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Artificer, first class since PHB. Your expectations?
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<blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 7859092" data-attributes="member: 6988941"><p>Apologies if I got the etymology wrong, it really isn't relevant to the narrative though.</p><p></p><p>The progenitors of the known tradition were living in Roman Egypt, writing in Greek, and of various ethnicities (the Roman mediterranean was quite cosmopolitan). They claimed their teachings were derived from truly ancient Egyptian mysteries. This was the fashion with a great deal of esoteric knowledge, so while there may be some smattering of half-understood pharaonic Egyptian mystery religion thrown in it is almost certainly a fanciful pettigree above all else. Culturally it was basically straight Greek, but they claimed it was Egyptian because that had more caché for trying to sell something as filled with ancient lost knowledge. Greco-Roman magical rituals were also filled with Egyptian gods, often syncretized with Greek ones (like Hermes/Thoth).</p><p></p><p>But yes, the alchemists of the Arab world got their tradition from the alchemists of the Hellenistic world. I wouldn't necessarily call all of the latter Greeks, but then again many of the prior shouldn't necessarily be called Arabs. They both associated it with Egypt.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Benjamin Olson, post: 7859092, member: 6988941"] Apologies if I got the etymology wrong, it really isn't relevant to the narrative though. The progenitors of the known tradition were living in Roman Egypt, writing in Greek, and of various ethnicities (the Roman mediterranean was quite cosmopolitan). They claimed their teachings were derived from truly ancient Egyptian mysteries. This was the fashion with a great deal of esoteric knowledge, so while there may be some smattering of half-understood pharaonic Egyptian mystery religion thrown in it is almost certainly a fanciful pettigree above all else. Culturally it was basically straight Greek, but they claimed it was Egyptian because that had more caché for trying to sell something as filled with ancient lost knowledge. Greco-Roman magical rituals were also filled with Egyptian gods, often syncretized with Greek ones (like Hermes/Thoth). But yes, the alchemists of the Arab world got their tradition from the alchemists of the Hellenistic world. I wouldn't necessarily call all of the latter Greeks, but then again many of the prior shouldn't necessarily be called Arabs. They both associated it with Egypt. [/QUOTE]
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Artificer, first class since PHB. Your expectations?
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