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The alchemist told me it would take the night to gather and prepare the herbs he would need. He worked all day and into the night. When dusk came, he told me to sleep, but I said I could not, so worried was I over my husband. Then the alchemist gave me an ointment and told me to apply it to my forehead so I would sleep. I did so, and while the alchemist worked through the night, I slept soundly. By the dawn the alchemist had boiled his finished concoction into a tea from which my husband drank. Soon after, the alchemist continued on his journey. By that nightfall, my husband was well again and I was overcome with joy.
Only a week later, the birthing pains came to me, earlier than I expected. The babe... the babe was dead. Not that it was a babe... Never afore had I seen such a hideous thing. I said I would do anything, but I did not expect that to save my husband, I would lose my child..."
- Reported to a scribe in Llaron, Cartagon by a woman from one of the outlying villages, TC 1329
The Ahlimites are an ancient and cohesive race. They distrust outsiders and jealously guard their secrets. When the Dyshanti invaded Ahlimis at the start of the Dyshanti War, many Ahlimites fled their homeland, bringing with them these secrets, previously unknown on the continent. One of these secrets is the art of alchemy.
Most of the Ahlimites on the continent live in secluded bands, cut off from and ignoring the rest of society. The Alchemists, however, seeking the funds to continue practicing their arcane skills, wander from city to city, accepting payment for their services and seeking the rare reagents required by their craft. Thus the Alchemists are often the first and only contact Thyrenacians have with Ahlimite society. Given the general secretive and dispassionate attitudes of the Alchemists, they only serve to increase the distrust and anxiety most Thyrenacians feel toward the Ahlimites.
Alchemists use their knowledge of how ichors and compounds combine and rearrange to achieve a wide range of potions and elixirs, which are then sold at extreme prices. The small number of Alchemists on the continent, combined with the difficulty of their craft, make their wares highly sought after and highly expensive. Only the richest of merchants can afford alchemic potions, and even they have to wait for a chance encounter with an Alchemist to purchase them.
The finest apothecaries depend on Alchemists to provide them with highly effective ointments, tinctures, and poisons. Wealthy smiths invest in alchemic compounds to be used in their craft, strengthening and refining weapons and armor, creating swords that can cut through stone and armor that is light but strong. Successful mercenaries and escorts use alchemic potions to increase alertness and endurance, as well as poisons to tip their weapons. Some noble houses employ alchemic truth serums in judgements and criminal cases.
Alchemists have no loyalties, and are often inscrutable in their motives. They have been known to heal children only to kill their parents, or help both sides of a noble feud, or offer to provide a service, then leave suddenly in the middle of the procedure, never to be seen again. They are concerned less with morality or the satisfaction of their customers than with the furthering of their studies and their craft. Alchemists will sometimes offer a healing, only to use the injured for their own arcane experiments, claiming that the healing did not take or that something else went wrong. The mystique of the Alchemist and the demand for their wares gives them the ability to act with a great deal of impunity.
Still, attempts in the past, most notably during the Great Schism, to eradicate the Alchemists and the continental Ahlimites in general do keep them from acting without some regard for authority. Alchemists will rarely anger the greater noble houses and try to remain in the good graces of the Ascenderat.
Alchemists usually take Ahlimite apprentices to pass on their knowledge. For many continental Ahlimites, apprenticeship is the only road out of poverty, and many parents offer their children to Alchemists in the hopes that the youths will be trained. The training procedure is a difficult one and takes many years. Alchemists experiment upon themselves as well as others, and if the apprentices are not careful, they can inflict great injury or death upon themselves.
Some say that the Alchemists have set up secret academies in remote locations. Given the rarity of the Alchemists, such academies, if they exist, would have to be quite small.
Last Modified 11/2/2003 2:40:22 AM