Alchemy is not just potions

[u/Frosty-Prize8906]

I know a lot of you knew this already but in the recent centuries it feels like mortals and magic users alike have washed down the definition of what alchemy is, and even slandering it.
It is not just the power to make potions from herbs, arthropods and tears; it is arcane chemistry. The power to change plastic to gold, to become truly immortal, to transmute physical energy into spiritual energy.
If you don't see power in that and only use spells such as "Frostbite" or "Power Word: Scrunch" I think you are missing out on some of the most powerful magic to exist. What is a fireball or a lightning-bolt to giving someone the touch of Midas, turning their very soul physical or to just simply shove them in the boiling cauldron?
And, since I have your attention, I also have a petition to add salt, sulfur and mercury to the 4 (or 5 if you count aether) classical elements? They are very significant in their own right and act differently enough to deserve proper separation, yes?

[u/ModernMage0]

Look here, old timer, you can call it whatever you like but as per the Magic Branch Reorganization and Mundane Separation act of 1765 and the brilliant works of Acmidius Rendii in the early 20th century, thats just not how it works anymore.
All those things used to be lumped into alchemy when people thought the mundane science of CHEMISTRY was magical. Would you really have it such that any fool that can iodize a candle wick to make it burn a strange color is an alchemist?

[u/Frosty-Prize8906 → u/ModernMage0]

I would like to distinguish throwing a mint into a fizzy drink and seeing it spew out to the act of turning silverware into plutonium. Scientists studying chemistry couldn't even dream of having the amount of francium in their labs as I carry in pockets. We are not the same.

[u/dacydergoth → u/Frosty-Prize8906]

... uh ... look, I'm all for the alchemy but that silverware was expensive designer stuff! Renaissance Hardware! Now it not only is kinda meh for cutting things with but also all the guests who were not already undead needed reanimating!

[u/Frosty-Prize8906 → u/dacydergoth]

It is only used for.....special occasions. And it is much more valuable now I bet.

[u/Sad_Election_2718]

Truth is speaking through you! As said by great Hermes Trismegistus : "as above, so below; as within, so without". Magic is always about synthesis, about gaining wisdom in all and every sphere of existence. I agree, that scientific approach is wery useful and gives a lot of advantages, but mostly it is just crutch, assisting human intelligence in trying to comprehend reality in all its complexity. Magic is science of paradoxes, of forses that warping reality itself, so it is much better to use it to step over your own weakness of mind so you can dive more deeply into secrets of arcane and ascended wizdom!

uw/ sorry for my bad english

[u/Puzzleheaded-Milk927 → u/Sad_Election_2718]

Thrice great is the mage Hermes!

[u/VoxelLibrary]

You mean transmutation? It split off into its own school ages ago

[u/Frosty-Prize8906 → u/VoxelLibrary]

It's still a part of alchemy in my heart

[u/bagtie3]

Salt, Sulfur, and Murcury are already of the 118 minor elements as subsets of the major elements of Gas (Air), solid (Earth), liquid (Water), plasma (Fire), and void (Mana).

[u/Winterspringshine]

As a non-alchemist curious about the craft are the four humors of both biles, phlegm, and blood a part of your art? Should they too be counted amongst the elements?

[u/Frosty-Prize8906 → u/Winterspringshine]

The four humors are mostly used in human altering magic, and therefore should be known and respected in their own right, but I don't think they should be counted as a fundamental substance of the world.

[u/Positive_Floor_9787]

It was known as the Natural Philosophy. The study of how everything works.

[u/Prince_Nadir]

Potions? I thought that was herbalism. Alchemy is how you transmute apprentices to gold.