The Philospher's Stone is one of the Six Sacred Stones, used to cleanse the Pillars before their placement in the Machine.
History[]
Early History[]
Though unconfirmed, the Philosopher's Stone, like its fellow Sacred Stones, was most likely made by the super-ancient beings rather than humans, since they included it in their second trial.
At a currently unknown point in Earth's history, the Super-Ancient Beings discovered the Dark Sun and set about constructing a machine that would repel it before it came too close to the planet. Among the tools they created was the Philosopher's Stone, which was to be used in conjunction with the Firestone to cleanse the mysterious oblong diamond Pillars before they were meant to be placed in their corresponding Vertex. Though they were able to prevent the Dark Star from approaching in their time, the Super-Ancient Beings realised that even after they were gone from the Earth, there may yet be intelligent life, and so left the Philosopher's Stone so that human kind could use it to aid them.
Eventually, the Philosopher's Stone and the rest of the Machine components came to be kept in Egypt under the Pharaoh Khufu's keep. However, the priest Thuthmosis stole the Pillars and the Sacred Stones, unwittingly putting the Earth at greater risk of being destroyed by the Dark Sun as they were scattered around the world.
Nearly 2,000 years after Thuthmosis stole it, the Philosopher's Stone ended up in the hands of the Chinese Scholar Laozi, who arranged for it to be guarded by a series of traps in a cavern beneath Witch Mountain.
The myths of the Philosopher's Stone's ability to cleanse the Pillars would be interpreted by many that it was a stone capable of transmutating any base metal into more valuable ones such as gold, and because of its association with the philosopher Laozi, it was given its name. Isaac Newton would hear the tales of the Philosopher's Stone's capabilities and made attempts to seek it out or replicate it.
In the course of his research into the Machine, Wizard managed to deduce that Laozi's Philosopher's Stone was one of the Six Sacred Stones and how crucial it was to the Machine's restoration.
As Wolf's CIEF forces, the Chinese and Saudi Arabians agreed to an alliance to restore the Machine, they began making plans to locate the Sacred Stones. The alliance eventually learned of Laozi's possession of the Philosopher's Stone, and so Mao Gongli prepared to locate its resting place within his homeland.
The Six Sacred Stones[]
On the 1st of December 2007, Wizard, "Tank" Tanaka and Chow Ling located Laozi's chambers, hoping to locate the Philosopher's Stone. However, they were interrupted by Mao and his men, who killed Chow and had Wizard and Tank imprisoned before making their attempt to get through Laozi's trap system.
After the Coalition of Minnows team liberated Wizard and Tank, they made their way to Witch Mountain to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone. In the days after the Chinese began, the brute force Mao and his men employed to get through the trap system proved to be ill-suited and making little progress towards the Stone. Unlike Mao and his men, however, the team were able to overcome Laozi's traps by figuring out the truth of the yin-and-yang-based system, stun Mao and his men and making their way through to the Cavern of the Tower. Jack West Jr then proceeded through the speed-and-time trap system and managed to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone.
Once the Coalition team completed their goals, Paul Robertson arranged for them to reunite at Mortimer Island's naval base to determine what to do next. Once everybody had gathered, they adjourned to the laboratories. In the third lab, they used the Philosopher's Stone and the Firestone to cleanse the two Pillars they had gathered; the First brought by Vulture and the Fourth by Iolanthe Compton-Jones of the British Royals. Once this was done, Jack led the team to lay the first Pillar, taking the Philosopher's Stone and Firestone with them with the intent to use them once they had located the second Pillar.
After various confrontations with Iolanthe's troops, the Japanese Blood Brotherhood and an Egyptian military convoy hired by the CIEF, a small number of the Coalition team managed to flee towards the Congo with the Philosopher's Stone and Firestone in their possession. The group located the Neetha, who possessed the second Pillar, however the Neethan warlock took the Philosopher's Stone and Firestone, using them to cleanse the Pillar. When the the CIEF invaded the Neetha village, they managed to retrieve the two Pillars, Philosopher's Stone and Firestone, and Wolf and his men proceeded to take the Stones with them to Cape Town as they prepared to lay the second Pillar.
The Five Greatest Warriors[]
During the three-month interval between the laying of the second and third Pillars, the Philosopher's Stone was likely kept at Diego Garcia where Wolf and his forces did their research.
After discovering that the third Pillar was hidden within its corresponding Vertex, the CIEF prepared an invasion force a couple of days before the third Pillar's due placement to enter the Hokkaido Vertex, taking the Philosopher's Stone and Firestone with them. Rapier carried the Philosopher's Stone within his pack as the CIEF attempted to enter the Vertex, however he was pinned down by gunfire from the Japanese forces around the entrance. Knowing that without the Philosopher's Stone they could not cleanse the Pillar, Wolf ordered his forces to do whatever it took to secure it, but it was only thanks to Jack, Lily and Zoe that Rapier and the Philosopher's Stone were secured.
Jack proceeded to carry the Philosopher's Stone within Rapier's pack as the reluctantly allied groups made their way through the third Vertex, and once the third Pillar was obtained, the Philosopher's Stone and Firestone were used to cleanse it. As they were leaving the Vertex, however, Wolf, Rapier and Yanis were captured by Carnivore's men, along with the Philosopher's Stone.
Once he obtained the two cleansing stones, Carnivore used them to cleanse his fifth Pillar.
Carnivore proceeded to keep the Philosopher's Stone aboard his Tupolev until he surprised Jack's group as they emerged from the mine containing Jesus's tomb, later using it and the Firestone, as well as the Basin, to cleanse the final Pillar as his group made their way to the final Vertex on Easter Island.
As Carnivore and his forces made their way into the Vertex, they took with them the Philosopher's Stone, and Carnivore had it laid out with the first five Pillars and the Sacred Stones on an altar while awaiting the moment to place the sixth Pillar.
The Philosopher's Stone and the other Sacred Stones, Pillars and Firestone, were gathered up by Jack before he left the Vertex, and several weeks later he stored them within an abandoned salt mine on his new farm with the intention of keeping them hidden away from the rest of the world.
Purpose[]
The Philosopher's Stone is intended to cleanse each of the Pillars so that they are ready for placing inside each of the corresponding Vertices. There is a recess inside the Stone, into which the Pillar is placed before being closed by a lid, and the Firestone must then be placed in another, smaller recess in the lid. Following a bright flash of light, the Pillar is changed from a cloudy colour to a shiny translucent glass-like state.
How the cleansing process works is unclear, most likely being the result of the Super-Ancient Beings' advanced technology. As Tank noted, the Philosopher's Stone in several myths has always been associated with change, or transformation.
Trivia[]
- In typical myths, the Philosopher's Stone is a legendary alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver.
- In reference to the Philosopher's Stone-centric Harry Potter novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the part of The Six Sacred Stones where the Stone is retrieved is referred to in-book as Jack West Jr and the Philosopher's Stone.