Alchemia (2018)

Getting Started

You can navigate through the pages of the book using the left and right mouse buttons.

The first page mentions Basil Valentine, which is a reference to the real book "The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine". The following sections of the walkthrough will each deal with a single page in the book, as identified by the Latin words just about the symbols at the bottom of each page.

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis

Art Takes Time, Life is Short

This page provides a message from Basil Valentine to whoever is reading the book, and indicates that there are secrets hidden within. The subject matter of the book is alchemy, and the secrets are designed to only be uncovered by the adept.

Abscondita Est Insigne

The Sign is Hidden

The text on this page indicates that you must remove the false symbols, leaving only the true ones. Then you must rearrange the symbols that are left to create a key of some sort. There are 4 hints to which 5 symbols are considered true symbols:

• The Tyrolese printmaker is Stephan Michelspacher. His most famous work is called "Cabala, Spiegel der Kunst und Natur in Alchymia". There is a page in this work that is titled "Middle: Conjunction", which shows the symbol with the letters A and D.
  
  
• The Canon of Bridlington is George Ripley. His most famous work is called the "Ripley Scroll". The depiction of the Philosopher's Stone on this scroll contains the symbol with the letters N and G.
  
  
• Faust is Johann George Faust. One of his most famous works is called "Praxis Magia Faustiana". The back of page 4 of this book shows the symbol with the letters N and E. Page 7 of the book shows the symbol with the letters O and M.
  
  
• The eternal alchemist's laboratory refers to "The First Stage of the Great Work" by Hans Vrederman de Vries. On the left of this drawing is an hourglass that matches the symbol with the letters L and E.

These 10 letters are an anagram of the phrase GOLDEN MEAN, which is a reference to choosing the exact middle between two extremes.

Lingva Mater

Mother Tongue

The text on this page indicates that gematria will be important - this is the conversion of letters or words into numerical values. It suggests that numerical assessment of alphabets transcends differences in languages.

The word Soyga in the middle of the image is a reference to "The Book of Soyga". There are four other words around the edges of the image, which are the names of 4 authors responsible for different ciphers. There are also letters in various languages, for which you need to calculate the gematria values.

• Porta: The language is Hebrew, and the gematria values are 7-12 and 5-63. The book by Giambattista della Porta is called "De Furtivis Literarum Notis". Read through this book to find page 7, word 12 (Aegyptijs) and page 5, word 63 (literae).
  
  
• Trithemius: The language is Greek, and the gematria values are 7-2. The book by Johannes Trithemius is called "Steganographia". Read through this book to find page 7, word 2 (custodes).
  
  
• Selenus: The language is English, and the gematria values are 6-13. The book by Gustavus Selenus is called "Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae". Read through this book to find page 6, word 13 (et).
  
  
• Vigenere: The language is Arabic, and the gematria values are 31-6. The book by Blaise Vigenere is called "Traicte Des Chiffres Ou Secretes". Read through this book to find page 31, word 6 (mefure).

The first letters of each of these words spell out ALCEM.

Chymistry

Chemistry

The text on this page mentions Barlet's key, which assigns a numerical value to different alchemical symbols as shown in the image. Robert Boyle was the one who repealed the Mines Royal Act 1688, and was the founder of the Invisible College. This gives you a starting point for a substitution cipher, as Invisible College fits well with the blank spaces immediately beneath the image:

All of the other letters remain unchanged. This means you can work out the other words within the image. Each of these words is seen within a shape from Barlet's key, corresponding with one of the 5 elements:

• Earth: Viridi (green)
• Water: Nigredo (black)
• Stone: Argenti (silver)
• Fire: Flavo (yellow)
• Air: Album (white)

Now you should identify each of the other symbols from Barlet's key and tally up how many there are of each color - this will give you the correct numerical values for each of the 5 elements:

• Earth: 0
• Water: 1
• Stone: 2
• Fire: 3
• Air: 4

Svper Stellae

Above the Stars

The text on this page mentions Cicero's Antikythera mechanism, which involves the Corinthian calendar. The man with the golden nose refers to Tycho Brahe. He of the fifth month refers to Julius Caesar, indicating there will be use of the Caesar cipher in the solution. There is also a reference to the number of connections made to each symbol along with a word.

The image shows a circle surrounded by the 12 zodiac symbols and an additional word, which is a month from the Antikythera mechanism. For each of the zodiac symbols, you need to find its position according to Tycho Brahe, count the number of connections to this position in the image, and add the Antikythera month for the word at this position on the image:

• Sagittarius: 1 o'clock, 4 connections, Artemisios is 7th month, value = 11
• Scorpio: 2 o'clock, 3 connections, Gameilios is 9th month, value = 12
• Libra: 3 o'clock, 2 connections, Kraneios is 2nd month, value = 4
• Virgo: 4 o'clock, 6 connections, Dodekateus is 5th month, value = 11
• Leo: 5 o'clock, 2 connections, Psydreus is 8th month, value = 10
• Cancer: 6 o'clock, 3 connections, Phoinikaios is 1st month, value = 4
• Gemini: 7 o'clock, 5 connections, Eukleios is 6th month, value = 11
• Taurus: 8 o'clock, 3 connections, Panamos is 11th month, value = 14
• Aries: 9 o'clock, 3 connections, Machaneus is 4th month, value = 7
• Pisces: 10 o'clock, 5 connections, Apellaios is 12th month, value = 17
• Aquarius, 11 o'clock, 4 connections, Lanotropios is 3rd month, value = 7
• Capricorn: 12 o'clock, 2 connections, Agrianios is 10th month, value = 12

Historia

History

The text on this page makes reference to the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, which indicates there will be a substitution cipher ("As above, so below"). You then need to find a series of 4 correct symbols as listed in the following phrases:

• Cleopatra's gold is a reference to Cleopatra the Alchemist and her Chrysopoeia. The symbol for gold in this is contained in the middle right symbol.
  
  
• The secret of the sphinx relates to the Atalanta Fugiens. This mentions a triangle, a quadrangle and a hemisphere, which is all shown in the top left symbol.
  
  
• Panopolis' son was Zosimos Alchemista. The name Zosimos is shown down the side of the middle left symbol.
  
  
• You must end with a "fire below". The symbol for fire is a simple triangle and you need to look below the other ones you have used, so should choose the bottom right symbol.

Using only these 4 symbols, and the letters above and below them, you can put together this substitution cipher:

Nvmero Sanctvm

Holy Number

The text on this page indicates that the numbers will need to be split into 2 components, and that they should be ordered with Eratosthene's aid (using prime numbers).

You are provided with 5 numbers in different numeric systems, each which is a composite number made up of 2 prime numbers:

• Roman: 74 (2 × 37)
• Greek: 69 (3 × 23)
• Mayan: 6 (2 × 3)
• Hebrew: 55 (5 × 11)
• Egyptian: 1403 (23 × 61)

Now if you consider the prime numbers in order (2, 3, 5, 7, 11...) and give them a numerical value based on this order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5...) then convert these to letters (A, B, C, D, E...) you will end up with the words Abaci and Liber. This is a reference to the Liber Abaci, a work by Fibonacci. This in turn leads to the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...).

Mappus Mundi

Map of the World

The text on this page references places that are difficult to find and often not shown on maps. You must locate these places and draw lines between them, finding the place where these lines intersect. Start by identifying the places on the map in the image:

• Seven Year Island: Hy Brasil
• Rock of Mercator: Rupes Nigra
• Kircher's Isle: Atlantis
• Raleigh's End: El Dorado

Now identify the places int he subsequent text:

• Sigmisund's Alchemist: Southern Poland
• Napier's Bones: Scotland
• Magus of Combwich: Southwestern England
• Baresch Codex: Italy

If you draw lines on a map between these last 4 places, they will intersect in Belgium. Now you must construct a table as indicated, and write the place names within this table:

Claves Septvm

Septum Keys

This page provides a series of seven statements, each containing a word in bold. You should look up the alchemical symbols for each of these words. These symbols can be found at the bottom of the earlier pages in the book as follows:

1. Iron: Abscondita est Insigne
2. Tin: Nvmero Sanctvm
3. Copper: Lingva Mater
4. Lead: Mappus Mundi
5. Quicksilver: Svper Stellae
6. Silver: Historia
7. Gold: Chymistry

Magnvs Arcana

Great Secret

To solve this, you must have solved all previous pages. There are 7 different ciphers on this page, and the method for solving each of them corresponds to the solution for one of the previous pages. The previous section shows which cipher corresponds to which page.

1. For each pair of letters, find the letter that comes perfectly between those letters in the alphabet. This will give the following message:
   
   You who reads this message have proven thyself to be in
   
   
2. This cipher makes use of a modified version of the Fibonacci sequence, involving only the first digit of each value (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 1...). Each provided letter needs to have the corresponding value from this sequence added to give a new letter. This will give the following message:
   
   possession of a great mind and an even greater curiosity.
   
   
3. This cipher text is a polyalphabetic cipher. You can solve it by decoding it as a Vigenere cipher with the key N, or a Porta cipher with the key A. More simply, decode it as a Caesar cipher with a shift of 13. This will give the following message:
   
   While transmutation to gold may have eluded many great
   
   
4. The cipher text contains pairs of digits, which correspond with letters in the table you made from the Mappus Mundi page. Several letters are not included in the grid and are marked with --, so you must just fill these in yourself. This will give the following message:
   
   men, the knowledge gained in searching will doubtless prove
   
   
5. This text contains 8 zodiac symbols followed by short ciphers. You must take the value of each zodiac symbol from the Svper Stellae page and decode the short ciphers as a Caesar cipher with this shift value. This will give the following message:
   
   the greater gift, for God has secreted many wonders in the world
   
   
6. This is a simple substitution cipher using the alphabet you created on the Historia page. This will give the following message:
   
   which are yet to be unveiled. If further misteries you seek, then
   
   
7. There is a hint in the entry on the Claves Septvm page about using base 5. Each of the paired symbols in the cipher text is a base 5 number made up of 2 symbols. The values of the symbols were calculated on the Chymistry page. These base 5 numbers can be converted back into letters (A=0, B=1...). This will give the following message:
   
   face the moon and let the daemons guide you.

If you look closely, there are a number of small dots above various parts of the ciphers on this page. If you just select the letters indicated by these dots, you will see the following message: PADEIL SYMIEL GEDIEL VSIEL.

Tabula Daemonis

Table of the Devil

Find the names from the previous page in the table:

• Padiel: West, East
• Symiel: West, West
• Gediel: East, West
• Vsiel: East, East

Turn to the Historia page, which has the moon symbol at the bottom. Now interpret the West and East instructions as turning pages left and right, so make the following clicks with your mouse: Left, Right, Left, Left, Right, Left, Right, Right. Go all the way to the front cover of the book to see that a secret compartment has been revealed Adept.