Alternate Elixirs
In 1220 the great elixir, the culmination of the great work, is a recent discovery and has been completed by only one person (possibly), the secret master. But just because the elixir grants immortality doesn’t mean it is necessarily the final answer, or the only one! Indeed, if the masters of the cult have been independently working towards their own ideas for the end of the great work it’s likely that some of them are close to parallel discoveries in 1220. These might be the great elixir as presented in TM:RE, variants of that mystery with similar mechanics but a twist, or entirely different means of achieving immortality. Below are some ideas.
The Elixir is a Lie
There is always the possibility that the great work has not been achieved. If this is the case then the secret master is either a fiction or a charlatan.
In the first case the masters of the cult have invented the idea of the secret master. Perhaps this serves as a means to motivate the lower ranks, or to increase the mystique of the upper ranks. Perhaps they have lost faith that the goal can even be reached, and invented the secret master to hide the fact that they are at a loss for how to complete the great work.
The second case has the secret master exist, but their claim of completing the great work is false. Perhaps they discovered another means of immortality and abandoned the work in favour of it, fabricating the fiction of the great elixir as a way to hide their treachery. Perhaps they are not immortal and have simply fooled the other masters for whatever reason. Perhaps the secret master is a magical being or a faerie which is impersonating a master who died, co-opting the cult for their own ends.
The Elixir is a Metaphor
A softer version of the previous idea. In this case the elixir is not the end of the great work, but something is – with the elixir being an obscured reference to this real goal. Maybe the purification of the soul leads to an acceptance of mortality, with the true “elixir” being the realisation that there is no need to live forever.
Perhaps the end of the great work is unity with the divine, which would explain why only one person has pulled it off. Few powerful magi would submit to the divine so completely, or think to turn to the divine to complete the work. Or maybe the secret master has (either correctly or incorrectly) discovered the idea of metempsychosis. Why struggle and strain for immortality in this life when death only changes the substance, instead of destroying it?
The Elixir is a Way to Control Reincarnation
One possibility is that the elixir doesn’t grant bodily immortality. Instead it allows the alchemist to influence their next life (this assumes a belief in reincarnation, but this was a common aspect of real world hermeticism). For inspiration for this version a good starting point is Fertility Magic (from Ancient Magic). Rather than altering the traits of an unborn child, the mystery influences the traits of the not-yet-conceived future reincarnation of the initiate. It may also be possible to carry forward “memories” of their current life to some degree (effectively being born with experience and scores in abilities). Here are four ideas for that:
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The character carries forward a fraction of their xp in each ability and art, e.g. ½.
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The character’s abilities and arts are recorded at death. The new character gets an xp bonus (+50% or something) to xp gained in this ability, but only until it reaches the level of the previous life. After this gain is at the normal rate.
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The character gains an additional point of xp per season, which can be invested in any skill that reached at least 6 (or 14 for an art) in the previous life.
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The character gains access to a new advancement method “recollection”. This has a source quality of 8 and can be used to improve abilities that reached at least 6 (or 14 for an art) in the previous life.
If this is the case then the secret master may, in fact, be dead. Somewhere in Mythic Europe exists a (perhaps gently) gifted child that is slowly beginning to recall a past life as a powerful magus and alchemist. The cult may be searching for this reborn secret master.
The Elixir Turns You into a Spirit
Another explanation of why the secret master is so elusive is that the elixir does work, but instead of bodily immortality it turns you into a disembodied spirit. This would be mechanically identical to the described elixir, except that you become a spirit instead of a magic human.
It’s possible that the secret master (or another master of the cult in the future) might have discovered a version of the Ascension to the Hall of Heroes mystery, albeit with slightly different methods, and this is what they are calling the “great elixir”. In this case the secret master has become not only a spirit, but a daimon.
The Elixir is Finite
The secret master is intentionally keeping the secret of the great elixir from even the other masters of the cult. The reason is simple – there are a finite number of true immortals in the world, and the life of one of these beings is an essential component of the great elixir. Considering that the only immortal most members of the cult would know how to reach is the master themselves, perhaps this caution is wise…
Alternatively, as a consequence of the experimentation needed to discover the great elixir it has become mystically entangled with the nature of the secret master. They have, in a sense become a human-shaped magical representation of the elixir itself. As well as the method described in TM:RE, someone who has completed the great elixir must assist, sacrificing one point of might per magnitude of the two effects. This might is permanently removed from their might score and cannot be recovered. The secret master does not currently have sufficient might to do this without being destroyed in the process, which is why no one else has been able to become immortal yet.
The Phoenix Metaphor is not a Metaphor
This one is pretty straightforward – the elixir works exactly as described, but instead of turning the magus into a magical human it turns them into a literal phoenix (or dragon, or some other immortal mythical beast).
Another possibility is that the reborn (magic human) magus returns to infancy and has to age back to adulthood the slow way. This is only a bodily reversion, they retain their mind and all other character aspects.
The Great Elixir Removes Warping
The elixir doesn’t grant eternal unchanging life, instead it provides a way for magi to shed warping points. If warping points can be removed, then magi can live an extraordinarily long time, especially with a constantly improving lesser elixir, but are not truly immortal beings. A “true” version of the great elixir, more like what’s described in TM:RE may still be possible, as a future discovery.