Jawnomicon

Homunculus

Also called Homunculi.

In alchemical legend, the Homunculus is a miniature artificial human grown inside a sealed vessel through a process of putrefaction and feeding, most famously described in writings attributed to the physician-alchemist Paracelsus.

At a glance

Tradition
Alchemical tradition
Trait family
The Great-Thewed

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Grown in sealed vessel
    why

    The recipe as most commonly recounted calls for human sperm to be sealed in a glass vessel and left to putrefy for a set span, often given as around forty days, until it begins to stir and take on a faintly visible, human-like shape, described as transparent or without solid substance.

Behaviour

  • Fed on blood to mature
    why

    From that point the forming Homunculus is said to require regular feeding with the arcanum of human blood, kept at a steady, womb-like warmth, for a further period (accounts vary on the exact duration, with roughly forty weeks sometimes given), over which it is said to grow into a small human child, tiny in stature but reportedly capable of speech, movement, and even precocious intelligence.

Utility powers

  • Speech
    why

    over which it is said to grow into a small human child, tiny in stature but reportedly capable of speech, movement, and even precocious intelligence.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.