theworldofdreams.com

Hail and well met, fellow WoDians. I was rummaging through the stacks at Empath Abbey the other day and came across a thick, leather bound book of great antiquity. Within it were tales to amaze and astonish. The Brothers would not let me remove it for study but I managed to make a few notes about the History and Tradition of our world.

Ultima 1

The beginning of the First Age of Darkness was marked by the coming of an evil sorcerer named Mondain. The father of Mondain had refused to share the secret of immortality with his son, and their disputes ultimately led to the father's death. Torn with anguish and no doubt his fears of prosecution, Mondain turned his dark powers against the kingdoms of Sosaria.

In desperation, Lord British called forth a champion to rise to the defense of the realm. Travelling through the mysterious moongates, the hero who responded to his summons would many years later come to be known as the Avatar. It was through the actions of the Avatar that Mondain's foul Gem of Immortality was shattered and Mondain himself did come to a very sad end indeed.

Little did the Avatar know at the time, the Gem of Immortality was magically bound to Sosaria itself. By shattering the Gem, the Avatar indirectly caused Sosaria to split into a thousand different worlds, each a perfect likeness to the original, and each with their own peoples and destinies.


Ultima 2

The triumph of the Avatar was short-lived, for in slaying Mondain he brought the wrath of Minax down upon the land. Minax was the young apprentice and consort of Mondain, and a sorceress with magical powers even greater than her master's. She had the power to command legions of evil creatures, and in her quest for vengeance over the death of her lover, she brought much misery to the people of Sosaria.

Again the Hero who would come to be known as the Avatar answered Lord British's call and returned to Brittania in the first recorded use of the Moongates. The Avatar slew Minax's vile minions and did eventually slay her as well.

Although peace in Sosaria seemed apparent, Mondain and Minax had devised a treacherous scheme to assure their immortality throughout time. They had created an offspring known as Exodus, neither man nor machine, yet embodying every evil impulse they possessed. Rising on the Isle of Fire from the depths of the Great Ocean, Exodus unleashed a campaign of vengeance and destruction upon Sosaria.

So terrible were Exodus' forces that the Hero who would come to be known as the Avatar required the assistance of a mysterious being known as the Time Lord to thwart them. And thus it was that the Avatar dealt with Exodus in a similar manner as he had dealt with his creators, Mondain and Minax.


Ultima 3
After the smiting of Exodus, the people of Sosaria, who lived in terror during the onslaught of the Triad of Evil, did unite together as a measure of self-protection under the sovereign rule of Lord British. Thus was formed the kingdom of Britannia.

Led by the wise Lord British, the land did come to florish. The eight major townships rose upon the foundations of the old city-states. A renaissance of culture and civilization was highlighted by the formation of great institutions devoted to the study and advancement of the arts and sciences.

Ultima 4

With the passing of gloom and despair from the face of Britannia, the citizens flourished. It was during this time of growth and prosperity in the land that Lord British put out a call for one to show the way of spiritual growth and virtue. The call was answered by the champion that had thrice defended Soseria against the onslaught of evil in the times of need. Undertaking the task of unraveling the concepts of spirituality, the Hero discovered the great Codex of Ultimate Wisdom and attained the title of "Avatar," the human embodiment of virtue.


About the Avatar:

He came to us a stranger, but he exemplified all that was good and true. In time, he became more symbol than man. He became an avatar of virtue, showing us all the way.

The Avatar explored to the edges of the world and back again. Countless times he saved us from monstrous beasts, natural disasters, plagues, and other evils that discord often brings. Tales were told of his adventures and we were amazed. His reputation grew, and soon enough we considered him without peer—yet he also gathered unto him his Companions, who he humbly considered his equals.

The Avatar delved into celestial mysteries you and I could never fathom in this lifetime. When we had lost our way, only he could become the beacon to lead us home. But in that journey home, we did have loss. Our Avatar was gone, ascended. The greatest wizards next to him became as children next to some titanic celestial deity.

In time, we learned the many threats he vanquished were mere chapters in a larger tale. As the Avatar became our shining beacon of Virtue, a Guardian of Evil festered in the shadows.


Ultima 5

The newly discovered Codex was raised from the Great Stygian Abyss in order that the people might study its teachings. But, the acquisition of the Codex changed the physical, as well as the spiritual, landscape of Britannia. A fiery island, the Isle of the Avatar, rose from the depths of the Great Ocean, and in the violent birth of this isle, an immense underworld chamber opened. When this cataclysm had passed, a shrine was built on the Isle of the Avatar to house the Codex forever.


By acquiring the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from the deep recesses of the underworld, the Avatar inadvertently created a karmic imbalance in the universe, resulting in the emergence of three dark Shadowlords from the shattered remnants of Mondain's Gem of Immortality. These sinister agents of darkness were the very antithesis of virtue. Their trickery and deceit allowed them to dethrone and capture Lord British, holding him prisoner in a foul underworld dungeon, and, in a perversation of justice, compelled the leaders of Britannia to oppress the people. The once noble Lord Blackthorne became the Shadowlords' human agent who fulfilled their evil intent.

This was the Britannia that greeted the return of the Avatar. Following his instincts and the admonitions of the Codex, the Avatar applied the principles of Truth, Love, and Courage against the Shadowlords and their corrupted lackey, Blackthorne. Because of the Avatar's efforts, Lord British was liberated from his prison and restored to his throne, thus allowing him to banish the Shadowlords and their agents from the realm of light with a magical black stone, the Orb of the Moons.

However, Lord British's escape from the underworld caused a tremendously destructive series of earthquakes as the vast network of subterranean caverns collapsed. This resulted in the death of a majority of a race of creatures that were soon to be encountered many times...


Ultima 6

Though long believed to be mythological creatures, the existance of Gargoyles was discovered shortly after the first expedition into the geologically unstable underworld. At first, they seemed content to remain in their subterranean domain, but in the years that followed, they found their homeland virtually destroyed by the previous series of earthquakes. They began to appear on the Britannian side of the world in increasing numbers as aggressors. They launched vicious attacks against the human race and many were they who lost their lives in the defense of the realm. One by one, the holy Shrines of Virtue began to fall into the hands of the Gargoyles, and thus so did the moonstones they contained.

The Gargoyles, enraged at the human race, carried out an assassination attempt on the Avatar. By setting a Moongate trap, they lured him into their clutches, but before he was sacrificed, his three faithful companions came to his aid. So it was that Lord British did once again call upon the Avatar to put an end to the violent racial conflict between the Gargoyles and the Britannians.

At last it was revealed that the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, which had been removed from the underworld by the Avatar, was actually the property of the Gargoyles. Therefore, the Avatar placed the Codex in the Great Ethereal Void where it would be possessed by neither human nor gargoyle. Two lenses, used to view the Codex, were given to Lord British and the gargoyle ruler King Draxinusom. As the cause of the conflict between the two races had been removed, it was hoped that the rift between the two would eventually be closed.


Ultima 7

After successfully healing the conflict between the Human and Gargoyle races, the Avatar returned to his homeworld, the planet Earth. The people of Britannia enjoyed a life of peace for generation upon generation, continuing to flourish and prosper. Stories of the great Avatar's heroic deeds began to die out until they were eventually looked upon only as mere legends. However, two hundred Britannian years after the Tale of the False Prophet occured, the Avatar's life on Earth took a turn out of the ordinary once more...

After receiving an unusual message from a sinister being known as the Guardian, the Avatar, under mysterious circumstances, was called back to Britannia, only to be greeted by a land hardly like the one he once knew so well. Magic was merely a dying art, his legend was almost forgotten, and a new commanding religous force had been established: The Fellowship. Upon his arrival through a red moongate in the city of Trinsic, the Avatar was asked by the Mayor to investigate the ritualistic double-murder of the town blacksmith and his gargoyle apprentice.

The Avatar's investigation first took him to Britain, where he was told by Lord British that, unusually, he had not summoned the Avatar back to Britannia. As time passed, the Avatar discovered that the Fellowship, and their leader, Batlin, were behind the series of murders that had been occurring. Likewise, it was also revealed that Batlin was an agent of the Guardian. The source of all of Britannia's recent problems were discovered by the Avatar to be three Generators of the Guardian, constructed of a newly found substance called blackrock. Upon procuring these three generators, which in doing so restored magic to its former state, but also rendered the moongates useless, the Avatar travelled to the Isle of the Avatar to stop the Guardian from entering Britannia through an enchanted blackrock trans-dimensional portal, the Black Gate.

On his arrival at the Isle, the Avatar entered the Black Gate chamber and slew the Guardian's minions, save Batlin, who managed to escape by means of teleportation. In a noble act, the Avatar used the three blackrock generators and a transmutation wand to destroy the Black Gate and cast the Guardian into the void. As the Black Gate was his only way back to Earth, the Avatar had trapped himself in Britannia so that the people might be saved from the Guardian's evil doings...


Ultima 7 - Part 2

Eighteen months after the destruction of the Black Gate, all was not well in Britannia. Mysterious magical storms plagued the land, causing people, objects, and buildings to polymorph or to simply disappear. After the recovery of a map and an enchanted scroll outlining the Guardian's plans for Britannia's eventual destruction from amongst Batlin's belongings, Lord British sent the Avatar on a quest to a place called the Serpent Isle.

Like Britannia, Serpent Isle was constantly being ravaged by magical storms, among other troubles. The Avatar learned that the source of the problems was an ethereal Imbalance in the universe, the result of the absence of the Serpent of Balance, also known as the Great Earth Serpent, from the Ethereal Void. Without any means to balance the two remaining Serpents, a war was ignited between the forces of Chaos and Order, ending in the defeat of the Serpent of Chaos.

Traveling first to the far northern reaches of Serpent Isle to the Grand Shrine of Order, the Avatar encountered Batlin, who was soon struck down by the Guardian. This act released the three Banes of Chaos from Batlin's possession. The Banes took control of the Avatar's companions and unleashed their evil upon Serpent Isle, destroying it's only three cities. Fortunately, the Avatar soon imprisoned the Banes before they could do any more harm. Sadly, Dupre, one of the Avatar's formerly possessed companions, sacrificed himself so that the Serpent of Chaos could eventually be restored. The Avatar journeyed into the heart of Serpent Isle to the Grand Shrine of Chaos, where he used the three imprisoned Banes and Dupre's ashes to restore the Serpent of Chaos to it's former state, and obtained the Ophidian Sword.

Upon obtaining the Serpent crown, staff, and armor, the Avatar travelled finally to Sunrise Isle and entered the Grand Shrine of Balance. Wearing the three Serpent artifacts, and slaying the blackrock statue of the Great Earth Serpent, the Avatar was declared the Great Hierophant of Balance. He entered the Ethereal Void through the Wall of Lights, and witnessed the rejoining of the Serpents of Order, Chaos, and Balance. His accomplishment was short-lived, however, as the Guardian's booming voice echoed throughout the far reaches of the Void. No sooner did the Avatar turn to attempt to escape the Guardian's impending trap did the giant blood-red hand reach from nowhere and rip him from where he flew


Ultima 8

After being seized away from the Ethereal Void, the Avatar was thrust from a gigantic glowing pentagram suspended hundreds of metres above the ocean. The Guardian taunted the Avatar with the same threats that he had made years before. Before the Avatar could even realise his surroundings, he was dropped into the vast ocean below.

Awaking on the shore of this strange, isolated island, the Avatar befriended one of the locals, who had pulled him from the water, and learned that he was on a completely new world; a world named Pagan. Traveling to a nearby city, the Avatar observed lifestyles that were vastly different to those seen in Britannia. The queen of the city ruled with an iron fist, and had no tolerance for her citizens. As the city was ruled by a queen, so too was the entire world ruled, by four Titans of the Elements, and ultimately, the Guardian himself. Lithos the Mountain King and the Titan of Earth ruled the dirt and rock on which the Avatar stood. Stratos, the Titan of Air was the master of the wind that swept across the land. Hydros, the Titan of Water commanded the waves that crashed against the shores. Pyros, the Titan of Fire controlled the flames that roared up from the great volcano in the centre of the land.

The Avatar, intent on finding a way back to Britannia, learned that he must gather great power in order to escape the world that had him trapped. He was to harness the power of the Four Titans of the Elements. Journeying to every far reach of the island, the Avatar collected the Titans' powers into four blackrock prisms, similar to the three that he had used to defeat the Guardian during his last visit to Britannia.

The Avatar's quest brought him finally to the Ethereal Void. He conducted a ritual, placing the four prisms and a blackrock obelisk tip on a circular pentagram platform in the centre of the Void. The Avatar called upon the powers of which he had mastered, channelling them into the five pieces of blackrock that lay before him, until his magical essence was drained. From the middle of the pentagram sprung a shimmering Black Gate. Without hesitation, the Avatar stepped through, and in doing so, mastered the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, and became the Titan of Ether. The Black Gate took the Avatar back to his homeworld, Earth, where he stayed, helpless to stop the Guardian from carrying out his threat, until once more was he called back to Britannia. When the Avatar emerged, he saw an utterly devastated land sprawled before him. A hauntingly familiar laugh echoed through the mountains as the Avatar turned around to see a colossal likeness of the Guardian's head carved into the rough rock. His final threat made to the Avatar thirty Britannian years earlier had become a reality. The Guardian had conquered Britannia...


Ultima 9

The Avatar returns one last time to Brittania. The Land is devastated and the Eight Virtues are tainted by the evil of the Guardian. The Guardian has brought another potent force of evil into Brittania, Blackthorn. Eight huge pillars have sprung up close to the shrines of virtue. Evil forces emanate from each pillar, corrupting the virtues and destroying the shrines. Most of the citizens of Britania have been turned away from the virtues by the evil from the pillars. Through epic battle and an innate, pure sense of what the Virtues really mean does the Avatar finally free the Land from the grasp of evil.


A few notes, you say? *laughs* I do apologize for the length but it is indeed important that we all realize from whence we came, what 'Ultima' really means. For those that made it to the end, may the Light shine upon you and illuminate your path forever.

Thanks for taking the time to post this, Bayn. Very interesting reading, and like you said, we need to understand where we came from.

Atei wrote:Thanks for taking the time to post this, Bayn. Very interesting reading, and like you said, we need to understand where we came from.

I came from my mommy...and you are welcome!

The Order of the Silver Serpent

The Order of the Silver Serpent were originally a small band of loyal knights who pledged their service to Lord British after he unified the warring states and created Britannia:

Sir Percy, the famous Dragonslayer had cleared the surrounding lands near the Isle of Deeds from all dragons and thus the Island near the Cape of Heroes was granted to him as land by Lord British and named "The Isle of Deeds." He then gave to Sir Percy and his ancestor's a huge castle named "Serpent's Hold."

Decades later, Lord British brought Sir Percy and his knights under the Royal banner and officially named them "The Order of the Silver Serpent." It was then the Knights pledged their Order to the service of Lord British ever after. Lord British then placed Sir Sentri, an old friend from Earth as the first Baron over Percy's knights and sons. As the decades passed many changes continued to shape the structure of the Order.

Throughout the centuries, whenever there has been conflict and war against the good people of Britannia, the Order was always there, ready to serve their king and country. If not for the Order's efforts during the Gargoyle Wars, Britannia may have been decimated by the Gargoyles long before the Avatar's arrival.

Shortly after the Black Gate's destruction, Lord British saw the need to require all guardsmen to become official members of the Order of the Silver Serpent who would learn, not only the art of fighting and protecting the innocent, but hopefully the true meaning of the Virtues so that the new guards would act with Justice and Compassion, not with anger and a heart for bribery and corruption.


- Marius the Historan
Master of Lore and Such

Bayn wrote:By shattering the Gem, the Avatar indirectly caused Sosaria to split into a thousand different worlds, each a perfect likeness to the original, and each with their own peoples and destinies.

Sorry to point out the obvious but the similarities between Lord British's Brittania and ours ended when the Gem of Immortality was shattered. I once read that the world of Ultima Online falls somewhere in the timeline between UI and UII. Presumably, after the Avatar destroyed Mondain, several Sosarias were "created" (hence the term "shard" for the different servers) and each Sosaria, though bearing a perfect likeness to each other, carried on with different destinies. Therefore everything that occurred in subsequent Ultimas has either not occurred in WoD yet or will never happen at all since the World of Dreams is an entirely different world.

On a side note, Lord British came to visit us once from his own world. Needless to say, he was not well recieved

I also wish to offer thanks for this excellent concise Ultima recap, but join with Joram in a caution with those who would consider it a confining recap of the history of World of Dreams. Early in the history of WOD, it was decided that we would not be chained in any way (other than place names) to the histories of Ultima worlds past and present. At one time, Dundee felt so strongly about it that he suggested that no one in WOD had ever heard of anyone named Lord British and mention of that name was a flogging offence. That was in the days when we were a bit paranoid, fresh from the frustrations of Origin UO. Since then, our Seers have made use of various parts and characters from Ultima lore, but always with the freedom to do so as accurately or inaccurately as their muses direct them. They do, however, make a conscientious effort to keep our own world's history free of internal contridictions, a task which becomes more and more difficult as times and story lines go forward.
The Ultima storyline is a nice thing to know, but the first person who quibbles with WOD history as inconsistent with those nasty parallel universes will have their official WOD family trees amended to include ratman grandparents and troll cousins.

Joram Lionheart wrote:
Sorry to point out the obvious but the similarities between Lord British's Brittania and ours ended when the Gem of Immortality was shattered. I once read that the world of Ultima Online falls somewhere in the timeline between UI and UII. Presumably, after the Avatar destroyed Mondain, several Sosarias were "created" (hence the term "shard" for the different servers) and each Sosaria, though bearing a perfect likeness to each other, carried on with different destinies. Therefore everything that occurred in subsequent Ultimas has either not occurred in WoD yet or will never happen at all since the World of Dreams is an entirely different world.

That is true but I imagine each shard fractured from the original crystal resonates with the others and thus events spanning from U2-U8 can be regarded as influences upon our own world in some manner, no matter how small the effect may be.

*leaving wiggle room*

Homer wrote:I also wish to offer thanks for this excellent concise Ultima recap, but join with Joram in a caution with those who would consider it a confining recap of the history of World of Dreams. Early in the history of WOD, it was decided that we would not be chained in any way (other than place names) to the histories of Ultima worlds past and present.

I quite agree that the history of WoD is widely divergent from the other Ultima histories but regardless of what people feel towards the warped environment that OSI created in an attempt to produce a dynamic Ultima world, we still owe the original Ultima games a lot.

Perhaps I am overly sentimental but Richard Garriott's creation, including the concept of UO, gave us all something extraordinary. UO was flawed from the start but I believe there was an honest initial effort to create something special. Through the machinations of corporate politics and greed did the saga end.

WoD itself resonates with the origins of Ultima if only through the place names and geography. These connections are not chains, they are a glorious heritage.

If a shard wished to cut itself off completely from Ultima then they need to change place names and alter the geographic configuration of the world, and many shards have done that. However, such shards cannot compare with the sheer richness of history and enjoyment that Ultima based shards enjoy.


note: I'm an Ultima fan, can you tell? Anything expressed in this post, as all my other posts, is purely my own opinion.

Bayn wrote:That is true but I imagine each shard fractured from the original crystal resonates with the others and thus events spanning from U2-U8 can be regarded as influences upon our own world in some manner, no matter how small the effect may be.

Didn't Minax attack the OSI shard's just a few years back? I'm not sure that U3-U8 has happened on OSI yet either, so technically all shards are still existing the pre-U3 times.

It also becomes a problem for us to talk about the Avatar if he's never planning to show up. Not to mention a great number of inconsistencies with Ultima Online itself, like the whole Order v. Chaos dilemma (see UO7, part II) has not occurred yet but Chaos and Order guards exist nevertheless. Worse still, our Virtue guards are not antithetical forces at all. They merely are two sides of the same coin.

Here's another one, where did the virtues and the shrines come from if the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom has not yet been "discovered" by the Avatar? (notice that if you say that it has, you'd have to admit the existence of Lord British, the Avatar, and series of bad guys whose names have never been heard of in WoD). I think we would get into some serious problems if we star trying to define WoD's history in strictly Ultima Lore terms.

Bayn wrote:If a shard wished to cut itself off completely from Ultima then they need to change place names and alter the geographic configuration of the world, and many shards have done that.

I'm not sure if there's going to be any name changing but I think Drocket IS working on changing some of the geographic configuration of the world (at least that's what he said last time he mentioned his world rebuilding project).

However, such shards cannot compare with the sheer richness of history and enjoyment that Ultima based shards enjoy.

I kinda wish WoD could follow on the footsteps of other Ultima based shards, but the minute we decided to change our history (starting with erasing Lord British from the picture), WoD veered off Ultima path into a completely different future.

note: I'm an Ultima fan, can you tell?

Actually, so am I. It was my love of the previous two ultimas (at the time, 7 and that drove me to join the OSI shards back in 1998. But once I decided to leave OSI a year later, I realized that in a way, I was leaving the world of Ultima as well. As time passes, we become more and more separate from the OSI-version of Ultima and the World of Dreams--intentionally or not--must necessarily find its own heritage and history on which to base its reality.

I think it would be a grandiose mistake to try to define WoD history strictly by Ultima history. I never implied we should. But the influences of the other Ultima histories are reflected, if darkly, upon our own world.

Perhaps it is up to the individual to perceive those reflections. Some can come to WoD and accept it as a set piece with no real history except what is currently being written. There are more in-depth WoD histories that will come to light but those aren't done yet! I cannot accept it as thus for I have a wealth of Ultima experiences and lives within me. I am the Avatar, as we all can be if we choose the Light.

Joram Lionheart wrote:I kinda wish WoD could follow on the footsteps of other Ultima based shards, but the minute we decided to change our history (starting with erasing Lord British from the picture), WoD veered off Ultima path into a completely different future.

I feel that this was a world where Lord British may have existed so very long ago. But, he abandoned it or he and the old world died off and the creatures of the wilds made it their own. When the first WoDians came, they strove to reclaim the lands and cities and the Queen (wherever she might be) took over rulership of the world in the name of humanity.

Lord British was killed (pk'd actually) when UO was still in beta.

This link shows Lord British getting pk'd. And then an interview with the famous pk'er.

http://www.aschulze.net/ultima/stories9/beta.htm

My concept of Marius the Black was based entirely around Blackthorne, and the apparent fact that he did not exist in WoD. Whether or not that was a wise decision, I don't know, but as the continuing struggle of trying to NPC a PC villian-come-historian-come-player continues, I'd give myself a few points for effort.

- Marius the Blackthorne
Errr.. Marius the Black

Given what we know about Lord Gizash's past (a prominent knight loyal to the Crown turned bad), I would have associated him with Lord Blackthorn, or at least the quintessential counterpart of Queen Lissar (our answer to Lord British). I'm not sure if Gizash was supposed to have been Chaos or Order or perhaps the Orders did not exist then, but I do remember him handing out Chaos shields to the Moonglow rebels (way back when it all stared). These were not true Chaos shields, though, since Order and Chaos had (technically) not been introduced to WoD yet.

All we really know about Gizash is that he was supposed to have been the Queen's Champion at some point, and that's why he tried to 'corrupt' (unsuccesfully I might add) Sir Mego Stone, the other Champion of the Queen. After Mego, Gizash has personally tried to recruit several prominent members of the WoD community as if he were looking for personal followers of his own.* Gizash wants to be King instead of Lissar and he may actually be able to justify some sort of claim to the Crown (at least more so than all the other bad 'dudes'), and that's what makes him the best candidate for a Lord Blackthorn in my list.


* On a personal note, Gizash has never actually approached me personally so I can't put myself as an example here. I guess he figures he'd be just wasting his time trying