Akashic Labs is an Alchemy laboratory established roughly two and a half hundred years ago (around 3107 AE) but has quickly grown in prominence due to its combination of rapid re-discovery of lost zebra alchemical methods and the discovery of new ones with a focus on the integration of other racial magics. The labs employ a wide variety of species and has always heavily re-invested its profits into new research and local communities. This might explain their rapid dominance in the field of magical research rivaled only by much older institutions such as Crooked Tower and the work being done by the Risen Bones Organization.
Their primary source of funding is the mass-production of chemicals, equipment, and MMOs (Magically Modified Organisms). Pesticides, fertilizers, seeders, highly drought-resistant crops, etc. are all a staple. A particularly notable development of the labs was the introduction of now popular crops such as Wizard's Sorghum and maize, each highly-effective magical conduits that even incredibly magically-weak earth ponies can quickly bring to full maturity despite harsh conditions. The demand for them alone has resulted in two additional labs in Waterhole and near Featherton being opened up to handle research and production of the crops.
The achievements of the lab can hardly be understated. One needs only look to the cactus towers that dot their Agister and the Hayminnow Islands for the most obvious example, each capable of seeking out and drawing water from the deepest of reservoirs and storing it in quantities that can easily support hundreds of zebra. Which is good, because their improvements on the methods of brewing alchemical life extension potions have led to a dramatic increase in zebra lifespans while similarly decreasing the frequency of unexpected and dangerous alchemical mutations as the result of such potions. But with everything ranging from a myriad of cheaper and more resilient (against earthquake, Wirewind, direct assault by powerful unicorns, etc.) construction materials and treatments to their collaborative work with Crooked Tower in the projection of null magic fields and reinvention of the null box (a box that, true to its name, nullifies the magic of anything it contains and makes it a very safe container for the transport of powerful and dangerous magical artifacts or reagents), without a doubt there’s few in the Dusts whose lives haven’t been made better by their contributions to modern magic.
They also do a lot of contract work, which can require a degree of secrecy to ensure the work is not disclosed, but some of their most recent public projects include:
- Alchemical reagents pegasi and griffons can sew into clouds that would seed and nourish fields all in one go, and another mix that would cause special hail capable of plowing fields as well.
- Work to create hyperintelligent familiars capable of speech and remembering large amounts of information accurately to aid in research.
- Crystal transceivers. Arrays of sensitive alchemical crystals that could be set up at stations across the country, each capable of converting audio into a variable frequency that would cause others within its range to resonate, allowing for voice transmissions over long distances.
- A series of experiments revolving around finding better, more quantifiable ways to examine magic. Magical spectroscopes, filters and systems to transmit and dissect magical radiations, with an eventual goal of being able to refine and transform the magic through the use of magical converters that would allow, for example, pegasi to manipulate plants as easily as they manipulate the weather and earth ponies vice versa.
- The never-ending invention of new and better ways to combat the crystal forest, which almost seems to outright actively resist all attempts at alchemy, being strangely alchemically stable for a clearly incredibly magical substance. Unfortunately, most of their work has just been in making resilient crystal forest crushers and treating the ground near the forest to delay growth. The conversion of forest-seeded land back into arable land increasingly seems to be a pipe dream.
There are a couple rumors about their classified projects. One involves improvements to the Aeropony, though accounts of what is being improved vary. Another involves creation of the “best tea and cakes” for Lord Sun Folio, the lord of Agister. While Akashic Labs’ official stance is this is NOT a secret project at all, what the prolific lab must REALLY be working on is a popular topic for speculation.
Akashic Labs has not traditionally been a source of healing or cures for diseases except in response to epidemics (like Hoofrot), unicorn medics generally being far more effective at medical magic. That said, in response to customer demand, there has been recent interest in the expanding the central labs to feature a full medical-magic wing. As a result they have been actively seeking a talented researcher to head the new expansion.
The central lab in Agister was founded, and continues to be run by, the Akashic family, of which Akasha, the bearer of Honesty in PRPG2, is a member.