The World Stones

Planet/World, Magic System, New Characters, and More!

I am FINALLY back from hiatus with some big, meaningful updates! It’s been far too long, but now I finally have time (and energy) to continue working on this beautiful passion project of mine!

Progress on the actual book? Well… Could be better… I had to rewrite the whole thing since I wasn’t happy with it (perhaps a flaw of perfectionism…), but now I am back on track to continue the story, refined and better than ever!

Now enjoy the latest additions to the world/wiki!

Andaril (The Planet of TWS)

Finally I got around to creating and naming the spinning rock that TWS takes place on. Behold, Andaril!

It’s a small planet created by the God of TWS (Atlas), for the sole purpose of incubating his own power (which he distributed to the world as a substance known as Magilite, the very foundation of magic), to evolve into something greater, a power he may eventually need for his millennia-spanning battle against a rival God, the Satan of Earth (yes that one).

The name Andaril comes from the sanskrit words Anda (meaning “egg” or “celestial sphere“), Ri (meaning “to move/reach/rise“) and the hebrew word El (meaning “God“), which together makes it The Ascending Egg of God.

Through the millennia, the name Andaril has slowly morphed into Andril, or casually refered to simply as Ann.

Magic System (Magilite Plexus)

Oh boy, get ready for some neuroscience! Apologies in advance if I went overboard…

The very organ that makes magic possible, the Magilite Plexus! Placed smack dab in the only free space I could find in the brain, inside the ventricles (basically just pockets of CS fluid).

The magilite plexus is made up of three separate structures; two lateral magilite plexuses (LMP) that integrate information from other brain regions (e.g., memory), and the medial magilite plexus (MMP) that acts as a relay station, eventually directing the “magical commands” through the central canal of the brain stem to the rest of the body and its magilite pathways (i.e., blood vessels and nerves).

Without getting too into the technical details, magic in the world of TWS functions through pathways between the prefrontal cortex (decision making) and the primary visual cortex (visualization), with ties to the hippocampus (memory, which influences the “element”).

Also, since there are pathways between the hippocampus and the eyes, the element that a user has learned/awakened changes the crystalline structure of the iris -> the eyes show which element the user is capable of producing/manipulating (e.g., red=fire, blue=water).

Oh, almost forgot. The limbic system (emotions) also plays an important role in awakening magic, since a powerful affective (emotional) state is required to form the pathway/”groove” to the magilite plexus. This means that strong emotions, such as those when your life is threatened, serve as the trigger for awakening magic.

Evolutionarily, magic is costly, so it should only be used when the alternative is worse. Reckless use will burn out the individual’s cells and brain tissue, resulting in internal bleeding, seizures, and eventually… death.

After visualizing how you want the magic executed (visual cortex) and willfully activating your magic (prefrontal cortex), the signal goes to the peripheral nervous system (and blood vessels), where the magical potential inside the users bodily magilite is converted into another form (e.g., fire, light, electricity, matter creation/manipulation).

While humans have a rudimentary/simple monomagilite plexus, meaning they can only use/awaken a single element of magic throughout their lives, races such as the Albinar have a magilite polyplexus, allowing them to use multiple elements of magic simultaneously.

New Characters (Alvar Vaerin & Skellington)

I also added two new fascinating characters to the world of TWS!:

• Alvar Vaerin: former Elite Warrior of the First Legion, Blue Moon, now a simple elven janitor of the East Itero Lumare Academy, secretly tasked with guarding and monitoring Kiryu Ardoladd (Renji Caldara) during his stay at the academy.
• Mister Skellington: a curious fellow to put it lightly, being the only Boneborn, the only demon at that, that has gained true sentience after coming into contact with the Stone of Life & Time many centuries ago. Today, he spends his days taking care of a group of orphans, learning all about what it means to be alive. (hint, this is the next side story I’m working on!)

Footnote on AI usage

While the rising hate for AI art has me on my toes, ready to get cancelled any minute, I still firmly believe generative AI can be a valuable tool for visualizing what I write about, a way to ENHANCE my creativity by letting me focus on actually writing (my main passion), while visualizing it through carefully curated images. And before you take out your guns and knives, let me explain!

Don’t get me wrong, I hate AI slop as much as the next guy, and the environmental impacts have to be accounted for (despite being largely overestimated), but like any tool, I believe it’s the mind behind the brush that makes all the difference.

Generating images of people with multiple arms and three faces, for the sole purpose of making money, lacking any curation process whatsoever is the problem, NOT the careful, curated process of putting words into an image through hundreds of iterations, until it matches your creative vision.

I am the director of the output, I select what matches my vision, and thus, I am equally the “artist” as a movie director is the creator of their movie. Did they act in it? Did they make the props, edit the scenes? Perhaps not, but they did use the tools and delegation at their disposal to make their vision come true. And that, my friends, is exactly where I stand with AI art.

Ps, that’s enough “anti-AI-hate” ranting for today, ya’ll can rest assured that the images of the Magilite Plexus and the world map were created entirely by yours truly!

Ps 2 (no, not PlayStation 2!), I made the Sixth Legion Elite Squad into physical 3D miniatures! Pretty cool right?! (and Rodrick is even correctly made to scale)

For more information on all the stuff I just talked about, please check out the full wiki entries on the World Stones Wiki: theworldstones.com