- the school of alchemy
	+ alchemy is the art of turning one thing into another; all magic that accomplishes this falls under the alchemy umbrella and thus it is a very broad and varied school of magic
	+ basic forms of alchemy are more about intent while more advanced forms are more about exact science
	
- kindredness is the most defining principal of basic alchemy 
	+ kindredness refers to all the qualities of similarity between what you have and what you are trying to create; it can be anything from color to shape to category of use
	+ objects that are more kindred are easier to transform into one another; all alchemy needs at least one form of kindredness; this just means recognizing how two objects are similar even if they seem completely different
		- an example is a needle and a match; they are similar in shape and size, but a more advanced wixen might also draw a connection between how both objects can cause pain or how both objects are common household tools, this too is a form of kindredness
		- this, of course, means transfiguration at higher levels is more of a thought exercise than concrete theory or complicated wandwork

- runic alchemy (or transmutation alchemy)
	+ advanced forms of alchemy are actually a combination of the muggle understanding of chemistry and the wixen understanding of ritual magic
	+ it's a discipline that uses runic sequences because it requires a precision not always achievable through spellwork (though for masters, it's possible)
	+ runic alchemy typically leans dark than other forms by virtue of its nature
		- runic alchemy requires equivalent exchange (woo we're going fma on this one), so something cannot be made of nothing and everything created must have been made from the elements in the materials transformed
		- this makes runic alchemy more restrictive than other forms but it also means that it can ignore most every other tenet of kindredness
	- a successful or working runic alchemical array is called a transmutation