Alchemical Materials:

Alchemical materials are the world’s oldest predators, silent, patient, and waiting to be used. They are not passive reagents but hungers disguised as powders, crystals, and blood. Each carries its own will, its own way of whispering to the fool who dares to grind it down. A handful of volcanic glass can teach a man to vanish; a pinch too much, and he forgets he ever existed. A drop of dragon’s ichor might mend the body, but it remembers its old owner and drags the soul toward greed. Goldblood heals until it replaces your blood with its own. None of it is evil, not truly. It is simply honest about the cost. To work with these substances is to step into an ancient conversation between flesh and flame, bone and storm. The alchemist believes they are shaping the world; in truth, the world is shaping them back, molecule by molecule, heartbeat by heartbeat. Every reagent asks the same question before it yields its power. What will you give me in return? The wise hesitate. The desperate answer. And somewhere between those two, between the gasp, the shimmer, and the first scream, alchemy is born.