Just going to leave my reply here because quote is messed up:
Ooh, that sounds like a good idea! So, for instance, you can transmute rock or metal into a weapon, but you couldn't transmute something like water into a weapon because they don't fall under the same element!
Yes. That's the idea.
really well.
Now I want to write a story surrounding that idea. :P
Yes, they are interesting ideas. Though I was thinking: Would it be better if we didn't stick with the basic four, but made a more extended list: Water (liquids), air (gases), fire (which would represent energy in its non-material form I guess), Earth, which could represent only solid nonmetals, while metals had their distinct 'element', (and one should not forget about plasma). So, what I basically propose is that maybe metals and nonmetals should be distinct. What do you think of that?
Also, Mercury? What would we do with that? Is it liquid, metal or is it a convenient material that's both and can be used for both water and metal/earth alchemies?
|
|
EARTH |
WATER |
AIR |
FIRE |
|
EARTH
|
EARTH |
WOOD |
SAND |
METAL |
|
WATER
|
WOOD |
WATER |
ICE |
STEAM |
|
AIR
|
SAND |
ICE |
AIR |
LIGHTNING |
|
FIRE
|
METAL |
STEAM |
LIGHTNING |
FIRE |
Also, fire is plasma and mercury is a metal.
Metals being their own thing I can definitely understand... we need to think of a way in which all the elements will be practical, because I can only see earth really being consistently useful. :P
But I was more like thinking that Fire should represent energy (in its non-material energy) considering that what we experience as fire is in fact photons and heat.
About the Fire thing, I was thinking that a Fire Alchemist could be taking some forms of energy and turn it into others. For instance, they could use the energy of the chemical bonds in an object to create fire or other kinds of energy. Of course, that would mean the object would dissolve or something, but it is the necessary sacrifice. This of course would work only if we use my interpretation of fire.
You could turn some gas into Carbon monoxide to poison your enemies? :P
I don't really know about everything.
Earth: Solids
Water: Liquids
Air: Gases
Fire: Plasmas (or energy, as you suggest)
The fire thing sounds like it works well - I have a mental image of someone placing their hand on a table, which then crunbles to dust whilst with their other hand they unleash a burst of FYAAAAAHHH!
This has become so in-depth I kinda want it to be the norm for magic in the KOTOS universe... :P (I guess if that were the case the coloured wizards and their apprentices would have philosopher's stone-type objects to augment their abilities)
It'd be hard to make it the norm in the KotOS Universe, because there has already been enough utilisation of magic with no indications that it's been through the ways of alchemy. But maybe we could make some other story about it at some point.
I've been thinking about the limitations of each one - when it comes to combat, I'd say that the only practical branches would be earth and your branch of fire manipulation - assuming the necessary resources were nearby... we should probably ponder that next...
On another note, I was wondering: Is it really necessary that alchemy is always succesful? And if the answer is no, the next question is would failure necessarily mean just failure to do any magic, or could the results be more... varying (aka interesting! :P)?
As for the success - well, I think that alchemy of this type is all about control. Say you're trying to create a wall out of the ground in front of you. Press your hands to the ground and manipulate the mass-energy of that object. What you also have to do is ensure that you get a straight wall, and that you're controlling the energy - if you're not, pillars of rock and dirt will just start randomly flying everywhere.
SO. According to that, less control could be very effective in a fight. :P Â
- Imagines Peragrine as a Erratic Alchemist.*
- D