Alchemy is magic that focuses on the manipulation of chemical and physical compounds and forces to produce direct effects upon the world. Another field of magic where the line between the scientific and magical is very blurry, alchemy is fundamentally about the transmutation of one type of force or material into another. The techniques of alchemy combine what we would understand as mundane chemistry in our world with magical techniques. Alchemy predates the Archmages by many centuries, though Sorvald pioneered many of the modern techniques, particularly medical ones.
Minor Alchemy
^8c2c0a Or simply “alchemy”, these are the techniques that were traditionally classified as alchemy before the innovations of archmage Lutekai.
Transmutation
Almost all alchemy is fundamentally based on transmuting one substance into another. Often, heat, cold, or arcane energy is used as a catalyst to reconfigure one material into another at the atomic level. Most transmutation techniques created by Sorvald are slow and conducted in a lab with tools.
With the appropriate knowledge, transmutation magic can be used to produce powerful medicines and materials or convert common materials into rare or valuable ones.
Faster methods of transmutation were pioneered by Lutekai when he worked as Sorvald’s student before he eventually went on to found his own unique offshoot of alchemy. These effects tend to be less reliable or more narrow than what can be achieved with time, care, and patience. A skilled transmuter with a laboratory of resources and time can produce an almost infinite variety of miracles for any situation. Meanwhile, the fast transmutation techniques pioneered by Lutekai are often hyper-specialized to create a specific effect under specific/narrow circumstances.
Medical alchemy can manipulate the flesh, healing wounds that might not otherwise be repairable through normal medicine.
Spell Examples
- Sorvald’s Ignition
- Transmute materials
- Carbon transformations
- Lead to gold
- Petrify/unpetrify
- Potion crafting
- Cure disease
- Remove poison
Lifeforce Manipulation
For as long as alchemy has been a discipline, alchemists have searched for the previously hypothetical essence of life itself, which they theorized could be used to extend or create life. Though there are some recorded instances of successful attempts, their methods were never clearly documented in a replicable way before Sorvald, who carefully guarded these secrets for all but his most trusted students. What has become widely known since Sorvald became an archmage is the long-suspected fact that the essence of life is contained within the blood.
Life force manipulation allows for more advanced techniques in alchemical medicine, and advanced techniques that approximate or even potentially create true immortality. Liches and vampires are both products of life force manipulation. These techniques can also be used to transfer life energy from one being or another, and to create homunculi.
Spell Examples
- Drain life
- Create life
- Phylactery
- Stasis (freeze life force delaying death in a destroyed body or disease progression, for example)
Major Alchemy
^7bb4e8 Alchemy is traditionally focused on the most minute states of matter and was considered separate from elemental magic. For much of history, elemental magic has been either an intuitive practice fueled by emotion or one heavily involved with trial and error, where a single spell might take a lifetime to discover. Lutekai upended this dynamic by showing how the minute changes of alchemy were the crux behind elemental casting. Stepping out from under Sorvald’s tutelage, he founded what he called ‘major alchemy’, or the use of alchemical principles to produce grand effects. Whereas traditional alchemy is generally perfectly consistent, working with the exact distributions of ingredients to produce transmutations, major alchemy often relies on chain reactions and probabilities to cascade minor effects into big ones.
Elemental Magic
Elemental magic is ancient. The oldest recorded instances involve casters channeling their emotions to be in line with a particular element to bring it under their sway. While this sort of magic is still practiced and taught in some parts of the world, it is not so widely known. The more scientific side of elemental magic developed slowly for many centuries. Wizards slowly, through trial and error, concocted spells that could produce effects like hurling fireballs or conjuring water from the air. Just one of such spells might be a wizard’s life’s work, and these spells would often cease to function if one made even the smallest modifications to their formulas.
The study of elemental magic was systematized by Lutekai, who realized that all of these early elemental spells could be explained by the principles of alchemy. With this understanding, it became relatively simple to extrapolate new fire manipulation spells, for example, from ones that had already been created.
Spell Examples
- Stochastic Ignition
- Fireball
- Ice spike
- Wind blast
- Lightning bolt
- Control element
Mechanical Magic
Mechanical magic may have more in common with Sorvald’s alchemy than Lutekai’s major alchemy, and both fields certainly use it, but it is often studied alongside Major Alchemy simply because Lutekai was such a pioneer of its methods. For as long as there is evidence of mortals using magic, there is evidence of the use of staves and wands as tools for channeling magical energy in specific ways. Fundamentally, mechanical magic is based on the understanding that magical energy reacts differently to different physical materials, and these materials can be used to store, delay, or modify parts of a spell.
Ancient mechanical magic could be surprisingly advanced, and in particular, some groups of goblins historically have built impressive systems of magical circuits. Lutekai’s genius in mechanical magic was not so much in inventing new technology (though he did some of this as well), but in seeing the potential for mass production in some designs. Under Lutekai, gun staves were produced en masse for soldiers who needed no magical training to fire them, railway systems connected distant cities across Jespark, and magical lanterns were made affordable to Jesparki peasants.
Invention Examples
- Magical wands/staves
- Trains/vehicles
- Magical guns
- Magical lights
- Magical circuits, traps, automated spells
- Magical automatons
Advanced Alchemy
Sometimes also referred to as “total alchemy, through a synthesis of techniques from the various strains of alchemy, well-studied alchemists can produce a variety of unique effects. The fine manipulation of materials combined with special mechanical tools can allow casters to manipulate core forces such as light, magnetism, and sound, producing effects such as beams of concentrated destructive light or visual/auditory illusions.
The manipulation of light, shadow, and sounds are far more ancient arts than this, but as with many other branches of magic it was systematized scientifically by the archmages.