This guide for A Forbidden Alchemy is a helpful resource before you read Book 2 of The Artisan Trilogy, A Forsaken Prophecy! This guide includes spoilers, so please read AFTER you’ve finished A Forbidden Alchemy.
Includes info from A Forbidden Alchemy, so this guide is spoiler in nature.
This guide is SAFE to read before A Forsaken Prophecy.
This guide is in collaboration with Ana Victoria (@anavickigamesandreads)
World Overview
Belavere Trench
Belavere is a trench, a nation surrounded by mountains. This land is a holy place, blessed by God who sent his human Holy daughter Idia, to help protect the land. India led armies against others who came to sully their sacred ground. It is said that the blood she bled, crystallized into an ore called Terrarium that is now mined to siphon the purported blood of Idia now known as Idium. Idium is what gives magic users their abilities.
The citizens are taught that they all have the right to consume idium, but that only some are capable of truly siphoning its magic into their bodies.
To be an Artisan or Crafter is part of God’s plan.
Belavere City
The capital of Belavere Trench. A place for dreamers and innovators.
The National Artisan House
The National Artisan House is an opulent government building distinguished by its grand marble columns and serves as the center of political power in Belavere Trench. It is home to Lord Tanner’s office and is where most government affairs and official business are conducted.
The building is also the site of the annual Siphoning Ceremony. Its imposing architecture and important functions make it one of the most prominent landmarks in the realm.
The National Artisan School
Children branded as Artisans during the Siphoning Ceremony are immediately enrolled in the National Artisan School, a prestigious institution that has trained young Artisans for over five centuries. Upon arrival, students are assigned to dormitories, issued apprentice uniforms, and given an orientation to prepare them for their new lives.
They remain at the school for the next six years, studying and honing their abilities under the guidance of experienced instructors. First-year students are strictly prohibited from using their mediums without supervision.
The start of the war was marked when this long standing institution was reduced to rubble when it was bombed by the Miners’ Union.
Kenton Hill
Kenton Hill is a rugged coal-mining town and the birthplace of Patrick Colson. It is also where the Miners’ Union rebellion first took root. Having severed its reliance on the capital, Kenton Hill has built a self-sustaining community founded on cooperation and shared responsibility.
The town is home to Idia’s first canal. Essential resources such as food, coal, water, and gas are distributed among residents to ensure that no one goes hungry or cold, while goods and services such as clothing and alcohol remain available through traditional commerce.
Every citizen is expected to contribute to the community and, in turn, receives their fair share. Despite this collective approach, local businesses operate independently and are free to trade as they choose, creating a unique balance between communal support and economic freedom.
Scurry
Scurry is an impoverished terranium mining town nestled along a river. The town is defined like many other mining towns with rows of chimneys belching smoke into the sky and the constant rhythmic clinking of the mills, creating an atmosphere as relentless as the work itself.
Blackened roof tiles crown clay-brick townhouses that curve inward toward the town’s center like the spiral of a snail shell, blending into a landscape nearly indistinguishable from countless other mining parishes.
It is the birthplace of Nina Harrow, who remembers it as a place filled with exhausted, miserable miners struggling to endure their daily lives. To Nina, Scurry is a town on the brink of collapse, where the air is heavy not only with smoke but with a pervasive sense of despair, the stench of despondency lingering more thickly than the soot that settles over its streets.
Political Structure
Their are two societal classes. The classes are determined during the once a year Siphoning Ceremony where children who have turned the age of 12 are summoned to Belavere City to consume an ounce of idium. The effects thereafter will constitute the legal status of the individual’s magics, and they shall be irrevocably designated Artisan or Craftsman.
Artisans
- Magic users
- Most located in Belavere City
- Treated like high-society nobles
- By law are issued a vial of idium twice a year.
- Unless ordered otherwise by sanctioned writ, important Artisans to the nation are given Idium, quarterly.
Craftsmen
- Mine, factory and farm workers
- Known for their vigor, strength, and endurance
- Vastly underpaid
- Treated like second class citizens
- Most of their towns are located in the brink
- Most crafters believe Artisans to be lazy, indulgent and not interested in an honest day’s work.
Religion
The Almighty sent to Belavere Trench his own creation, the Holy daughter, Idia, as a human. Her blood is said to be ink, and during war she bled, and that blood crystallized into terrarium, the most important ore the land bestows. Miners mine for terrarium and use Alchemists to siphon Idium through Terranium which is what gives magic users their abilities.
Key Players
- Nina Harrow, age 25
- Born in Scurry, a terranium mining town
- Father is Fletcher Harrow
- Mother is Rose Harrow who abandoned her and her father when she was eight
- Later revealed that she ran off to Belavere City and was working in The National Artisan House to further help Nina since working as a crafter in Belavere City would sometimes be rewarded with idium for their children
- When Lord Tanner found out about Nina’s acceptance to the National Artisan School, he looked for her parents, found Rose under his nose and fired her and sent her to the a brink town called Trent where she somehow lost her mind
- Patrick Colson, age 25
- Born in Kenton Hill, a coal mining town
- Also known as Patty, Pat
- Leader of the miner’s union in his father’s absence and responsible for everyone’s wellbeing in Kenton Hill
- Revealed to be the only Alchemist alive in the end
- Theodore Sharp, age 25
- Water Charmer
- Nina’s friend in the National Artisan School and dated for about 2 years before he broke things off before they graduated
- His father is a minister in the House of Lords, rumored to be next in line as Head of House
- Has spent the last 2 years in Kenton Hill working under Patrick but is secretly a spy for Lord Tanner
- Lord Geoffry Tanner
- The Head of House, the governing leader
- Stone Mason
- Francis Leisel
- Nina’s “Adoptive” aunt in Belavere City
- Keeps Nina as her ward, protecting herself and Nina from the incident during the siphoning ceremony, giving Nina a new identity.
- A nickel smith who works in the National House
- John Colson
- Coal miner and chairman of the Miner’s union
- Patrick’s father
- Owner of the inn Colson and sons
- Described as a dreamer, and innovator
- Currently held captive in the National Artisan House for the last two years
- Donnie Colson
- Patrick’s blind little brother
- Silver Smith
- Gunner Colson
- Patrick’s older brother
- His wife kicked him to the curb because he’s addicted to bluff and alcohol
- The mastermind behind the coal factory in Kenton Hill that lights up and warms the town up
- Copper Smith
- Tess Colson
- Patrick’s mother
- Innkeeper for Colson and sons
- Polly Prescott
- Scribbler from the Brink and Nina’s school friend
- Has spent the last three years working for Patrick in Kenton Hill but is secretly a spy for Lord Tanner
- Dating Otto
- Otto
- Works for Patrick and is in his circle of trust
- Dating Polly
- Scottie
- Works for Patrick and is in his circle of trust
- Briggs
- Works for Patrick and is in his circle of trust
Magic of this World
Each year, children who have turned the age of twelve in Belavere Trench are sent a parchment by the Belavere Trench National Council summoning them for the Siphoning Ceremony per the articles, 2, 3, 6 and 18 of the National Constitution of Belavere Trench.
- Article 2 – Idiom Quantum
- To incite the birthright of magics, male children upon the age of twelve years are mandated to consume one ounce of idium dilution. The effects thereafter will constitute the legal status of the individual’s magics, and they shall be irrevocably designated Artisan or Craftsman.
- Article 3 – Idiom Quota
- A citizen with official Artisan branding is eligible to an allotment of one ounce of idium dilution twice annually.
- Article 6 – Education
- Every child will be offered approved curriculum. Those deemed Artisan will attend the National Artisan School. Those deemed Craftsman will thereafter seek education at their guardians’ volition.
- Article 18
- As of the 469th year of siphoning, female children upon the age of twelve years may also rightfully consume one ounce of idium dilution. The effects thereafter will constitute the legal status of the individual’s magics.
Types of Magic/Artisans
Artisans use different mediums to craft their magic.
- Cutters
- Specialized in precious stones: diamond, quartz, amethyst, and the like. They were the pretty decorators, the designers of finer things. Cutters could mold gems into any shape.
- Smiths
- Molded copper, iron, nickel, gold, and silver.
- Masons
- Their medium is wood and stone
- Considered a higher order of Artisan since wood and stone are vital resources in a world made from little else
- Charmers
- There’s three type of charmer mediums:
- Fire
- Water
- Earth
- There wasn’t an earth charmer in more than a century until Nina was revealed to be one in her Siphoning Ceremony
- There’s three type of charmer mediums:
Alchemists
- Artisan Alchemists are the only artisan that can extract idium from terrarium
- Considered the most important Artisan
- The number of Alchemists were dwindling quickly, by the midst of the war, only one known alchemist remained, Domelius Becker, captured by the Miner’s Union and help hostage but is later revealed to be dead and that Patrick is now the last remaining alchemist.
Scribblers
- Artisan Scribblers are the source of all the correspondence in Belavere Trench.
- Their medium is ink
- They send and receive missives from the capital and collect payment from anyone who can afford to send notes to a distant loved one
- Can ink a page from many miles away with their mind alone.
- A Scribbler’s cranny usually consists of a writer’s desk with piles of waiting parchment.
- There is at least one Scribbler in every town and parish of the Trench
- Some consider it the lowliest of Artisans
Siphoning Ceremony
Each child upon the age of twelve years is summoned to Belavere City to consume one ounce of idium dilution. They are taken to the National House where they are called upon by city and their name. Once they take the Idium, they are guided to a box containing different mediums and have the children hold each one of the items in their hand to see if any of the mediums respond to them. If they don’t, they’re automatically assigned as crafters. If they do, depending on which medium they responded to, they are assigned their Artisan class.
Artisans are then taken to another room for the “processing”. There Artisans are branded with the Artisan emblem, the profile of Idia, her eyes closed in death, her hair sweeping around to form a near circle, with an iron brander under their wrists.
Afterwards the children are escorted from the National Artisan House to the National Artisan School Dormitory.
Terrarnium
- The most important ore to the Belavere Trench since it is the only source of idium.
- Terrarium also contains bluff—from the outside, both kinds of terranium look nearly identical, but while idium is detected by its blueish hue, bluff is of the blackest ink, with no magic-enhancing properties. It does, however, accelerate healing when carefully diluted, and act as a powerful sedative when not.
- It is the most brittle of the metals. When tampered with inexpertly, it crumbles, and when mixed with liquid idium, becomes putrefied.
- It is believed that the Goddess constructed the ore this way on purpose—to protect idium from unrighteous hands. Only Alchemists can siphon both idium and bluff.
- Three pounds of terranium is needed in order to make one dose of idium.
Where things leave off
Before Nina could tell Patrick the truth that she was sent by Lord Tanner to infiltrate Kenton Hill, find the only remaining Alchemist, Domelius Becker, and bury Kenton Hill with her magic, she warns Polly that she’s planning to tell Patrick everything and informs her that Domelius Becker is dead. Nina gives Polly the choice to stay or to go.
Polly decides to save herself and writes a scribble to Lord Tanner informing him that the last alchemist, Domelius Becker is dead and gives him the coordinates to the tunnel of Margerite’s shop so they can infiltrate Kenton Hills, but urges him to negotiate for peace. After she sends that scribble, we don’t know her whereabouts. We can assume Tanner rewarded her efforts in aiding the Artisans.
Theo came back to Kenton Hill when the attack on the town happened to make sure Patrick didn’t hurt Nina after finding out that she was sent by Lord Tanner. This is when Patrick finds out that Nina had been lying to him all along and believes that she sold him out to Tanner since she was the only person outside his own circle of trust that knew that Patrick is the last remaining alchemist. Theo changes his allegiance last minute towards the crafters and tries to help Patrick dispel the fire charmers.
Patrick reveals to the Artisan Army that he is the last remaining alchemist and threatens to shoot himself if the attack on Kenton Hill doesn’t stop. He surrenders himself for the safety of Kenton Hill.
Nina, Patrick and Theo are ultimately captured by the Artisan infantry army and are led to Marguerite’s tunnel to leave for Belavere City.
Kenton Hill has been left ravaged, with Gunner and Donnie staying behind.
Since Nina was not the one to reveal that Patrick was the last remaining alchemist, it is unknown how Lord Tanner came about the information when he sent his army to Kenton Hill to capture Patrick.
