Stranger

The Stranger is a title refer to the protagonist (the player) of the Ultima series, prior to the character's attainment of Avatarhood in Ultima IV. The proper name of the Stranger is determined by the player.

Gender and Race
In Ultima I through Ultima IV, the player had the option to deem that the Stranger was male or female, and the additional choice of "other" in Ultima III.

The player also had the option of selecting the Stranger's race, and could dictate the hero as being a human,  elf,  dwarf or  bobbit, with the additional option of playing a fuzzy becoming available in Ultima III. Given the graphical technology of the time, there was no clear indicator of the character's ethnicity or skin color beyond these broad categories.

History
The Stranger was the hero responsible for the slaying of Mondain, Minax and Exodus - the three great evils of the Sosarian Age of Darkness. Each time, the Stranger acted in response to a summons by Lord British, who had brought the hero to another world through a simple act of contemplation as he held his amulet of the silver serpent. It is rumored that the Stranger arrived by means of some manner of moongate each time, similar to the one that had brought Lord British to Sosaria.

In Ultima IV, the Stranger arrived in Britannia to participate in the Quest of the Avatar. After the hero steeled their soul such as that they embodied each of the Eight Virtues, the Stranger descended into the Great Stygian Abyss and read the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom - thus becoming the the enlightened champion of Britannian morality, the Avatar.

Continuity
In Ultima IV, it was not explicit that the Stranger was the same person who was undertaking the Quest of the Avatar, and the manual for the game gave the player little reason to assume the various heroes that defeated the Triad of Evil were the same. Ultima V also makes no clear reference to the Avatar having faced the evils of the Age of Darkness. However, from Ultima VI onward, it is clearly stated that the Avatar was the very same person who faced Mondain, Minax and Exodus, thus creating a stronger continuity between the Age of Darkness trilogy and later games. This happens when the Avatar visits the Shrines of the Principles during Ultima VI. At each shrine, Mondain, Minax and Exodus talk to the Avatar, causing the hero to remember having defeated them in past before becoming the Avatar.