Alchemy

As a whole, alchemy is a branch of applied magic that essentially boils down to using the magical essence of things to manipulate and alter existing matter. There is a philosophical side to alchemy focused mainly on perfection of one's self, later overshadowed by practical alchemy which involved activating the magic energy within everyday objects to give them new properties or putting together magical reagents for specific outcomes. A growing branch of alchemy is the creation of artifices, technological devices that use magical energy to operate or can perform magical effects.

Manifestation

Alchemy is split into one version focused on spiritual philosophy (esoteric) and one focused on practical reactions (exoteric).
Esoteric Alchemy
Originally, alchemy was fundamentally spiritual and philosophical. Transmutation of lead into gold is presented as an analogy for personal transmutation, purification, and perfection. Early alchemists, highlight the spiritual nature of the alchemical quest, symbolic of a religious regeneration of the human soul. This approach continued in the Imperial Ages, as metaphysical aspects, substances, physical states, and material processes were used as metaphors for spiritual entities, spiritual states, and, ultimately, transformation.
Both the transmutation of common metals into gold and the universal panacea symbolized evolution from an imperfect, diseased, corruptible, and ephemeral state toward a perfect, healthy, incorruptible, and everlasting state, so the philosopher's stone then represented a mystic key that would make this evolution possible. Applied to the alchemist himself, the twin goal symbolized his evolution from ignorance to enlightenment, and the stone represented a hidden spiritual truth or power that would lead to that goal.
Exoteric Alchemy
Exoterism developed a few centuries after the works of the original alchemists. The notes of the alchemists talking about transmutation and creating universal solvent were not taken symbolically as intended but literally, resulting in the creation of chemical experimentation.
This Alchemy was aimed at perfecting and purifying objects which were thought to be altered by an invisible force that permeated throughout everything, at the time called essence.
These are the alchemists that developed a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory, terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use today.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane