Alchemy of Souls

 Time for a good fantasy series, and the choice fell on the first season of Alchemy of Souls, now on Netflix.

Now sit back, because this is a 20 episode season, with every episode rnning about 1hr 25 minutes, so that's almost double the usual series lenght of episodes.

If this was for example The Witcher, it would be a 40 episode series, just to say you will be in for a long ride.

The story takes place in Daeho, a mythical land ruled by four families that lies on the borders of lake Gyeoncheondaeho (henceforth referenced as "the lake" lol), where a mythical icestone is said to rest.  It begins when the dying king asks his mage lord, Jang Gang, to swap bodies using the Alchemy of Souls, a forbidden ritual that can shift souls for at least seven days.  But he betrays Jang Gang and sires a child with Lady Do-wha, Jang Gang's wife.

Twenty years later Naksu, a shadow assassin, is being hunted down by the mages of Songrim outside the city.  Mortally wounded she flees into the city where she uses the ritual to put her soul in a weak, young woman named Mu-deok.  Jang Uk, a young man who lives under the gossip that he is the child of his mother Lady Do-wha and an unknown man, arrives.  he has a curse placed on him by his father Jang Gang that has closed off his energy, making him unable to cast spells.  They meet during an attack on Songrim, and Uk takes Mu-deok as his personal servant, and as he knows who she really is, becomes her student in return.

She deliberatly poisons him in order to have the healers open up his energy channel.  He starts on his road of training, including a duel with the crown prince that he looses, but slowly becomes more and more skilled in the arts.  Mu-deok takes him to Danhyanggok, the place she trained to become a shadow assassin, where they meet Master Lee.  He decides to help Jang Uk, and it turns out he is a centuries old wise man, and the pupil of the great Seo Gyeong who apparently destroyed the ice stone, and founder of Songrim.  

Jin Mu, the deceitfull assistant Gwanyu, is hatching a plot to find the long lost daughter Bu-Yeon of the Jinyowon, the guardians of the artifacts, by training a thief girl, So-I to become her.  In a rematch duel, Jamg Uk now defeats the crown prince thanks to Mu-deok's blood and the art of Tansu, which to the amazement of those present he mastered very fast and learned by his own.  As a result, he is welcomed into Songrim to begin his training as a mage in earnest, and Mu-deok applies succesfully for a maid position to assist him from close by.  Jang Uk discovers that Seo Gyeong's book Words of the Heart is actually a loveletter to the first leader of Jinyowon, and he reveals in it what he did with the Icestone.

So-I is introduced as the missing daughter to lady Jin by Jin Mu, intent on using the girl to control and take over Jinyowon and it's artifacts.  Jang Uk must fight 10 duels, losing the first 8 but picking up skills along the way.  Eunuch Kim in the meantime threatens to reveal that the Queen is actually the evil shaman Choi, and that the queen's soul is locked in the old shaman's body, hidden away and kept alive to prevent her Lantern of Life diminishing.  

Jang Uk learns the power of Chisu in several days, something both Park Jin (the leader of Songrim) and master Lee decades.  jan Uk does lose his 10th and final duel from his friend Yul, meaning Mu-deok will become Yul's servant instead.  Master Lee confronts the court, bringing Gwigu, a vicious spirit that can detect soulshifters, there, but as it barks and leaps towards the Queen's servants she destroys it.  Jang Uk receives Naksu's sword, promising Mu-deok that he will find the Icestone to prevent her from turning wild and petrifying.  In the village of Gaema, where he and the crownprince are looking for clues about shaman Choi, he unknowingly meets his father Jang Gang, who has returned, drawn by the turmoil he inadvertedly caused years ago.

Jin Mu tries to force lady Jin to install Bu-Yeon (So-I) as the new leader of the house, but she refuses.  During an Unanimous Meeting, she reveals that the Icestone has been in Jinyowon all that time, as she had asked Jang Gang years ago to save her dead baby.  To prove that it is actually the stone, Mu-deok volunteers to be killed, remembering she is actually Bu-Yeon in her dying moments.  The stone revives her, but a barrier has been erected with the children inside it, and a loose running soulshifter.  So-I saves a gravely wounded Yul, as Mu-deok kills the soulshifter.  

In the palace, using fake ashes of Gwigu, Park Jin reveals the Queen being shaman Choi as he brings the body containing the soul of the queen before her.  The Queen tries to initiate the Alchemy of Souls, but Jang Gang arrives and blocks the ritual using his body, mortally getting wounded in the process.  In his dying moments, he confesses his sins to the King as was requested by master Lee in a letter to him.  To protect Jang Uk from the backlash, he also denies being his father.  The Kingstar appears in the sky, which is actually a projection of jang Uk holding the Icestone, but the crownprince is seen as being the one due to a deal with Jang Uk.

When Jang Uk and Mu-deok prepare for their wedding, Jin Mu uses artifacts of shaman Choi to control her mentally and turn her back into Naksu.  During a fight, she mortally strikes Jang Uk before returning to her senses, and flees the battlefield.  Jang Uk's body is cremated as Mu-deok throws herself of a cliff into the waters where Soulshifters are buried, but the funeral pire turns blue, explodes and a reborn Jang Uk walks out of the flames, showing he is the one born under the King's Star indeed.  As Mu-deok sinks, spirits appear and drag her back up...

So, that was a long and big season, and actually a pretty good one (okay, perhaps episode 20 was not needed, it could have ended just as well and even on a more epic note with episode 19).  Now to watch some other things first, before returning for season 2 and more asian Sword and Sorcery.