Old Fawn



Old Fawn is a city on Sosaria appearing in Ultima I and Ultima III.

Description
Old Fawn (known simply as Fawn during its existence), sometimes known as the "City of the Sea" in its later incarnation, was a Sosarian settlement. It was originally a lakeside town in the southern Lands of Lord British during the time of Mondain. Later, after the world's sundering following the wizard's death, Fawn was situated on an island north of the main continent - a shift that implies either resettlement or massive geological shifts (which were not unheard of in the lands that would become Britannia).

History
Fawn's name derives from Lady Fawn, the first ruler of the city who founded within it a cult dedicated to the perfection of physical beauty. During the days of the Stranger's adventures, Fawn appeared a modest town hosting a weaponsmith, an armoury, a magical provisioner and what might be the earliest iteration of a drinking establishment run by a Dr. Cat (perhaps a distant ancestor of the famed master of Nim). Little evidence of the beauty cult was visible at this time.

By the age of Exodus, however, Fawn had taken on a decidedly religious aura, and was home to numerous clerics, no doubt in service to the axiom of the beautiful. Lord Pendoric, the courtier assigned by Lord British to chart Fawn for his cartographic "Great Work" commented on the comeliness of the city's populace. These peaceful mystics would greet the returned hero kindly, offering the Stranger and companions numerous insights regarding the great silver snake which guarded the Isle of Fire. They gave instructions that the aspirant must "pray" within the Yewish Circle of Light and obtain the Mark of the Snake before finally approaching and "invoking" the serpent.

In the years that followed Exodus' destruction, the cult of beauty came into stark discord with Lord British's attempts to codify a set of Virtues in the newly established Britannia. With beauty rejected as a potential virtue, the religion of the Fawnish priests came into direct conflict with the morality of the sovereign, and those loyal to its precepts rejected British's rule. Eventually, these dissidents came to rally under the leadership of the mage Erstam who was leading similarly disaffected citizens from Moon and the twin cities Montor in a voyage in search of new land, where the discontented might be free of such "tyrannical" rule. These settlers eventually landed on the shores of the Serpent Isle, whereupon the people of Fawn built a new city bearing its name.

The old Fawn eventually came to vanish from Britannia, either disbanded due to its fleeing populace or destoyed in the frequent shifts in landmass which plagued the realm in its early days.

Ultima I

 * Dr. Cat's Lair: tavern
 * The Iron Fist:' armoury
 * The Razor's Edge: weapon shop
 * Words of Power: wizardry shop

Ultima III

 * Tools of Trade: guild shop
 * Canteen: tavern
 * Provisions: grocery
 * Healers Three: healer

Ultima III (NES)

 * Casino

Trivia

 * In Ultima I, the cities of Fawn (in the Lands of Lord British), Helen (in the Lands of the Feudal Lords), Stout (in the Lands of the Dark Unknown) and Magic (in the Lands of Danger and Despair) were exactly the same. They had the same layout, stores, and people in it. Their only difference was their name and location in the map. They were basically the same city copied over in the different continents.
 * The Oracle of Fawn, a device used within the new Fawn of Ultima VII Part Two, may have been built by the people of old Sosaria, although such rumors are disputed.