Rubedo - Medieval Alchemy

Don't have the time to add images



This datapack was made for the 2026 Datapack Jam. It only works on 1.21.11+

Uncover the secret remains of a foolish cult deep-rooted in their "ways" of doing alchemy as directed by their greedy god, take advantage of the newly acquired chemical knowledge to craft new weapons or give your soul for the cult to obtain exploitable new crafting and blocks! Having some knowledge of the periodic table can also be pretty useful


Really important things for people that don't want to be spoiled anything:
- most of the content is found in the foolish archives structure, there's no hints ingame that points to it, I didn't have time to add one
- the alchemy table is crafted with a brewing stand and a blast furnace, it's not specified anywhere
- shift-right click the alchemy table to switch mode, there isn't really a way to know unless you do it by accident
- the alchemy table's blasting mode requires to be above a lit soul campfire, you could have figured that out but I want to be sure



Seriously I'm really proud of how this pack turned out and, even if I don't have the time to explain the whole thing in the description, most of the informations are already in the pack itself, contained in the new structure, the foolish archives, the focus point of all the alchemy things. The archives contain some lost notes that you can right click to read, or atleast interpret.

The whole experience revolves around 2 main factors: the alchemy table and serving Rubedo, the god of alchemy (that manifests as a gooey thing in the real world);

The alchemy table has 2 modes:
- blasting, works like a crafting table for the custom recipes but needs a lit soul campfire under it. Mostly used to get ash from any item exept the new ones included by the datapack, that have custom recipes
- brewing, uses iron, gunpowder and ghast tears to brew any element (that already exists in minecraft) into any other element+a new element. Can also be used to brew up a new stew
- every recipe can be found in the lost notes, or is heavily implied by them

Rubedo is quite complex:
- it's vessel can be found in the chapel of the archives
- attacking it starts a cool cutscene, at the end of which you become a slave of Rubedo for about 7 days
- at the end of each day (every 20 minutes) you will need to be holding the item Rubedo ordered you, that can only be found through alchemy, or else you will get some slight negative effects permanently.
- in exchange Rubedo grants you the ability to turn soul fire into rubedo fire that tempers the new element into another really cool thing, radiant gold, that you can use for some cool stuff but I won't spoil it
- this is a last minute addition, but you can bribe Rubedo into removing the negative effects of not serving by feeding a vessel (found in the chapel has already said) 10 radiant gold blocks. This will also remove the tag that stops you from serving rubedo infinitely.


Fun facts
The datapack uses iron and gunpowder to brew up new elements using the alchemy table, but instead, in real alchemy, mercury and sulfur are used. And if you don't know mojang is adding sulfur and cinnabar (basically mercury ore) in the next drop... Hmmmm
Rubedo is the name of one of the 3 phases of alchemy
There's no soulsilver hoe
I'm not a good builder under pressure