At the time when the practice of alchemy was at its height, there were seven planets that were recognized by astronomers: The Moon, Mercury, Venus, The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These planets were associated with various metals by alchemists: silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin and lead. These metals were associated with various attributes and that's where they become useful for the mechanics of the game.
Lead was associated with death and through burning, the removal of impurities.
Tin was associated with wisdom and maturity.
Iron was associated with masculinity, power, and strength.
Gold was associated with divinity, perfection, and purity.
Mercury was also associated with death (due in part to its toxicity) and also with mystery and transformation. Mercury was also a messenger and is associated with fleetness, sight, and movement.
Copper was associated with femininity, lust, creativity, charisma.
Silver was associated with vision, clarity, awareness, focus, persistence and subtle strength.
Several of these translate directly to tried and true RPG stats. For the coming days I'm going to be doing some research on these elements and signs and seeing if I can pin these down. I would really like a fortune/fate/destiny/luck stat.
Ok. Each of these elements probably deserve a deep, individual investigation. I also want to find a book on ancient alchemical beliefs.
Lead: ?
Tin: Wisdom/Intelligence
Iron: Strength
Gold: ?
Mercury: Speed/Dexterity
Copper: Charisma
Silver: Focus/Awareness
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