Alchemy

Overview
Alchemy is a branch of 'altphysics' used extensively by the Dominion. Introduced during the formation, Alchemy and the development of arcanotech were some of the biggest factors in the success of the Dominion.

Alchemy allows for the manipulation of fundamental forces, the formation of exotic states of matter with desirable physical properties, and the creation and destruction of matter. To say it is useful is an understatement.

Origin
The field of alchemy was codified after its introduction to the pre-Dominion by Kthulhutu. Before this, alchemy had a rather different meaning and no verified accounts exist of any alchemy ever being performed before Kthulhutu's arrival.

Kthulhutu himself states that his discovery of alchemy was a fluke, the result of copying, combining, and completing various strange sigils he encountered. Eventually, he accidentally performed a life-force transmutation when one of the sigils he created happened to be a functioning transmutation circle. When catalyzed but given no energy source, a transmutation will substitute what is nearby. This process nearly killed Kthulhutu, but he quickly realized the potential of what he just performed.

After hundreds of years of alchemy and advancement, Kthulhutu who appeared to have a natural talent for it, created his last artifact- the Celestial Corridor. It is this strange device that transferred him and his knowledge of alchemy to the Dominion's reality, where he has remained ever since.

Explanation
A precise definition of alchemy is "the manipulation of alchemic energy". Alchemic energy is a store of work that can be used for transmutation (creation of matter) or conversion into other forms of energy. Alchemic energy can be produced by detransmutation (destruction of matter) or from other non mass energy with specialized conversion apparatus; typically it is released into the environment and must be used immediately, but specific alchemic configurations can be used to trap and store it in Klein matter.

Alchemic energy is manipulated by geometric constructs known colloquially as transmutation circles, although these constructs can be three or four dimensional in nature. The efficiency, range, scale and specifics of a transmutation are determined by the structure of the circle itself and the product is determined by the pattern. The surface area (or volume) determines range and efficiency as does the precision of the patterning. For your average complex and subatomically perfect (within a small margin of error) Dominion construct, the pattern of the given transmutation circle is incredibly intricate and complex, with creation at the molecular or atomic level the only viable means of producing said construct.

For this reason, transmutation circles are typically produced on demand by nanotechnology based printer units. This also confers the advantage of being able to create novel transmutations on the fly by defining a new geometry programatically. Transmutation is generally considered well defined and therefore it's possible to predict what a given pattern will create without having to experiment in advance.

The actual material of a transmutation circle also determines its efficiency, for it to be effective you need an alchemic conductor. For mundane materials, stable solids with high ionization energies are preferred; for efficient transmutation, arcanomaterials are preferred. One problem is that arcanomaterials cannot be created without being transmuted themselves, meaning at some point a production chain must be bootstrapped by the creation of arcanomaterials via inefficient mundane circles before efficient circles can be created.

Detransmutation follows similar principles to transmutation but is vastly simpler, no complex pattern beyond encoding the epicentre of action, relative to the circle is required. Unless the energy of a detransmutation is efficiently captured by the circle and quickly tapped from it, the process itself will violently release the liberated mass energy in the form of various high energy particles.

Arcanomaterials
Arcanomaterials, also known as 'alchemic materials' are the product of experimentation with transmutation and alchemic energy. In order to be classified as an arcanomaterial, a substance must only be creatable via transmutation and will typically possess a poorly understood metaphysical structure that is not replicatable by mundane means.

The Dominion has produced several hundred novel arcanomaterials, with the most noteworthy being: Red Matter, Dark Matter and Klein Matter.