Vortex Cube

The Vortex Cube is a very old and powerful item that appears in Ultima VI, Ultima VII and IX.

Description
It is - as the name states - a black cube that can be used as a container. If the eight Moonstones of Britannia are stored inside it, it has the power to draw and return very powerful objects from the Ethereal Void. Even without the Moonstones, the Vortex Cube is still powerful enough to allow teleportation throughout Britannia without problem.

The Vortex Cube was created by Naxatilor the seer a thousand years prior to Ultima VI in order to draw the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom out of the Void so it could give the gargoyles wisdom. After the deed was done, it was stored in their museum, the Hall of Knowledge, inside the vortex chamber. However, it was stolen by human thieves some time prior to Ultima VI and taken to Stonegate via Lost Hope Bay. The Avatar found the Vortex Cube in the cellars under Stonegate and a cyclops claimed possession of it. Used together with the Moonstones and the lenses, the cube returned the Codex to the Ethereal Void.

After these events, the Vortex Cube had lost its purpose and was moved to the Royal Museum in Britain, where it could be seen on exhibition from then on in Ultima VII and Ultima IX.

Trivia

 * The Vortex Cube was altered in Ultima IX; it was no longer cube-shaped and flickered constantly. The Vortex Cube in all previous Ultima games was black and a cube.
 * The wisps in Ultima VI mention the Vortex Cube in their super-scientific explanation of the game solution. They refer to the Vortex Cube as "an ionized crystal suspended in a unipolar magnetic field". Currently, all magnetic fields known by science are bipolar (N-S, or North-South); only some advanced theories mention the theoretical existence of unipolar magnetic field.
 * In the Keyring Mod for Exult, the Vortex Cube is again needed, this time to move the Codex to a different place in the void.