Alchemy

Introduction and Overview

Alchemy for all intents and purpose is often cited as the bridge between magic and science. This is due to the fact it relies on the innate aetherium present in all things and uses things like chemistry to draw out and enhance these effects. Those who wish to emulate the abilities of certain runes of magic without getting the runes inscribed upon their form will often seek out alchemy. While it is a way to get certain desirable effects while skirting around becoming a mage, it’s not the easiest of abilities to learn.

Miscalculations can often result in danger or even death, and getting the materials required for some of the more complex alchemical procedures is a task far easier said than actually done.

Recipes and Experimentation

For the alchemist, recipes are vital. Recipes are used in order to help alchemists use the exact amount of ingredients necessary for the most efficient creation. As well as the least self harming creation. When available, working from a recipe is the best form of practice for an alchemist, especially a tried and true one that’s been tested by generations of alchemist before them.

Unfortunately, for those without a teacher or those seeking to create something they don't have a recipe for, experimentation becomes the only option.

Experimentation is often the bread and butter of a young alchemist. To learn all the effects of any one given regent, experiments must be done. From there, with the proper skills, a recipe can be crafted. While it’s possible to buy recipes in just about every town, their validity is up for debate. Ironically enough, the safest and most dangerous thing an alchemist can do when trying to create a new recipe or learn a new effect is experiment.

Recipes are often highly individual to any one alchemist and their given abilities. While some very old and tested recipes are a one size fits all kind of thing, experimentation is encouraged for more experienced alchemists. The aetherium is the root of all alchemy, and the aetherium accessible to any one person can change the way a recipe might come out at the end of the day, so there’s always room for variation and tweaking.

All About Regents

Effect

The effect regent is fairly self explanatory. It’s the ingredient in the alchemical procedure that adds the desired effect to the item, be it water breathing or making an item lighter than air.

There is no hard limit on how many effects can be applied to a single creation, well, none outside of logic that is. Certain items may only have so much room as opposed to others, such as the size of a batch of potions. In addition, if all the effects actually work together depends on the skill of the alchemist and the other regents that are applied during the creation process. Not all regents work together nicely.

An effect regent is fairly easy to come across as opposed to some of the other regents found in nature. Effect regents being the most commonly found has also led to many finding other uses for them, such as turning them into other regents like bases or bonders through various chemical or alchemical changes.

Base

Not all alchemical components might agree with one another. Some alchemical components may very well clash with one another, preventing application to the same item. This, however, isn’t the end of the world. If any two components are found to be clashing then the very simple solution is the application is a base regent.

Base regents are special regents which act as a base or primer for alchemical ingredients. Most will apply this even when ingredients aren’t found to be clashing as a base regent can also increase the potency of any other regents present, generally allowing them all to mesh together in a cleaner fashion. A base doesn't need to be applied for every regent in the procedure, however, bases often add stability to the creation and those who aren’t lacking ingredients or funds may add a base for every ingredient they add to a creation.

While basic bases are often extremely inexpensive their costs do add up if applied after ever ingredient. In addition, advanced bases while they are much more powerful tend to be extremely expensive or hard to obtain.

Activator

Activators are important for a creation that an alchemist doesn’t want to be constantly ‘on’. For example, things like a cloak that can camouflage with its surroundings. Activators come in two different breeds so to speak. Situational activators and stimulus activators.

Situational activators are ‘programmed’ so to speak to go off when certain things happen. For example, a bracelet that will shock someone if they attempt to lie or swipe something that isn’t theirs. These kind of activators are extremely complex, extremely rare, and almost always advanced ingredients. What they can do depends on the individual activator and how it’s prepared, but it requires less work on the part of the person using the item that’s been alchemized.

There is one type of situational activator that is basic and found in almost all potions. This allows for the potion to actually trigger and affect the body after it’s been digested.

Stimulus activators are far more common and a bit different. Stimulus activators work by trigger the effect regent under specific circumstances, though they can also be used to deactivate the effect depending on the nature of the creation. For example, a certain activator might activate or deactivate the effect of a sword when it comes into contact with a specific material such as activating when it touches blood or deactivating when it touches the lining of a sword’s sheath. These deactivation triggers work by negating the effect regents.

How this is achieved depends on the activators used and the process through which it’s applied.

Bonder

Bonding agents are similar to a base regent, however, the notable difference is that instead of allowing the regents to work better with each other they help all the regents to better work with whatever said regents are being applied to. The bonder helps to bind the regents to whatever item is being crafted. While most of the time it isn’t necessary, it can help to create a much more powerful item with a much longer life span. In addition, it aids the stability of the item ensuring that it won’t deteriorate at a faster rate due to the alchemical ingredients not getting along with whatever the item is made out of.

When the bonder is added depends on a lot of factors, though usually it is the first or last thing an alchemist does when creating a piece. Both add their own benefits and are usually seen more prominently depending on the craft.

In things like weapons or armor the bonder may be applied first so that the regents take to the item a bit better. Often times it’s applied during the crafting of the item itself. The only exception is when the alchemical portion is applied all at once in the form of a solution which is applied to the weapon or armor. In this case it’s treated like a potion.

Potions often have the bonder added last or occasionally in the middle of the process like one might add egg when cooking a meal to make sure everything stick together nicely. This depends on how the potion itself is brewed and the desired effect. The bonding agent in this case is supposed to pull together all of the ingredients into the potion or the solution and when it’s supposed to do this may change depending on the recipe in question.

When bonders aren’t used at the start or end of a creation, it’s usually because multiple bonders are going to be used. This comes into play with very large multi-step creations which have very specific requirements. Such as effects triggering one after the other at very specific times. In these cases it’s treated as multiple alchemical reactions, so the bonder in a way is still at the start or the end of a single reaction. Again, this rule is sometimes broken, most commonly in potions.

Duration Modifier

Duration modifiers are specifically for effects that are only temporary, be they things triggers by an activator that the alchemist would rather not untrigger or within a potion. Some duration modifiers exist to help keep a certain effect active for longer while others are used to deactivate an effect after a certain span of time.

Duration modifiers with the purpose of extending the duration of an effect are often found in portions which only act on a person for so long. Potions by nature are a temporary thing thanks to the body eventually expelling the items like all other waste products or the regents eventually getting used up. A duration modifier is a bit like a bonder in that it will bind the regent to the item, but instead of allowing the two to mesh together more nicely it’s intended use is to make the effect regent last longer.

Duration modifiers which deactivate an effect are usually used in tandem with an activation regent. These regents allow for your cloak of invisibility to become visible again after a set amount of time passes instead of an alchemist having to apply two or more triggers and then the user having to carry around the items that cause the trigger with them.

Speed Modifier

Speed modifiers work with the effect to cause the effect to trigger at different points in time. Some speed modifiers work to make effects that take a while to full trigger become instant. Other work to make instant effects slower to trigger.

The way in which these modifiers work in taden with activators is similar to a duration modifier. These two often don’t work well together and will almost always need a base to get along well without decreasing each other’s effects.

Basic vs. Advanced Ingredients

Basic Ingredients

Basic ingredients have weaker effects but are often safer to use. They’re more stable and often less additional regents are required in order to get the results you want.. While the results are nowhere near as potent they will more often than work for less skilled alchemists.

Basic ingredients are less ‘pure’ so to speak than advanced ingredients. This is one of the reasons their effects are muted, however, in addition, more negative effects have the potential to crop up when working with basic ingredients. Negative effects that will need to be counteracted one way or another.

Basic ingredients are a good starting point as they’re easier to work with, cheaper, and much easier to gather. They can also be used with the same potency as advanced ingredients in skilled hands. Generally though, they’re basic ingredients for a reason.

Advanced Ingredients

Advanced ingredients are far more potent and much harder to acquire. Often it including killing something dangerous or going somewhere lethal, because of this, advanced ingredients will often cost a very pretty penny.

Advanced ingredients are considered to be purer due to having much stronger effects. That also makes them a good deal more dangerous to work with since any resulting reactions are also stronger. Cautious is advised which is why working with advanced ingredients it’s recommended someone be a journeyman or above.

Duplication of Magic

All things go back to aetherium, the power which runs of the universe surrounding the lands of Ransera. This means that all things have some degree of possibility when the right combinations are reached. As an alchemist grows in strength and experience, this is the one universal truth that they come to experience. That means with the right components, magic can be mimicked.

This is one of two master alchemist abilities. Magical duplication is the ability to replicate the effects of certain magic through the right mixture of components and observation. The duplication of magical abilities is complex, second hand, and often requires a lot of knowledge and study in order to get right. Replicating harder abilities requires extensive study, and an understanding of lesser skills associated with certain types of magic can aid in the development of more advanced replications.

This is much easier for those who possess one of the magics attempting to be replicated, but still possible for those who haven’t ever touched a rune of magic in their life.

True magical mimic items must always be items. They can’t be potions as potions would require the user themself to be casting the mimication of the magic, and magic mimicry is always second hand. The item being enchanted is treated as though they are the mage, allowing alchemist to bypass the need to learn magic at certain costs.

The Process

Step One: Observation -The first step in being able to replicate magic is observing someone with the type of magic you are looking to replicate. Observing their skills, watching what happens. The important thing here is analyzing the aetherium and how it’s being manipulated. Can this be replicated with other components the alchemist is already aware of? What intrinsic visible qualities are present? Once the alchemist has observed all they can, they can move on to step two.

Step Two: Component Manipulation -Component manipulation is the process in which an alchemist takes whatever components they already have access to and they try to mimic whatever magic effect was present. In some rare cases, the magic can be perfectly mimicked with normal ingredients. At this point an alchemist can stop and simply create a normal alchemical item that doesn’t possess the same limitations and stipulations as a true “magical mimic” item might. However, often times for more complex magic this isn’t the case. A component of a more advanced and unstable nature is needed. Often this is the blood of someone who has the magic the alchemist is looking to replicate.

Step Three: Application -This step isn’t necessary unless they alchemist is looking to create a true mimic item. Sometimes a replication can be created using ‘normal’ ingredients or different advanced ingredients. However, this effect can sometimes be felt as lacking depending on what the alchemist is trying to achieve. In this case, an advanced ingredient is needed that more reflects the magic attempting to be copied. Often the blood of a magic user. This ingredient is used to draw a rune of whatever magic is being used on the object. This rune cannot be destroyed once the process has been finalized, meaning there should be no fear surrounding it getting washed off or something similar.

Step Four: Replication -Once all three of the steps before this one have been completed, the resultant should be an item of some nature which can replicate the ability of a mage. Unfortunately, due to the nature of this ability, this item will only have a certain number of charges. “Durability”, one might say. There is no known way to recharge the durability of a given item, however, their are regents which can increase the durability. Durability is dependent on the knowledge of the alchemist, the item that was enchanted, the quality of the components, and a couple other smaller factors. Once the durability runs out, the item can never be alchemically infused again.

”Live” Alchemy

“Live” Alchemy is the second master skill available to the alchemist and, depending on the alchemist, will often require Magical Duplication to complete properly.

Live Alchemy is best described as the creation of creatures known as Homunculi.

The Homunculi is a servant or a child brought into existence be alchemy through complex means. The treatment of Homunculi as well as their intelligence differ. Some alchemists have treated them entirely like cannon fodder. Others have come scarily close to testing the gods and creating life.

Creation of the Body

Through the aetherium, all life is created. To some, this includes artificial life. Those wishing to create a Homunculi must first start with the body. The rules for what this can constitute are rather loose. Of course, an understanding of certain aspects regarding lift must be used to achieve this.

Bonecrafting and Artificing are both very useful to this process as it allows a body to be imbued with aetherium in a way that can allow a creature to move when it really shouldn’t be able to. Of course, for those who have this power, creating a Homunculi may seem rather useless when an undead thrall or a golem functions just as well.

Alchemy is forever and always the work around ability. Which means there’s a way to work around this little complication.

For those with a certain degree of understanding in the form of anatomy a body can be created. The nature of the body is the real question. For those who wish to try and animate a creature without the use of any magic, they need to be mindful that as soon as the Homunculi is created it will have to possess some degree of bodily function in order to live. Lesser degrees of magic can be used such as advanced ingredients being made into regents allowing for motion or magical mimic items imbued with the Bonecrafting and Artificing abilities necessary.

Which is easier depends on the alchemist in question. For those already well acquainted with creating mimicry items by the time they attempt Live Alchemy, it might be easier to try and make another mimicry. For those with a very large library of regents and their effects, knowing the proper combination of items can far outweigh the effort mimicry takes and can often be more beneficial.

The beauty of a Homunculi is the fact that until it has been properly animated and given a soul it constitutes as an ‘object’. Permanent alchemical effects can be applied and they will remain after the creation process is fully completed, allowing for a being made of steel that is as light as air. It’s all down to the skill of the alchemist and the abilities accessible to them. After full creation, the ability to add more effects depends on the Homunculi. Alchemical effects cannot be applied to creatures with a mortal soul. That being said, Homunculi that don’t possess a mortal soul can absolutely have effects applied later.

Giving it Life

For the creation of a Homunculi intended to be a servant this is probably the second most important part. “Life” is described as intelligence and motion, and they tend to vary depending once again on the alchemist and if the Homunculi in question has been gifted a soul. While harder than creating the body, it doesn’t rely on outside skills as much and can be easier to some.

There are certain combinations of regents which when applied can give the illusion of life even in creatures that have no souls. These regents are often extremely difficult to get, requiring to an alchemist to go through either combative hell or coin based hell to get even a smidgen of what’s required to get the effect they’re looking for.

These chemicals, however, don’t give true ‘life’ in the typical sense. A Homunculi can only perform what it’s been ‘programmed’ to do. This ‘programming’ for lack of a better work relies entirely on what the alchemist uses to give it life. Certain regents allow for intelligence, imbuing into the Homunculi very miniscule fractions of animalistic soul shards. Just enough in order to teach the creature complex tasks. Overly complex tasks with multiple steps aren’t possible for the soulless Homunculi though, and an understanding of things like emotions is entirely impossible.

Giving it Soul

The gift of soul is a dangerous and beautiful thing. It’s the gift of personality. The gift of though. The gift of free will. Beautiful and dangerous and to some people, an insult to the gods. So view it as an ‘attempt to play Raella’. And depending on the process in which the alchemist gives their creation a soul, it can be. To others, it is more like creating children through a different means.

This is the most deeply difficult part of the process for anyone who has truly thrown themselves in the depths of alchemy and dared to ask what they can do with their knowledge. While extremely, extremely rare, some alchemists have been able to create entirely sentient self sufficient persons on the same level as the Awoken who were gifted souls during the Sundering. These are few. There are a couple ways to go about this, and a couple different ways in which to purposefully or accidentally fall short.

It is possible to obtain certain regents from animals which can give a very basic soul to a Homunculi. These are often large chunks of animal or plant which have parts of the animal’s or plant’s soul still trapped within it. When used, the regent will imbue the Homunculi with the soul of creature. This is a dangerous process as when done incorrectly the Homunculi will keep the memories of the slain creature. This is much safer done with plants if this is the effect one is going for. This can provide a very basic understanding of certain emotion based concepts. Generally, you’ll get the same effect out of this Homunculi as a dog with opposable fingers. This is doubly true as they will only be as smart as a well trained dog.

The second method is similar. Sometimes before the soul of a mortal is retrieved, it lingers and waits to be picked up and delivered to its chosen after life. Again, this soul can be harvested as a regent of sorts and applied to a Homunculi. This can be a form of undeath, and often it can also be an insult to not only the gods but most people. It traps the soul into a new form, once that’s often very painful as the soul isn’t adjusted to this body. It isn’t meant to be in this body. It’s wrong. A sense of dysphoria can be sharply felt. Those person put into the Homunculi is given total free will unless otherwise apparent, such as certain regents being applied that will exert control over them. Alchemical compounds are a different method entirely. Any alchemical enhancements done to the body aside from those that better help the new body reflect the old will be extremely painful. Want the Homunculi to have burning punches? The soul will feel as though it’s hands are constantly getting third degree burns. Raella takes severe offense to this as it can often be cruel.

The third and final method is… a bit of a grey area. While the first is often widely accepted and the second is widely hated, this final method has split opinions and no one is entirely certain on the opinions of the dragon gods in its practice. It is possible the gather regents which mimic a soulless body in such a fashion it makes it look like a newborn that hasn’t received their soul yet. It makes the body appear to the dragons as though the body is an embryo waiting to be born. It is uncertain if this trickery is known or not, but it convinces the dragons that they need to bring a fresh soul and imbue it into the Homunculi. This makes it so that the soul is almost synergized to the body. In essence, it creates a person. No pain is associated with the experience of existing and the Homunculi in this case become identical to a mortal child. It will learn and grow and act as though it is a person, and it will respond to the treatment of it’s ‘parent’. Pre Applied alchemical compounds will feel natural, however, further compounds become impossible to apply.

The Alchemical Half-Life

While Alchemy can be used as a replacement for a lot of personal magics, it can sometimes pale in comparison to those magics. A notable detail about alchemy is called the Alchemical Half-Life.

Over time, items created by Alchemy will slowly start to degrade. The speed at which an item degrades depends on a lot of different factors. The quality of the crafted item, the skill of the alchemist in question, and the potency of the effect. A sword given the ability to be set ablaze might have a different half-life depending on the crafting process, but eventually regardless of how well it was crafted that item will either lose its ability or altogether break.

There are ways to replenish this half-life, but the process is often difficult and costly. Those who seek this option are encouraged only to use it for masterworks or dearly beloved items they don't wish to part with.

This degradation over time takes on two different forms, again, depending on the craft and the alchemist. The first is for the effect to slowly grow weaker and weaker over time, culminating in the item no longer triggering the effect. The second form of degradation is the less common of the two. After enough uses the item will just suddenly break. While items that lose their effect can be recharged or have a different alchemical process bound to them, a broken item is a broken item and often it just simply can't be fixed and must be discarded.

Leveling and Progression

Alchemy is a slow uphill trudge for most as the skill requires an in depth understanding of the components one is using and the effect they wish to achieve. Often times it’s also touch and go since there’s no one giant recipe book to teach someone exactly how many dragon’s teeth they’ll need in order to make a potion that will give someone the physical strength of a young dragon. In addition, alchemists are secretive with their recipes, and most are deeply competitive.

Alchemy can offer just the edge someone needs in a tight spot, be it a potion or an alchemically infused weapon. For someone looking to get into alchemy practicing in a safe environment is the best bet when it comes to learning, and early potions will often come out a toxic mess. A teacher is encouraged, however, it is possible for someone to learn entirely from scratch.

Learning from scratch is a dangerous process which will require the alchemist learning to put in even more work.

Proficiency

Novice

A novice level alchemist probably isn’t going to create anything useful. They’re reliant entirely on recipes and whatever knowledge they have from other skills. They’re very restricted in what they know how to do, and experimentation is fairly dangerous as they’re completely oblivious to the proper procedures associated with alchemical experimentation. Things like potions will often result in something disgusting and effectless at best. At worst, highly lethal. Other things like weapons and armor might manage to get the positive effect one was hoping for, along with a slurry of negative effects to go along with it.

Novices are encouraged to seek out a master or books before striking off on their own. A novice alchemist can only really use basic components without ruining them or getting extremely negative effects.

Apprentice

An apprentice of alchemy is someone who’s finally starting to get familiar with the process of alchemy and the way it interacts with the world. An apprentice is finally starting to take their first steps towards actual experimentation, though those with half a brain will be understandably cautious at first.

While negative effects are still expected in most of their creations, these effects can be removed through a refinement process. Potions are less likely to be toxic and things like weapons and armor are finally starting to become useful. An apprentice may even begin to tinker with someone more dangerous elements of alchemy.

It still isn’t advised for an apprentice to start working with advanced ingredients, though some do. Some succeed and others lose limbs.

Journeyman

A journeyman of alchemy is someone who’s truly gotten comfortable with alchemy. It’s applications, how it works, how to best refine the process for certain effects to outweigh others. Items created are finally starting to come out as intended, lacking the negatives found in the creations of an apprentice or novice.

A journeyman is starting the task of collecting a library of both effects and recipes. While not yet perfectly tailored to the individual alchemist, it is a step in the right direction. A journeyman is truly comfortable with the functions of alchemy as well and knows how to do experiments in a safe manner that is unlikely to result in terrible injury.

The most notable mark of the journeyman is the ability to finally get started working with advanced ingredients.

Expert

Those who survive to become experts are truly as their title implies. Experts. They’ve survived enough life threatening explosions and out of control reactions to be exceptionally skilled with keeping the majority of their experiments under control. Rarely will the experiment of an expert blow up in their face the same way it might for some, and when reactions do get out of hand they usually have a variety of safety measures in place to minimize destruction and harm of not only themselves but those around them.

The recipe book and ingredient list of an expert is vast, reflecting years of experience and experimentation. Most recipes will be adjusted to fit the particular alchemist as well.

Experts are well adjusted to the uses of advanced ingredients and are starting to add more and more of them to their recipe book. They’ve adjusted well to the difference between advanced and basic and know how to use both to make wonderful creations.

The creations of an expert alchemist slowly transition into powerful equipment that any traveler needs if they’re going somewhere dangerous. Expert is also the point where most will start to take apprentices.

Master

Master alchemists are the go to example for their craft. The things they create often end up moving from tools to actual works of art. A master alchemist will take extreme pride in anything they make, and often, these works show the dedication of the crafter.

A master has large swaths of recipes with descriptions about many ingredients, both basic and advanced. Careful measurements written with exact precision from years and years of experimentation. An experiment done by a master will almost never go wrong, and apprentices or novices are much safer when they place themselves in the hands of one such person. Recipes in their stash often have two sets of ingredients and instructions. One specific to the master and then a general one for future apprentices to follow.

Most masters have had at least one apprentice, and some consider it a true mark to being considered a master among one’s peers, however it isn’t required and some go their entire lives without an apprentice. That being said, there’s no better person to learn from than a master.