The Alchemists were a group of highly intelligent
mystics that banded together to create an organization devoted to the pursuit of higher
knowledge. They were doctors, scientists and engineers
that devoted their lives to the search of new truth. They were led by Valentinus Monad, a doctor
and archeologist that was highly skilled in decoding ancient languages. Alongside his colleagues, he had been searching
for the legend of eternal life. After years of research, he finally found
a clue in Krat. There was an old tale about a celestial being
that had descended to Earth after it heard the wishes of humans that they might come
to know immortality. This mysterious being was thought to be a
star that had become curious about humans in wished in return to meet them. Its descent to earth was accompanied by a
meteorite composed of different otherworldly substances, and this was most likely the first
source of Ergo. The meteorite crashed in a land to the west
of Krat, and the cosmic matter became embedded deep below the ground, continuing to grow
there for centuries. The star took the form of a one winged angel, and pilgrims would
travel from afar to worship it. But when they prayed to the angel asking it
for everlasting life, they realized that its blessing of immortality was not what they
had hoped for. In their anger against the angel for what
it had done, they tore it apart and killed it. It's possible that this one winged angel was
the first source of the Petrification Disease. While we're told that it gladly shared immortality
with humans, it wasn't exactly the type of immortality that they had in mind. This makes me think that people witnessed
the angel turn their loved ones into Ergo, maybe some people even got turned into Carcass
Monsters. And while they technically did become immortal
with their souls becoming frozen and trapped inside the Ergo, this wasn't what they meant
by wishing to live forever. After the angel was torn apart, the only surviving
remnant of this celestial being became known as the Arm of God. And as the years passed, it would eventually
fall into the hands of a mysterious group that very much like the alchemists, were also
searching for eternal life. And they realized that this arm was the key. One of the members of this group was Philipp
Paracelsus, a former Alchemist that had left the organization when he decided to pursue
a different path to obtaining everlasting life. It's unclear at what point in time he had
been with the Alchemists, but he's described as being a legend among them, which might
imply a great deal of experience in time. So there's no telling just how old he actually
is. He was tasked with giving the Arm of God to
the Alchemists, to observe what their brilliant minds would
do with it once it was in their possession. Valentinus led the Alchemists to their discovery
of the massive Ergo cavern deep beneath Krat. This crater had been the location of the falling
meteorite all those centuries ago, and until the Alchemists' discovery, it had remained
untouched. While not immediately understanding what exactly
they had found, they knew that this incandescent blue crystal was of great importance, and
they set out at once to mine it. But they needed a cover to disguise their
true intentions and explain their presence in the area, and also to keep the Ergo mine
a secret. They ventured to the poor, coastal town of
Krat and made the Archbishop an offer he couldn't refuse. In return for being permitted to settle in
Krat and build up their own residences, the Alchemists vowed to restore the Cathedral
of St. Frangelico and promised that their presence in Krat would bring the Archbishop
unimaginable wealth. He just couldn't resist their temptation of
gold, and the Alchemists were gladly welcomed into the village. They made plans to build a splendid new city
featuring the best in latest technologies, and they recruited the most talented technicians
from other regions to join them in this new metropolis they were creating. The Alchemists needed specialists beyond their
own scope of knowledge to test the potential uses of Ergo, and while the new city of Krat was being built,
the Ergo mine was being drained. It was the craftsman Geppetto that first discovered
that Ergo could be used as a power source to bring puppets to life. The Alchemists were pleased with his findings,
and they continued to fund the new puppet technology in order to observe the powers
of Ergo, And Krat became extremely wealthy, extremely
quickly. But while the Alchemists had a very public
appearance in their growing control over Krat, they had covertly established a base of operations
that was kept hidden from the rest of the city. The Arche Abbey was where the Alchemists conducted
their secretive, unorthodox experiments. They conducted a number of different tests
using the Arm of God, unaware of the irreparable disaster their actions would eventually lead
to. It was through these initial experiments that
they first contracted the Petrification Disease. And although their ranks consisted of medical
experts and doctors, they were helpless in knowing how to cure it. The Petrification Disease would slowly paralyze
the individual once contracting it. The disease would spread throughout their
body, causing a frozen, stone-like transformation, eventually leading to death. But the Alchemists viewed these deaths caused
by the Petrification Disease not as a tragedy, but rather as sacrifices in the name of science,
and their terrible and inhumane experiments were continued and refined over the years. It wouldn't be until one particular discovery
that the Alchemists realized what Ergo actually was. By dissecting a puppet that had gained self-awareness, the Alchemists learned that Ergo was the frozen
time and memories of those who died; the very essence of a person's soul, immortalized. Using Ergo was essentially using the life
of someone that had died, and sometimes their Ergo would awaken in the
puppets, manifesting in very humanlike ways. It's unclear how much Valentinus was involved
with these Ergo studies, or if he was even aware of the extent of the experiments that
were taking place in the Abbey. But he was, for fact, deeply involved with
the development of Krat. Valentinus and his wife, Isabelle, were philanthropic
and charitable, appearing to have a genuine interest in the well-being and improvement
of the city. They were sponsors and supporters of art and
culture, and they provided financial welfare to the orphans of Krat. They established the Monad Charity House,
nicknamed the Rose Estate, to ensure that all children, regardless of their social status,
would be able to receive exemplary care and education. Krat enjoyed developments in cutting-edge
transportation, and its technology was leaps and bounds above other countries. Though it was no secret to anyone that Valentinus
was largely in control of the city, he was well-respected and favored by citizens for
all that he had done for them. It's possible that he had become so wrapped
up in the organization of Krat and planning its future, that he began to drift away from
the Alchemists' original cause, and maybe Simon Manus, his right hand man,
had started to realize that he and Valentinus didn't appear to have the same goals anymore. Although the Petrification Disease had first
been localized to the Alchemists, it soon began appearing all throughout Krat. The city established a quarantine zone to
try and contain it, but without fully understanding how the disease was contracted, these efforts
were unable to stop its spread. A deadly outbreak of the Petrification Disease
appeared at the Monad Charity House, an event that would later become known as the Rose
Estate incident. There were no survivors of the outbreak, and
Valentinus Monad was confirmed to have mysteriously died. But his cause of death would never be discovered. The Alchemists began fighting over who should
serve as his successor, and Simon Manus came out
the victor. Simon was most likely the mastermind behind
the Rose Estate incident, using it as a distraction to murder Valentinus and kidnap his beloved
daughter, Sophia, imprisoning her in the Arche Abbey, never to be seen again. Simon and Sophia had one very unusual thing
in common; a gift that no one else had understood. Simon was the son of an Alchemist, and his
father had conducted various experiments on him during his childhood. His scarred, blind eye might have been one
of the results of his father's handiwork. But when Simon started to develop the ability
to read minds, his father deemed him a failure, and this rejection would forever change the
course of Simon's life. From that moment on, he became determined
to one day create a world free of betrayal, free of lies, and to only pursue the truth. Sophia had also developed a similar ability. Although Sophia kept her gift as a Listener
in secret, there was one person that she confided in. While Simon believed his ability to be a curse
that he could not bear, Sophia showed him otherwise. Determined to keep her to himself, Simon imprisoned
her in the Abbey, and to prevent her from ever leaving, he shackled her in a terrible
existence of pain. Under Simon's leadership, the Alchemists developed
a new plan for Krat. Their decades of research had finally led
them to understanding how the Arm of God worked, and what it really was. He and his followers intended to resurrect
the god that was torn apart all those centuries ago, but in order to do so, they would need
a massive amount of Ergo. Simon devised a plan to spread the Petrification
Disease on a mass scale. He believed that this would be the key to
evolving humanity. Simon had been working on an elixir that would
transform humans into perfect beings. The elixir would infect the individual, granting
them new abilities and untold strength. Though many Alchemists died in these elixir
baptisms, those that survived were changed into something that was no longer human. The true nature of the elixir was something
that only the highest level Alchemists were aware of; to the rest of the city, it was being advertised
as a cure, and it was distributed all throughout Krat with the promise that it would annihilate
the Petrification Disease for good. But the horrific results weren't what anyone
could have imagined. For those that didn't survive the disease,
their Ergo would be harvested to power the Arche Abbey's tower. The Alchemists had built a device to draw
Ergo to it from afar, and harnessing the Ergo's power in one location would ultimately enable
them to resurrect their god. Simon grafted the Arm of God on his body,
and by using the tremendous amounts of Ergo that had been created from the intentional
spread of the Petrification Disease, he would finally be resurrected as a perfect, immortal
being. Harnessing the power of the star that had
been torn apart, the Awakened God called on the strength of its own kind from above. But in the end, it wouldn't be enough. Had the god had more time to manifest or maybe
existed in a more complete form and not just an arm, things might have ended very differently
in the story. But after the game ends, we get a very big
clue that this won't be the last time we see of the being that was once a star. It was all just collateral damage so that
they could observe what would happen if they gave the Alchemists the Arm of God. And as bad as the Alchemists were, I think
this makes the Eternals even worse. And I'm sure we are going to find this out
for ourselves in upcoming content. I have another video in the works that delves
more into what the Arm of God was and the Petrification Disease and Ergo, along with
some other mysteries. So look forward to that. And in the meantime, if you haven't seen my
other Lies of P lore videos, make sure to check those out as well. I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the
Alchemists and hopefully it has enhanced your enjoyment of the game's story. And if you enjoyed this content, make sure
to give it thumbs up and subscribe for more!
