Age of Darkness



The Age of Darkness, sometimes referred to as three separate Ages of Darkness, refers to the time period of the first trilogy of Ultima games. This is also thought to include the events of Akalabeth (sometimes known as Ultima 0), Richard Garriott's first published game.

Overview
The Age of Darkness largely took place during a time political tumult in Sosaria, with the land comprised of warring city-states which lack a unified leader. Monsters and murderous humans roamed the countryside and waylayed unprepared travelers, and the dungeons and towers of the world swelled with horrors. Portions of this time were later redacted from historical continuity, as the deaths of both Mondain and Minax were carried out in realms of the distant past, such as that events of the future were radically transformed.

During this era, the Eight Virtues had not yet been established by Lord British, and the goal of day to day existence frequently consisted more of basic survival rather than moral enlightenment. Due to Mondain's connections with the mysterious "star-walking" race of the void and Minax's later alteration of the time stream, high technology, such as like time machines, space ships, and advanced weaponry often mingled with the medieval armaments and devices of the feudal fiefdoms. Public life was constantly in the shadow of evil as the triad of evil took their turns menacing the populace.

Protagonist

 * The Stranger

Antagonists

 * Akalabeth: Mondain
 * Ultima I: Mondain
 * Ultima II: Minax
 * Ultima III: Exodus

Notable Locations

 * Sosaria
 * Earth
 * Terran Solar System

The Games
The games that comprised the Age of Darkness trilogy (Ultima I, Ultima II, and Ultima III) were rather standard computer RPGs, whose gameplay consisted of dungeon crawls, hack and slash combat and an overarching quest to "kill the foozle." It was not until Ultima IV and the Age of Enlightenment triology, that the Ultima series took on the question of moral consequence and tackled more subtle game goals and themes. As the Ultima series continued, the events of these earlier games were often retconned into the series' continuity to fit with the storyline, often ignoring the more absurd or incongruous elements of the early installments.

These games of the Age of Darkness were generally written and programmed by Richard Garriott himself, with the help that was usually a fairly small programming and development team.

Other Ages

 * Age of Enlightenment
 * Age of Armageddon