Transmutations and Metamorphoses is a book in The Witcher.
An intricate alchemical treatise presenting a theory concerning the animation of inanimate matter. This is the book you should read to be able to have the "correct" conversation with the Alchemist at the workshop in the Trade Quarter in Chapter III.
Contents[]
- Transmutations and Metamorphoses
by Adalbertus Aloysius Kalkstein - "To follow the example of the sorcerer from the tower, we first need to classify substances, diving them into superior and inferior varieties. Only the former can be described by the theory of interdependence presented here.
- Inferior substances do not produce a chain of quasi-life structures, for their nature is substandard in quality and they cannot exist independently. However, it has been proven that they are paradoxically essential for the chain to exist in spite of their inferiority. The hypothesis of interdependence assumes that the chain of quasi-life must contain one substance of each superior element. Nonetheless, the chain's structure, proposed by Raffard the White, has one too few paces for them, namely only five. If the chain were transposed and then transmuted, the problem would easily be solved. Alas, the first operation cannot be performed without damage to the chain's integrity. The only solution is to use a so-called reversed transmutation, which will eventually cause the chain to rotate. As a result of rotation all six superior substances will constantly leave and join the chain without destroying it. From the holistic point of view, there will always be six superior substances occupying five places. The ingenuity of this solution lies in the chain having all the qualities of the three inferior substances. Thus the paradox of interdependence, or as some say coexistence, is no longer a problem.
- Unfortunately, since none of the modern works describe how to perform reverse transmutation, the problem of animating the inanimate remains unresolved."
Journal entries[]
- Characters: Kalkstein
Locations[]
- Antiquary in the Temple Quarter.
- Bookseller in Tanner's Square in the Trade Quarter.
Notes[]
- The word "diving" in the first paragraph is likely a typo of "dividing", and the phrase "one too few paces" should likely read "one too few places".
- This book also exists in the game files for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, likely imported during development as possible material to use, but it was never added to the game.