此文简单翻译自Onyx Path 官网14日的文章。
Alchemists: Mixologists of Evil
炼金术士：邪恶调制师
其中一些专有名词的翻译我直接使用了http://trow.cc/forum/index.php?showtopic=6940帖子中的翻译。并附上英文方便对照。
原文地址：http://theonyxpath.com/alchemists-mixologists-of-evil/
Look, you want updates while I’m mid-coffee, you take your chances with the post titles.
Now, glib titles aside, alchemists are not necessarily evil. Mark Stone proposed, while we were brainstorming Promethean 2nd Edition (then known simply as The Firestorm Chronicle) that we should include mortal alchemists as antagonists. I had to noodle that – I knew that including a new antagonist would mean cutting somebody, probably the Zeka, since I couldn’t cut Centimani or Pandorans as they’re both too central to the game. But the more I thought about it (and read Mark’s pitch), the more I warmed to the idea. And then Mark’s draft sold me. (Imagine if it hadn’t? “Mark, cut these 5000 words and write something about the Zeka instead.” You’d hear the anguished cries across the vacuum of space.) From Mark’s draft:
负责撰写规则的McFarland在与同事们构思二版普罗米修斯规则书的时候。有人提出将炼金术士作为人类反派加入。而本文作者认为，由于规则书容量有限，这意味着必须砍掉一部分原版的反派。McFarland表示很可能会砍掉Zeka。因为百手（Centimani） 与尸祸（Pandorans）作为普罗米修斯规则的核心之一，不能被砍掉。以下内容是开发小组对炼金术士的构思。
Alchemists are people who combine that characteristic human obsession with improving themselves and their circumstances by unraveling the mysteries of the world around them with a tragic failure to appreciate the beautiful parts of the human condition. These are humans who are so terrified of death, infirmity, and ignorance that they have lost sight of love, fellowship and the value of mundane accomplishment. Bit by bit, they sacrifice their humanity for power and knowledge, until they have turned themselves into something monstrous.
炼金术士是一群致力于完善人类的人。鼓励他们完善自我的动力是出于对死亡，衰老以及愚昧的恐惧。他们忽视了爱，人际关系以及世俗成就。以自身的人性来换取力量与知识，直到他们把自己变得与怪物无异。
Where the Created seek to transcend their monstrous condition, leaving behind their power, longevity, and superlative durability in favor of the simple pleasures of humanity, alchemists want to leave their humanity behind in the hopes of becoming something more than human. More frequently, they end up becoming something much less than human.
造物致力于超越自身怪物性的局限，抛弃力量，漫长的生命以及超凡的肉体去换取人性的快乐。而炼金术士却希冀通过抛弃人性而成为超越人类的存在。但大部分时候，他们最终会适得其反。
Although alchemists meddle with Pyros and Flux, the stuff of creation, change, and destruction, they are still only human. Their ability to generate the Pyros they need for their alchemical workings is sharply limited. The best way to get around this limitation is for them to steal Pyros from those beings who generate it naturally — Prometheans.
虽然炼金术士可以干涉造物的圣火（Pyros） 和 暗火（Flux），即代表创造与毁灭的力量。他们仍然是人类。炼金术士生产圣火的能力受到很大限制，他们必须通过炼金术来达成。突破这种限制的最好方法是偷取能够自然产生圣火的造物—活尸（Prometheans）。
Prometheans are also a wealth of alchemical wisdom. Although a Promethean’s conscious insights to alchemical change are mostly useless to alchemists — most Prometheans engage with alchemy on an instinctive level, while alchemists decipher it cerebrally — alchemists can learn a lot by examining and experimenting internal on his organs and bodily fluids.
活尸也富含炼金术知识。虽然一个活尸对炼金术的了解对炼金术士基本没有用处：当炼金术士们在大脑层面解析活尸时，发现大多数活尸对炼金的认知只停留在直觉层面。然而，术士们却能通过对活尸的身体组织与体液的测试与实验中学到很多。
Between the Pyros Prometheans store and the wisdom that can be gleaned from their body parts, it should come as no surprise that alchemists often hunt Prometheans. Their goals and methods vary wildly, however. Some alchemists hunt alone, others work in groups. Some alchemists use force; others use guile. An alchemist with many sources of Pyros might use a great deal of alchemy in his hunt, while another with more money than magic might rely on hired help and expensive, specialized weaponry. A more patient and economical alchemist might try to immobilize or disable her prey so she can keep them as a permanent source of Pyros, while a more impulsive alchemist simply kills Prometheans and takes what he can get.
鉴于活尸的身体中蕴含的大量圣火与炼金知识具有巨大的学术价值。我们不会对炼金术士们经常猎捕活尸而惊讶。然而他们的猎捕目的与手段非常野蛮。一些炼金术士单独狩猎，其他的则进行团队协作。有的利用蛮力，有的使用诡计。一名炼金术士可以使用自己丰富圣火资源通过炼金术来帮助他猎捕，另一些物质上更加富有却缺乏魔法手段的术士则依赖雇佣兵和昂贵的特化武器。一个更加耐心并且有经济学头脑的炼金术士则偏向用囚禁或残废活尸的手段来为自己提供永久性的圣火来源，但更多心急的炼金术士则选择直接杀死活尸并从尸体上榨取最大剩余价值。
Even worse, the only way for an alchemist to work a permanent change upon their own body — including some of the more infamous alchemical feats, like immortality, increasing their regenerative abilities, or permanently curing chronic diseases — is for the alchemist to ingest a potion based on Vitriol. No Promethean would willingly part with their precious Vitriol, so the only way for an alchemist to get her hands on it is to steal it, usually violently.
更糟的是，只有一种方法可以让一名炼金术士永久性的改变自己的身体：包括其中最臭名昭著的炼金天赋，比如不朽，更强的再生能力，或者根除顽疾。这种方法必须摄取一中基于硫酸（Vitriol）的配方。没有活尸会自愿将他们宝贵的硫酸分与他人。所以一名炼金术士只有亲手盗取它，过程通常是暴力的。
Not all alchemists hunt or would harm Prometheans, of course. Some of them are careful, decent folk who just happen to know how to combine alchemical compounds in new and exciting ways. But the problem that Prometheans have when meeting an alchemist, is that whether “dark” or “light,” the alchemist is human, and therefore susceptible to Disquiet. It isn’t long, therefore, but the alchemist feels entitled to the humours and reagants that the Promethean is carrying around within her weird, quasi-living body. So why shouldn’t the alchemist take a bit of Vitirol? It’s not like the Promethean is a person, after all.
当然，并不是所有的炼金术士都试图伤害或者猎捕活尸。其中一些只是谨慎并且正直的使用炼金术的人。问题在于，无论活尸遇到的炼金术士是好坏，他们都会对魔像产生恶躁（Disquiet），毕竟术士们依然是人。不过这种厌恶不会持续太久。因为炼金术士们很快就会对活尸那奇怪的类生物体身体产出浓厚的兴趣。所以他们为什么不去尝尝硫酸呢。毕竟魔像并不是人。
All right, as always, questions in the comments, and I’ll be back on Sunday with another hard choice for y’all. Oh, also, I’m running a Promethean: The Created chronicle at present. We recently converted characters over to 2nd edition (so it’s a playtest, now), and I’ve got an AP going.
以上就是本次的内容。作者表示他目前在进行魔像第二版的开发，致力于将人物卡转换成二版格式，并附上了游戏测试讨论串。（http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?619795-Promethean-The-Created-The-7th-Angel）
ETA: Also, Michelle Lyons-McFarland (my wife, OPP author and editor, corgi wrangler) did an interview with the Darker Days Radio folks here. I don’t think she talked much about Promethean, but I know she talked about Demon and I’m not doing a whole new post anyway. Go listen.
除此之外，作者附上了他的妻子接受网络电台的采访。其中主要谈到了Nwod恶魔规则的开发以及少量关于魔像的讨论，网址：http://podcast.darker-days.org/e/darker-days-radio-episode-60/
