Potion Making 101

"Would you like some tea?" Empress Rasi asked

"Sure, what were you doing before I came in if you don't mind me asking?" I asked

"I was just making a few health potions, Queen Vanera is a battle junkie so she always needs more." Empress Rasi responded while handing me a cup of tea.

The 'tea' was in a glass bottle that you would normally keep potions in. It was also glowing bright orange and radiated heat.

*Just to clear your suspicions this is in fact just molten gold. Though for the embodiment of fire this could be consumed as a drink, so maybe it really is tea?* Taint told me

I sat the tea on the table next to me and turned my attention to Empress Rasi who was drinking the molten gold looking quite pleased with her 'tea'.

"How do you create these potions? I have something similar from where I am from but the process seems a little different." I asked in an attempt to move past the 'tea'

"Sure I can do that, you'll have to explain how it's done from where you are from after." Empress Rasi said

I nodded and took a notebook out so that I could take notes.

"The art of potion-making is more or less removed from thaumaturgy. To create a potion you need a brewing stand; a brewing stand is more or less just an apparatus that contains the thermal energy produced by a blaze rod. The reason we use blaze rods is because of the way they manipulate heat, they are capable of dissolving the material in water without boiling the water itself. This is essential because most materials that provide alchemical effects require high temperatures to break down. Blaze rods aren't an infinite source of heat either, and can be recharged by adding blaze powder which can be sourced by grinding blaze rods down."

"Now that you have a station and power you need your container, which is often some tempered glass bottles. After which you will need water, which is much harder to come by; we get water in the nether by using alchemy to create magic ice, this ice is then melted down into the water. Don't worry about the water either, it works just the same as normal water would both for ingestion and otherwise."

"With a brewing stand and water bottles now you need reagents to make said potions, I won't list them all but I have a list of them if you need to check. For starters, you need nether wart which we grow in the fortress, once nether wart is dissolved into the potion you can add any number of other reagents to get anything from strength, regeneration, healing, or even fire resistance although fire resistance also includes submerging yourself in lava."

"Now that basic potion making is out of the way I can explain more advanced techniques. Potion modifiers for example; redstone when added to a complete potion extends the total duration of a potion, while glowstone increases the potency of said potion. This however does not work on all potions; redstone cant increase the duration of a potion whose effect is instant, and glowstone cant increases the potency of a potion whose effects are changes to the body, an example would be fire resistance."

"There are other things like how gunpowder makes the potion extremely volatile allowing one to create a splash potion, or how fermented spiders corrupt potions into negative versions." Empress Rasi explained with vigor

I didn't think that Empress Rasi could show emotion from our first interaction but the way she explained how potion-making worked was filled with excitement and joy.

"This doesn't seem all that hard to do. Why doesn't everyone do this?" I asked

"Ah, that's the most common response, but brewing REQUIRES a blaze rod AND blaze powder. Blaze rods are sourced from the dead bodies of blazes, more specifically they are processed versions of the limbs, and most of my subjects don't quite like their loved ones missing body parts even if it is after death." Empress Rasi explained

"Wait, why does that matter if you are a hive mind?" I asked

"Ah well things have changed within the last 3 years, you wouldn't know because of what happened to you but Blaze society went under a massive reform while you were locked away." Empress Rasi said with visible sadness on her face

"I should explain how Blazes function first before telling you everything else. Blazes aren't quite a hive-mind, think of them more like a supersized version of an anthill, the Blazes themselves have free will; they live their lives dependent on the job they have. The reason people said we were a hive-mind was because as the Empress I have the ability to order the lower casts around, they are unable to disobey my orders and if I need to I can even assume control of their bodies. There is also the very weak telepathy we have access to."

"Now under most circumstances, people wouldn't consider that a hive-mind but the previous Empress was… more controlling. She d-didn't allow for free w-will, anyone who disobeyed h-her orders w-were… t-taken control of. The p-proc-" "Stop, don't continue I can clearly see you are uncomfortable with continuing speaking about this matter, I can guess the rest: People were unhappy with her rule they looked for outside help and overthrew her correct?" I interrupted her before she could continue, she looked to be on the verge of tears, and I could roughly guess what happened next.

Could blazes even cry? What would they cry anyways? Thoughts for later.

"Moving back to the original question, other than the rarity of blaze rods and blaze powder what else limits potion-making, over time this issue shouldn't be an issue?" I asked to try to pull us out of the very touchy subject.

"A-Ah yes, other than blaze rods and powder being an issue, proper dosage of reagents is the main issue. To make a potion a VERY specific dosage is used, too little and the potion's effect is drastically diminished, too much and the potion explodes. The range in which a potion properly forms is within a thousandth of a gram (.001) so we don't let anyone except blazes create potions because of that." Empress Rasi explained quickly regaining composure

"That doesn't sound all that bad, some alchemy reactions explode but that's why you prepare for it." I responded

Personally, the downsides didn't sound all that bad, I have had alchemy explode on me before and sure it's dangerous and it has almost killed me but people should be aware of the risks, right?

"Oh yes you are right but we have had issues with Piglins making fire resistance and the drastically reduced effects make the potion only increase heat tolerance slightly. Also by explosion, I mean something similar to Alumentum in strength. (pretty much an F1 hand grenade) We were not fond of being sued for loss of life."

"Ah you know that makes far more sense now that you say it." I replied

"I think it's time you explained your version of potion-making?" Empress Rasi asked

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Word Count: 1201

Potion Making and some character building! Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!