Dupre

Dupre [doo-pray] is a paladin and later a knight of Britannia, and a close friend to both Lord British and the Avatar. A native of Earth, Dupre possesses a longevity typical of many Terrans dwelling in Britannia, and has lived many centuries as a citizen of the realm.

Age of Darkness
The Stranger first met Dupre in the bizarre world left by Minax's time-magics in Ultima II, where the future warrior could be found roaming the habitable surface of Jupiter in the far flung future of the enchantress' devising. Here, in a bizarre village, the man asked the hero if they wished to purchase a duck. While time altered significantly after the death of the sorceress, potentially making this meeting ahistorical, the paladin would later ask the hero the same question during the reign of Lord Blackthorn (and actually could procure the animal for the price of five coins), and still later, during the gargoyle wars, requested that ducks not be brought up again, apparently having tired of this particular eccentricity.

Regardless of the man's predilection for waterfowl, the stalwart fighter eventually passed into Sosaria. Early records indicate that he was involved in the undertaking of Lord British's "Great Work," in which the young king was patron to a number of explorers, instructed to chart the various settlements and sites of his kingdom. In his part, Dupre set out to find the mysterious city of Dawn, a magical locale which only appeared within the Dark Forest on nights when both moons were new. Eventually coming upon this enchanted glade, Dupre would describe it as the most beautiful and sacred place the land of Sosaria had, swearing to its denizens not reveal the secret of its location before taking his leave. Following this life-changing pilgrimage, the adventurer took his rest in Britain, and could be drinking at a pub there during the course of the Stranger's quest against Exodus.

Age of Enlightenment
Following the death of the daemon-machine at the heroes' hands, the still young Lord British sought to cast away the dark days wrought by the Triad of Evil, attempting to move his kingdom toward ideals of virtue and learning. By the time of the Stranger's return in answer to British's call for an Avatar, Dupre had become the leader of the town of Trinsic, a settlement founded on the principle of Honor. Meeting the aspirant again in their travels, the paladin spoke of his city's ideals, claiming honor to be a constant quest to maintain - like finely polished armor. Eventually, he joined with the wandering hero, following them to the Abyss where they attained the wisdom of the Codex.

This association with the one who became the Avatar eventual bore ill tidings for Dupre. Following Lord British's disappearance on a voyage of exploration, the corrupt regent Blackthorn came into power, and eventually came to declare as outlaw all who had first aided the champion of legend. During these grim days of the Oppression, Dupre fled to the keep of Bordermarch, where he waited, along with the warrior Sentri for the Avatar's eventual return.

With time, the hero did land on Britannian soil again, and secured the rescue of the true king. Years after the exile of Blackthorn and British's restoration to power, Dupre proved crucial in saving the Avatar's life, having been sent with Iolo and Shamino to free the hero from the grip of the gargish people, who, having suffered greatly as an unintended result of the Avatar's actions, now sought retribution in blood for their troubles. After rescuing the champion of virtue from their near-death upon an alter, Dupre escorted them as they roamed Britannia seeking a resolution to the war waged by the gargoyles, having been commanded by his sovereign not to leave the hero's side.

Age of Armageddon
In the centuries that followed the end of the conflict, Dupre was knighted by Lord British. Following this honor, he began to travel the land widely, indulging his fondness for drink by touring the various taverns and ale house of the realm in the guise of a pub critic for Brommer's Britannia. It was in the midst of this jaunt that the once more returned Avatar was able again to find him, carousing at the Bunk and Stool of Jhelom. He would eagerly join the hero's party once more, if asked, and throughout the ensuing journey, his familiarity with various barmaids and tavern-keepers would become evident, as he reminisced and joked with many of them.

Later, a year after the destruction of the Black Gate, Dupre was among the guests attending the fête at Castle Britannia to celebrate the Reconstruction, and was trapped inside of a great blackrock dome of the Guardian's devising. During this tribulation, the paladin and knight grew rapidly agitated, upset at the lack of action and the rationing of alcohol. Hoping to remedy these both, he followed a path blazed by the Avatar, traveling through a miniature blackrock gem found in the castle's sewers and passing into another world. While Britannia's champion attempted in other realms to undo the Guardian's macics, Dupre trekked to Anodunos, a formerly grand city which had been destroyed by the red titan's wrath and now stood as a frozen wasteland, covered over with ice. His goal was to acquire fresh water, in the form of ice and snow, for the inhabitants of the Britannia, thus ending the shortage of drink.

Unbeknownst to him, it was this world that carried a premonition of his own fate to the questing Avatar, showing the hero of Britannia a dark future in which an old friend was sacrificed.

Death
Half a year after the destruction of the blackrock dome, Dupre accompanied the Avatar (as well as Iolo and Shamino) on a mission to the fabled Serpent Isle, chasing after Iolo's adventuring wife, Gwenno, and Batlin, an agent of the Guardian and the former head of his cult. When the hero ultimately confronted Batlin in the lost city of Spinebreaker, a ritual gone awry unleashed a series of potent spirits upon the company, and Dupre became possessed by the Bane of Wantoness, an aspect of the shattered Chaos Serpent once worshipped by the lost Ophidian civilization. Transformed into a maurading beast with a serpent's head, Dupre massacred numerous innocents from the city of Monitor and the nearby Inn of the Sleeping Bull, leaving the region open to an invasion by the surrounding goblin tribes.

Eventually, the Avatar managed to slay the creature that gripped Dupre, freeing him of his possession and temporarily of his life. After being revived by Xenkan monks, the bedraggled paladin was left with a warped and perverse madness, lusting after blood and sex as he reeled from the effects of being ridden by the bane. While the Avatar was eventually able to restore the paladin to sanity with the powers of the waters of Discipline, Dupre remained deeply troubled with the deeds he had wrought under its influence

As the time of the Imbalance crept near, the prophetess Xenka returned, decreeing that only the living sacrifice of a soul who was "in balance" could re-join the sundered parts of the Serpent of Chaos, and thus restore the world to equilibrium. Marking the Avatar and their companions as the only viable oblations, the cold woman had the company draw straws over who should die. With the Avatar taking the short straw, Xenka instructed the hero to be immolated alive in the crematory fires in Monitor, that their spirit might reunite the shattered serpent. At the moment of the offering, Dupre, wracked with guilt over the atrocities he had committed and reluctant to let his friend face death, pushed the Avatar aside and jumped into the flames, martyring himself to restore the world. His last words were, "Let it be said that Sir Dupre died bravely!"

As the Chaos Serpent
Following the knight's sacrifice, the Avatar took his ashes and the three imprisoned Banes to the Wall of Lights deep beneath the Skullcrusher Mountains, where the hero performed a ritual which would enable the Serpent of Chaos to reform, binding the penitent man's soul to that of the Serpent of Chaos. From this strange amalgam of souls, Dupre spoke to the Avatar, warning the hero that the reborn serpent wished him harm and that he was doing his best to prevent it from attacking. He exhorted to hero to trek to Sunrise Isle, and there to restore the Great Earth Serpent to the Ethereal Void.

Once the Avatar had completed this task and passed through another Wall of Lights into the void, the Great Earth Serpent of Balance assured the hero that Dupre's soul was at that point one with the great serpents, and content.

Resurrection
Although Dupre's physical ashes were seemingly destroyed in the reunification of the Chaos Serpent, they later were found interned in a memorial to the fallen paladin in the city of Trinsic, perhaps having been regathered from the shrine in Spinebreaker or being from some cache of ashes not properly collected in Monitor. Whatever their origin, they did seem to bear a genuine connection to the dead knight, and upon the Avatar's final return to Britannia in Ultima IX, the hero was able to speak to Dupre's spirit through them. The shade, seemingly acting with independence from the serpents, revealing the true meaning of the Chalice of Honor, and repeating for the weary hero the mantra of Honor.

When the final Shrine of the corrupted Britannia was cleansed in the course of the hero's quest, Dupre was miraculously resurrected by the forces of the ethereal void to aid in the final battle against the Guardian. The once again living knight journeyed to the Dungeon Shame and cleansed the corrupting column linked to it, helping to cut off the Guardian's power and to divert the catastrophic collision of Trammel and Felucca.

The Tale of Dupre and the Gargoyles: A Parable of Honor
''I'm sure you know that the Gargoyle folk joined Britannian society after the restoration of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. I'm also sure it will not surprise you to hear that the treaty between Lord British and Draxinusom, King of the Gargoyles, did not instantly bring accord to the two races. Certain ignorant humans continued to hate and fear Gargoyles, and certain intractable Gargoyles continued to regard humanity with enraged contempt. The most notorious Gargoyle fighter against mankind in those days was named Gratagmalem. He was equally renowned among his people for his keen intellect as for his fierce disposition, and when peace was achieved between the races, he turned outlaw with a small band of likeminded Gargoyle bravos. This fierce troop devoted themselves to burning and pillaging the remote crofts and farms of the land, stopping short only at outright murder of unresisting enemies. Nonetheless, they were the cause of much suffering, loss and deprivation to their victims.''

''Now there was a certain inn, located midway between Britain and Yew, and famous for its excellent autumn ale. So good was the brew that many fine folk were given to retire to that place for a fortnight's holiday when the new casks were breached. Tents had to be pitched on the grounds to hold all the guests, and for two weeks each fall the place took on the air of a fair or festival.''

See the complete tale at: The Tale of Dupre and the Gargoyles: a Parable of Honor



Trivia

 * Dupre's counterpart in reality is Greg Dykes, a personal friend of Ultima creator Richard Garriott. Dykes also appears as Dokray and Major Greg Duprey in the Worlds of Ultima series, and serves as the model for Dupre's portraits in Ultima Underworld II and Ultima VII Part Two. A "Christian Richard Dupre" also appears in the awards lists for the Society for Creative Anarchonism's barony of Bryn Gwlad - where Richard Garriott has been known to participate in the persona of Shamino Salle' Dacil, and it seems likely that this Dykes' SCA persona.
 * Dupre's interest in ducks has its origin in Dykes' suggestion to Garriott that he include a character in Ultima II which would offer the player a duck, which would then produce a single egg each day, slowly supplying the character with rations - with the caveat that should the player kill the duck, a larger portion of food would be produced immediately. While Garriott admitted that such a feature was beyond his game's capacity at the time, the association of Dykes with ducks remained, and became an in-joke throughout the series.
 * Although several characters in Ultima VII imply that Dupre was knighted some time after Ultima VI, the paladin is already referred to as "Sir Dupre" as early as Ultima III.
 * In Ultima VII, Dupre has run up a significant bar tab (seventy four gold pieces) at the Modest Damsel in New Magincia, and will implore the Avatar to help him pay it. If the hero refuses, Boris, the owner of the establishment, will refuse to serve the party so long as Dupre is with them.
 * Ultima Underworld II features a character named Lobar in Killorn Keep, whose portrait is obviously based on Dupre's. Like Dupre, Lobar is also predisposed to drink - although his relationship with alcohol is unhealthy and despairing, with him using drunkenness to try to drive the Guardian's voice from his mind.
 * In Ultima VII Part Two, Dupre is the only companion of the Avatar's to be portrayed by a voice actor - and only after his death. His voice, performed by Denis Loubet, appeared after he had fused with the Chaos Serpent and spoke to the Avatar from the Void.
 * Ultima IX does not explain how the resurrection of Dupre is possible without catastrophic consequences; in Serpent Isle, Dupre's corporeal death and merging with the Chaos Serpent was necessary to save the universe, and there is no explanation as to how the Chaos Serpent will be able to maintain itself with Dupre's soul removed from it. While theoretically it is possible that the division created by the Chaos Serpent's original sundering somehow "healed" over the course of time, allowing Dupre's soul to once more act as a free agent, no mention was made of such an occurrence - leaving open the possibility that this seemingly minute event in Ultima IX's plot may have had apocalypse-inducing consequences for the cosmology of the Britannian universe.