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[milkisgross]

[Edward's been seeing all of these different posts come up. It's obnoxious to him, but he can see the potential of being able to communicate with so many like this, so he decided to give it a try.]

It's come to my attention that there's a few people here who use "magic." From what I've seen, there's nothing like it where I come from and I have a few questions for anyone who's willing to answer.

In science, you've got different laws that everything follows. Is that the same for magic? Does some magic have laws while others don't?

Are there different fields of magic? What are they?

Where does the energy or power come from?

What makes it "magic" and not a field of science?

Comments

[milkisgross]

There are people that claim that science is magic where I'm from too, though that tends to be limited to people out in the country who just don't have the resources to learn about it. Alchemy tends to be pretty prone to being mistaken for magic, probably from the light given off from the transmutation. I can see people thinking it has an otherworldly look to it I guess.

Are you a scientist too?

[albionchanged]

I understand that way of thinking. In my new home, everything is very different than when I first left because of science.

I'm not a scientist. I'm struggling with the idea of a car. I do know magic seems different depending on where it comes from.

Are you a scientist?

[milkisgross]

Really? I thought I had a pretty big learning curve to go through with the technology here, but it must be harder for you since you're not even familiar with cars. How did science change your home?

I am a scientist. An alchemist to be more specific.

[albionchanged]

It's fine. Since it's as foreign as anything else I can't really get more confused.

Basically everything. Electricity, running water, cars, telephones, money. All of it either didn't exist before I left, or was very different.

How is an alchemist different from any other scientist?

[milkisgross]

Oh wow. That must have been quite a shock.

Well, we record observations and conduct experiments to test theories just like a scientist from any other field would. Our focus is on the analysis, deconstruction, and reconstruction of matter which can be applied for different purposes. In my country, alchemy is researched for and has advanced through military purposes. In Xing, a country to the east, it developed as a medicinal practice. I don't know how it was developed and used in other countries though.

[albionchanged]

Oh. That sounds like a lot to remember, but I think I got the basic point. You use it for fighting and stuff, and another place uses it for medicine. Right?

So, why are you asking about magic?

[milkisgross]

More or less.

I ran into someone during that festival and we got in an argument over it. She made a pretty good point though, that I'm not in my world anymore and that I'd have to adapt. She was right and now I'm trying to learn about what I might come across while I'm stuck here.

[albionchanged]

That makes sense. I tell you a little about what I know, if you could tell me more about alchemy.

[milkisgross]

Sure. What else did you want to know about alchemy?

[albionchanged]

Whatever you can tell me. Maybe I should understand more about others' abilities too.

I'm sorry if you weren't expecting a text-wall

[milkisgross]

The most important thing to know are the laws of Equivalent Exchange. Short explanation is you have to give something up to gain anything. The law of the conservation of mass and natural providence fit under that too, and I can go int more detail about those if you want me to.

In order to perform a transmutation, you need to know what you're working with, what you're transmuting it to, and a corresponding transmutation circle. The circle itself is both a symbolic and literal direction for the flow of energy, and the runes you write within the circle determine what you're transmuting. For example, you wouldn't use the same rune for transmuting a metal that you would for transmuting organic material.

There's also something called human transmutation, which is considered taboo among alchemists. It is taboo FOR A REASON and you SHOULD NOT try it under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! My brother and I attempted it. It did not end well and we're still trying to figure out how to fix what happened to us.

I wasn't, but I legitimately started laughing. ^^

[albionchanged]

I understood very little of that...but it sounds a little bit like how Contracts work. The part about needing specific things in order for it to work. And I don't think I would be okay transforming any human, animal, or monster.

^_^

[milkisgross]

Contracts? What do you mean?

That's good to know. I'm not really fond of research done on animals myself.

[albionchanged]

It's what we do to gain certain powers or benefits. Basically, we pay a price and then do a small task specific to a contract and then it activates and we have the benefits. It's not science at all though.

we have something to agree on already then.

[milkisgross]

Could you give me an example of that to help me visualize it better?

[albionchanged]

An easy one is that I can become invisible by paying the Glamour price and then not moving for a short time. Or I can change my footprints by changing the first one. After paying the Glamour.

[milkisgross]

It's too bad you have to be still to turn invisible. I get using it to try to hide, but you'd be able to do so much with it if you could move around.

[He might be getting ideas about how he'd use it against a certain superior officer in Amestris.]

What exactly is this "Glamour" stuff?

[albionchanged]

You stand still to pay for it, not after you're invisible.

[As long as it's not aggressive in any way it works.]

Glamour? It's hard to explain. It's what we use for a lot of things and we can absorb it from lots of things.

[milkisgross]

That is pretty useful then. Maybe you could show me sometime?

It kind of sounds like Chroma to me. At least, being able to absorb it from various things. I assume it's not as...intimate a system?

[albionchanged]

Maybe. I can't teach you how or anything though.

It can be. I've never harvested that way, but I'm sure it can be. Have you tried it yet? The Chroma thing?

[milkisgross]

I'm not expecting to be able to learn how to do any of this stuff myself. I just think it'd be cool to see in person.

I haven't tried with the Chroma thing and I hoping I can get away without having to do much of that 'moonlacing' stuff. It's just weird.

[albionchanged]

Okay. I just wanted to make sure,

I haven't either. I don't know how I feel about it.

[milkisgross]

I don't think it makes much sense to use something like that as a currency. With 'moonblessed' running around able to make our own, you'd think it'd cause inflation or something. Maybe while we're here we can convince the guys in charge to shift to a gold standard or something.

[albionchanged]

Inflation?

It couldn't hurt to, but maybe they're hoping that they can use what we make. If we do.

[milkisgross]

Yeah. The more you have of something the lower its value. It's why over-printed currency loses value so quickly.

I guess the fact that they use Chroma for stuff might use up most of the excess that we make. It complicates the whole system though, at least to me.