Alchemy

Introduction

Alchemy is often noted as a starting point for those who are looking to get into magic but aren’t sure where to start. It’s earned this reputation because many people consider alchemy to be the bridge between magic and science. While miscalculations can easily result in danger or death, the materials for alchemy are easily accessible which has led to the practice itself becoming widespread.

Origin

Alchemy developed within society not long after Etherforging began to develop. Those who practiced Etherforging realized over time that while the effects of Etherforging were permanent, there was no way for Etherforging to directly affect the body. It could create magically crafted items, but an invisibility cloak was very different from the ability to temporarily turn fully invisible. Over time those who practiced Etherforging wondered if there was anything that could be done about this. Over time a woman who’d later be known as the nameless mother of alchemy developed the first set of alchemical tools through the aid of Etherforging.

In the modern-day, Alchemical tools are easily produced and can be bought throughout most of Atharen at varying levels of quality. The craft itself has seen a unique growth in interest and still maintains its presence with many devoting their time to the craft.

Tools

Mortar and Pestle: A tool often used to break down ingredients. This can simply be to make it easier to fit into the alembic or it can be to help release the ether from the object that's being crushed up. Items can be ground into either a paste or powder to fit the alchemist's needs.

Alembic: The most commonly used tool, the alembic is the only thing considered to be considered wholely necessary to the alchemist. The alembic can come in a number of various shapes and sizes to fit the needs of the alchemist and most alchemists will have more than just one alembic. The "cucurbit" is the container holding the liquids or whatever needs to be distilled and is placed over a flame. The "head" of the alembic catches the etheric vapors that are burned off. As the etheric vapors cool they run down the long tube and collect in what's known as the "receiver". Through this process, ether is extracted from various reagents and can then be made into potions or other items.

Retort: The retort is exceedingly similar to the alembic is shape and function, simply having an open spout to allow the condensed vapors out into a new container whereas the alembic has the receiver on the end.

Alchemy Crucible: A metal or ceramic container usually paired with an athanor. Reagents are put into the crucible and cooked slowly and evenly over a period of days or weeks in order to draw out different effects than from the alembic.

Athanor: While not being a true furnace, the athanor is a type of furnace that is used in tandem with an alchemy crucible in order to cook Reagents in a different way to produce a different effect in the ether. Note that the athanor is not intended to be used with an alembic. An alembic is usually placed over a flame in such a way that only the cucurbit is exposed directly or indirectly to the heat source. An athanor is akin to an oven and is meant to fully enclose a crucible.

Process

Among the World Magics, Alchemy has one of the strictest processes. A potion is usually made up of a number of steps that require an alchemist to have an in-depth knowledge of the ingredients they're using and the effects they're treating to achieve in their creation.

Development

The first step for any alchemist is a recipe. Recipies are vital as Alchemy is a kind of science. In honor of this fact, exact measures are needed and the steps in the creation of each potion need to be accurate. In order for an alchemist to make not only the most efficient but the least harmful creation, they need to know exactly what they're doing when and how much of each ingredient is too much or too little. Working with a preexisting recipe is always easiest, and studying up on the etheric makeup of each ingredient ahead of time also helps. A recipe that's seen generations of alchemists test it over the years is always the best starting point!

Unfortunately, thanks to how easy it is to get into alchemy, not every alchemist is going to have a teacher or a recipe book to start off with. That's where the true core of Alchemy's beliefs comes into play. Experimentation and development.

For a lot of alchemists, experimentation is their bread and butter. The first step for most novices before they even begin to create a recipe is to experiment with the various etheric effects of each ingredient. This can often be dangerous and is one of the first things that drives away new alchemists. Testing what ingredients interact with what and how to create what effects can often be trial and error for an alchemist that's well and truly starting from scratch.

Only once an alchemist has started to build up a knowledge base of reagent effects can they start developing recipes, which is a trial in and of itself. Getting the ingredients right is one thing but getting the measurements right is entirely another. This is the reason why early-stage novice-level potions are so truly lethal.

Types of Reagents

Within Alchemy, there are a number of different types of reagents that one needs to learn how to balance in order to create something that isn't inherently toxic. It isn't all about effects. The most annoying thing is that some reagents might fill multiple roles depending on the way they're used. This can be a good thing or a bad thing for an alchemist, depending on how skilled they are.

Effect reagents are exactly what they sound like. They're the ingredients in an alchemical reaction that add the 'effects' that the alchemist wants to the item or potion, be it water breathing or invisibility. The only thing that limits the number of effects that can be applied is how they interact with each other and general logic. While theoretically, you can make a potion with over one hundred different effects, more likely than not that potion is going to be a five-liter gallon that the recipient of the potion then needs to figure out how to chug in order to get the full effect of each. While it's possible to distill the liquid and use ingredients with multiple effects attached to them, there's still a certain level of logic that needs to be applied.

Base reagents are used in the case that certain alchemical components disagree with one another. Often times, an alchemist will find an issue when trying to use certain ingredients. These two ingredients might very well clash with one another and prevent application at the same time, even sometimes having dangerous results when put into the same potion or other times completely nullifying each other. The most simple solution in this case is to use a base reagent. Acting as a base or primer for alchemical ingredients, a lot of alchemists will apply these even when the ingredients in question aren't found to be clashing since a base can also help to increase the potency by helping the various ingredients better mesh together. A base can be applied right before a problematic ingredient, at the start of the potion, or even after every ingredient that's added, however, the costs will slowly add up over time.

Activator reagents are reagents that are applied in order to make certain effects trigger at specific times. This is especially important when the mixture they're creating is meant to go on an object instead of simply being put into a potion. Stimulus activators will activate any time they receive a certain kind of stimulus. For example, a necklace activating shock resistance any time the air gets charged with static. Situational activators are harder to pull off since they need to somehow be 'programmed', and usually respond to a kind of stimulus that's less cut and dry such as a bracelet shocking someone when they attempt to lie or steal. Because situational activators are so much harder to get to work, they're exceedingly rare. Almost every potion will have one very basic and cheaply acquired activator that actually allows for the potion to start taking effect once it's been consumed.

Bonder reagents are similar to base regents with the notable difference being that it allows the alchemical ingredients to better interact not with each other but with whatever said ingredients are being applied to. Bonders are the most useful when trying to apply potion effects to things like items. Most of the time they're a necessary addition and extra bonders will help to increase the 'life span' of the item as well as the stability of it. While they aren't usually added into potions, depending on the brewing method and if the potion is intended to be drank plain or added to something a bonder might be added.

Duration Modifying reagents are there to help extend temporary effects within items. Such as making sure a potion lasts longer. Its job is usually to ensure the other reagents aren't used up too quickly. Duration modifiers will extent the 'life span' of items given effects but its most important job is usually ensuring that a potion has the ability to remain within the body for longer periods of time. Due to the nature of potions, the reagents within the potion are quick to be expelled as waste products. A lot of duration modifiers have gained their notoriety as duration modifiers for ensuring that the reagents aren't expelled or burned up by the body too fast.

Speed Modifying reagents as their name implies helps to speed up the time it takes for the effects to fully trigger. Usually found in potions, the speed modifier usually works to make potion consumption instantaneous, allowing for the effects to immediately start taking hold in the body instead of having to wait for the potion to start digesting.

Reagent Quality

There are two main factors that help decide the quality of a reagent. The rarity of the reagent and if the reagent is a basic or advanced ingredient. The two factors interact with one another in an interesting manner in order to help decide the quality of the reagent. Ingredients of any rarity can be either basic or advanced and vice versa so it's important to take both into account.

Rarity

The rarity of a reagent is often linked to the potency of the item. Reagents that are harder to come by and are rarer will often carry with them stronger effects regardless of if it's a basic or advanced ingredient. There are five different levels of rarity: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, and Legendary. Common being the weakest potency and legendary having the strongest but the most issues in acquiring.

Basic vs. Advanced

While rarity is an indicator of potency, whether an ingredient is basic or advanced indicates how many effects they have and how prone they are to side effects.

Basic ingredients are known for only having one effect or only falling into one or two different reagent categories. They usually tend to be less stable and less 'pure' so to speak when compared to advanced ingredients which can make them harder to work with. Additionally, negative effects are more likely to crop up when working with basic ingredients. Regardless of rarity, when compared to advanced ingredients of similar rarity, basic ingredients are often easier and cheaper to get which is what makes them a good starting point.

On the other hand, advanced ingredients are much harder to acquire but usually have a number of different effects or fall into multiple different reagent categories. They're ideal for more dangerous potions as they're less likely to result in negative side effects due to their purity.

Transmutation, Myth or Fact?

A notable belief surrounding Alchemy is its ability of transmutation. It's believed that lead can be turned into gold and that a skilled alchemist can become rich off of this. A lot of people go into Alchemy with this hope and ideal in their hearts. They end up just as quickly dropping Alchemy in their disappointment. That's because the answer is often a bit more complicated and decently disappointing. Alchemy cannot be used to permanently alter the innate ether of an object. Due to this fact, lead can't be turned into gold. The issue is that much like with enchanting an object such as a sword or necklace, an alchemical effect has to be applied. Temporarily the lead could be made to look like gold, and skilled alchemists might even be able to turn it into gold, but the effect would never be permanent. The biggest issue with Alchemy and Etherforge as a pair is that while they can work with existing ether, neither has the ability to change existing either. Alchemy can do so temporarily and Etherforge can add new Ether to an item to achieve the desired outcome, but it requires actual access to magic in order to outright change either. So while a temporary change can be made, the gold would eventually turn back into lead.

The Alchemical Half-Life

Alchemy throughout its existence has often been spoken of as a parallel to Etherforging. Both do something very similar, scientifically instead of magically manipulating Ether in order to create a specific magical effect in the product. While Etherforging is most known for being able to do this to objects and Alchemy is often spoken of in the same breath as potions, Alchemy interestingly enough can be used to enchant items like armor, swords, jewelry, etc. The most noticeable difference that Etherforging takes place during the crafting portion of the item and Alchemy takes place as almost an afterthought. One could almost describe it as adding a potion to a sword.

The most notable thing about this is that while Etherforging items will recharge over time, the effects of Alchemy on an enchanted item are only temporary. It's no different than applying poison to a blade, eventually, the poison will run out and the blade will return to being a normal blade. While alchemical effects can be reapplied it can often be costly, especially if the alchemist doesn't know what they're doing. The benefit is that while Etherforging requires the crafter to have knowledge of whatever crafting skill they're attempting to use, Alchemy being the afterthought that it allows for an alchemist to apply effects to a masterwork sword without ever having to learn how to smith one. On top of that, Alchemical effects can be added to Etherforged items.

The process of applying an alchemical effect to an item is as simple as creating a potion with the desired effect, adding an appropriate bonder to the concoction, and applying it to the item thoroughly.

Putting It All Together

The quality of a potion is judged on a sliding point scale. This scale is what decides how potent the potion might be. There are a number of different factors that have already been mentioned that change the number of points a potion has. Those factors are the alchemist's skill level, the quality of ingredients (both rarity and if they're basic or advanced), the alchemist's familiarity with the items being used, and the number of steps required to complete the potion. The following can be used to help judge potion quality.

Skill Level	Points
Novice	1
Apprentice	3
Journeyman	5
Expert	7
Master	10

Ingredient Rarity	Points
Common	1
Uncommon	2
Rare	4
Very Rare	6
Legendary	8

Ingredient Level	Points
Basic	1
Advanced	3

An alchemist's familiarity with a recipe or ingredient is measured by how many associated knowledge they have. An alchemist's recipe book is, after all, their greatest weapon and ally. There's a reason many alchemists put so much effort into their creation and upkeep. If an alchemist is trying to create a potion and they have lore related either to the ingredients they're using or the potion they're trying to make then it'll be a benefit. Consider each related lore to be one additional point to the potion's overall quality. An example of this is as follows:

Number of Lores	Points
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5

The number of steps is notable as a modifier due to the fact it counts as a negative modifier with each extra step removing two whole points. In order to ascertain the number of steps in a potion, the first thing you must account for is noting how many items are used. Each time a new ingredient is used this counts as a new step, with the exception of when two or more ingredients are added at the same time. Additionally, alchemists should take into account anything special they have to do between adding ingredients such as cooling the potion down, bringing to a rolling simmer, etc.etc. Usually, anything that takes a significant amount of time or would otherwise cause variations in results if left out. Remember that each extra step will remove two points. An example of this is as follows:

Steps	Points
1	-2
2	-4
3	-6
4	-8
5	-10

Below you'll be able to find a table that lays out what number of points is required for each potion quality as well as details about the potions and their unique traits.

Potion Quality	Point Scale
Novice	1-8
Apprentice	9-18
Journeyman	18-30
Expert	30-50
Master	50+

A novice-level potion is best described as a failure. Any potion at novice-level is often better described as rat poison, rat poison that isn't even effective. If the potion even has a magical effect there are usually a whole slew of negative repercussions and side effects that make it more likely to kill the person than for the desired effect to take place. Additionally, these types of potions tend to be etherically unstable. Ingesting them can cause Mageblight and overstepping related symptoms in people who aren't even mages. That's assuming that the potion's relative instability doesn't result in it blowing up at any point after or during its creation.

An apprentice-level potion is noted as being slightly better than a novice-level potion but still dangerous. It's not something that's going to cause Mageblight or randomly blow up, but the cons still outweigh the pros most of the time. Apprentice-level potions are known for having a number of different side effects, from as few as one to as many as three. While a lot of these side effects are going to be lethal at this level they can be uncomfortable to deal with and can result in other more dangerous complications later down the line.

A journeyman-level potion is when a potion finally starts to become safe for consumption. There are finally no side effects or they're minor enough that they don't cause any serious long term problems, usually things that are more akin to a rash or the sniffles. Journeyman-level potions are widely considered to be safe and the kind of potion that's the most easily and readily accessible on the market.

An expert-level potion is entirely safe with absolutely no side effects. The factors necessary have all aligned to make the expert-level potion entirely safe and as an added benefit expert-level potions are usually just a bit more potent than their lesser counterparts. Usually resulting in a couple more minutes of the desired effects or something similar, these kinds of potions are valuable but they still aren't usually considered to be rare on the market.

A master-level potion is hard to create and genuinely a sight to behold. Usually resulting from a master alchemist either knowing a recipe by heart or having the highest level ingredients they can get their hands on, the master-level potion is unique in that it's exceedingly more powerful than its lesser counterparts. The durations and effect potency are often vastly increased and the potion itself will usually have extra positive effects, even sometimes with earlier side effects being used or reversed in such a way to become positive.

When creating potions and taking them as loot in review requests for threads, please note the level of the potion in your request and the number of points that it has. Include all effects or side effects as applicable.

Progression

Novice

Most novice level alchemists aren't going to be able to create items that are of much use. In general, they're still learning. Most of their time is dedicated to the memorization of recipes, the effects of regents, and experimenting to try and get a feel for things. As many novices are still in the learning phase when it comes to recipes most of their creations will be lethal. Novices are encouraged to work alongside a master before trying to strike out on their own, or at the very least using books as a resource for learning reagents effects and recipes.

Apprentice

An apprentice alchemist is someone who's finally getting familiar with not just the recipes but the process and the way in which Alchemy interacts with the rest of the world. Apprentices are starting to take their first steps towards something that resembles a potion, memorizing recipes and starting to create their own as they hesitantly experiment with their new-found knowledge. Negative effects are still to be expected in their potions, but immediate death might finally not be one of them. They might be starting to get accustomed to more powerful ingredients and tinkering with more dangerous elements of alchemy, though most apprentices are still going to be mostly working almost exclusively in the realm of potion brewing.

Journeyman

Journeyman is when the young alchemist truly starts to spread their wings. A journeyman is someone who's started to get comfortable with alchemy and its applications and has grown familiar with the process. Additionally, journeyman is the stage where the alchemist steps outside of the realm of potions and starts to apply their craft to other aspects. Specifically, they step outside the realm of liquid potions. Some of their first experiments might be trying to turn their potions into pill form or applying their potion effects to trinkets like jewelry. Some might even use alchemy to 'create' items like glass that burns though this is little more than a potion that has been solidified with a higher melting point than it had previously. Negative effects of potions become mild nuisances if they're even still present.

Expert

Those smart enough to live long enough to become experts truly earn their titles. They've faced a lot of the life-threatening challenges that come with the early ears of alchemy and have a vast repertoire of recipes and reagents and fall back on. Knowledge is their best weapon and their potions reflect this, having become highly tuned over the years with great precision. Rarely do their experiments get out of control and they know what safety measures to put into place when they're trying something they're unfamiliar with or learning about a reagent they haven't been prior acquainted with. Expert is when most alchemists start to take apprentices.

Master

The truest example of the craft, potions made by the master after sought after by the thousands. Thousands of carefully documented recipes and reagent effects allow for the master to easily adapt to new ingredients and potions and an experiment done by a master will almost never go wrong. Recipies often become extremely precise to the point a master might keep two sets of recipes. One for general use and one specifically tuned to them and what they've personally found to work best. Most masters have had at least one apprentice. Some consider this to be the true mark of who's considered a master, while others go their entire lives without one. Some believe in keeping their secrets with them till their grave, personally withholding the secrets of their craft in this world and the next.

Special Notes

Alchemy is uniquely designed in that a novice alchemist if given the resources and lores could potentially create a master potion and a master alchemist could potentially create a master potion from very low-level ingredients given the time and effort. This design is intentional. Players, however, should keep in mind that attempts to game this system and get master level potions without leveling up alchemy will have a much harder time with it and may find themselves subject to the scrutiny of mods, should they be found in contempt of attempted power gaming.