The Athkatlan Alchemist's Guild

This guild includes members specializing in perfumery, the culinary arts and herbs, the medical arts and chirudgery, magical formulations and pre-enchantment preparations, glassblowing, and ceramics, and sells examples of all of these things at various shops within Athkatla and throughout Amn and Tethyr. They are known to occasionally provide bulk orders of some common items to large organizations such as other guilds, trading caravans, and some of the larger Houses.

The alchemists are allied closely with the miners guild and the mages guild, and friendly with the scribes guild and the Doves. They also work with the churches of Ilmater and Chauntea in the preparation of new medicines (primarily in finding subjects on which to test them) and plant uses (essentially improved support for growing crops, new markets for various crops, and new crops which can be readily marketed). They are known for the fantastic gardens of exotic plants they keep in secluded areas of their major guildhouses, and the stern and secretive nature of most of their members.

Alchemy is the search for the essence of each thing, the most basic and pure form for each object, organic or not, that exists, and understanding how that form is made of the material, the eternal, and energy. Everything, no matter what it is, has a body and a soul and a spirit, or defining energy, to the alchemist. Where mages manipulate the energy that connects all things, the Weave, the alchemist works with the spark within all things that ties them to the Weave, trying to strengthen and purify it. The two disciplines are considered by most to be complementary, though there are those on either side who would dispute that claim, and a (usually) friendly rivalry between members of the two guilds is not uncommon.

The Alchemists' Guild provides its members with the laboratory equipment and support they need to work their craft and research, in exchange for one month a year creating substances in their specialty for the Guild to sell and providing instruction to apprentices and journeyman guildmembers. Apprentices are required to pay a 100 gold apprenticeship price, and sign a contract making them essentially indentured servants for no less than seven years. They are assigned by the Guild to a master and have little recourse if things are not to their liking; this helps to explain why most guildmembers are so unhappy looking. Once their seven year period of service is up, they must be able to create three basic substances within one of the specialty areas, at which point they may join the guild as a journeyman, or leave the guild permanently after a magical geas is placed on them to prevent the loss of guild secrets. The mid-level of membership requires six months of work per year in guild laboratories or at the shop of a guildmaster creating requested items for sale by the guild, and five years of work under a guildmaster in one of the specialties, at which time they must be able to create seven advanced substances within their specialty area and have a completely new formulation of their own to become a guildmaster. Those unable to make master status, but capable of producing saleable products within their area, are pronounced senior journeymen, their guild dues are dropped to three months' work per year, and they are provided a place in the workshop of the guildmaster of their choice for the remainder of their time within the guild. Only full guildmasters are allowed to run the alchemy shops in Athkatla, and the guild has been known to sabotage (sometimes violently) any non-guildmembers who presume to sell wares too closely resembling their own in the Market. The guild is run by the most Senior Guildmaster (the one who has been a guildmaster the longest), though he or she may decline or step down from the position in favor of the next most senior, should they wish (otherwise their term is for life). The Senior Guildmaster is advised by guildmasters of each specialty selected by their compatriots, but has the final say on any deal made by the guild, including acceptance of apprentices, status tests, and sales of guild products.

Guildmembers are not generally religious, often taking Gond, Chauntea, or Oghma as their patrons, and following most closely the tenets of their craft. The five basic tenets of alchemy are (as writ on a granite tablet on the gate of the main guildhouse in Athkatla):

1) The entire universe is divine in origin; Wisdom and Guidance must be sought from the source from which all creation flows.

2) That all things have within them the divine spark of life, are interrelated with each other, and it is our task to understand this kinship, so that we may use this knowledge to aid in our understanding of the true form of matter.

3) That all things are in a state of constant evolution as they continue their synthesis towards perfection.

4) That thinking creatures are a part of the universe, are thus divine in origin and can affect all things on all spheres of existence by their actions or inaction.

5) That thinking creatures may learn to recognize the divine spark of vital energy in all organisms, isolate it, purify it, and manipulate it to speed up the processes of evolutionary perfection.

These tenets provide the guidelines by which alchemists live, and draw from all things the aspects of their essence, seek to perfect that essence and blend it with other essences to create new alliances of matter and energy that enhance the perfection of the whole. This is done by working to understand the connections among the 3 Essential Elements and 4 Basic Elements of alchemy.

Three Essential Elements are the material form (body), the eternal form (soul), and the animating form which ties the other two together (spirit/energy). These are manifested within all things as varying proportions of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air (the four basic elements). Each basic element corresponds to planets/stars, chemical elements, days of the ride, months of the year, hour of the day, specific plants or animals or metals, and so on; these associations, once carefully determined and verified, can be used to strengthen the aspect desired in an alchemical formula. Directions for making best use of this information are often complex, multi-leveled, and completely incomprehensible to non-alchemists. The Guild prefers it that way, even going so far as to work out even more complex symbol codes to hide the true philosophy and formulation of much of their work, codes that are only taught to dedicated students.

Guildmembers are formally forbidden from producing poisons, substances that remove the will of another creature, or substances that alter the essential form of anything (only full guildmembers know exactly what that means, but apparently its pretty bad). Alchemists breaking these rules are immediately ousted and can be turned over to the Athkatlan legal system for trial. However, on the theory that one can neither truly create nor destroy matter and energy within the will of the divine universe, many guildmembers consider this philosophy conservative and outdated, and are willing to work on such formulas for select, and discreet, clients, though they charge proportional to the secrecy required.

The Alchemists' Guild is considered only a minor player in Athkatlan politics, seen as too wrapped up in its own research to pay overly much attention to its environment, but it should be pointed out that the guild itself is well-connected, well-provisioned, and reasonably well-informed, and its true motives may well still lie hidden behind the high walls and stern faces it shows the city.