> What do people think about alchemy in Glorantha? Who uses it, how
>does it work (does it bear much resemblance to medieval alchemy?)?
Medieval alchemy: what period do you mean?
I am pretty sure that the alchemy/chemistry described in Georg Agricola's books on mining (a 16th century German scholar who wrote 13 volumes on mining in Latin, which remained prime information on mining techniques well into the last century; worth having a look at just for the woodcuts, if not for the text) do show some of the most advanced techniques used by human Gloranthan miners, even though Gloranthan ores have a somewhat mythical background. Probing of ores on Earth was a pretty advanced science by 1560, and not all of a sudden. The identification of ores through magical means would be possible in Glorantha, but a detect spell won't tell anything about the mixture of ores found (this pertains only to gods' bones ground to dust in battle or whatever, of course).
Alloying is done by Gloranthans, and not just the Mostali - all coins (except magically coined wheels) are alloys, according to RQ2, which had some alchemical concepts mixed with some horrible D&Disms wrt blade venoms etc. Most of these alloys will be produced not by mixing the purified metals, but by mixing the ores before purification. At least this is how brass was known centuries before any metallurgist had seen elemental zinc, and likewise (and yet earlier) arsenic copper was known from mixing the ores, not the metals.
Metallurgists will have some (al)chemical skill and insights all over Glorantha, they will know the correct ores, salts and sands (to produce slack in th epurifying processes).
Another branch of alchemy collects the magical ingredients for rituals etc., not just crystalline, but as frequently from parts of magical entities (and which aren't in Glorantha?). Animal Lore and Plant Lore might cover some of this, but alchemy is the skill (or science) of collecting and transmuting all these components.
> The Mostali already had these techniques at the Dawn, perhaps many
>of their secrets passed to humans in the first council period?
And later. The humans of Dragon Pass have a long history of direct exposure to superior alchemy (the Dwarf and his Alchemical Transformer), and more than once human cultures learned a lot by imitating Isidilian's techniques or results, or even directly from him. Most (in)famous were the Remakers of the lower River valley (now Beast Valley) who were Orlanthi sorcerers and alchemists, during the 2nd Age. While their main culture seems to have been destroyed either in 1042 or by 1120, quite a lot of their knowledge will have survived in the Kethaelan cities. Less in Peloria, since the invaders left little of EWF-associated knowledge intact...
>I think the
>early elemental schools of sorcery are probably the original users of
>alchemy among humans, but I am unsure to what degree they simply stole from
>humans.
The Brithini most certainly have alchemists, and those cultures imitating them do as well. The lore of the pure metals (taken from hermetic traditions, I think, but as a chemist I am a lot more familiar with the materialistic achievements of the alchemists than with their - sometimes abstruse - theories) smacks of the Kingdom of Logic rather than from Mostali ways. IMO the Mostali might even have ways to define new Pure metals from their research...
> Of course, some 'alchemy' secrets e.g. many RQ2 systemic poisons,
>are really just a specific application of other knowledges. Many elves can
>produce fancy potions, for example, but this is by knowledge of plant lore
>and secret plants, not alchemy as such.
The potions of RQ2 are too much D&D-leftovers for my taste, with instant effects reproducing magical spells. Nothing against reproducing spell effects, but please not just by quaffing some liquid if it has some tangible effect other than pushing the body limits of the users. A hypothetical "potion" of Invisibility should be an ointment rather than a drink.
And to bind the magical effects the alchemists in my Glorantha use ground gods' blood as a carrier substance, along with blood and other carriers of life force. No permanent POW enchantments for potions, what would be the point? Alchemists use external sources for their magic, not internal sources (MP, POW) like sorcerers do.
> I think the metamagical basis of many alchemical theories is that
>the substance within the 'hermetically' sealed vessel is cut off from the
>effects of the normal world, in effect becoming like a small piece of the
>heroplane, where simple physical actions then have a magical refining
>effect.
This is an interesting approach, reminiscent of Salomo's bottles. The spirit or essence of some substance is held in the vessel... This makes distillation quite widespread. <g>
Looks like there could be several approaches to alchemy in Glorantha, using different traditions. Any ideas about the Vithelan lore of the substances?
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