Life
Windsor Tole is a renowned fantasy scholar who has studied Economics and Computer Science. He has also plumbed the depths of Isekai through laborious study of the only known copy of the The Enchiridion of Cuinoseppa – an ancient tome also known as the “Book of Worlds“. He’s a long time fan of anime and light novels with a particularly fiery passion for epic fantasy.
Work
Current research topics include
Studying the influence of thief guilds on prices in castle town auctions with a focus on the rate of inflation of staple goods.
Studying the scalable information architecture of skill based magic systems and how it mimics the semantics of a functional programming language.
Helpful Terminology
modern person
mod·ern per·son | ˈmä-dərn ˈpər-sᵊn
noun :
- a human being of modern day earth
- a regular person with or without any special qualities or knowledge
- an unsuspecting protagonist
fantasy world
fan·ta·sy world | ˈfan-tə-sē ˈwər(-ə)ld
noun :
- the hero summoning destination of a modern person protagonist
- the place beyond a dimensional rift
- a place of fanciful creatures and epic adventures one can only imagine through fiction
- not earth
isekai
Japanese for “different world”, it is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy light novels, manga, anime, and video games revolving around a normal person being transported to, reborn, or trapped in a parallel universe.Often the parallel universe already exists in the protagonist’s world as a fictional universe, but it may also be unknown to them. It can be an entirely different world where only the protagonist has any memory of their former life, or one that they reincarnate into. It may also be one where a formerly virtual world turns into a real one.The subgenre can be characterized as wish fulfillment where the protagonist is able to use their comparatively unimportant-in-real-life general knowledge or gaming skill to achieve success. Their power can range from tremendous magical abilities surpassing anyone else to relatively weak where no special powers are gained.
light novel
A style of Japanese novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students (young adults). The average length is about 50,000 words and are published in small (10.5cm x 14.8cm) paperbacks. They are illustrated with anime and manga art style and are mainly published in separate book volumes. Very often light novels are chosen for adaptation into anime and manga.