User:Anarch Cassius

About Me

I'm a long-time fan of the Ultima series. Ultima V was one of the first computer games I played and it made a lasting impression on me. I've got the collection, the Worlds of Ultima games and the Underworlds. Someday I may have time to beat them all :)

I'm in my late twenties and a freelance programmer. I'm very much in to games, role-playing games of all sorts in particular. I also like gardening, hiking and science, especially bizarre science.

Ultima and Me

Played: Ultima II, Ultima Underworld, Ultima IX

Played Extensively: Ultima III, Ultima IV, Ultima V, Ultima VI, Ultima VII, Ultima Online

Beaten: Ultima I

I became interested in the wiki as I am currently working on a UO server meant to actually emulate the Ultima universe. Having a repository of information about the setting has been incredibly useful and I try to contribute where I can.

The plot of being in a shard is the same but with a setting and history that more closely resembles Ultima. At shard start the time period will be between Ultima III and Ultima IV following the shard's alternate history where Minax neither reaches the Time of Legends or is slain by the Stranger. The exact future of this alternate Sosaria is not set but will feature elements of every game, though perhaps different due to the differing histories.

While I mostly reject Ultima IX, one thing worth mentioning is that the idea that the Quest of the Avatar failed is relevant to the shard concept. This world has no longer has the Stranger, has no 8-Parts Avatar. Fitting the multiplayer setting there is no one true hero who will determine the fate of Sosaria. Each person must rise to the challenge of helping see the future they want come true for Sosaria and people may be working at cross purposes.

More Thoughts on Ultima

I've always loved Blackthorn. Maybe because he was my first Ultima villian. At first he just seemed this prick in charge who had made the world crappy. Then I learned more about his past and became motivated as much by my desire to free him from the Shadowlords possession as finding Lord British. He was a great tragic figure and even when he was bisecting my party members I couldn't help but feel sorry for him knowing the Shadowlords were in control. I also liked the information from Ultima VII and early UO, but later in UO and IX his portrayal just seemed like a generic villian with little history or motivation.

I also like the wackier stuff that sometimes get flak. Fuzzies, lasers, and so on never detracted from the setting for me one bit. The Tokkuno islands of Ultima Online seem reasonable. With Britannia apparently having been settled by quasi-British people it doesn't seem much of a stretch to imagine Japan also formed an other worldly colony via magic. In fact, this sort everything is out there somewhere design is one of my favorite parts of Ultima.

That said I just can't stomach IX, the inconsistencies seem almost irresolvable. I treat the text of books and characters in games as potentially fallible but anything that isn't clearly an engine limitation and is part of the game world I consider 'fact'. With IX I sort of take the entire game as a fallible loose interpretation of events occurring at that time.

On the other hand, I really wanted to see UXO. UO2 made me want to puke but UXO looked cool enough for me to forgive IX and the existence of gargoyle titties.