How I Saved the Universe

Here, they look handsomely cut like average gemstones. Most of them scattered around the universe just look like huge, glowing chunks of rock. In Marisa, they’re called jiodemujishi a’atsu. We know them as philosopher’s stones.

According to RyuFox Legends lore, the universe is practically made up of and fueled exclusively by these guys. They are a perpetual source of energy and whoever is fortunate enough to tap into the mana reserves of even just a shard of a pure philosopher’s stone has access to a wealth of great power.

Yes, in RyuFox Legends, the planets, the stars, EVERY inorganic being is either a philosopher’s stone, made up of philosopher’s stones, or an aggregate of debris that clung to a philosopher’s stone and began to grow. Many of the celestial bodies in the Evangeline Star System as well as the RyuFox Universe as a whole were formed in this manner.

Philosopher’s stones, despite being inorganic, are functionally similar to coral or a sponge. They must feed in order to grow (in this case, they feed on mana), possess a degree of sentience, and can reproduce. They are nigh indestructible, but on the beyond extremely rare (like 1 in 1x10^100) chance when one does break, it continues on as two separate philosopher’s stones. Though the potency of the stone is reduced, it will eventually regain strength, and in many cases the broken-off child stone will surpass its parent stone.

This entry is more specifically about the philosopher’s stones our heroes (and some of the other characters) will be using. We’ll cover the other universal applications of said stones in a later post once they’ve been introduced in the story.

The philosopher’s stones that Jiro’s group, Okami Junior, and Karlton are after are stones Jiro collected early in his guardianship of Terra. He took 13 stones that had no particular elemental affinity and began pumping them with mana to create elemental philosopher’s stones. Being stones that he raised himself, they are significantly more intelligent than, say, the one at Terra’s core, or the trillions that make up Terra’s ring system. To differentiate from other stones, they resemble icosahedrons in design, mainly to make them easy to hold if and when they are being used directly to discharge energy.

Proof that the stones are intelligent can be seen on these next few pages. They can sense evil mana and have been instructed by Jiro to flee on sight, in this case, to 10 years in the past. Here, even though Jiro scattered all of the stones, one of them, the shadow element philosopher’s stone, immediately flew back to Junior. Junior’s element is shadow, obviously, but the reason why it flew back to him in spite of Jiro’s orders is something that will be covered in full detail a little later. It should be noted that only deities and carbuncles can release and assign stones to other people for whatever reason, so it’s something to keep in mind until then.

The cut stones not directly under Jiro’s ownership tend to come in different shapes. The hexagonal stones here, for example have different purposes altogether. For example, the philosopher’s stone Karlton is holding on the left is one he crafted himself specifically to catalyze a volcanic reaction in Draconis Mountain (think dropping an entire tube of Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke). The philosopher’s stone on the right is one given to Kylie by Queen Zero as a replacement for her heart when her organs were replaced to give her a more formidable body capable of combating homunculi. Remember what I said about the stones being nigh indestructible? Saying that Kylie got pissed enough for the stone that replaced her heart to break is an understatement.

Series Debut: Episode 1, Page 1, July 27, 2010

For every political character with superpowers, there is a protege that accompanies him on his travels. Jiro’s aide is this bird man right here, Falcone. In addition to being Jiro’s aide, he also keeps him company at Draconis Mountain. Typically, the relationship between a guardian carbuncle and his aide is that of a master and student respectively, but Jiro and Falcone function more as roommates. Because his job is that of being the aide to the religious leader of the Draconian faith on Terra, he lives a life of celibacy and mostly quiet dignity. He’s not particularly bothered, as he derives a bit of sadistic humor out of being snarky to his master.

Falcone is noted for otherwise being very well-mannered and having a “very impressive British accent.” Despite this, since he’s been Jiro’s aide since the age of ten, he’s never spent a day in the Great Britain or, by extension, the United European Kingdom.

Falcone is a musical master and a renowned songwriter in Marisa. He hails from a long line of wind adepts from the only remaining avian lineage on Terra. He is also capable of flight without the manipulation of mana or local energy sources as an avian and can even achieve sonic flight. He’s yet to teach Jiro how to land properly.

Because he’s Jiro’s aide, Falcone shares a telepathic link with him. This is useful for when they need to contact one another to give updates on their current situation. This also allows Jiro to summon Falcone to his location instantly when the group needs his immediate assistance. Though we haven’t seen any of Falcone’s combat skills, he apparently trains often for the day when he will need to put his abilities to use. If he’s been training around Jiro, then one can only imagine what Falcone is capable of achieving.

The third planet in the Evangeline Star System and the one on which the vast majority of RyuFox Legends (and other Project Macchiarte works, for that matter) take place. Apart from additional landmasses, the larger size, and some new geographic features (as well as the really obvious rainbow rings circling the planet), Terra is identical to Earth. The specifics as to how life came to be on Terra will be explored in a later post after its discussion in the story proper. It has two moons, Symphonia (named after the Tales game) and Aquila Albus (White Eagle, after Eagleland in Earthbound). As both both moons are on opposite sides of the planet, one or the other can be seen more clearly depending on the time of day and the time of year.

While Terra has landmasses similar (and in some cases, identical) to those of Earth, different political agreements and squabbles have led to much different political boundaries being drawn. Here are a few examples:

• A few millennia prior to RyuFox Legends, what is now known as the Grand Nation of Salem (GNS) seceded from the United Sovereignty of Americus (USA) and took the westernmost states with it. The maps were redrawn such that both Salem and Americus now have 25 states each. Both are part of North America.
• Latin America is no longer part of North America, but rather its own continent, now called Middle America.
• South America is largely the same.
• Europe and the United Kingdom became one under British rule and is now the United European Kingdom (UEK).
• Africa is largely the same.
• The northern part of Asia was remapped as Borasia. Kuangguo and New Kuangguo are Borasian nations.
• The southern part of Asia, plus Australia was remapped as Australasia. Marisa is an Australasian nation.
• Antarctica now has a few nations within it since people have long since managed to move down there and set up proper governing states. The abundance of imported magical energies from Marisa has helped to maintain hospitable temperatures for the Antarctic nations.
• The Arctic Circle is now a continent with Greenland as its sole recognized nation. There are a few minor islands in the area with small, loosely populated cities, but are not yet recognized as countries.

In addition to the new continents, there is a new mountain range, the Terran Divide, that effectively splits the planet in half, creating a geographical boundary for the eastern and western hemispheres. Since it runs the entire circumference of the planet, travel to either side must be accomplished by flying over the mountains or passing through them at various tollways built into the mountains where they meet the sea.

Lastly, the rings around the planet are comprised of philosopher’s stone chunks that refract light in the way a prism would, hence their their rainbow coloration. The magical radiation from the rings and from the planet’s core itself provides Terra with an ample amount of mana for its inhabitants to thrive.

Series Debut: Episode 1, Page 1, July 27, 2010

Jiro originally started out as a mascot character for the series, but when working on this iteration of RyuFox Legends, I decided that since Jiro plays a more prominent role later on in the series, he should be taken more seriously from the start. I’ve long since done away with his cute Pokémon-esque look and anthropomorphized him a little more. His personality has also changed quite a bit. In the previous incarnations of the story, Jiro was more hardcore serious about his job. This time, he’s loosened up a bit, and though he’s not one to be trifled with when shit hits the fan, he still knows how to just cut back and enjoy himself when necessary.

Jiro acts as the guardian of Terra, the planet on which the majority of RyuFox Legends takes place. He makes his home in the side of Draconis Mountain, a dormant volcano with his aide, Falcone. He’s largely secluded from the rest of his race, his fellow dracovulpes carbuncles, as he was elected for his guardianship position fairly early in his life (carbuncles are capable of living thousands of years and some are even immortal, and Jiro is currently only about 30 years old). Up until they returned from the future and he forcibly scattered them around the planet, Jiro was also the bearer of the 13 elemental philosopher’s stones, magical gemstones he’d been raising and cultivating as pets, so to speak (you can even see him talking to them on these two pages). One of Jiro’s primary hobbies is collecting things. He especially enjoys collecting objects he believes to be rich with magical energy.

As a carbuncle, Jiro is very heavily attuned to magic, though the basic understanding of some higher level magic eludes him because of his young age. Even so, he is capable of manipulating every school of magic from every known tier to some degree.

For those not already aware, Jiro’s skin color is blue, which has led to some of the default coloring choices for the official art in the series.

Formerly titled Outer Salem, Salem Ridge is the home of many of the current key RyuFox Universe denizens (many of whom whose stories are still being worked on). This region is part of the District of Salem (or the Salemian District in some circles), with another city, Salem Valley, lying completely within Salem Ridge.

Locations in Salem Ridge that will receive some focus at the moment include the Alexander residence (Elliott’s house), Salem City High School, and (in 2x2) Salem Ridge Hospital.

Salem Ridge is most known for being a hilly and even mountainous region, which makes for ideal geographical cover from whatever is east of the District of Salem. Many former citizens of Salem Valley move here to escape the city life and raise families or pursue other life goals. It’s sort of like Cheers, where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came. A good number of the current citizens of the District of Salem have spent their whole lives here.

Series debut: Episode 1, Page 17, August 16, 2010

Starting off our rebooted blog is a character post! For those of you who’ve been keeping track since 2005, as well as those of you just joining us, this is Elliott, the star of the show and the kid destined to save the universe from destruction. At the start of the story, he’s 17 years old and his primary element is lightning.

He is the surviving half of a pair of twins; his brother Andrew died several years prior to the start of the story and once his parents divorced, he was forced to take over as man of the house for his mother and sister. He used to be something of a nerd before those two events pushed him out of family obscurity and onto the center stage. While he’s not particularly fond of having to save everyone’s bacon, it does provide plenty of opportunities for him to test his mettle. He eventually comes to realize this with enough persuasion.

Despite having spent almost the last decade alone with his mother Liz and his sister Analee, Elliott tends to be awkward around girls. He does have his manners, however, and doesn’t like fighting females.

While Elliott can be a little harsh, he can open up in the right environment (he’s no Cloud Strife, that’s for sure) and can be easygoing when the time calls for it. He’s particularly skilled and has been known to dabble in other arts outside of swordplay, including music and dancing. In the heat of battle, once he has had an opportunity to figure out his opponents, he can come up with counterstrategies to turn things around. Unfortunately, as of this posting, we haven’t seen much of this yet because, well think about it; for the time being, Elliott is a pretty normal guy and he just got clouted by a girl with superpowers.

Keep following the story. There’s more to Elliott than what you see here, and I enjoy writing for him and seeing the many ways in which he develops as a character.

After months of deliberation, I’ve decided to restart the blog. I don’t think I was doing such a hot job of keeping up the snarky, defictionalized comic character gimmick, so I’ve decided to start fresh with a more comprehensive blog for RyuFox Legends that will also work as a development blog for the series. What this means is that hopefully I can come up with consistent material with which to update the blog, whether it be characters, key items, locations, plot devices, or what have you.

For those of you who’ve graciously stuck around, I thank you, and hope I can give you something that’s more of an interesting read this time around.