Moongate

Moongates are magical doors made of moonlight, and a fast, easy and safe way to travel through Britannia. There are four known types of moongates, the properties of which have changed through the ages. The naturally-occurring blue moongates are most common; there are also the artificially created red, silver and black gates.

Blue moongates
Blue moongates appear at eight places in Britannia, where the moonstones are buried in the ground. Their function and destination is pending on the twin moons Trammel and Felucca. Only very powerful artifacts, like the Amulet of Lord British, can create a blue moongate somewhere else. The system of the blue moongates changed several times in the series.


 * The blue moongates were first seen in Ultima III. Back then, Trammel's phase decided which gate was open, while Felucca's phase determined the destination gate. The same system applied without changes to Ultima IV (although the entry/exit points had changed significantly since the re-forming of the land after the great cataclysm). Both moons at the same phase either meant no travel, or at double full moon to the Shrine of Spirituality.


 * In Ultima V, the system changed significantly; the moongates only opened after dark, with the phase of the moon highest in the sky determining their destination (excluding the hour of midnight, at which time travel was always directed to the Shrine of Spirituality). The same mechanics applied to Ultima VI, complicated by the fact that the moonstones were held captive by the gargoyles. Consequently, blue moongates led to each of the Shrines as opposed to their corresponding cities, including that of Spirituality.


 * By Ultima VII, the Sphere Generator of the Guardian disturbed the moongates greatly in their function. One gate only led to the next higher one, and they were open all the time. In the end, the destruction of the Sphere closed the moongates, ending their existence.

A blue moongate was mentioned in The Book of Lore as being the way that Lord British used to arrive to Sosaria. It appeared shortly after an amulet appeared on a rock-bordered clearing on Earth, and it transported British to Sosaria.

Another, similar blue moongate was the gateway used by the Avatar to get to Britannia in Ultima IV and Ultima V. This one also appeared in a rock-bordered clearing. In the first game, the moongate left an ankh amulet in its place. In the second, the Avatar summoned the gate by placing the amulet and the Codex Coin (which had been magically sent from Britannia) in the clearing.

 Only in Ultima III, the gates appeared in the following locations (note that most versions of Ultima III used the numerical representation of the moon phase listed below):


 * [[File:Image001.gif]] New Moon (0): Just NE of Moon


 * [[File:Image002.gif]] Crescent Waxing (1): Just outside the Snake Dungeon


 * [[File:Image003.gif]] First Quarter (2): Tiny mountain enclosure by towne Devil Guard


 * [[File:Image004.gif]] Gibbous Waxing (3): S edge of map, S of the hidden city of Dawn


 * [[File:Image005.gif]] Full Moon (4): Tiny mountain enclosure by towne Devil Guard (S of (2))


 * [[File:Image006.gif]] Gibbous Waning (5): On the Isle of Fire (location shown, but not Isle itself)


 * [[File:Image007.gif]] Last Quarter (6): Just E of the towne Devil Guard


 * [[File:Image008.gif]] Crescent Waning (7): Just S of the Dungeon of Time

 Starting with Ultima IV, each moon phase is bound to one of these specific city gates:


 * [[File:Image001.gif]] New Moon: Moonglow


 * [[File:Image002.gif]] Crescent Waxing Moon: Britain


 * [[File:Image003.gif]] First Quarter: Jhelom


 * [[File:Image004.gif]] Gibbous Waxing Moon: Yew


 * [[File:Image005.gif]] Full Moon: Minoc


 * [[File:Image006.gif]] Gibbous Waning Moon: Trinsic


 * [[File:Image007.gif]] Last Quarter: Skara Brae


 * [[File:Image008.gif]] Crescent Waning Moon: New Magincia



Red moongates
Red moongates are created with the Orb of the Moons, a very powerful and ancient artifact. They can lead practically anywhere, according to the Orb's placement and distance. With a red moongate, travel between worlds becomes possible. However, the more distant the travelling destination, the more precise the placement has to be.

The first red moongate appeared in Ultima V, when Lord British used it to escape dungeon Doom; a little later, Lord Blackthorn left Britannia through another of these gates. In Ultima VI, the Orb of the Moons was used frequently and often, after the Avatar first used a red moongate to travel to Britannia. At the end of Savage Empire, a red moongate is used to leave the world of Eodon. A modified orange moongate was created in Martian Dreams by manipulating the Orb; see "Silver moongates" below for more information.

There are other red moongates that have been seen that may not have been directly created by the Orb. In Ultima VII, the Time Lord sent a red moongate to bring the Avatar to Trinsic. A red moongate also blocks access to the Sphere Generator.

With the destruction of the the Guardian's Sphere Generator, the Orb ceased to function, and no more red moongates were created.

See "Orb of the Moons Locations" for how to use the Orb properly to create a red moongate.



Silver moongates
Silver moongates, also known as time doors or time gates, are used for time travel. The destination in time each gate leads to is fixed, and can't be changed. They were not bound to any phases of the moons, but appeared and disappeared frequently.

They are a rare and unusual type of moongate known to exist only in Ultima II. A result of Minax meddling with time itself to destroy Earth, they vanished after the end of the game. These gates connected the following times:
 * Time of Legends
 * Earth (Pangea), 9 Mil. B.C.
 * 1423 B.C.
 * 1990 A.D.
 * "Aftermath," 2112 A.D.

See List of Timegate Locations for a deep insight of the system.

Although not appearing as silver, a Cubic Black Time Gate appeared in the first installment of the Worlds of Ultima series, The Savage Empire. This gate was an artificial creation of the Queen of the insectoid Myrmidex species, in a plot to destroy her race's one-time masters, the reptilian Kotl. It was created by using a corrupted moonstone.

In the second and final installment of the Worlds of Ultima series, Martian Dreams, another kind of gate was used for time travel. In this case, the Avatar travelled with Dr. Spector back in time to the year 1895 by way of electrical manipulation of the Avatar's Orb of the Moons, using equipment found in Nikola Tesla's Secret Lab. The resulting gate was an unusual shade of bright orange, possibly the silver of a timegate mixed with a red moongate as the result of artificially creating a timedoor with the Orb of the Moons.



Black moongates
Black moongates are artificial creations that allow travel through space and time. They differ from other types of moongates in that they are made not from lunar energy, but instead constructed from a mysterious substance known as Blackrock. They are not governed by Britannia's lunar cycles as are traditional moongates; blackrock gates must be powered by external power sources, such as planetary conjunctions like the Astronomical Alignment or Pagan's Titanic Objects.

The only known black moongate in Britannia was the Black Gate of the Guardian in Ultima VII, which was destroyed while the Guardian attempted to enter Britannia.

Other known Blackrock portals were the Black Jewel found in sewers beneath Lord British's Castle in Ultima Underworld II, the Black Obelisk at Serpent Isle used by Batlin, the Black Obelisk of Pagan at the end of Ultima VIII, and possibly the Cubic Gate manifested by the the Myrmidex Queen of Savage Empire.



Purple moongates
Purple moongates appear solely in Ultima IX. While one of the game's developers jokingly said that the purple moongates were a mix of red and blue gates, there is no in-game explanation for this change, nor for the reappearance of moongates in the first place in light of the events of Ultima VII.

Since the moons are out of alignment during the events of the game, it is not known if they affect their behavior. They can only be summoned through an Orb of the Moons, which works quite differently from the ones that historically called forth red moongates. For the mechanism, see: Summon Moongate.

Purple moongates also appear out of thin air rather than rising from the ground.



The Siege Perilous
Not a moongate by definition, the gateway known as the Siege Perilous was the means by which The Stranger entered Sosaria prior to Ultima IV. It is possible that it was created through sheer force of will by Lord British, as he envisioned the kind of hero his people needed in the three Ages of Darkness, or it may have been created by his Orb of the Moons. Whatever the true case may be, the inner workings of this mysterious portal are still unknown.



Trivia

 * Richard Garriott borrowed the concept of moongates (as time-travelling portals) from Terry Gilliam's movie, Time Bandits.
 * The Siege Perilous was a legendary vacant seat at the Round Table of Camelot, meant for the knight which could find the Holy Grail.
 * Moongates exist in Lord of Ultima, but appear different from their classic counterparts. They seem to be a stone arch with the gate resting within the frame. Their function as of now is unknown.
 * Moongates in Ultima Online work very different from the classic gates, and also look different. See Moongate (UO) for more information.


 * In the Exodus Manga, moongates look very different. Instead of a circle of stones, there is a whole construction looking like a roghly Stonehenge-shaped stone temple, and the function of the gate is bound to the stone construction itself.