Alchemy

Alchemy is the act of mixing, boiling and distilling various substances to obtain their chemical properties and create potions and poisons. Alchemical ingredients include extracts from plants, animals minerals, undead, fungi as well as other more esoteric sources. Certain ingredients are very valuable to alchemists due to their rarity, many of which are extracts from monsters and creatures, leading to many enterprising hunters and farmers starting businesses to supply these rare ingredients. 
== Alchemist ==
An Alchemist gathers natural ingredients (also called reagents) growing in the world, and mixes them with a solvent (usually water or other liquids as a base) using alchemical apparatus to create solutions. To do this, the alchemist must find liquids with special qualities that will yield the proper results when mixed. The grade of the reagent and solvent will determine the potency of the product.
===Ingredients===
Also called reagents, the Dalmer distinguish alchemical and general ingredients. The former are used to make consumables specifically designed to give special benefits beyond HP restoration. The latter are used for cooking food. Combining both disciplines is a favored pastime for the dalmer, dishes and purified drugs with beneficial attributes but generally translates to making alchemical mixtures less disgusting.
=== Solvents ===
Solvents are the base in which ingredients (called reagents) are added to create solutions. Solvents are graded from natural, cleansed, filtered, purified, clear and pure. Popular solvents include water, cloud mist, tears, dew, grease and alcohol. 
=== Solutions ===
A solution is the general term that encompasses potions, which are solutions with beneficial effects, and poisons which are solutions with harmful effects. It is not to be confused with an elixir, which is a liquid that a spell can latch onto (and is thus whose effects are magical rather than chemical in nature). 
== Alchemy limitations and rules ==
Limit of solution drinking is 15 units before toxic levels are irreversible.
A potion's effect is always temporary, and has diminishing returns. Potions only affect the body that drinks it. 
When the effect isn't necessary (drinking a healing potion when already healed for example) there are side effects. Common side effects are euphoria, addictiveness, headaches, miction and cancer.
Mixing potions has dangerous effects, such as overreacting the previous effect.
Combat use potions are either too easy to uncork or too hard. Some cultures keep their opened potions clenched in their teeth while fighting to heal if injured.
The ease of access of such potions is why some cultures throw themselves blindly without any survival instinct, gambling on their ability to drink before their wounds kill them.
== Alchemical apparatus ==
Main Article: Alchemical Apparatus
Alchemy apparatus are devices and appliances that are used to craft solutions using ingredients and chemicals. 
== Disciplines ==
Alchemy has several disciplines, some of which eschew its classical roots in favor of the broader discipline of changing matter. The main disciplines are edimancy, summoning and transmogrification, which focus respectively on discovering the effects of ingredients, transportation of items, and the manipulation and transformation of matter. Summoning is the only alchemical discipline that the dalmer practice besides chemistry.
Alchemy is tangential to Elixir making, which is the creation of liquids that spells can latch onto for future use.
===Edimancy===
Main Article: Edimancy
Prospective alchemists often need to experiment with ingredients to gauge what effects can be created, usually by eating samples of ingredients. This practice is referred to as edimancy. Edimancy is the practice of determining the active effects of ingredients by consuming them. The other races are the main practitioners of edimancy, the Dalmers generalized lack of taste makes them very poor edimancers. In other race cultures, practitioners of Edimancy are at the forefront of public health. Their roles can go from sanitation, cooking, or as food testers. Edimancers also have their uses in adventures, with several paths of the craft that make them a useful addition to the group. While inherently dangerous, the advantages of the practice cannot be ignored, and the Dalmer tend to spy on other races with advanced edimancy for their results.
=== Summoning ===
Main Article: Summoning
Summoning is an alchemical discipline that concerns itself with the calling upon or summoning a supernatural agent into a controlled area, the alchemical circle. Also known as Lunar Alchemy, summoning is a common discipline to the Dalmer and the Other races. 
=== Transformation ===
Main Article: Transformation
Transformation is the alchemical discipline dedicated to changing the shape and the matter of things through its two disciplines, transfiguration and transmutation. 
== Other race alchemy ==
Alchemy is a common practice to all the races of the Weltan System in some shape or form.
The other races are much more diverse in their alchemical practices with or without a degree of scientific inquiry in their methods. Their potionmaking and recipes are often either the product of trial and error or religious beliefs. 
To the other races, common chemical products are spells in liquid form. The most common healing potion is antiseptic, coffee is considered a potion of sharpness or awakening, and love potions are mostly alcohol. Despite these examples, other genuine potions exist. 
=== Dalmer chemistry ===
Also referred to as alchemy, chemistry is the dalmer practice of the study of matter. While similar in objectives to other race alchemy, it differs greatly as it is treated as a science rather than an art form or religious practice. The Dalmer refer to their potions as solutions. 
Rather than drunk, solutions are imbibed epidermicaly or injected intravenously in order to grant the imbiber with its effects. Poisons are introduced into the target's blood stream by placing the vial into a special compartment that delivers it to the target. 
Category:Alchemy
Category:Dalmer Technology
Category:Unfinished articles
Category:Long Articles