ULTRAMagic Alternate Legal Disclaimer

This disclaimer is an outline of the author's standards, policies, and stances towards certain subjects. Please take the time to read this fully. Any perceived stances/ideals are not valid unless confirmed by the author. You are welcome to leave a comment or ask questions. This is NOT an FAQ. The author expects you to be respectful towards his standards, policies, and stances towards certain subjects. The author will ignore any response in which the person stating it has clearly not read the disclaimer thoroughly and fully.

When the project started:

Despite ULTRAMagic Prelude chapter 1 being posted in 2023, dedicated work on the setting and lore started in 2022. This is regardless of any retcons or changes to the lore.

The syntax:

The spelling and syntax of “ULTRAMagic Alternate” is fully intentional in an effort to make the title legally distinct from anyone else using the name. “ULTRA” is always in full capitals and “Magic” will always be capitalized. Contrary to search engine word definitions, “ULTRA” will never refer to “extremism.”

Politics and contemporary events:

The ULTRAMagic Alternate blog is an APOLITICAL space. Please do not bring forth any discussions or questions about politics, ideology, or contemporary events. They will not be acknowledged and deleted. ULTRAMagic Alternate does have elements of alternate history and real life, but ultimately it is A WORK OF FICTION. Any commentary, opinion, or idea that is perceived is not valid unless acknowledged by the author. This project has no bearing on any real life events or occurrence.

The author of ULTRAMagic Alternate reserves the right to refuse to elaborate on or disclose any views, beliefs, or opinions.

The author of ULTRAMagic Alternate/ULTRAMagic Alternate is NOT responsible for the actions, ideas, ideals, creeds, beliefs, statements, or opinions of its readers or passersby. The author of ULTRAMagic Alternate rejects any notion that an action was performed in the name of the author or ULTRAMagic Alternate.

ULTRAMagic Alternate is not a political story. Politics exist in the narrative, but it is not a definitive political statement. ULTRAMagic Alternate is not a "left wing" or "right wing" story, it is a story about good vs evil. Nothing more, nothing less.

What ULTRAMagic Alternate is NOT:

A political manifesto
"Hate speech," or expressing hate towards any group in particular
Incitement to violence
Propaganda
"Left wing" or "Right wing"

What ULTRAMagic Alternate is:

A nuanced story of good vs evil.
A commentary on society and life as a whole
An expression of the authors ideas and quandaries
A critique of things the author is interested in
An encouragement to think outside the box and let creativity run wild

Characters will express political view points or take political actions, but you do not have to agree with that character. All the author asks is that you hear that character out. Whether or not you agree with them is up to you. The author believes in letting the audience/reader draw their own conclusion, as that actually starts a discussion.

Will the author support unions?

With all due respect: No. The author values his autonomy and artistic freedom. Furthermore he does not have the money to support a union and does not trust them to act in his best interests. The author will not be subjected to tribalist mentalities and wishes to speak for himself. The author rejects all notions that he is a "scab" as he is not involved in the conflict to begin with. Leave the author alone and if he screws himself over in the long run, let him deal with the consequences of his actions. You WILL respect the author's autonomy and personal freedom, just like he respects yours.

With that in mind, the author will not form any unions himself, even if it leads to his ruin and death. That's not to say he won't work with people to achieve a common goal, it's just that he does not want anything to do with the concept of "unions" as he views them as a minefield of a subject. The author fully recognizes the advantage of banding together, make no mistake. He wishes to be able to do that without having to pay fees, tow the line, and take orders that go against his best interests. Furthermore the "union crowd" will view the author as inherently problematic (look at the 'politics and contemporary events' section again, you know exactly what is being referred to here), so the author is avoiding the hassle altogether.

Also please take into consideration that the author is an independent author who self-publishes. He is doubtful a traditional publisher would ever publish his work and the author has special conditions and rules for having his books physically published. The author is not here to upend or subvert the system, he just wants people to read his books.

Historic, theological, and scientific accuracy:

ULTRAMagic Alternate should not be used as a credible source of information in any capacity. ULTRAMagic Alternate IS A WORK OF FICTION. The author of ULTRAMagic Alternate encourages readers and passersby to look into the sources of his inspiration, however. The author also welcomes readers and viewers to tell him things he may not have known about the topics he takes inspiration from.

Authorial authority:

The Author of ULTRAMagic Alternate is the sole source of canon for ULTRAMagic Alternate and only things he writes are truly canon. Exceptions may be made if absolutely necessary.

Notifications and updates will be posted if any major changes are done to any of the books. The Author also reserves the right to go back and fix up his work as he sees fit. The reader also agrees that this is not a big deal as the books are free to read. No money is being lost over reading the free version of the books, you have no right to complain (criticism is fair game, however). The author fully recognizes that this is a little awkward, but at the same time he takes pride in his work and wants his books to be the best they can be. The author will not make such changes for physical/paid versions of the books (typos notwithstanding).

The books will remain free for the foreseeable future. If they are ever printed physically, the free versions will and must remain up (these terms are non-negotiable). You are not paying to read the books, you are paying to own a physical copy, which is the selling point of the physical books. The free versions are free and easy to access, but require technology and expose eyes to blue light. The physical versions would eliminate these issues at the cost of requiring money to acquire.

Autism?

Is the author autistic? Yes. Do not follow him or his books just because he is autistic, however.

Does ULTRAMagic Alternate make use of any AI?

ULTRAMagic Alternate was created and is written by William Ford II. That being said, AI chatbots have been used for occasional fact checking and research starting points, but that is it. Story and plot development, character creation, planning, writing, and editing is done by the author (and he has the arm pain and binders full of papers to prove it...). To be fair, the author also does occasionally ask a chatbot if he used a semicolon correctly, however.

Please read this entire section as the author will ignore responses from people who have clearly not read the entire section on his stance towards AI.

The author feels that asking a chatbot why the sky is blue is not the same thing as entering a prompt into a chatbot and trying to pass off the results as a real book (it literally is not). ULTRAMagic Alternate is 100% the brainchild of the author, having originally stemmed from an Undertale AU that was intended to be a remake of his Glitchtale AU (again, arm pain).

What is the author's stance on AI?

As long as the book in question was created, planned out, and written by a human, he does not care what you do with AI. Taking inspiration from a prompt result is also fine in the author's eyes as long as the end result was made by a human.
Asking a chatbot why the sky is blue is NOT the same thing as passing off AI-generated books as real books. These are two different sets of actions that objectively result in different outcomes. This is NOT open to reinterpretation or subjective opinion.
AI is becoming unavoidable at this point and to pretend like it is avoidable is peak intellectual dishonesty. If you look up something in Google and use the AI response or AI mode, you are using AI for research. The Author sees nothing wrong with this, assuming Google does not ruin the internet... Information collection for the intent of providing answers for queries is literally what a search engine does, it is just that AI cuts out the middleman (for better or worse, leaning towards worse). The Author refuses to let AI do his work for him and views AI as a tool to assist in ensuring accuracy and logic and nothing more. The point is that Google is ramming AI down our throats and there is nothing we can do about it. Everyone is adopting AI, even when they have no need to.
AI-generated books will NEVER be real books. AI-generated art is NOT real art.
The Author is NOT advocating for AI-generated books nor AI-generated art. The author does not support media generated by a chatbot from a prompt. This stance is clear and is NOT open to reinterpretation or subjective opinion.
There is an OBJECTIVE, distinct difference between an AI-Generated book and a book whose author used a chatbot for fact checking or minor edits. The author rejects all notions of "In my opinion..." This stance is clear and is NOT open to reinterpretation or subjective opinion.
Real editors should be employed to edit books as chatbots can be prone to errors.
Using a chat bot to ask why the sky is blue effectively turns it into nothing more than an enhanced search engine.
AI is not going away, so it is probably best to take 'a live and let be' stance. AI-Generated books will never be real books, nor will they ever compare to real, human-made books. That is of course assuming AI does not become fully sentient and sapient in the future.

To make things crystal clear:

ULTRAMagic Alternate is NOT AI-generated nor is any part of it AI-generated. Read the books for yourself.
An "AI Book" is a document sourced and generated from the result of a prompt submitted to an AI chatbot application. ULTRAMagic Alternate is planned out and written on paper, typed out on a computer, and uploaded to the internet. If you wish to see all of the rough drafts and outlines the author has written, he will happily provide photos (well not of every single page and side as that would lead to thousands of photos, but you get the idea).
ULTRAMagic Alternate does NOT make use of any AI-generated art (the author's art may be bad, but it is not that bad). The Author refuses to make use of AI generated covers, even if his covers are not the greatest and his autism hinders his learning of art.
The Author only uses chatbots for occasional fact checking and research starting points. The Author is aware chatbots can get things wrong and is doing his due diligence.
Fact checking is NOT the same as generating a "book" from a prompt. These are two different sets of actions that result in different, objective outcomes.
The author does NOT support AI-generated books or AI-generated art being passed off as real media.
The author does NOT support the sale of AI-generated media.
The author does not support banning all advancing technology because it may be "dangerous." The Author does not support banning/suing/regulating "AI writers/artists" from the creative space as that will not change their minds on AI.
The author does NOT support AI replacing every job underneath the sun.
The author is fully aware that people will become emotional and completely ignore all of this.

Google's implementation of AI:

The Author has noticed that some people take the stance that any use of AI, no matter how little or minor, is betraying humanity and ruining the lives of other creatives. AI can never replace human art, even if it does become truly sentient and sapient. Everyone has their own lived experiences that cannot be replaced by machines. Machines can only guess at what their experiences are like based on incredibly limited information. AI needs human art to keep functioning, so there will always be a need for human art no matter what.

Boycotting art to kill AI is NOT the solution. Culture relies on art to inspire people to act. If everyone abandons art, we have no culture. The same logic applies to "completely replacing humans with AI." Non sentient machines can never have lived experiences, making any "art" they produce hollow and vapid. Suing everyone into oblivion is also not the solution, as the average person will be required to foot the bill to "compensate" every artist. Banning advancing technology will lead to nothing but disaster as it will create a stagnant, complacent humanity.

Furthermore, Google and similar tech giants are showing no signs of backing down from AI integration into society. What will you do when the majority of technology is powered by AI or similar technology? Will you give up on art because you feel it's stealing from other artists? Google is working on AI mode, and other search engines are also implementing AI (Bing has AI, for example). When an industry leader does one thing, the rest follow suit. There is no getting away from this unless you have trillions of dollars to upend the tech industry itself (and even then the author is confident you would go all in on AI technology, don't lie to yourself...).

The author is NOT advocating for AI to do whatever it wants. The author is NOT advocating for AI to replace everything under the sun. There are already problems that need to be addressed now that will lead to disaster down the road. Abandoning art because your ideology says so is a sign of weakness. You claim you accept differing ideas, but the minute something challenges your ego, you begin calling for people to take up arms to defeat those "evil ideas." It shows a distinct lack of maturity and growth, something fundamental for any writer. The author is not saying you should blindly accept AI, he is saying you think before you proclaim your virtue to society. If you plan to abandon art because of AI, get out of the way of the artists who still want to carve out their niche.

"Regulating AI out of Existence"

The author vehemently rejects this notion, as it goes against his stance against banning all developing technology. There definitely needs to be some oversight and regulation of AI, as taking art for use in AI datasets without an artist's permission is unethical. Using AI to steal another artist's work is still theft at the end of the day. Copyright status does not extend to unaltered, generic, AI generated images. Many will claim that AI coders and users need to be stopped and forced to compensate artists, but the author also rejects this notion.

Whenever occurrences like this pop up, the taxpayer will most likely be expected to "help out." Where else do you think this money is going to come from? And if it comes from shutting down companies that are deemed problematic, where does the buck stop? They only have so much money and this could easily turn into a snowball effect where more money is needed to "compensate" artists. Again, where is this money going to come from? Government programs? Where do you think that money comes from? The brunt of such a "compensation" is going to come from the middle and lower class, as the rich and upper class will either leave the country or get a tax break from the government.

The author will not be paying to compensate himself, nor will he pay to have the "compensation" money potentially disappear into thin air. Seizing money like this and shutting down businesses "because they go against the public's best interest" is what the author considers authoritarianism and tyrannical, amongst other questionable practices. We live in a free market under capitalism, so these AI businesses have a right to exist, even if you don't like it. Obviously there are exceptions to this. There are certain illegal professions (I am NOT talking about AI) that are functionally businesses that need to be outlawed. Obviously rules need to be set in place to keep things running smoothly and that is what we should be doing, not shutting down entire industries because small groups of people are warring with each other. And make no mistake, writers, artists, the tech industry, and the AI crowd are vocal minorities that do not reflect the whole of humanity.

In case you could not tell by now, the author is getting really sick and f###ing tired of the extreme, tribalist mentalities surrounding Art and AI. He rejects all notions of "you are either with or against us" and will gatekeep you out if you vehemently stand by this mentality. Yes, lines need to be drawn in the sand, but John Doe doesn't like activism as he just wants to grill and ride his bicycle. John Doe doesn't even use AI, only using computers for paying taxes. Why should he have to pay over something he doesn't use? And why should John Doe side with you if you've made it clear that you will attack him if he ever steps out of line? That's encouraging him to go to the side that is promising that they won't do that. You can scream your ideology as loud as you want all you want, but that will annoy people and make them want to avoid you. And no, the author isn't John Doe, that was just a generic example.

Data Poisoning?

NO. The author will not be "glazing" or "nightshading" his art. This is the author's choice to make, NOT YOURS. Furthermore images can easily be converted into malware or used as malware attack vectors. Even if the developers of these can tools can personally guarantee that their software is safe, the author still does not trust them. Bad actors in the field of cyber security are almost always masters of social engineering. The author is already paranoid about malware and hacking to begin with.

If you cannot bring yourself to agree or to agree to disagree with the author's stances, please leave. The author welcomes discussion and discourse; but immaturity, baiting, and throwing insults are not welcome here.

Also pardon the author's tirades on the subject, as he is autistic and has a lot to say about it.

Is Will (ULTRAMagic Ignition/Zasiel) a self-insert?

Yes, but the author is making sure he is written as a proper character with arcs, growth, flaws, and personality. The author does not think "self-inserts" are inherently bad and feels they can be done right. It's just that more often than not they are done poorly as those authors cannot recognize their own faults and accept them. Personally that shows a distinct lack of growth and creativity. Furthermore Will's presence does not take away from the fact that Blood-Wraith Raynot is the true main character of the series.

Content warnings:

Trigger warnings will NOT be provided. If you need a trigger warning, please leave and do not engage with ULTRAMagic Alternate. This is NOT a declaration that there are triggers. The author does not wish to spoil his story and should not be responsible for the feelings of readers (the author is also not psychic). If you cannot accept this, please leave and do not engage with ULTRAMagic Alternate.

Health warnings will be provided if any ULTRAMagic Alternate media/content triggers any physical medical conditions.

ULTRAMagic Alternate is NOT for everyone. ULTRAMagic Alternate is for anyone interested in the story. If you do not like ULTRAMagic Alternate, cease reading and find something else to do. That being said, critique and constructive criticism is always welcome.

Other works and public domain?

ULTRAMagic Alternate makes use of works in the public domain. Any works of this nature used will be credited upon first mention and will be included in the copyright information.

Fan content:

You have permission to create fan art and fan fiction of ULTRAMagic Alternate. Please refrain from monetizing such content, unless the money is necessary for the project. You do not have permission to claim ULTRAMagic Alternate as your own or claim something is canon against the author’s wishes. Crossovers are not canon, but exceptions may be made (but are unlikely).

Obviously The Red Man is a bit of an exception to this. Please visit his page to read his rules and guidelines.

Your responsibility:

The author trusts that you have read this disclaimer and have accepted the terms of his standards. If you do not agree or have a question, you are welcome to leave a question in the comments section. If you cannot bring yourself to accept any of these, please leave. Do not engage with ULTRAMagic Alternate or the author's creative endeavors. These terms and standards are here to protect the author and the ULTRAMagic Alternate experience as a whole while making it clear to the reader that the author wishes to be respected and also respects the reader.

Critique and constructive criticism is always welcome. Hurling insults and attacking the honor of the author and his community is toxic behavior and will not be tolerated.

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