al-kimia: the process of transmutation by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form.
al-kimia: to take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary that cannot be explained – lead into gold, or perhaps even coal into diamond.
al-kimia: a world almost like our own, with the same tensions, the same oppressions… and a little something more.
Welcome to the Alkimia verse, where the disenfranchised have powers of their own, faeries flicker between the worlds at their own whim, and the old gods use human squabbles as a spectator sport, placing bets here and there on the next development. The central premise of Alkimia is that all humans are born associated with a single element, much like we are born under star signs or on days of the week. These elements don’t matter beyond points of interest or to fortunetellers – until the person in question undergoes some form of trauma. The trauma unlocks associated abilities as a form of defense, and the human becomes an Elemental.
Most Elementals want to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble; having powers is usually more trouble than it’s worth. Of course, it often doesn’t work out that way. The fey seem to love poking at Elementals, and the normal problems of misfits, loners and losers – late bills, asshole exes, bad traffic, quitting smoking – get that much harder to deal with when a growl of rage can send off literal sparks or you’ve got ghosts lecturing you on your relationship problems.
The Alkimia Fables is a series of interconnected novels, anthologies and multimedia projects dedicated to fleshing out the urban fantasy setting of Alkimia. The basic rules are as above, and each anthology will focus on a different element of the setting. Due to the limits of the setting, submissions will not have to be entire stories or works of art, and the anthologies will be collaborative in nature.
The one-sentence pitch is as follows. In a world where the traumatized, bullied and marginalized develop powers, what happens next, and how do they survive?
The current extant work in the Alkimia Fables is Ghosts in Quicksilver, a monthly updating webnovel. Check out our SUBMISSION GUIDELINES and UPCOMING CALLS. Questions about specific calls or the universe as a whole can be directed to elliott.dunstan@gmail.com.
Enjoy your stay!
The Alkimia Fables 