Prelude: The Alchemist

The Alchemist

Alchemists are often likened to wizards, but those that believe they are one and the same would be wrong in their assumption that conjured magic is the same as concocted magic. While magicians and the like suffer through immense pain to bring their skills up to par, an alchemist only need the right ingredients and an affinity for their kind of magic. In other words, an alchemist's skills are based on what elixirs they can concoct, while wizards and magicians work to conjure somethings from nothings. However, I believe their type of magic does not exactly come from nothing; it may be more in exchange for some sort of life force or other such energy. But since alchemists generally do not care to be aware of such things, whatever the case may be, it is only to remain a wizard’s concern.
Though not seen as quite as powerful as some famous and last-remaining wizards, there are many things an alchemist can do that others cannot. Take for instance the infamous alchemist, Mortis Mortimer, who specializes in bringing the dead back to life as undead servants, or Peppermint Portly, who can grow terribly dubious plant life, or even Evanomer Springen, who can conjure storms and shoot out lightning from his hands by rubbing the right mixture between his palms.
Others yet have succeeded in created monstrosities, like peacock feathered jaguars or four-eyed demon dogs. Some have even gone so far as to create a truly mocking mockingbird, which is far worse a creature than any of those carnivorous and gruesome predators, though it may not seem so horrifying at first glance. Compared to the insane, these particular alchemists, who practiced their sadism by creating such a bird, were very much those who should not be trifled with; they, with the boldness that they had to give a human tongue to beasts with no brains, usually were birdbrains themselves. Very dangerous, indeed… Alas, it is just as well that many such beasts and monstrosities have been able to escape their masters over the years, which has resulted in them breeding with local livestock, fauna, and other natural born creatures. Now the world is full of strange chimeric things that have become natural, independent, and hungry. Especially for mankind.
However, not all things are as bad as they seem. For example, another famous yet still unknown alchemist thought to enchant armors to life, and built castles for them to guard (though his interests were only in those golems and not the castles). At one point in his seemingly sole enchanted endeavor, he thought he might try his hand at enchanting the largest set of armor he was able to commission from the armory, which was as large as they could make it. So large was it that it in fact dwarfed the castles he built for them to guard, and so, having succeeded in enchanting said armor, he at once set it about to protect an unnamed mountain devoid of any life upon its snowy peaks. And like all things impossible to overcome, humans found a way around the impossibility, mostly by digging a tunnel underground or flying over it, and built upon that mountain a city for them to live in, which now settles safe from any enchanted beast or unnatural creature that roams about near those icy peaks. Named Muniarc, the armor-guarded mountain-city is now the main capital city of the northern nation.
With the art of wizardry and magicry dying, it seems the time has now come for alchemy to take its place as the ruling monarch over its magic forebearers. It is curious what this changing tide will bring, but let us simply hope that the constant hunt for magical ingredients does not result in the destruction of what life we had sought to preserve so far.

- A page from The Collector’s Diary