs in between the two. Usually the filtering glyphs are the aspects that the alchemist doesn’t want transferred between the two materials. Finally, the alchemist will go over to each circle say the activation words and in a flash of brilliant energy a transfer of aspects will occur.
For alchemist factories that perform operation over and over again, circles of lead and glyphs of lead were used. The circles were often poured into a stone ground, and only the aspect glyph was chalked every time and then washed away for the next use.
The first warning an Alchemist tells to his apprentice is to never use Personal Djed to help the transfer of aspects. Many Alchemists have learned Warding, as a precaution to their experiments, but few have every tried to help increase their success with the use of Personal Djed. The risk is that the circle will sense the contamination of the casters Personal Djed and began to dissipate back into the world. The Alchemist’s Guildmasters tried it several times throughout their history and lost several highly accredited Masters to such experiments.
The second warning is to never use living intelligent creatures in transfers. Before the Valterrian, Master Alchemists dispensed justice by using murders as ingredients. If the target was young, the aspect of youth was transferred to a living government official. It would take months for the Master to judge the man’s aura and describe every aspect of him. Then it would take months of effort to do the same for the official. The Master alchemist would see very core of both people and would rob one man of youth and give it to another. Many masters saw the corruption and weakness that those privilege enough to obtain the transfer and would have nightmares for the rest of their days. Even in cases where the murder was pure evil and the target was a good man, the master would fail to cover every aspect and the target would end up insane.
The third warning is never to have an unbalanced transfer. If too much of one aspect attempts to enter the target the access energy will explode outward and transfer into the closest things. Some masters who think their students aren’t paying close enough attention will purposely charge and ingredient with an aspect of color, and when a student attempts the transfer the color will dye his/her clothes, hair, and skin. Thankfully, if the alchemist survives the unbalanced transfer the containment will slowly leave his/her presence depending on how much energy was released. If too little of the aspect is present in the ingredients the target will usually become something totally unexpected and more often than not useless.
The fourth warning is nothing is forever. By transferring aspects that never belonged to an object in the first place, the aspects will slowly unravel. The only long term aspect that last forever is purifying. Alchemist’s say that if one wants forever then they should have taken up Magecraft.
Progression
NOVICE (1-25)
The Alchemist only understands the basic techniques of Alchemy. Simple transfers can be activated with success. However, even a Master will watch over the novice to make sure he survives a bad transfer. Simple transfers usually focus on purity of the target. For example the Alchemist could create a flawless gem stone by transferring the aspect of perfection from the same type of gemstones to the target. An alchemist could purify ingredients for Philtering or Magecraft by using the same ingredients for transfer into the target. Currently the Alchemist will need twice the weight of ingredients to purify his target. The Alchemist will be learning activation words and glyphs to increase his overall transfer of energy.
COMPETENT (26-50)
The Alchemist has increase in skill enough to only need one and half times the weight of his target to purify it. The Alchemist can begin buying equipment for his/her own lab and their Master is comfortable letting them transcribe some of the most basic formulas. The Alchemist can risk to make moderate transfers, but the same dangers exist as a novice. For example of a moderate transfer can have up to four aspects channeled into a target. At this point the Alchemist could create Metagold or several other key ingredients in Magecraft, or create a silk shirt in which the threads were hard as ring mail but would rust with enough time.
EXPERT (51-75)
The Alchemist has become a master in their own right. Complex formula’s can be used and only hold slight chance of mishap due to the Alchemist’s hands. Beware though, complex formulas are often hazard enough without mishandling them. Simple transfers can be activated with the same weight as the target and moderate transfers need only one and half times the weight of ingredients to target. Furthermore, Alchemist have enough knowledge to substitute ingredients.
Complex formulas can have a total of six aspects transferred. Examples include a sword as light as a father, sharp as the devil himself, and hard as a diamond. However, the sword will melt down or rust if acid is thrown on it.
MASTER (76-100)
The Alchemist has reached the pinnacle of their study. Very complex formulas can be used and hold only the inherent chance of failure. The Alchemist has used certain ingredients so often that he/she may understand that drawing another glyph prior to activation will increase the effective transfer so that only the weight of the target is needed for simple and moderate transfers. Complex formulas only need one and half times its weight ingredients for transfer. The Alchemist has probably created quite a few new transfers and has multiple of apprentices seeking his teaching. The alchemist can use all 8 aspect circles and even create such items as infinite gems or transfer the hardness of metal into living tissue. The Alchemist can even try to transfer youth from one being to another, though this requires months of study and a high level of competency in Auristics is needed.
Roleplaying Tips
First thread
You can learn Alchemy from users and/or books. However, books often assume that the user has some training to began with, without a User to help you, your transfers could end up turning you blue. Your first Alchemy thread should have the PC learn the very basics, such as:
• What Alchemy is and is not
• Alchemy ingredients, proper placement around the circle, and Activation Words
• Attributes of a few ingredients
• A simple formula; for example, purity of metal or an herb.
Roleplaying progression
Progression is easy to roleplay, as your PC does not have to learn any new concepts, he or she just gets so much better at using the basic concepts. Or with the discovery a new transfer or ingredient, your PC can send weeks practicing it on their various targets. Remember not every trial is a success, nor does it have to be a fatal disaster. Perhaps in the transfer you find that a slight imbalance has colored your nice green shirt white or some of the target didn’t have enough energy to transform and you can separate it out. The only risk one assumes is the risk of pressing their luck with inferior materials.
Transferring
Each transfer is different from Alchemist to Alchemist, so feel free to be creative with the ingredients at hand, just be logical as well. Nightshade shouldn’t be used in the purification of a healing ingredient.
Can I do this?
You can certainly try and see if your moderator will let you transfer aspects at your current skill level. Your moderator will probably give you a success rate when you learn the transfer, check before substituting ingredients or trying to shorten the filtering runes. Remember alchemy is a dangerous activity in Mizahar and try to take precautions.
Back then I didn't mind people writing that draft because there was so much magic left to do, it was quite daunting for me to do alone. We've come a long way since then, though, and Alchemy is pretty much the last magic left to write out of the initial batch, so I've been thinking about it quite a lot. The writeup you based it off of is pretty much obsolete now (and it never fully satisfied us). Alchemy is going to be quite different from this. For one, it's going to be based on objects passing through special "doors" to evolve. That will make a full lab much more of a necessity, since these doors are sort of the fantasy equivalent of particle accelerators. There are also more Mizaharian traits like the elusive god of alchemy, Harameus - actually the twin brother of Aquiras.
