CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I thought it was just like the mixing of ingredients to make food and medicine and such. Hm...

Also, as some of you might know, I was having issues with TES: Morrowind a while back. The thought of playing doesn't bother me now, and I think I might try again at it...if I start feeling the same way, I'll quit. What do you all think of that idea? Not that I'll rely on your opinion alone...God is the most important factor.

Yes, I've seen the annoyances of repetitive topics, but this one is a bit different...

What's depticted in the game has very little to do with any historical system of alchemy. In the game it really is just mixing things together to get something useful, and shouldn't be thought of as anything more than that.

Medievel alchemy itself was tied up with a variety of pre-scientific beliefs about matter, but also with a number of religious/mystical ideas. It's a fascinating subject, although wholly useless on any practical level.

Destroyer2000 wrote:Not that I'll rely on your opinion alone...God is the most important factor.

That is the way to go. This sort of thing is what you might call a "gray area," where you must rely on your own conscience to determine whether or not to play the game.

I thought Alchemy was making lead into gold or something like that.

I've read a little bit about it. One of those Time-Life "Mysteries of the Unknown" books.

Alchemy was practiced in various forms throughout the world. The Western style of it seems to have its roots in Ancient Egypt. (Where people actually liked to make gold impure by adding other metals to it, such as iron and copper, to create diffrent "colors" of gold).

Originally, it was an attempt to transform less valuable metals into gold for purely material reasons, then it became a mystic pursuit... it got tied into Medieval Christianity a bit... People involved with it thought that if they could transform lead into gold, that they could transform their base souls into spiritual perfection or some such thing like that. They saw the turning of lesser metals into gold as metaphor for and being linked to transforming the spirit into something pure and pleasing to God.

There was also a branch of Alchemy where people tried to create life... It was thought by some, that with the right combination of ingredients and such, that someone could make a miniature person, called a Hommonculus.

There was a kind of Alchemy in the East, too, but one not concerned with gold. This kind of alchemy was a search for immortality... people trying to find serums and materials that would make people immortal.

Ah, I can understand the Eastern thing...they were always searching for that sort of thing. I also remember hearing about the lead to gold thing...lol, if it actually worked, it could be useful...like in the 1800's, when you get shot, remove the bullet and turn it to gold, then pay the doctor bills. Lol, but that'll never happen.

Haibane Shadsie wrote:There was also a branch of Alchemy where people tried to create life... It was thought by some, that with the right combination of ingredients and such, that someone could make a miniature person, called a Hommonculus.

That's just weird.

So, did anyone succeed?

Anyone ever played Shadow of Destiny? It had a bit to do with the subject of that form of Alchemy. (The game has some slight occult mysticism if you care about that stuff content-wise.)

Shadow of Destiny?

I don't think I've heard of it. What's it for?

I know that Alchemy in the East, specificly China was used mainly for medicine. Well it was a branch becuase one branch studied non-living matter and one studied living matter.

An Adventure game for PS2 by Konami. The main character keeps getting killed repeatedly and he must travel through time to not only prevent his murder, but find out who is murdering him. Technically, this is a game that you will be watching more than play, buts it's got a fairly interesting story. Alchemy plays a more major role in the story than you may think at first.

EDIT: Cephas, you sig is absolutely hilarious.