r/TheAlchemised

I feel like it's not fully described in the book, so here's my question:

How do you imagine resonance looks? Do you picture it as "threads" of energy when Helena is healing, or more as an invisible force unless it's being channeled into something like fire?

I also wonder how they'll portray it in the movie. I would imagine Helena to move one hand and her fingers in quite intricate ways when regenerating different tissues, but I don't really picture there being a visible, physical manifestation of her vivimancy.

As far as I understood it, resonance also seems to be very sensitive to the alchemist's emotional state. Kaine's resonance is often described as "warping" or "splitting" the air.

It's quite different from other fantasy novels like Fourth Wing. We aren't following the protagonists through their time at school–that part has already happened. Because of that, a lot of aspects are left to the imagination, which I personally liked. In Fourth Wing, the whole process of using runes is explained quite thoroughly. Violet has to study and practice them, and through her experience we kind of get a sense of how they work.

In Alchemised, we do know that resonance can be manipulated or reinforced through arrays, and we also know that those arrays are etched into plates, but the whole process isn't explained in much detail.

hi, i just need some place to share my thoughts with people who get it 😭

so i went into this book completely blind, just saw a pretty cover, many pages and was like okay this will do. i didn’t read summary, didn’t know the author, just started reading. i’m an average reader, i don’t put much thought into style or editing (of course not when i absolutely love it or totally hate it but i’m usually far too lost in the world and my imagination to notice those things).

i just finished, i don’t think i was crying this much over a book like.. ever? like, i was weeping for HOURS. i literally don’t know what to do with myself after this. >!i think if they didn’t get happyish ending i would flip the table (and probably go insane).!<

i never read harry potter, i’m not even really familiar with the movies, so when after reading i went online to learn something more about the author i was so confused to see that they are a fanfic writer and this was a spin on characters from harry potter universe apparently lol. 

now i need something light to get myself up from the floor.

Hi everyone! This is my first post on Reddit and I signed up literally so I could talk to other people about Alchemised because I loved it so much!!!

SPOILERS AHEAD

I know it’s a controversial take, but I loved how the book ended. The author always wrote Kaine and Helena‘s relationship from a realistic standpoint, considering the situation they were in and I feel like they did the same with the ending. Kaine and Helena had the happiest ending they could have. Helena got to live in peace being loved back by somebody she loved and Kaine got to love Helena knowing that she was safe and he could always be there for her.

Now, where I was really hoping to hear some other thoughts was in chapter 78 during the scene where Helena confronts Kaine on Stroud’s death.

1. Did Kaine make that choice because Stroud was the last thing that was a threat to Helena safety so he just had to do it? Even though it was a risk?
2. I don’t understand Helena‘s reaction to the news considering the fact that she knows what Kaine would do for her and who he is. Why do you think her reaction was so intense?

Thank you to anybody who comments I’m excited to get to talk to others about this amazing book! ☺️❤️‍🔥

P.S. I think Bad Desire (With or Without You) (English Ver.) by ENHYPEN is SUCH a good song from Kaine’s POV!!! 🤭

Why did kaine act so evil and mean to Helena in pt 2? I’m talking abt the beginning of it when they first meet, he acts so mean. What’s the pint when he think he is going to die ? This is my second time reading it so ik what happens but I’m so confused abt why he wanted to scare her by pretending he will harm her?is it so the resistance will keep thinking he is all powerful and cerulean so they won’t mess with him and take him for granted? They already know he is evil tho? HELP!!

I was pretty nervous going into this, because for me one of the biggest pulls of Manacled was all the backstory that helped contextualize and build up the animosity and hatred between Hermione and Draco, which in turn makes the enemies to lovers arc feel that much more potent.

I was worried it wouldn’t feel the same in Alchemised, where the characters were original and didn’t have all the backstory, but SenLinYu did an incredible job at world building and making Helena into her own full fledged character, as well as Kaine.

I still felt the emotional pull of their respective situations and although I read Alchemised knowing the basic plotline from Manacled (which I’ve read several times), I still felt very pulled in and on the edge of my seat.

I feel like the changes she made to the plot (for example >!starting with transference as the primary objective instead of repeated rape!< ) improved it without removing the intensity or emotional angst. Because of changes like that I feel more comfortable recommending this book to friends as well even though it is certainly still extremely dark.

Overall I think SenLinYu created something golden in Manacled and the reworking of it into Alchemised was nothing short of brilliant. I know some may disagree, but to me, the world building and universe were perfectly done and the author successfully made the jump from fan fiction to published novel.

I just finished Alchemised and I genuinely don’t know what to do with myself now.

I devoured this book in three days and I have not stopped thinking about it since. Like i knew people loved it, but I was not prepared to be this obsessed. Easily five stars. Easily one of my favorite books ever.

And Kaine and Helena?? I fear they have ruined me. Their dynamic, the tension, the devotion, the pain, the way everything between them felt so intense and complicated. I need something that gives me that feeling again.

I also found out there’s a Kaine POV fanfic from TikTok, so I’m reading that now because apparently I’m not ready to leave this world yet.

But please, what do I read after this? I’m looking for books, fanfics, or couples that have a similar emotional grip. It doesn’t have to be the exact same plot, just something with a really compelling story, high stakes, aching tension, devotion, and a couple that gives Kaine and Helena energy in the best way.

Basically, I need something that will emotionally destroy me and make me obsessed.

Help. What should I read next?

I feel like an idiot because I cannot understand how the undying become undying and how it helps Morrough. I’m only about 70% of the way through so no spoilers please but can someone explain it to me like I’m five???

I've been doing a bit of a deep dive into the world of Alchemised and the magic system, so I thought I'd share a few fan theories and symbolisms of mine that I've noticed+collected over the past few months here in case it helps others appreciate the world more too.

1. Lumithia and the Great Disaster: it's hinted that the events of Alchemised take place in the far future, 1786 years after a celestial body made of an extraterrestrial substance, lumithium, collided with the moon/Luna and led to the fires and floods that almost wiped out humanity during the Great Disaster. (Ch. 33 when "Lumithia faced Luna in a celestial battle ... Lumithia bestowed the gifts of alchemy upon mankind").

The asteroid became Lumithia and its fragments fell to earth from the impact and congregated in the Novis mountains. The post-flood world map suggests the story takes place in current-day Europe and North Africa, with Khem being Egypt. Luna is quoted to look like a "broken piece of pottery" in the sky. Etras is current-day Italy which explains Helena Marino being Sicilian.

2. Lumithia and Why it Allows Alchemy: (From a sci-fi angle) Lumithia/lumithium is an extraterrestrial substance that bestows alchemists with the ability to transmute metal. Being exposed to lumithium causes wasting sickness in the mines, suggesting it is a radioactive substance that allows people to gain the ability to alter proton-neutron ratios for transmutation (or something along these lines). This genetic ability is passed down to future generations of miners. I think SLY also said during an Insta AMA that Alchemised is at its core a sci fi with fantasy elements, told through the lens of religion and alchemical/pre-modern scientific times.

For what else is magic, but science we don't yet understand :) thank you Arthur Clarke third law yet again.

Bodies also determine resonance, when an Undying's talisman is placed into a lich body, they get whatever resonance the lich had before. Supports the theory of how alchemy is imbued biologically from lumithium. Also found it interesting that after the nullium bomb, necrothralls couldn't be re-animated unless they pumped fresh, non-nullium infected blood into the bodies. Would be curious to see the limits and roots of alchemy if SLY ever publishes another novel in this universe.

3. Ascendance and Abeyance: I originally assumed Lumithia orbited the earth once a year in a simple elliptical, but after some background reading, typically orbital paths are conic sections with Earth at the "focus" point instead of the center. So Lumithia probably follows a highly-elliptical, 6-month orbit twice a year. Each orbit produces 1 Ascendance and 1 Abeyance. The orbit is also phase-locked with full moons at perigee (April/October, Sun-Earth-Lumithia alignment), and new moons at apogee (January/July, Sun-Lumithia-Earth alignment).

Ascendance (full Lumithia moon when she's closest to the earth) is a shorter period of days because Lumithia is deep in Earth's gravity well and whips past quickly. A mass of lumithium being so close to the earth makes alchemists feel moon drunk for a few days.

In contrast, Abeyance (new Lumithia moon) is a longer period of several months when Lumithia is far away from the earth at apogee. Because she is farther form earth's gravity well, the distance is longer and therefore we get an entire trade "season".

The Great Disaster also implies tides far stronger than current-day earth which is why they haven't been able to explore beyond the Known World. A lot of the coastline was also erased during the Great Disaster and during Abeyance low tides you can walk along the stripped beaches. I also did some tidal force equation calculations but won't bore y'all with those here.

4. Khem: means "dark soil of the Nile Valley", and is indirectly the root of "alchemy" and "chemistry".

5. Obsidian Death Energy: When Helena makes the obsidian blade, she traps the "death energy" of a dying/deceased person. This kind of interrupted soul/death trajectory is the only thing that can kill an Undying. Only a soul can kill another soul, like how only diamonds can cut other diamonds.

6. Why Undying are Necromancers: My theory for how the Undying are able to become necromancers, is that the Undying creation process traps 9 sacrificial souls around the phylactery and prevents them from fulfilling their death trajectory and spiritual absolution. This trapped energy can leak out and could allow for necromancy. Wagner says they never found out why Undying could use necromancy, this is just my theory.

7. Helena and Titanium: Helena's resonance with titanium is very fascinating. As a modern/post-industrial metal, it is very corrosion-resistant and strong without being too heavy. I like how it symbolizes that she represents a newer age, doesn't bend easily (titanium absorbs stress instead of dissipating it), meaning she's able to hand stress for a long time, but will inevitably break if pushed too far. Also a metal frequently used in medical fields.

8. Guns: I was wondering why there were no guns in Alchemised. After some thought, I concluded that in an alchemical world the path dependency of metal innovation probably diverged a lot from our real life world. Early steam and combustion engines typically failed because of poor metallurgy, but Ferron method was able to create steel pressure vessels and piston cylinders etc that allowed for trains.

But since Paladia banned weapons research, countries like Hevgoss had to innovate with non-alchemical methods. Typical weapons innovation historically went bombs > cannons > guns. Cannons and bombs don't require the ultra-fine precision that firearms do (precise barrels that withstand repeated ignition). So alchemists in Paladia used what worked best for their abilities (transmuting blades) instead of innovating on firearms and creating guns.

9. Lumithium vs MoLianShi: My theory is that Lumithia’s composition is quite heterogeneous and when she collided with Luna, the impact caused different materials to eject at different times.

Lumithium came from brittle outer crust and was scattered first, forming a strewn belt over Eastern Europe, but not Western Europe / Hevgoss. Materials that transmit/amplify vibrational resonances tend to be crystalline, brittle, and lower density, while materials with high damping coefficient and more energy absorbent are denser.

Molianshi, by contrast, came from the denser core and was ejected later, falling over the Far East as the Earth rotated ~1 day later. Because core fragments were heavier and more compact, the strewn field was much tighter and is likely why molianshi was only found in a few specific regions of the Eastern Empire.

10. Undying Procedure: (this is copy-pasted from an older comment of mine on another post).

Animancy arrays have 9 points. Before the procedure, Morrough has already tethered a piece of his own soul into a shard of his own bone.

There are 9 sacrificial victims that stand at each point of the array. Morrough cuts open the chest of the Undying and places his bone in. He tethers the Undying's own soul onto this bone as well (this is where the Undying's soul is first unseated). The array is activated and the energy rips out the sacrificial victims' souls. Their souls are drawn out like threads and Morrough winds them around the shard of bone to stabilize both his and the Undying's souls, tying them together.

The bone (Morrough's soul, Undying's soul, sacrificial victims' souls wound around like cocoon) is now the "phylactery". Morrough breaks off a small part of the bone/phylactery, coats it in lumithium, and places it back into the Undying-- this is the "talisman". Morrough places the main phylactery (with the 9 souls wrapped around) back into his own body.

The phylactery is like the primary anchor that Morrough keeps. The Undying will "die" if the talisman is ripped out. If this is the case, Morrough can always break off another shard and try to re-spawn them, but the second talisman won't be any smarter than a necrothrall.

After Ivy brings them Kaine's phylactery, Helena first unwinds the sacrificial victims' souls from the phylactery and frees his soul from it. She uses Atreus' soul as the new thread to stabilize his soul inside his body once more, at least until his body remembered what it's like to have a soul. Undoing the Undying procedure requires another sacrificial soul (in this case, Atreus').

The procedure is basically a series of soul untethering and tethering steps!

--------

As always, please feel free to correct anything I got wrong.

I'm not an astrophysicist or anything, but I do love exploring hard magic systems so this process has been quite a treat.

I understand that he was acting based on the fact as if she never knew him, but considering his feelings, he wasn't nicer, considering his wife potentially picking up on it, he still could've been more lenient towards her when no one was around. I know that despite this he did make certain exceptions. And don't get me wrong I still love it as it is because I think it gives an idea about his character at the beginning. But I couldn't help but wonder his reasoning, was he mad at her for getting herself in that situation that he was acting that way. Was he trying to be cruel on purpose for her to hate him more so that maybe it would be easier for him to let her go. Or was it something else only his POV would've explained.

So we all know that pregnancy is rarely done on the first try. Adding to that the stress Helena was under and the malnutrition (despite it kind of being solved by then) I’d say it is fairly unlikely that she just happened to get pregnant on the first try. Could Kaine have used vivimancy? We see it being applied to all body functions and to alter the person on a cellular level, so I’d think he used vivimancy to ensure Helena was pregnant and so she didn’t have to go to the breeding program and also he wouldn’t have to rape her the 2nd month.

Sorry if this was obvious - I’m curious if Kaine wanted Helena to get her memories back about him and remember everything? Like leaving the newspaper behind and giving her certain responses, I was curious about it. But also he’s so keen on her hating him that maybe he didn’t want her to?

In Part I Helena told Kaine that he could just kill her and be done with it. After that she saw that he thought about it. Can someone explaine why Kaine thought about that? Did she just misunderstood his face or did he really thought about it?

Don't get me wrong I love the dramione aspect, but the thing I like more it's the political intrigue, dangers of people pleasing, blind faith and the effects war has on people.

Are there any other book similar to Alchemised in that aspect?

Hi im in the beggining of the book ( chapter 5) and im strugling hard with all the lore of that world. Is there a place or YouTube video anyone can suggest to sum up the lore before the story of the book (with the least ammount of spoilers)

Thanks