Elixer of Life

It's unknown when the secrets of internal alchemy were unlocked and the Xian formed their court in service to the Jade Emperor. Westerners often referred to the Xian as Chinese gods but were more akin to the heroes of pagan belief systems or the prophets and saints in Abrahamic religions. These immortals were powerful Terrans who had balanced the Yin and Yang forces within themselves to create the true elixir of life inside themselves and exist forever. It is said that many in Ta Lo had reached a level of enlightenment that would allow them to transcend to the realm of the Jade Emperor, but they made a pact that none would do so until every Xian was ready to do so. Therefore, these true immortals wait for a dark age where no other man or woman would find enlightenment, and all Xian were ready to depart.

The Eternal, Gilgamesh, cared for the love of his life and companion, Thena, who had come down with the common condition of Mad Wy'ry. He lamented to his friend, the Deviant Enkidu, that he wished to find a way to restore her to her right mind. Not long after he expressed his wish the Anunaki killed Enkidu, and Gilgamesh became concerned about his own mortality and caring for Thena. Eternals were reborn in the Uni-Mind and their forms reconstructed, but their memories were never complete afterward. So, Gilgamesh began a journey to find Utnapishtim, who survived the First Host and great flood sent by the Celestials. Utnapishtim directed Gilgamesh to a plant at the bottom of the sea, unfortunately the world serpent stole it before he could acquire it. Gilgamesh eventually accepts that he will lose Thena one day and be made anew by the Uni-Mind, but he continues to do his best for her for the next several millennia.

It's known that shortcuts to true immortality were sought before the unification of China under the 1^st sovereign emperor Qin Shi Huang Di. The Danjing yaojue, attributed to Sun Simiao, a famous medical specialist respectfully called "King of Medicine," spoke of ingesting long-lasting mineral substances such as jade, cinnabar, hematite, and gold to grant the patient longevity. A detailed recipe for an elixir vitae in the text includes several toxic ingredients such as mercury, sulphur, and arsenates. Other entries provide actual cures for certain diseases and processes for fabricating precious stones giving Sun's work some credibility among scholars.

After a catastrophic defeat by the Asuras, Vishnu commanded the Devas to go to the ocean and churn it of milk so that they may retrieve Amrita or what they call the elixir of life. To do so, Vishnu's followers had to uproot Mount Mandara and use it as a churning rod and a naga as the churning rope. Many devas and asuras expired in the effort as they churned the ocean, but Vishnu the Preserver revived them. The ocean's milk provided both Amrita and a poison known as halahala that could destroy Vishnu's 3 worlds. Shiva consomed the poison to contain its immense power, which gave a blue hue to his throat.

Emperor Qin received a prophecy that his dynasty would last for 10,000 years and he desired to remain its emperor for that time. So, he hired a famous Taoist alchemist to discover an elixir of life for him that would grant immortality. He sent this alchemist on 2 expeditions to find the recipe, but he disappeared on the second. Another alchemist is said to have tried many concoctions, most of these elixirs included heavy metals in an attempt to kill the emperor beyond death. It is believed that they only succeeded in killing him to death. Some say that Qin Shi Huang Di and his armies of terra cotta warriors rule the lands of the hungry ghosts in the Far East to this day.

Muslim scholars from the Middle East and Northern Africa had begun learning alchemy from Indians, Chinese, Europeans during the classical age. Still, the collapse of the Roman Empire and the coming of the dark ages in Europe sent many of them home. These learned men preserved the alchemical traditions of their teachers and began to merge them with alchemical knowledge gathered from the Far East to create a new Near East alchemical tradition. This started with the famed alchemist Khalid ibn Yazid and continued through the middle ages until the reawakening in Europe and the return of alchemy and chemistry to its intitutions. This Near East alchemy was the first to incorporate the search for the philosopher's stone and transmutation with the search for the elixir vitae.

A moon deity that favored the people of Japan held the Man'yoshu or "waters of rejuvenation" and decided it was time to give this gift to their worshippers. This deity also favored the serpents, so he promised them the waters of death so that they would not feel slighted for the humans of Japan. The celestial courier that Tsukuyomi sent with the buckets of water grew tired on the long journey from the heavens and took a break. As he did, the serpents bathed in both the waters of rejuvenation and death leaving them useless for humans. Furious at the failure of their courier to deliver his gifts, Tsukuyomi disappeared into the night sky and they never sent more elixir if they have more at all.

Under the threat of his family's execution, the Egyptian physican Ra's al Ghul was forced to dig a pit to bury himself and his family in. His crime was failing to provide a cure for a dying prince. When Ra's came close to the demanded depth for this mass grave, a green liquid bubbled up from the ground and Ra's quickly discovered that it had restorative properties. He rushed it back to the prince and the green water of the Lazarus Pit did restore the patient, but it also drove him teporarily insane. The prince attacked everyone in the room and Ra's al Ghul's wife was killed in the melee. Ra's was sent to a prison in the furthest reaches of the King's power but his desire for revenge leads Ra's al Ghul to escape prison, discover the secrets of the Lazarus Pits, and destroy his enemies for over 6 centuries.

As the European reawakening and enlightenment began, the studies of alchemy surged once again and a slip into antiillectualism and superstition in the Holy Lands and the Middle East fed the premier practitioners back into Europe. The marriage of the quests for the secrets of transmutation, the philopher's stone, and the elixer of life was cemented as the only connection to the alchemy of European antiquity. Reknowned alchemists like Nicolas Flamel, Michael Scot, and St. Germain do their most significant work in this time before the science of chemistry overtakes the art and magic of alchemy.

A millennia earlier, the Danjing yaojue was written and the obsession for an external elixer of life became the obsession of many warlords and emperors in China. These shortcuts mostly killed anyone who attempted them but some gained unnatural longevity, if not immortality, when the practices were done just right. The Jiajing Emperor in the Ming dynasty was not a lucky recipient of the perfected elixir. While seeking a way to secure his rule for all time and succeed where Qin had failed, the Jiajing emperor summoned reknowned alchemists from across the Far East. These alchemists only succeeded in giving their benefactor alchemical elixir poisoning from the toxic ingredients included in their concoctions.

Galio was a Spanish scholar in alchemy who had completed the discoveries of The Four Wonders. He used them to travel to the Americas and survive more than 4 centuries here. Galio's amazing longevity was accomplished by perfecting the creation of the elixir of youth, and he relied only on his own eiditic memory to hold onto the recipe. Galio remained undisturbed for most of his long life while continuing his alchemical pursuits in relative obscurity and peace. It wouldn't be until after he witnessed the construction of the transcontinental railround, the invention of the lightbulb, the proliferation of transistor radios, and humanity's first flight that he would be disturbed by Professor Zodiak.

Professor Zodiak stands trial for murdering a man named Galio as he tried to pass along the path to The Four Wonders of Alchemy to the Justice Society of America.