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temporoom · 2 years

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It all began with alchemy

An analysis on the links between The Case Study of Vanitas and alchemy

Part 1: Analysis | Part 2: Theories (1) | Part 3: Theories (2)

Well, well, well… Look at what we are dealing with today! None other than alchemy itself! To be fairly honest, I’m surprised I had yet to see anyone make an actual alchemical analysis of VnC, or even make thorough research on the subject of alchemy and Paracelsus given how much of an importance alchemists have in the VnC universe despite never actually making an appearance. In any cases, now I am! And I am going to thoroughly! So thoroughly that I advise you to take a break after this post because, holy cow, there is a lot to unveil.

As a quick warning to start, as always, remember that I will spoil all manga chapters that are currently available as of writing this post (54), this warning is less to avoid spoilers for everyone this time, and more because you probably won’t understand a lot of what I’m saying unless you actually have some knowledge of the latest arc.

This alchemical study will be done in two parts/posts, the first one being the one you are reading, mostly spouting out vague links and facts about alchemy, while the second post will be about me linking the facts together to form theories about the future of the story. However, I consider this post to be important since it could at the very least serves as a quick and abridged initiation to alchemy to those interested (even if my main subject will be VnC), and help you form your own theories as well (or maybe confirm some you already may have).

Now that it is said, let’s dive right into the wonderful alchemical world of VnC.

Introduction: What is Alchemy?

As a starter, we need to set some basics, so I’ll try to give you a concise and accurate definition of alchemy as it is in our world:

Alchemy is protoscience and a philosophy which basis resided in the concept of “transmutation”, the ability of all things to be changed for the better. For that purpose, their goal was to create the Philosopher’s Stone, an object so powerful, defying all logics, and capable to transform base metals into noble ones (lead into gold), to create a panacea capable of healing all diseases, or even an immortality elixir when becoming liquid.

More than that, they believed that while making a Philosopher’s Stone, they too, would change, similarly to how lead turns into gold. They hoped that through what is called the Magnum Opus, as the Philosopher’s Stone is born, their soul and spirit would be purified as well, and turn into a perfected being: an alchemist who would be the resolution of all contraries in this world, an alchemical hermaphrodite.

This is how Alchemy can be summarized at this stage of the post. Now that I’ve explained to you what alchemy in our world is, let’s try to figure out what alchemy is in VnC before we go into the actual analysis:

The first introduction we have of alchemy in VnC is a quantum physic theory, which is a great start (sarcasm intended).

The “World Formula” Theory is explained in VnC as such: next to our world, there is another world identical to ours made entirely of formulas. It is not a bad explanation of what the “World Formula” Theory corresponds to in our world.

Called the “Theory of Everything”, the gist of it is that our universe is made of a singular formula, linking the entirety of our universe together, forming one “everything”. One of the theories made to make this idea potentially work with our current knowledge of quantum physic is that there could be a world symmetrical to ours made of “shadows” of the particles making our universe. (I’m not a physician, so this is what I basically understood from it).

However, this theory was only firstly brought up in a clear and credible way by Isaac Newton in the 17th century, a century after Paracelsus. It brings the question: does the “World Formula” Theory is actually the “Theory of Everything”? (You could also theorize that maybe the Babel event did not happen because of Paracelsus but because of someone else, but we don’t have enough information to talk about that yet).

Well, yes and no, yes because it does correspond (up to the name!), though it could be a coincidence, and no, because it could also be explained through the concepts we will tackle through this analysis. For now, we can suppose that the VnC universe as it was written is most likely a mix between multiple concepts and ideas. And our answer about what is alchemy in VnC remains the same: we don’t know, since we have yet to meet any actual alchemists, and the only vague mentions of similarities with alchemy is Paracelsus’ goal and the changes operated after the Babel event.

As bothering as it can be, it leaves us with large marge of error and freedom.

Thanks to the explanations of the Babel event given in VnC, we can set our plan for the analysis, since our goal here will be to explain the events of Babel through alchemical concepts before we can use them for symbolics. Here are the things we’ll tackle:

The presence of two world linked to one another: The Physical body, the Astral body, and the Immortal soul: What is salvation?

The transmutation of coal into Astremite: Chrysopoeia: The vampires’ eyes colors.

The transmutation of human into vampire: Magnum Opus: Faustina, the Queen of vampires.

Are you ready? Buckle up then, this road is going to be long and tortuous.

The Physical body, the Astral body, and the Immortal soul: What is salvation?

This title is probably living you perplexed, however, do not worry, everything will be quickly explained as we get our first actual dive-in into alchemical concepts. This one being the resolution of the contrary between God and man.

When I mentioned that alchemists hoped their soul would change as they create the Philosopher’s Stone, it means a few things. We’ll take the Christian approach of the situation for now since this is the one, I studied for this analysis (I have a lack of documents for other types of alchemy, but I’ll try to look into it).

If you know your genesis, then you remember the story of Adam and Eve, exiled from the garden of Eden after eating the forbidden fruit. This is what alchemists seek when they desire their soul to be transformed: to go back to Eden. There’s a Christian belief that a human is separated in three parts: the body, the physical body allowing us to be on earth, the spirit, the thing allowing us to have an intellect and imagination, it also serves to link the body to the soul, and the soul, the divine part of the human who is destined to return to God at death. For alchemists, after being exiled from Eden, humans’ spirit lost its ability to link them to God, forbidding them from hearing their voice and receiving their guidance. Their desire for the Magnum Opus is to be linked back to God, and to go back to a state of being before the exile from Eden, and before Adam was separated in two contraries (the man and the woman), this being, who is “perfect”, is the alchemical hermaphrodite.

Let’s remember the important part of this explanation: the concept of body-spirit-soul and the link to God. (If you are curious about the alchemical hermaphrodite, we will talk about it later in the analysis). Those two are important because they will help you understand what will come next: Paracelsus’ conception of the world.

As I’ve mentioned on twitter, I discovered that reading Paracelsus’ works might not be such a bad idea given he is the creator of the world of VnC, luckily for me, I did not have to because everything was clearly summarized on the French Wikipedia page! The entirety of his works! So my explanation is more of a summary of a summary, but don’t worry it’s just what you need.

Paracelsus, like any other Christian alchemist of his time, believed in the idea of the body being separated in three and the fact that we lost our link to God and need to get it back. However, his conception of what a human was is… What you would expect from an astrologer (he was one too after all). He believed the human body lived on three plans, each plan corresponding to a different part of our universe with different roles. Those three plans of the universe are what he calls the macrocosms, and the three plans the human lives by are the microcosms. In other words: he believed that a human being was a smaller scaled copy of the universe itself, all created by God.

Those three plans, or bodies, were as followed:

A terrestrial body, appearing during the “first birth”, and composed of two different parts:

A visible part, made of flesh and blood, which returns to the elements after death. (The classics: fire, water, air, earth) This plan is the one corresponding to what is on the planet earth.

An invisible part, astral, at death, this part returns to the sky and the planets. It is the one responsible for the ability to think and imagine. This plan corresponds to what is beyond the earth: the sky, the planets, and the stars.

An immortal soul, reserved to a few people (the one destined to find salvation, because you know how Christians were) who would have access to a “second birth” in which they will receive a celestial body allowing them to live along God’s side. This plan corresponds to the kingdom of God where angels and other divine creatures reside.

(I should also mention that similarly to the “Theory of Everything”, those three plans forming the macrocosms are called the “big everything” by Paracelsus.)

Now that you have all the information needed for this first part of the analysis, let’s link everything back to Vnc! You may have already noticed a few interesting things in what I’ve said up until now:

a) The Exile from the garden of Eden and the loss to the link to God

It’s not hard to make links with the Christian analogies and different aspects of VnC, in that specific case, Vanitas’ exile from the crimson vampires’ society could hold some similarities to the exile of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Though what interest me, as always, is what alchemists make of this exile. And that’s where we can notice something:

Luna/Vanitas never tampers with the formula directly.

Unlike crimson vampires, the only access to the formula the Blue Moon clan seems to have is through the Books of Vanitas. Not only do their eyes do not change color like crimson vampires, and are always blue, they are the only people tampering with the formula through a device. I know it seems far-fetched, and you could argue that the only one we have seen using the Book of Vanitas are two humans who technically can’t have a natural access to the formula, but do we ever see Luna tamper with the formula? The only instance during which we could have a doubt (during Moreau’s lab assault) the books are present. Maybe the Blue Moon clan doesn’t have access to the formula naturally, and instead need, just like alchemists, to create an artificial “link to God”. The Book of Vanitas.

b) The different parallel plans making our universe

If the Book of Vanitas is the potential artificial “link to God” as suggested, it’s because we can associate the World Formula to the parallel plans proposed by Paracelsus. More specifically to the Astral plan, linked to the sky and the planets. When vampires use the formula, or when Vanitas uses the Book, we can see constellations patterns around the tampered area. The pattern is a recurring theme. There is the simple answer to its use which is “It’s the power of the moon and the night” and there is the complicated answer which is “it’s because they affect a plan parallel to theirs”.

However, the alchemists mention a link to God, not a link to the Astral plan. It’s at that moment we can start using quantum physic and the “Theory of Everything”. As I’ve mentioned, one of the formulas used to make is work suggest that there is a world parallel to ours which is made of the shadows of our world’s particles. In that case, there could be not three plans, but simply two, and the Astral plan and the Divine plan are just reunited into one plan which is the World Formula. Then Paracelsus works would simply be used as a pattern for the aesthetic of the formula.

However, we can also consider that there are three plans like Paracelsus wants us to think. And vampires have access to the Astral plan as well as the Physical plan. Which brings me to Babel.

c) Babel and Eden

Babel wasn’t a name used by chance. Of course, we can think about the Tower of the Sun mentioned during Vanitas and Jeanne’s date, but if you know a bit of Christian texts, and if you’ve read my first info dump carefully, then you can see the links. Babel was a tower made by mankind who either wanted to have a construction to unite humanity together, or to be closer to God, depending on versions. The last one is the one who interests us: because its point is that humankind wanted to create a “link to God” and then got divided in the process.

The paper version of the Babel event in VnC is that Paracelsus tried to tamper with the world formula to cure illnesses, but the actual reason is most likely because he wanted to fuse two plans together and either link humanity or himself to God, or an entity akin to God. He succeeded in a way, since creatures who could link themselves to the formula were born in the process, except the Blue Moon Clan of course. This, of course, is only a theory, and shouldn’t be taken for granted. The manga is still on-going after all.

But I want you to remember Eden and Babel, after all… Babel never mentions flowers while Eden is a garden.

There are a few other theories to make with those pieces of information, but since this post is an analysis, I won’t place them here. Those are the things to remember: The Book of Vanitas is an artificial device created to link its owner to another plan of the world (the world formula/God), Babel could be a way to link the story back to the garden of Eden.

I also did not find a way to actually explain this part’s title “What is salvation?”, but basically it’s because of Paracelsus Christian belief that salvation could be found through the second birth made by resurrecting into heaven after death. I’m noy saying Vanitas could be disappearing into another plan of the world instead of actually dying… But I’m just saying there is a possibility his salvation includes a form of resurrection. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chrysopoeia: The vampires’ eyes colors

Now that we’ve finished talking about Paracelsus’ works (we haven’t), let’s talk about something more enchanting, and which will require less talk than the different theories about parallel universes: the Philosopher’s Stone! It is an obligatory passage after all since alchemy mostly revolves around it. Our talk about the Philosopher’s Stone will be divided into two parts: what does the Philosopher’s do, and how to make one. We’ll start by what it does since it was the thing that made me want to write this post, and also because it’ll help you to understand how to make one better.

The Philosopher’s Stone has many usages: it can be used to make panaceas, capable of healing any sicknesses; to make an elixir of immortality, when becoming liquid; and to turn lead to gold, through a process called the Chrysopoeia.

Now, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, we can associate vampires with the metals that are going to, or are, transmuted thanks to the Philosopher’s Stone. For a few reasons:

All vampires�� eyes (crimson vampires at least) have eye colors varying between black, brown, and gold, depending on their social statue. Orlok, Manet, Nox and Jean-Jacques have back eyes; Amelia has brown eyes; Jeanne, Dominique, Veronica and Ruthven have golden eyes. It applies for minor characters as well: Fred, George, Fanny and Mina have eyes varying between black and brown, while Christine has golden eyes. Lead to Gold.

Vampires heal faster than humans. Panacea.

As long as they are not directly killed, they are immortal. Elixir of immortality. (btw, in French, it’s called Elixir of Long Life)

In all matters, we can see the effect of a supposed “Philosopher’s Stone” on vampires. However, when it comes to the Chrysopoeia, we have three clear exceptions: Chloé d’Apchier, who has silver eyes, Luca Oriflamme, who has green eyes, and Noé Archiviste, who has purple eyes.

Let’s talk about them:

a) Chloé d’Apchier

Chloé is the easier case to explain because she isn’t born from Chrysopoeia, but Argyropoeia, the process of transmuting copper to silver. It can be done using an unfinished Philosopher’s Stone during the second stage of its creation. For Chloé, it could mean a few things: because she was transformed into a vampire as a child instead of being born as one, because she is part of the first generation of vampires before the queen was “killed” by her beastias, or finally because she wasn’t born from the same “Philosopher’s Stone as other vampires.

I’ll suppose, in any cases, that there is a high chance that we meet other vampires with silver eyes as well, since I doubt Chloé is alone in her situation.

(There is another possibility: Qucksilver. We’ll talk about it more in the next part.)

b) Luca Oriflamme

Unlike Chloé, Luca’s green is most likely not meant to represent a process of metallurgic transformation, but rather a process of metallurgical destruction.

There is only one symbol I could find which corresponds to Luca: The Green Lion eating the Sun. An analogy of the Aqua Regia, a fuming liquid able to dissolve noble metals such as gold. The “sun” in this analogy is gold, and the green lion is the liquid dissolving it. (The texts are filled with metaphors and analogies, so it’s complicated to find other things about it). I associate the entirety of the symbol with Luca (and not just the Green Lion) due to the color of his flames: a bright yellow, like the sun.

It could mean a few things for Luca: he could be another kind of vampire, or even not a vampire at all; or it is just a way to show what his future role might be, will he kill someone made of gold? Or is he destined to destroy the works of the Chrysopoeia?

He could also be a manifestation of the sun in this symbol, like the many other kingly symbols he has (being protected by an equivalent of Jeanne d’Arc, his name can mean “king” in Latin, his last name is the name of a type of banner raised by kings before going to war…). But I believe the sun is just a part of the entire symbol for Luca.

There’s also the possibility of the symbol extending to the entire Oriflamme family, then, we’ll need to see Loki’s color palette to know.

c) Noé Archiviste

Okay, you’ll think I’m crazy right now. But just like Luca, I only found one symbol which corresponds to Noé. It is not a metal, it is not a liquid, it’s…

The Philosopher’s Stone.

There are a few reasons for that conclusion: the stone is sometimes described as being reddish purple and almost glass-like, the last stage of the Philosopher’s Stone creation can be described as “tinting the stone in purple”, the stone is sometimes qualified as “a king in purple”, or has a “throne adorn with purple” (Those two links are from the same texts because there’s no way I’ll go back to re-check every alchemical texts). So, while the overall color people associate with the Stone is red, it can also be associated with purple.

However, there are other reasons as to why I associate Noé with the Philosopher’s Stone that have more to do with his overall character than his eyes’ color: the last stage of the Stone’s creation is called the Rubedo and can be described as “staining with blood”, the stone is sometimes called “the Orphan”, to create the stone, you have to mix and combust Mercury (blue) and Sulfur (red) as catalysts to modify the prima materia, and also it would just fit thematically.

At this point in the story, and with my current results, this is the conclusion I ended up with. However, things could change in the future (one of my other theories is that Noé just represents one of the components of the Philosopher’s Stone).

I’ll also add that while I said Noé is most likely the Philosopher’s Stone, I don’t mean that he is the one transmuting other vampires. If there is a creation process for the Philosopher’s Stone, it’s because it is not a unique item. There are other “Philosopher’s Stone” in VnC besides Noé, and while I can only count two for now, we’ll maybe be seen more of them. Who knows?

Here is what to remember with this part of the analysis: Vampires are the results of a transmutation by a Philosopher’s Stone, Luca is most certainly destined to overtake vampires’ current royalty, Noé is potentially one of the vampires capable of “transmuting” other vampires.

Magnum Opus: Faustina, the Queen of vampires.

We are now at our third and last part of the analysis, as well as at our second part about the Philosopher’s Stone. As I explained in the second part, this section is dedicated to explaining to you all how to make a Philosopher’s Stone.

The Magnum Opus, as it is called, starts with a prima materia, which will go through different states until it becomes the Philosopher’s Stone. Those different steps are as followed: the Nigredo, the blackening; the Albedo, the whitening; the Citrinas, the yellowing; and finally, the Rubedo, the reddening. Depending on texts and alchemists, those steps can be either at the number of 3, to 4, to even 7 or 12. But for our analysis, we will focus on only the four main steps. During those steps, the Mercury and the Sulfur contained in the prima materia will serve as catalysts for the transformation, and by clashing together will help the prima materia to become the Philosopher’s Stone.

Each of those steps, or components used, have symbolics to represent them, and to associate them with. This is what is going to interest us here.

Mercury and Sulfur, as I’ve already told, are respectively represented by the color blue, and the color red. They serve as opposites of one another, similarly to the concept of Yin and Yang in Chinese beliefs. Often represented and talked about as the “bickering couple”, only once they die can they stop clashing and fuse as the alchemical hermaphrodite, going to heaven together as one soul. (Though despite this, the Mercury and the Sulfur don’t always have a romantic connotation).

The representants of mercury and sulfur in VnC are numerous, but here are the most evident pairs you can make:

Vanitas and Jeanne: Opposite color palette, each representative of their own kind of vampire, always bickering… They perfectly fit the concept of mercury and sulfur. (They also each have their own death flags, which goes well with the concept).

Chloé and Jean-Jacques: More subtle, but their cover on volume 7 leaves little to the interpretation. Chloé represents the Mercury, since it can also be called Quicksilver, and her eyes were blue until the new color palette given by the anime dropped, while Jean-Jacques represents Sulfur thanks to his red eyes on the cover. They also fit a few Yin vs Yang aspects, though inverted: the elder and the youngest, the master and the servant, the woman and the man… etc.

Luna and Faustina: We haven’t seen them interact for now, but they are the clearest association to mercury and sulfur we can make as the Vampire of the Blue Moon and the Vampire of the Crimson Moon. However, other symbolics are still unknown, and will probably be confirmed as the story progress.

As a bonus, in Paracelsus works, he added another component to the Mercury and Sulfur debacles: the salt. Funnily enough, all of those mentioned pairs have their own equivalent of the “salt”:

Noé: Most evidently, since he is caught in the “love triangle” including them (who is his potential partner depends on your taste).

Jeanne: Inherent part of Chloé’s past, she is the one to take her out of her “nightmare” alongside Jean-Jacques.

Teacher?: This one is hard to tell, since he seemed to have been the closest to Faustina until a certain point, he seems the fittest for that role, but those three are still shrouded in mystery, so we can’t be sure.

As for the different steps of the Magnum Opus, those four steps can each be associated to our four main characters thanks to their color and other symbolics associated with it:

Vanitas: Nigredo. Vanitas is the first step of the Magnum Opus, described as being a raven-like black, a bluish black. He is the prima materia at its unrefined stage, the darkest point in the Magnum Opus. It can also be symbolized as a Black Sun (contrasting with the Sun of both Dominique and Luca, the Black Sun can also be associated with Louis).

Jeanne: Albedo. Jeanne is the second step of the Magnum Opus, described as being an almost iridescent or transparent white. The prima materia has been purified and is now left at its most pure stage, but even though this stone has yet to have any purposes. This stage is often represented by the moon or the lilies. (This stage can also be associated to Noé… But you’ll see how Rubedo fits better).

Dominique : Citrinas. Dominique is the forgotten third stage of the Magnum Opus, described as a solar yellow. The prima materia is being heated and starts to turn yellow. It is often thought of as a transitionary stage, hence why it is so easily forgotten or ignored in alchemical literature. (Occidental story structures are in three parts, but Japanese story structures are in four parts). It is the climax of the stone’s transformation, associated with the awakening, and the Sun.

Noé: Rubedo. Noé is the fourth and last stage of the Magnum Opus, described as a purplish red. The Philosopher’s Stone is finally complete and perfect. This step can be called the “taint in purple” or the “stain in blood” stage of the Magnum Opus. The alchemist is now dead and reborn as the alchemical hermaphrodite, a perfected being who is the resolution of contraries. Even the mercury and sulfur have already combusted and reborn into one at this stage. It is represented by blood, the phoenix, a rose, or a crowned king.

We could also potentially associate Faustina, Luna, Teacher and Ruthven to those four stages, but not at this point in the story and with our current knowledge of the VnC universe.

And so, here ends our alchemical analysis of VnC. I have said everything that needed to be said about the potential link between VnC and alchemy, and I hope it managed to entertain you in some way. However, as I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this post, this post is only the first one of results of my alchemical research. The second part will come soon and will be focused on the theories I was able to make thanks to this.

Now, I will go to sleep, because this entire thing was written in a week and tired me out. I wish you to have a good day, and thank you again for reading the entirety of this.

#vanitas no carte #vanitas no shuki #vnc #the case study of vanitas #les memoires de vanitas #analysis #alchemical analysis

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