Welcome! Thank you for having a look at AoA, I'll get on with the story and try to keep any AN's brief, but just before you start;
This book began as a short-story idea that spiralled slightly out of control once I started writing (of course). It's a bit of everything, mostly things I love to read; fantasy world, magic powers, battles and politics, Friendship goals and a healthy dash of romance and angst.
However: I just want to say; I have not intentionally copied anyone's ideas and this was written with no specific inspiration in mind, but in hindsight... I can definitely see the links. In saying that, I've tried to keep the work original, and hopefully interesting enough, drawing on real life, history and many incredible works (I'll include some of my inspo at the bottom). I will also mention, I've tried to draw from some historical lore (Such as the Magnum Opus), but the magic systems in this story are by no means faultless, but as I have discovered neither was the precursor to modern chemistry.
Well, I'm sure you can come up with heaps of your own parallels, and I don't mean to plagiarise any ideas; I just love the premise of a School for the Arcane and having people with magic abilities in a slice-of-life style, with greater things going on.
So with that in mind, I really hope you enjoy this book! I have also included some charts throughout, like Alchemical symbols, a crudely drawn map of the ASLA and the Student class lists etc. just to help immerse you in this fantastical world. (Imagines and graphs are either my own or were found on Pixabay and credit to the amazing artists who share their work).
Welcome to The Academy of Sorcery, Linguistics and Alchemy!
BekLittleSparrow24
Beloved inspiration (roughly in order of when I first consumed them):
· Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime- Hiromu Arakawa)
· Soul Easter (Anime- Atsushi Ohkubo) and My Hero Avademia (Kōhei Horikoshi)
· Avatar: The Last Airbender & Korra (TV Series- Nickelodeon)
· Nancy Drew (specifically Curse of Blackmoor Manor- Her Interactive) a bit of a weird link this one but it deals with some Alchemy....
· Stormlight Archive (Book series- Brandon Sanderson)
· Name of the Wind (Book- Patrick Rothfuss)
· Harry Potter Series (Movies, I never read the books...)
· Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom (Books- Leigh Bardugo)
· Babel (Book- R. F. Kuang) I read this one about halfway through writing Asla and I was rather surprised.
P.s: Just some references and resources (on Alchemical lore) if you are interested
CrashCourse. (2018). Alchemy: History of Science #10. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxiLuz9kHi0
Blog: Sarikas, C. (2019). The 22 Key Alchemy Symbols and Their Meanings.
Slides: Deschaines, T. O. (n.d.). Alchemic Symbols and Symbolism: An Exploration.
Reality From Perspective. (2016). What is Alchemy? Explained Documentary. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkezAd_Mg7U
Blog: Azothseeker.(2021). Understanding Alchemy; The Magnum Opus. (a really clear explanation of what I was trying to convey, importantly gives a shout out to my boy Ed (FMA) and the colours of his design)a great insight.
http://www.mysteryofmatter.net/alchemy.html (A great starting point)
https://www.alchemywebsite.com/substanc.html (Information on substances and processes)
Now that that is out of the way! Happy reading.
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Art of Alchemy
FantasyAspiring Alchemist Vehya has twice failed her entrance exam into The Academy for Sorcery, Linguistics and Alchemy. Given one final opportunity to prove her skills as a mage, Vehya falls in with an odd group of students and must conquer feelings of d...
