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 neverending, 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 concept of the Avatar is destroyed when we are told the Guardian is the Avatar's 'evil side' that was supposedly ripped away at the end of Ultima IV, when the Stranger becomes the Avatar. This is one of the reasons the game is held in such low regard by Ultima fans. Ultima IX would have us believe that the Avatar is a perfect being incapable of evil, but is confounded by Ultima IX itself: the Avatar is still capable of performing evil acts!

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.