100.99.6 Botany
Fieldwork is an essential part of the Alchemist's repertoire and no more starkly is this aspect of science represented than in the skill of Botany. Unlike those of a Shamanic persuasion, the Alchemist prizes progress above such mundane concerns as the sanctity of life and the preservation of nature. To them, the natural world and its resources are things to be exploited in the pursuit of knowledge and discovery. Botanists therefore utilise their prowess in science to subvert nature to their will, introducing chemicals into the forests and woodlands of the world in order to bring about unnatural phenomena, rapidly accelerated growth, and other nefarious effects. Botanists can work in all native woodlands but most opt to claim a specific site as their field laboratory, enabling them to enact a variety of unique effects that a typical forest locale would not endure. Where the skill truly flourishes though is in the spreading of blight. This aberrant, monstrous foliage will, when coerced to grow by a skilled hand, swiftly overrun a location and claim it as part of the botanist's domain. While within this territory, the Alchemist is able to elicit countless potent and dangerous effects as if they were in a forest itself.