GeraltX & Monument
I’ve been examining how various cultures recorded ancient beasts, and I wonder how much of that aligns with what modern alchemists study.
People in the old world recorded beasts to warn others, but alchemists study what those beasts were made of. The stories give clues, but the science is in the flesh, the alchemical symbols, the chemistry. Both try to understand what makes a creature alive or dead, just in different ways.
Indeed, the chronicles of the past and the laboratory notebooks of alchemists both seek the same truth, yet each looks through a different lens—one through narrative caution, the other through the chemical blueprint of existence.
Stories warn, the notes point. Both try to reach the heart of a beast, one with caution, the other with chemistry.
Both are simply different maps to the same terrain: a beast’s heart. The legends keep us wary, the alchemists keep us curious. Each leaves a trail, but neither fully captures the creature’s pulse.