Metalchemistry

For the last time, we are not only concerning ourselves with the essence of Metal. It is Meta-Alchemistry, not Metal-Alchemistry.

Metalchemistry is the study of the manipulation and transformation of material properties with magic. It does include the concepts of an Alloymagician, but extends beyond just fusing various metals together.

Metalchemistry divides the materials into the categories of Metals, Organic, Ceramic, Fluids, and Aetherials. These materials have similar properties concerning the ability to be fused together, creating new compounds with combined or even new properties.

It is very likely that most magical artifacts of the early times unknowingly incorporated some types of metalchemical fusion, leading to the creation of artifacts with magical properties. Later artifacts were working more with crystals and thus worked off the principles of the exchange and transformation of magical energy.

Rules of Fusion (Excerpt)

These rules are only a vague excerpt of some central concepts. These are not universal, as there are several exceptions to these rules.

Materials of its own category can be easily fused among themselves. The stability of the product generally decreases from metals to ceramics, organics, fluids, and aetherials. Adding to the stability often requires additional influx of magical energy.

Fusing often requires one material to be the foundation - most properties will be derived from this. Usually, this is the material with the highest ratio within the product, though some dominant materials are notable exceptions to his rule, for example, Palatium and Shimmergas in the Aetherials.

The foundation material usually determines the category of the end product. This can vary after multiple fusions, when the quantities are no longer adding up to the specific category. The calculations are usually complicated and not always deterministic. It has long been proposed to add additional mixture-categories to account for these variances.

With Metals as foundation, you can fuse most other materials in it with average magical effort. Both Organic and Ceramic materials can easily fuse with each other and metal; the effort to fuse with fluids and aetherials is slightly above average. Fluids as a foundation can easily fuse with most other materials, but the stability varies considerably; Fusions with aetherials into Fluids can be surprisingly stable.

Products of Fusion can themselves be a foundation or component of a new Fusion, call Fusion-Chaining. The order and quantity of these can have vastly different outcomes, leading to sometimes superior materials.

Did you know...?

Quite controversially, glass is considered a Fluid in most cases. More intuitively it does, however, demonstrate ceramic properties as well.

Bones are typically considered organic material. The bones of Dwarves and Dragons are demonstrating metallic properties.

It is frowned upon to use blood in metalchemistral fusions. However, some medicinal scholars have found some medicinal uses to analyze for certain illnesses with certain metalchemical reactions.