(Good thing I made it in time. I only got back at nine tonight.)
After hearing what Kregan said, Patrick gave it some thought.
Patrick himself was a master alchemist, and his family's alchemical arts had long enjoyed a great reputation throughout Quel'Thalas.
Although both he and Gold Coins-Kregan were alchemists, goblin alchemy and the alchemy practiced by elves were entirely different disciplines.
Across Azeroth, although the different races all had alchemy, its principles and substance varied enormously.
Elven alchemy primarily involved purifying the active substances in materials, such as mixing the various active ingredients in herbs to produce potions with different effects. Healing potions, invisibility potions, elemental resistance potions, mana potions, and magical oils applied to weapons all fell within the scope of alchemy.
At the same time, alchemy could also transmute elements, converting essence of undeath, essence of life, and essence of the four elements into one another. It could even extract the energy within arcane crystals and channel it into thorium through a Philosopher's Stone to transmute the metal.
Goblin alchemy, however, primarily concerned mechanical design, with some assistance from magical technology, focusing on heavy machinery driven by heat. In this respect, goblin alchemy and Goblin Engineering were practically complementary disciplines. Goblin sappers, goblin shredders, and goblin airships were all products of combining the two.
The goblins' greatest alchemical invention was probably gunpowder. Unlike the elves' fire potions and the like, gunpowder was a preparation that converted chemical energy into heat. Elven fire spells were developed entirely through arcane power or the fire element, operating on completely different principles from goblin products such as gunpowder.
Tauren alchemy bore some similarities to both elven and goblin alchemy, but its actual principles involved combining various kinds of energy with the active ingredients in plants. Tauren alchemy also depended entirely