Alchemical Society (Civ6)

Alchemical Society
Building of the Medieval Era
Introduced in Ethiopia Pack
Game mode	Secret Societies
Unique to	Hermetic Order
Unique to	Hermetic Order
Replaces	University
Replaces	University
Unlocked by	Education
Cost
Production	250
Production	250
Gold	1000
Gold	1000
Maint.	2
Maint.	2
Requires
District	Campus
Infrastructure	Library
Effects
+4 Science, +2 Production, +1 Housing, +1 Citizen slot, +1 Great Engineer point per turn, +1 Great Merchant point per turn, +1 Great Scientist point per turn. Grants Gold equal to the adjacency bonus of the district.

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The Alchemical Society is a building in Civilization VI. It is exclusive to the Hermetic Order secret society in the Secret Societies game mode, introduced in the Ethiopia Pack. It is built in the Campus district and replaces the University.

• Effects:
  • +4 Science (boosted by Rationalism policy card)
  • +2 Production
  • +1 Housing
  • +1 Citizen slot
  • +1 Great Scientist point per turn
  • +1 Great Engineer point per turn
  • +1 Great Merchant point per turn
  • Grants Gold equal to the adjacency bonus of the district.
  • +2 Science for each Scientific City-State with 3 Envoys.
  • +2 Science with Great Scientist Isaac Newton activated.

Strategy

The Alchemical Society is a fine replacement for the standard University. The +2 Production bonus is somewhat helpful, but the main selling point of this building is that it provides a Great Engineer point and a Great Merchant point in addition to the University's Great Scientist point. This helps civilizations such as Kongo, Sweden, Brazil, and Scotland, whose goal is to recruit as many Great People as possible. It also plays decently well into the Hermetic Order's Magus, unlocked in the Industrial Era, which grants extra yields to their signature Ley Lines. The extra Gold from the adjacency bonus of the district is underwhelming, since even a +4 Gold bonus is only enough to pay off the maintenance cost of the district, the Library, and this building. However, combining this with the Natural Philosophy policy card can give you a respectable Gold profit.

The ability to construct the Alchemical Society will supersede all other University replacements, so those playing as Arabia and Portugal should decide if the benefits of joining this society outweighs losing the bonuses from the Madrasa and Navigation School respectively. It is usually better to pick the Voidsingers with Arabia and the Owls of Minerva with Portugal, due to the former relying on religion and the latter relying on Trade Routes.

Civilopedia entry

Alchemy and chemistry, magic and science, are not as far removed as they might initially seem. For anthropologists of magic (such as Marcel Mauss), each seeks to manipulate the world in order to produce an effect. With the case of alchemy and chemistry, each involves the transformation of one substance into another, a transformation that looked to medieval observers as though one was changing its essence. For medieval alchemists, the potential that this change could have was dramatic – one might change lead into gold or transform an old body into a young one. While the Alchemy Society here is based upon the medieval and Renaissance European tradition, elsewhere, Chinese, Indian, and other parts of the world developed their own alchemical traditions and practices.

In the middle ages, Islamic science spread throughout medieval Europe, as Muslim scholars had preserved Latin texts, developed their own universities and institutions of learning, and brought in insights from Asia. For Europeans, these new bodies of knowledge presented a dizzying array of languages, propositions, ideas, and possibilities – scientific, political, religious, and, of course, magical. For this latter end, Europeans put together societies to put what they were reading into practice, and – at least in their hopes – unlock the key to the universe. Alchemy was focused on understanding the ancient truths that were embedded in these texts. For this reason, as 18th and 19th century scientific schools focused on experimentation rather than translation, new knowledge rather than old, alchemical societies went further underground and out of the mainstream of Western thought.

Gallery

Alchemical Society in game