Avatar



The Way of the Avatar

The one who shall tread the path of the Avatar to full revelation is not only brave, but honest and filled with compassion for all living things. Britannia needs one who can show how to fight the forces of Evil found both outside of and within the individual. The Way of the Avatar is not to be of one profession, but using the best of all of them, living the virtues and showing the people of the Land the way to enlightenment.

The Quest of the Avatar is never ending, always the virtues are tested and challenges have to be mastered to prove the worth to be the Avatar. One one person had ever managed to become an Avatar, no one after that managed this feat.

Overview
The Avatar is the name used to refer to the protagonist (the player) of the Ultima games after Ultima IV.

In Ultima IV, The Stranger completes a series of quests and becomes The Avatar, the embodiment of The Eight Virtues and a true hero of Britannia. The concept of the Avatar was to go against the darkness in one's nature and eternally strive for Virtue, highlighted by the phrase "The Quest of the Avatar is Forever." The Avatar was meant to be an example to everyone on Britannia of what could be accomplished if one but tried. S/he was never perfect, was never infallible, was only ever human, capable of both good and evil acts.

From Ultima IV to Ultima VII/2, the Avatar could be male or female, under any name the player wished. Portraits were available from Ultima VI to Ultima VII/2.

In Ultima VIII and Ultima IX these options were removed, and the Avatar, while he could still be named, was always a blond white male.

The Avatar in Ultima IX: Ascension
In Ultima IX the Avatar is called to Britannia once again to reestablish the virtues. He must do this by himself because his old companions have been corrupted as well. We know from the beginning that the Guardian is responsible for the corruption of the Shrines and the creation of the columns. The Avatar must adventure alone into the dungeons of Britannia to bring about the final defeat of the Guardian.

Unlike previous Ultima games the Avatar in Ascension is as good as his armor and weapons. Magic comes to him as he is able to use it. After he has cleansed half the shrines and restored their virtues he is powerful enough to finish the rest of the adventure without worrying about being killed at every turn.

Though some former players feel that the idea that the Guardian as a manifestation of the Avatars evil parts that were stripped away when he became the Avatar completely destroys the idea of the Avatar. It is needed to be remembered that this is the final game of the series and it had to be wrapped up somehow. The fellows at Origin were being pressured by the guys at Electronic Arts to finish the game and get it to market. This rush, rush, rush, was despised by the Origin team and lead to the buggiest game of the series. This story line is as good an explanation as could be made. It isn't so hard to believe. After all this is a fantasy game. The most important things are that the Guardian was destroyed and that the series is over. And only this last truth is to be hated and despised. The loss of this series is a loss of hours of enjoyment to the fans.

Statistics

 * Avatar-class has full magic power, depending on the INT-stat.
 * The bonuses rely on the original class of the Avatar.
 * The are no weapon or armour penalties for the Avatar-class.