Royal Orchards

The Royal Orchards in Britain belong to the estate of Castle Britannia and have long lent their fruit to the tables of the Britannian nobility.

Age of Enlightenment
While a modest apple orchard has existed in the city of Britain since the time of Blackthorn's reign, there was not an established grove within the sovereign's domains until Ultima VI, at which point an imaginative young orphan named Nema acted as caretaker for the rows fruit trees within Lord British's demesnes.

Age of Armageddon
Over the next two-hundred years, the orchard slowly moved northward, to meet with the spatial requirements of the ever-expanding capital. By the time of Ultima VII, it was under the care of an arrogant official known as Figg, who was illicitly selling the fruit at inflated prices, and making illegal donations of apples to the local Fellowship. During this time, an apparently long-standing law regarding the orchards served to underscore the growing social unrest over the socio-economic class divide, as the fruit of the royal trees could only be distributed to hereditary nobility — a stark reminder that the class system's abolition was far from complete.

Later, after the plagues brought upon the land by the Imbalance and the Guardian's assaults, the orchards disappeared from the British landscape, having been replaced by the time of Ultima IX with an elaborate hedge maze.