Alchemy

Alchemy is the mixture of ambiently magical, natural items such as ground crystals, spices, herbs, and some Wylstream conducting plants. The combination of certain items and merging of their matter can create other items or merge/change effects.

Ben is one such user of Alchemy, but he is entirely unaware of this. Because of some of the materials he's come to use for some of his pastries, he has unknowingly mastered the creation of sweets which grant inspiration and focus to those who take part in his deserts.

The reason for alchemy is because while counter spells can undo curses in most cases, magical afflictions caused by substance must be undone with substance, and sometimes cross cause and effect remedies from alchemy to spell or spell to alchemy. In some cases, both are required simultaneously.

Potions

Most potions can be stored in almost any form, but some may require specific conditions or containers depending on their nature and ingredients.

Cure for Whiteprick poisoning

3 Teaspoons of bloodstone salt
1 Azurebell mushroom
Root of 3 stonesnares
1 tankard of light alcohol

Boil the ingredients into light alcohol (mead will do) until it turns into a syrup like paste, then water it down into a drinkable solution.

Healing essence

Vallibell pedal (120 pedals) concentrate
Bluespider stem juice (50 stems)
Root of 5 Stonesnares

Soak the Vallibell pedals for 5 days in one half cup of plane strong alcohol until they dissolve to falling apart. Sift out the pedal remains and slowly simmer the alcohol out until only one tablespoon of liquid remains. (It must simmer for no less than 5 hours on constant watch and can not be rushed or the extract will burn and become useless, the slower the better). Use mortar and pestle to grind dried out root of stonesnare into a dry paste, then add the Bluespider stem juice and continue mixing until it becomes a wet paste. Add the Vallibell concentrate and mix vigorously for five minutes. Add the mixture into a small, single dose glass or crystal container only and fill to two thirds with plane alcohol and juice from squeezed apples, fill the rest with mead and cork with wax. These potions must be consumed in whole, all at once per bottle, otherwise the effects are too subtle to influence the body to a decent effect.

Minerals and Ore

Hard stone and mineral materials are often required for their magical conduit nature in order to enhance or alter the effects of potions, or even as a basic ingredient for some potions at all.

Thorm

Dangerous to gather, incredibly expensive and difficult to find in trade, but less so compared to it's closest similar element (Ember Crystal), Thorm is a lesser form of Ember which can act as a kind of conduit to general magic. At the basis, crystals and ore of magical nature form from an element known as Thorm. Crystals of the Wylstream form naturally embedded with Thorm. It is impossible to manufacture Crystals as they absolutely only work and become what they are when they form by natural process, otherwise the manufactured attempts fall apart and fail to hold any magic. Crystals attuned to a certain magical type of the Wylstream can focus ones ability to use the Wylstream slightly beyond their natural ability and work in more detail. However, there is also normal Thorm which when is found raw and unattuned can loosely strengthen any magical flow. Thorm is easier to find than he Black crystals, and is most useful in alchemy. Thorm has two appearances, Reddish orange if collected from the borders of the Emberlands, and a light blue when collected from deep cavernous locations and mined. They can be mixed together as dust to create a kind of violet looking Thorn, but their uses are identical to one another.

Practical Uses
When ground down, Thorm appears as a dust and can be used to detect magic as it glows and reacts to magic by dancing ever so slight near items which are enchanted with a strong enough magic. Thorm dust can also be used to empower certain types of magical items and artifacts. Crystals can be used in large scale, but are incredibly dangerous and difficult to carry at a decent or effective scale. Most people create a Wax using ground Crystal dust and a few other things. Waxes and dust allow someone to use a lesser version of magical enhancement, but last longer without the need to continuously imbue the excess power like with a crystal.

Alchemy Uses
In both crystal and dust form, Thorm is one of the most useful elements of advance alchemy. It can be used to create potions necessary for curing magical or paranormal afflictions, as well as interact with things of such natures in other ways.

Ember

harnessing and providing as a conduit for all forms of magic in full fluency. Ember Crystal appears as its name suggests. It is a glowing reddish-orange crystalized stone.

Uses
Ember Crystal is a magic scrambler. Any form of magic which passes through it is transformed somehow in some way, seemingly random, and without any way of controlling it. This makes Ember as a magical property excellent at breaking the continuity of runes, casts, and constructs held together or influenced by magical enchantments.

Behavior
Ember can be relatively chaotic, floating strong wisps of energy around in the form of embers. These embers will idly interact with things around them and especially so with magic and living things. As if it were conscious of magic and life.

Ashen Dust

Ashen dust is as it sounds, but with an incredibly high concentration off residual Wylstream energy. Ashen dust appears similarly as a Raven's feather. Black but with subtle reflective, rainbow like shimmering.

Uses
Ashen dust functions like a magic nullifier or muting agent, any magic which travels through it is reduced relatively significantly and can sometimes dispel most lower end casts.

Behavior
Ash dust settles and is attracted to magic items and Wylstream influence, slowly accumulating on enchanted items like dust and diminishing the magical influence as it gathers until cleared off.

Ithrom

Ithrom is an incredibly rare metal highly conductive for magic. It is one of the most dense and difficult materials to work with. Even most Master Smiths can only get enough, let alone craft it as thin plating over other metals.

Locating
Ithrom is located in deep mines at the core of mountain rock. Because of this, the veins are incredibly scattered and thin, usually covered or buried deep i solid rock. Due to its density difference to other rock and metals, it also creates an unstable environments for any caves or caverns made or found near it.

Mining
Because Ithrom makes all other stone around itself unstable, it is one of the most difficult materials to mine. When digging to or striking around/on to break and collect the Ithrom, tremors and cave ins are incredibly common and a high risk for those seeking it. Ithrom veins are often also very small and do not produce a great quantity at a time. To properly collect Ithrom, one must have an axe that is either enchanted especially for Ithrom mining, or have at least a Ithrom plated pick axe, but these tend to wear out far faster than axes which are both Ithrom as well as specially enchanted. Getting a tool that is both enchanted and made of Ithrom for Ithrom mining is incredibly rare, if not simply unheard of.

Crafting
To reach temperatures sufficient to melt Ithrom, one requires a "Grander Forge". Grander Forges are especially enchanted to yield a fire hotter than any typical forge. Usually only RuneCraft Forge Masters can operate such stations. Hammering and molding solid pieces of Ithrom is a task among some of the highest skills of craftsmanship. Because Ithrom is so unyielding and can in fact "fight back" when being worked on, it resists being merged or mixed with other metals, is incredibly difficult to enchant and rune, and requires the highest tier tools in the hands of a Master to work with.

Plating
To plate Ithrom onto another item, it must first be smelted and hammered into incredibly thin sheets, then smashed into flecks, and finally ground into powder. This powder can then be mixed with other plating materials to encrust onto other metals. A Ithrom plated blade can go without need to be sharpened for nearly a hundred years when in use, indefinite if left untouched.

Uses
Ithrom, once enchanted, can retain one of the highest potency of magical flow without needing to find the rarer and more potent Thorm or Blackstone, making it a coveted material for the highest kings seeking to create enchanted items. But even for the greatest authorities of power, finding enough to create anything large is neigh impossible. Usually it is used in small item enchants and plating other metals.

Blacktone

This ore is relatively difficult to find and appears very similar to obsidian, but with a slight inner glow. It can be found similarly to Thorm in that it manifests in deep, dark locations of underground Wyl, as well as the Emberlands in its later stages or the Ashenlands.

Uses
Blackstone can be used as a basic conduit for learning and seeing/sensing the magic of The Wylstream. One would meditate while harnessing their attuned Wylstream and it will become a learning enhancing agent for the one learning the Wylstream. It can only be carved by a stone known as Grauv which can only be found in the Ashenlands.

Behavior
Blackstone acts as a very basic magic conduit. The Blackstone can be attuned to by meditating over it in the earliest stages of one's magical learning. It can help focus basic casts and harness more finesse in the intended acts of one's casts.

Corok

Corok is a gravitational ore which typically resides in the floating mountain biomes. It appears as a slightly darkened silvery material like iron, but with a more reflective natural smooth surface.

Uses
Corok does not adhere to the nature of gravity and can either make objects heavier or lighter depending on how it is used. With a great enough quantity, it can make items lighter, or even levitate other items. For this reason the floating mountains and islands often give off that signature shimmer as it is described to look on its own.

Behavior
Coron can fluctuate naturally between floating and resting, slowly changing it's weight over time depending on where it is and how much Wylstream is influencing it in the area ambiently. To store it, it is best to use a mildly weighted container so that it is not too light to float away, nor too heavy when the material rests.

Herbology and Flora

The nature of plant life allows for not only a diverse set of biological material for potion crafting, but also the life essence itself can sometimes act as conduit for natural flows of Wylstream and magic, altering other material and acting as base ingredients of potions.

Whiteprick

A white flower with a green stem and small deep dark red thorns. The leaves are prickly and hard, making it all around generally uncomfortable to pluck, on top of being dangerous. It excretes a dangerous poison from the thorns which causes severe fever and green rash around the thorn cuts. Fortunately the whiteprick grows in small isolated groves of its own and does not often spread far and therefore not easy to happen upon and be poisoned by mistake.

Effects
The white pedals can be used like cotton safely on their own as long as they are rinsed off as they possess none of the poison which is generated in the thorns alone. The stem is thin and due to its being covered in thorns is relatively useless. The leaves can be roasted into a kind of tobacco with a very sharp flavor in the mouth, but offers a pain relief to headaches. The roots are necessary for creating the cure for anyone who might be affected by the poisonous thorns.

Vallibell

A red flower with purple seeds in a slightly yellowed inner bud. The stem is a slightly yellow speckled but otherwise a natural green. The leaves have a slightly prickly edged look, but all around the flower is soft and gentle to the touch. The roots . This flower is uncommon and only grows in cooler climates with rich cool weather greenery. This flower is the more common for medicinal use as it has a very generalized but usually weaker set of effects.

Effects
Ingesting or applying a Vallibell to wounds or openings in the body will have slightly different effects depending on which part you use. The pedals are fragile and easily dissolved to soak into the skin and provide slight amounts of easily absorbed nutrients for small cuts and abrasions which prevents scarring and makes it easier to fight off infection. The pedals along with the buds can also be ingested for soothing effects which last a few hours on their own even without modification. The stems will create a slight stinging sensation when the contents applied to cuts or abrasions, but in doing so act as a kind of anti-biotic by cleaning the wound as it generates a kind of mild acidic solution which when nullified is left as nothing but general nutrients the body can absorb safely. When ingested, the stems can help calm an unwell stomach. When ground up and applied to any wetted or exposed flesh, the leaves act as a numbing agent. The roots themselves are emulsifiers and help many other basic ingredients, even of other plants, to mix together which would not normally.

Sunset Blossom

A flower with a red stem, yellow-orange bud and white pedals fading to violet at the edges with the coloration all fading into one another at the connections to form a kind of vibrant sunset color pallet. The roots fading from the reddish stem color to a deep blueish color the further down it grows. The flower is sturdy and the fibers of the stem can be useful for weaving when dried out.

Effects
Pedals when ingested don't do much, but are soothing and relieve pain from burns and scrapes. The bud has a chemical reaction with light alcohol like mead, saliva, or even the fibers from the stem of a Vallibell to create a kind of warming agent, generating a small amount of heat. The stem fibers can be used to weave into bandages and are very clean and sterile, making them very useful for covering open wounds safely. The leaves are small, but are useful as a mint like flavor addition to things. Typically the leaves are only used to help make poor tasting medicine taste better. The roots must be ingested after being ground up and mixed with a strong alcohol. After being boiled as such, the effects of the root solution will help with high fever and help the body cool itself

Flare Reed

With dark red roots which fade into an orange coloration as it reached the stem. The stem fading from red-orange into a yellow-orange as it reached the blossoms. The blossom itself is white inside with bright yellow bloom which glow a bioluminescent orange-gold in the dark, remaining in bloom later into the night until about sunrise at which point they begin to close in the early morning and don't bloom again until about half day.

Effects
The blossoms themselves are toxic and can cause irritation and rash when applied to any open wound, exposed flesh, or sensitive area. When it brushes across the skin it's not much of an issue outside of causing something like that of an allergic reaction. In volume, the blossoms create more troublesome rashes which could then be dangerous enough to evolve into boils and blisters which could become infected if not treated. The stems will cause severe abdominal pain which could evolve into fatal compilations such as dissolving the stomach lining, but can be boiled and then dried and made into a kind of poor man's wheat to be safely eaten once the toxins are boiled out. The roots are the most dangerous, they cause swelling when ingested and if mixed with a few of the right ingredients will be undetectable and will close one's airway and halt the breathing for about two minutes. If one cannot hold their breath this long, they will suffocate and pass out and die if the brain does not receive sufficient oxygen. The roots however are incredibly small, and it requires the roots from at least twenty flare reeds to make an amount sufficient to kill someone, lest they be sickly, too old, or too young. The leaves of a flare reed are entirely harmless, but are great for weaving due to their length and width.

Blue Spider

A green fern with blue veins running up the stems and into the leaves, when viewed from above and seeing the core of the plant in the center resembles a blue fuzzy spider.

Effects
When mixed with any other material, the blueish juices from the veins of a blue spider can make any medicine or poison flow through someone's body effortlessly and undetected by any antibodies. This makes the fern perfect for quickly administering medicine or thoroughly poisoning a target.

Stonesnare

With charcoal gray flower buds and dark green leaves across the vines, the stonesnare wraps around rocky surfaces and grows in higher climates in cold weather. Usually found on the side and in crevices of rock walls and faces, making them relatively difficult to collect.

Effects
When the roots of this plant are ground up, the material controls medicine dosage by steadying the ingestion. Any medicine or antidotes it is used in can be absorbed into the body slowly which ensures it is not processed before all the poison and all parts of the body can be reached, ensuring even distribution.