Very small nitpick on an otherwise fine piece of writing - Tanians grotto is not the chamber with the painting in it, its the one with the burning water. The burning grotto itself could be an example of God Learner style alchemy at its height....
Alchemy
As Peter points out, the God Learners probably used something about alchemy. It seems very reasonable to assume that the God Learners talent with elemental related sorcery is connected to their alchemical abilities. Quite possibly alchemical lore and elemental lore and runic classification are all tied together in God Learner thought.
I think the alchemical tradition (by no means all 'alchemical' techniques are part of this tradition) originated with QUicksilver Mostali, and first became a tradition among humanity with the meetings of the Quicksilver Mostali and the Malkioni Elemental sorcery schools around the time of the first council, or possibly earlier.
I'm not quite sure where the 'organic' parts come from though - doesn't really seem like the sort of thing that Mostali or Brithini would mess with that much. I like the idea that a lot of this has crept in from Vadeli thought, but thats only because I like Nicks concept of the Vadeli.
>NB: by alchemy, I do not mean the general practice of making
>healing poultices and their ilk which are known worldwide.
Nor do I - there are a variety of things that might be covered by similar rules that are not part of the same magical tradition - like the use of ghost bark and spirit moss.
>What should be possible in glorantha by top grade alchemists
>(ie magus level):
I think most of these things are possible - but even to a magus level alchemist, many of these things involve heroquest style activities as well as alchemical techniques. Mind you, I believe this about almost any sort of Gloranthan magic.
For example
>Magic Crystal Manufacturing: Connected with the Machine City.
>Possibly requires heaps of blood.
probably requires quantities of divine blood of some sort - hunting parties on to the spirit plane, or some sort of magical trap and lure system, or magical mining.
(actually, I'm not sure if the Machine City ever manufactured magical crystals. They certainly manufactured magical swords, and the manufacture seemed to involve magic crystals, but they may have had some other source rather than manufacture the crystals directly. It seems plausible that they might have manufactured them, if that is possible, though. )
>Philosopher's stone: turn base metal into gold.
I'd be interested to know if there is any Gloranthan precedent for this - while immortality seems to be a very common alchemical aim for earthly alchemy, turning base metals into gold is, AFAIK, restricted to the Western European tradition, so I'm not sure if it should necessarily be an element of Gloranthan alchemy. Then again, Quicksilver alchemy is concerned with changing the nature of things, so changing from one metal to another might well be part of it.
If they can produce precious metals, I would imagine they do it by refining the elemental nature of the materials - i.e. they produce gold by processes designed to gradually leach out all darkness and other elements and add fire to some metal. There are some interesting possibilities for problems with toxic waste disposal there!
Note that one good MGF reason for all this alchemy stuff is it not only makes Western sorcery that much more strange, but it also gives you an excellent excuse for sorcerers to have labs strewn with alembics, strange ingredients, etc.
Cheers
David
David Cake, Connoiseur of the weird
"Did you come to Earth for evil purposes?"
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #210
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