Alchemy is an ancient philosophy and practice that was studied in order to achieve desirable possessions. A few very popular examples would be gold, wellness and immortality. Sometimes alchemists even dabbled in the creation of potions to grant instant happiness or even love. Many different areas of the world have their own practices and views of alchemy. Ultimately, most alchemists were after the same wealth, that being an elixir of life (or eternal youth) and a cheap way to turn non-precious metals into precious metals.
As a group, we researched not only the ancient practices and thoughts behind alchemy, but we related those studies to interpretations of alchemy in contemporary media that is popular today. Our method was first to split ourselves up – each of us took a specific and unique study of alchemy and found media relating to it. Donny Torrey researched humunculi; Mike LeTourneau researched transmutation; Ryan Warner researched the Philosopher's Stone; and Samantha Thode researched potions and elixirs.
In the process of researching media that related to Alchemy, and specifically to Homunculi, we stumbled across a very popular internet source that is based on the similarities shared by all media called TvTropes. The dictionary definition of a trope is any literary or rhetorical device, that consists in the use of words in other than their literal sense. The website TvTropes stretches this by creating an encyclopedia of definitions on popular phrases, archetypes, habits, and formulas used in media ranging from literary works to video games. This site was a perfect find for our research, as our goal was to find modern day media of all types and forms that relate to some of the common themes of Alchemy. One of the most useful articles put together on the site was one labeled "Our Homunculi are Different", which was a catalogued list of examples of Homunculi in various forms of popular culture and media. The article began with an informal definition of what a Homunculus is in relation to the science of Alchemy, and then continued with a list separated by forms of media. This organized list is a useful and versatile research tool, since it's separated into bullets that explain of an instance in media where a creature similar to a Homunculus appeared, and then there are various links in every single bullet that allow you to continue research on certain topics that may be more interesting or more relevant to the theme of the project. We used this to go into more detail on the certain media on Homunculi that was more recent, and more accurate to the alchemic description. This allowed us to gain deeper information and understanding on relevant culture pieces such as Full Metal Alchemist, Buso Renkin, and 9.
Unfortunately, due to the amount of information on TvTropes we had to leave a lot of media out of the final project, since it was not relevant enough to our overall topic. Media references like Goethe's play Faust were vague on how detailed they got into what a Homunculus was, or how they were portrayed in the form of media. The date these sources of media were created was also a factor in deciding what got selected, since we were trying to focus on more recent media. This made our research and our topic less vague, and narrowed exactly what we were doing down.
To expand upon humunculi in the ancient study of alchemy: there were a lot of different studies and theories on humunculi. One belief says that a humunculus is just a human born without the need of a man and a woman to conceive. They were thought to be soul-less and built only to fulfill their purpose, which their master would give to them. In the show Full Metal Alchemist, as an example of how humunculi is interpreted today, a humunculus is a monster that resembles a person who has died. When an alchemist attempts to bring that person back to life, it is impossible and their attempt at reanimating the person and bringing them back from the dead, instead creates a monster who replicates the person in looks, but has magic powers. The humunculus can only be destroyed by an item that once belonged to the deceased counterpart.
The reason bringing a person back from the dead is impossible is because of the laws of equivalent exchange. This is a very big premise in Full Metal Alchemist. In other words, an alchemist cannot perform a successful transmutation if there is no equivalent exchange. For example, in the first episode of the show a radio falls to the floor and smashes into a million pieces. One of the characters in the show (an alchemist) gathers all of the broken pieces and transmutes them into the fully working radio. Had he not gathered all of the pieces and tried to perform the transmutation, either the transmutation would not have worked at all and all of the pieces would have remained broken, or they would be put together but some pieces would be missing. That being said, transmutation is our next field of study.
The ultimate goal of the Renaissance alchemist was transmutation – the power to turn base metals, such as lead, into precious metals, such as gold and silver, through alchemical means. This idea followed alchemy from its roots in 5000 BCE Egypt, to its references in modern day media. Alchemists were hired by nobles to discover a way, through any means, to create gold. Free gold meant free money, and free money meant free power. Alchemists worked day and night to discover this secret, and it was in this practice that they found their fame.
Today, many facets of popular media reference the work of these alchemists. Franchises such as Kingdom Hearts, World of Warcraft, Fullmetal Alchemist, and many more spin the idea of transmutation into science fiction, and thus the true roots of scientific alchemy are almost blurred out of existence. However, without alchemy some of today’s most basic sciences would be decades, or even centuries behind today’s progress, especially chemistry, which spawned directly from research into alchemy. Some modern labs have even completed the alchemists’ dream of creating gold from lead. The quest for transmutation has not died — in fact, it thrives in our society, unheard, twisted, and nearly unrecognizable, but thriving.
Transmutation, as was mentioned before, is highly desired because it is hoped that one day we will be able to transform gold, and other precious things, from common items. This would normally take a lot of hard work, and would probably even cost more to do than the gold would be worth at the end. However, there is thought to be a way around this. It is a magical item that can bypass the laws of “equivalent exchange” as Fullmetal Alchemist would refer to it.
The philosopher’s stone: an alchemical substance that is to be considered legendary. This stone is often used in many different stories or old history. It is sought after for many things such as immortality, an elixir of life, or breaking things down to their base metals to create gold. People often risked their lives in search for this particular stone that which was only rumored.
In medieval times alchemy was considered a form of chemistry. The alchemists in these times were in the process of working on some way to produce gold from other metals, however, there wasn’t much success. Alchemists then began searching for this philosopher’s stone in hope that this would be the “key” to their problems! If one was to have found this “stone” they would achieve what most had been trying to do for centuries.
In relating to media, one of the present day media that we had found was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Originally printed as “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in the UK, the US had had it changed to “Sorcerer’s Stone” instead of “Philosopher’s Stone” because of the simple fact that in the US “Sorcerer” seemed to be more magical than “Philosopher” by definition. The changes however, had only been a few simple word choices. In the story which was the same in both books, Harry the main character and Lord Voldemort is in the search for the Sorcerer’s stone because of it held the elixir of life. Another similar movie that also has the philosopher’s stone in it is Indiana Jones & the philosopher’s stone.
Another relation we have Full Metal Alchemist which is a Japanese Manga Series or Graphic Novel. Many events in the series revolve around this philosopher’s stone to be obtained by these brother’s in the series to gain back their bodies. The stone in this series can take many different forms. For example, the stone could take form as a lumpy coal like rock or even as a red liquid. It’s said to allow the holder to completely bypass the law of equivalent exchange which is essentially transmutation (breaking down base metals).
In our last media relation to media would be to World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is a video game on the computer which is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). The philosopher’s stone is used in the game for a character who is an alchemist. In the game, just like the an cient study, the alchemist must carry the philosopher's stone in order to perform transmutations on items.
World of Warcraft's alchemy, while it has some properties from all of the other sections studied (humunculi, transmutation and the philosopher's stone), is focused on the creation of potions and elixirs for characters in the game to consume. This leads into the next topic of the study of potions and elixirs and how it relates to World of Warcraft.
This branch of alchemy began as medical studies. Paracelsus, who is considered to be the father of alchemy, was a highly regarded medical practitioner in the medieval era. He actually moved on to reform medicine by means of alchemy, turning both other doctors and the church against him. That did not stop him, however. He continued to study and theorize about alchemy and God's role in alchemy.
As was said before: many different parts of the world studied alchemy. The elixir of life was among the most popular studies done. Alchemists were constantly looking for a theriac (an antidote that could cure any disease). Paracelsus actually claimed to have discovered a theriac, but it turned out it was just a mixture of myrrh, saffron and aloe. Alchemists popularized the idea that mixing different things together would have different “magical” outcomes. For example, certain mixtures could be carried around by women so men would stay away from them. Potions were mixed to promote happiness and love. These things may sound silly, but they come from a time when if a “professional” told someone, “Try this potion, it works,” that person would believe them. It was not a time of questioning. Unfortunately, while there are always scientists who discover for the sake of gaining knowledge, there are some who just want to profit off of it.
World of Warcraft's rendition of potions differs in a more magical sense. Characters will most likely drink a potion because they are low on health, or because they want to get stronger (which can mean a variety of things in-game). There are also potions that do fun things, like make it so a character can breathe underwater and transform you into different things. In World of Warcraft an alchemist also “discovers” recipes while he/she is creating potions. We thought this was an interesting mechanic to this profession because of the way alchemists in real life only made discoveries because they were doing alchemy all of the time.
In summary, the alchemist profession in World of Warcraft relates to the old study of alchemy because of the obscure mixtures of ingredients allegedly creating a potion that would do something basically magical. There is also another, very stretched, relation to this kind of idea in the game Dead Rising. In game, if the player mixes different drinks together in a blender, the character can consume them and get certain boosts depending on the mixture. One mixture will increase movement speed, and another will make the character's spit deadly.
What became prominent to us were the extremely vast interpretations of alchemy in media, and how little or how much they related to actual alchemy. We picked a topic that related to popular entertainment today because we personally found it interesting. We learned a lot and had some fun with this project and hopefully our audience does too.
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