The Philosopher's Stone is the name of several powerful magical items which possess magical or alchemical properties to manipulate the material world.
History
Alchemy
One of the "Four Wonders of Alchemy" (the other three are the Secret of Perpetual Motion, the Universal Solvent, and the Elixir of Youth), the stone has had various owners over the centuries. Zobar Zodiak stole the stone from the alchemist Galio. It was stolen many years later from a museum by Lorelei. Eventually it became the chosen weapon of Albert Desmond, who learns of the Philosopher's Stone from his cellmate.
Desmond escapes jail, finds the stone and uses its power to transmute elements to restart his criminal career as the Doctor Alchemy. He suffered from multiple personality disorder, where one side was a harmless citizen, and the other was a dark criminal.
Eventually, his good personality resurfaces, causing him to quit crime and hide the stone. However, Albert's criminal personality created a astral twin named Alvin Desmond with the stone. When Albert confronts and defeats "Alvin", he resumes the identity of Doctor Alchemy. While he was incarcerated, his costumed identity was used by Curtis Engstrom; using the Philosopher's Stone as the Alchemist.
The Demon
Another artefact known as the Philosopher's Stone was created at the same time as Merlin's conception. The Archduke Belial's intercourse with a witch from Ur led to an unintentional spillage at the height of Belial's rapture, and the stone was formed from sympathetic magic.[1]
The stone served Merlin originally, but was passed on to Jason Blood through Etrigan. Jason first used the stone to try and destroy Etrigan inside him by encasing himself in a magic cold. The magic frost succeeded in snuffing out the Demon, but he soon found need for the beast again.[2] He restored Etrigan by using the stone to engulf himself in Hellfire.[3]
Not long after, Morgaine le Fey desired the stone, and held Jason ransom. Glenda Mark brought the stone as requested but refused to hand it over to the sorceress. It was wrested from her by Morgaine's servant, Warly, who then turned on his mistress, transmuting her into a sarcophagus. Morgaine cast a final spell of her own, and Warly was dragged away by some tentacled monster, summoning eldritch flame in panic. Blood was able to recover the stone and escape with Glenda.[4]
Many years later, Morgan le Fey resurfaced, once more coveting the stone. She managed to capture Jason Blood in a tesseract jewel while letting Etrigan roam free, allowing her to search his apartment for the prize. The Martian Manhunter, who had been fighting Etrigan at Stonehenge, split his being into two. While his Martian self stayed to combat the Demon, Detective John Jones teleported to investigate Blood's disappearance. Once Morgan revealed herself, Jones telepathically communicated with the imprisoned Blood. Jones recovered the stone from a pocket dimension disguised as a portrait, but immediately hurled it at the tesseract jewel, freeing Blood.[5]
Other
A magician from the city of Mu, named Simon Magnus, harnessed the power of a dimension called, the Darkworld, and created the Wheel of the World (also known in some legends as the Philosopher's Stone). His descendant, Will Magnus, created the Responsometer inspired by the wheels design.[6]
A collector of parchments by the name of Marmaduke Mantick accidentally put a chthonic curse upon himself, causing him to seek out a version of the Philosopher's Stone in the Midway City Museum and respond to it by turning every living being to a pillar of salt in a 3-mile radius, including Midway City's resident hero Hawkman. The Justice League of America put Mantick under protective custody until he could dummmy out a way of reversing the effects of the curse, but this version of the Philosopher's Stone apparently could only be used once every 13 millennia. The JLA had to challenge the chthonic demons connected with the curse head-on in order to put everything back to normal.[7]
Powers
Notes
- This character or object is an adaptation of Philosopher's stone, a character or object in traditional stories. These include, but may not be limited to religious texts, myth, and/or folk lore. More information on the original can be found at Wikipedia.org.
See Also
- Appearances of Philosopher's Stone
- Item Gallery: Philosopher's Stone
- Images featuring Philosopher's Stone