Licoturgy

Licoturgy, or as it's more commonly known as to laymen, Alchemy, is the magical process of forming and shaping matter with your own energy. Licoturgy has many levels of operation, but at its core it allows the manipulation of matter on an atomic level, allowing the complete transformation of base elements into other base elements - if you're good enough.

Officially, a practicioner of licoturgy is a licoturgist, but most people just refer to one as an alchemist.

How it works
There are two key rules that remains true of all alchemical practice: These laws dictate every alchemical process, no matter the skill of the practicioner.
 * The Law of Equivalent Exchange: Matter cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed.
 * The Law of Bonds: Matter is inert. To manipulate matter into breaking or making bonds, the alchemist must facilitate the process with their own bodily energy.

Alchemy itself works on the premise that one can change, form, or otherwise manipulate matter with the help of one's own energy. With the correct method, one could set fire to wood, create steel out of a handful of coal and pure iron, separate the elements of any given material, create a potion without instruments by dissolving ingredients in the correct way etc. It is even entirely possible to change matter on the atomic level, like turning one element into another. This is incredibly difficult, and is most easily done from a similar element to another: for example, changing between Zinc ans Copper, thanks to their similar atomic makeup, is much easier than the age old pursuit of turning lead into gold. In that vein, though, one can relatively easily turn platinum or mercury into gold, though the former is rarer than gold, and the latter is very toxic to human life.

Symbols
Alchemical processes can be done without aid by a practicioner alone - however, it can be greatly aided by the use of various alchemical symbols. For example, marking a piece of wood with the symbol for "fire" makes it easier to set it on fire. It is theorised that the use of symbols by marking, drawing, carving etc. them on the subject of the process creates a more tangiable connection between the material and the practicioner, thus facilitating the process.

Miracles
The licoturgic miracles are materials and conconctions that are often theorised but sometimes proven to be able to be created through alchemical processes alone. Normal chemistry is thus unable to produce these materials.

Alkahest
The alkahest is a theorised acid(ic) liquid that is able to cleanly dissolve any matter. While research into producing an alkahest has been going on for centuries, it has so far not succeeded. Such research however would lead to the discovery of Auric acid, an acid mixture that is able to dissolve gold.

Allagic Stone
The allagic stone is a hypothetical material that can act like a catalyst to further improve and simplify the process of element transformation. It is often joked that had it been created, the gold market would have crashed in mere hours.

Alchemite
Initially merely a hypothetical miracle, Alchemite was first created in the early 800's. This material seemingly features an impossible atomic geometry and structure, causing it to be greatly unstable but endowing it with powerful potential in terms of energy. Experimentation with alchemite is difficult due to its volatile nature and difficulty in producing, but further research has concluded that alchemite may be used as a powerful battery of energy, both for peaceful and military application.

Elixir of Life
This theoretical potion of "vitality" has long been sought after due to the old belief that life-force itself can be expressed with the help of elements. In recent times this belief has lost ground to new findings in atomic and alchemical theory, and so the elixir of life remains a legend.

Metaturgy
Following the publication of the matter-energy theory, where the authors claimed that matter was in fact made up of energy, it was also theorised that energy itself could be manipulated directly rather than the matter it made up. This hypothetical method of manipulation is called metaturgy, and is often seen as the "pure" form of licoturgy. However, no-one is known to have succeeded in performing metaturgical feats.