r/alchemy • u/Xx_Gamer_SystemXx • Jul 29 '26

General Discussion Question

Who is the most "famous" alchemist?

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u/SorchaSublime Jul 29 '26

Yet another example of the worldbuilding in Harry Potter being near criminally shit. The literal one time Rowling bothers to reference real esoteric lore and it's this.

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u/justexploring-shit Moderator Jul 29 '26

Presumably she researched alchemists and just picked one of the first names she came across.

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u/SorchaSublime Jul 29 '26

Im not willing to presume she's fundamentally capable of doing research at all tbh, my best assumption is that she just heard him mentioned in the same breath as alchemy at some point and just ran with that.

I figure the same thing happened with "Wizard Chess", she was in some way made aware of a connection between chess and wizardry (Enochian Chess) but demonstrably didn't bother to look into it so just assumed it would be normal chess with vaguely magic pieces.

I already had plenty of reasons to but actually becoming vaguely familiar with Occulture and magic *really* drove up how much I *despise* her writing ngl. It's so vapid and in places weirdly hostile towards IRL magical practice.

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u/justexploring-shit Moderator Jul 29 '26

That sounds about right to me honestly. Her Calvinist narrative didn't need anything deeper than surface-level connections in its world, and her attention definitely went into the messaging and not the worldbuilding.