Shamino

Shamino Sallé Dacil [sha-min-oh] is a recurring character. He first appears in Ultima I and is one of the companions of the Avatar.

Biography
Shamino was a native of Sosaria. According to folklore, it was Shamino who first encountered Lord British, when the Earth-born youth was taken to Sosaria by a blue moongate. Surprised at the sudden appearance of the other man, Shamino, who had been cutting wood at the time, accidentally struck his own leg with his axe. He then healed the wound by means of a simple magical cantrip, a feat which astonished the recently arrived earthling. It was Shamino who first befriended the youth, and who gave him his name, "British," in reference to the boy's claim that he came from the "British Isles."

By the time of Ultima I, Shamino had become ruler of one of the eight castles of ancient Sosaria, and along with the King of the White Dragon jointly ruled the Lands of Danger and Despair.

At some point, Shamino gained the affections of Beatrix, the daughter of the King of the White Dragon and was granted permission to take her hand in marriage, with her father even allowing her to move to Shamino's keep in anticipation of their nuptials. The couple never wed. Shamino left the Lands of Danger and Despair to meet with Lord British in his lands and to seek his advice, and never returned to Beatrix. It is assumed that the cataclysmic changes that beset the world of Sosaria after the Stranger's defeat of Mondain barred Shamino's sojourn home, having rent the kingdoms of Sosaria into separate worlds in their own right.

During the time of Exodus, Shamino went on an expedition to explore and document the daemon-machine's stronghold, Castle Death, which stood on the Isle of Fire. His experience on the island left him grievously injured and severely traumatized, although he made it back to the mainland with a crumpled map of the keep on his person, announcing "The stronghold of Exodus. All may enter, none shall leave." before collapsing under the weight of his wounds. It was discovered that the brush with Exodus left Shamino's mind damaged - and it was written that he wandered the groves outside of Lord British's castle in a daze, muttering repeatedly, "From the depths of hell, he comes for vengeance!"

In Ultima III, Shamino could be found by the Stranger at a bar in Montor West along with Sentri. He recommended the food.

In Ultima IV, Shamino was encountered by the Stranger in the city of Skara Brae where he stood near the Ankh of Spirituality contemplating the concept of inner light. He joined with the Stranger in the hero's quest to obtain Avatarhood.

Shamino was declared an outlaw during the time of Blackthorn's regime and was forced, along with many of the Avatar's other companions, into hiding. In Ultima V, after the Avatar was finally summoned back to Britannia through the Codex Coin, Shamino was the first man to greet the returned hero. When the two of them were beset by the Shadowlords, Shamino flung himself in front of a poisoned bolt which was cast at the Avatar. The hero then carried the injured ranger to Iolo's hut in the great forest. Shamino joined with Iolo and the Avatar in the beginning of their quest to topple the tyranny plaguing the land.

In Ultima VI, Shamino again helped to save the Avatar, along with Iolo and Dupre, when the three companions intervened to rescue the hero from sacrifice at the hands of the gargoyles. After escaping with the freed Avatar to the Castle of Lord British through a red moongate, the ranger once more joined in the hero's quest.

In Ultima VII, Shamino was living in Britain and had a budding relationship with an actress named Amber. Shamino was somewhat self conscious about growing older and Jaana joked that he had finally had reached the venerable age of thirty. He would join the Avatar if asked, and his knowledge again proved useful on the search for what was wrong in Britannia.

In Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle, Shamino accompanied the Avatar to Serpent Isle, chasing after Iolo's wife, Gwenno and the former Fellowship head, Batlin. The new world was eventually discovered to have once been the Lands of Danger and Despair. After hearing stories from gleeman and bards hinting at the fate of his kingdom, Shamino eventually came upon the ruins of his former castle, where he was beset by the vengeful ghost of his former love, Beatrix, who had died, heartbroken, awaiting his return.

It was revealed that after his departure from the land, the goblin hoardes had grown bolder and more belligerent and that both the people of his keep and that of his would be father-in-law feared a coming siege. Eventually, driven mad with grief over Beatrix's death, the King of the White Dragon had turned against his subjects, inviting them all to a grand banquet for the Solstice Festival where he had them all slowly tortured to death within his castle. After all of his people lay dead, he flung himself from the tower of his castle.

During their adventures within the ruins of the ancient Ophidian civilization, Dupre became possessed by the Bane of Anarachy, an aspect of the shattered Chaos Serpent from Ophidian cosmology. In this fallen state as Shamino the Anarch, he slaughtered numerous inhabitants of the city of Moonshade. He was eventually struck down and cured of his possession (and the resultant insanity it imbued him with) by the Avatar.

Prior to Ultima IX, Shamino journeyed to the Temple of Souls, going into the ethereal realms on a spiritual quest in the hopes of gleaning information that would be of use in the war against the Guardian. There, he uncovered the truth of the Guardian's origin, realizing that the Destroyer of Worlds was the amalgam of all the evils the Stranger had cast off upon attaining Avatarhood. In an attempt to keep the ranger from using this knowledge, the Guardian trapped him in the realm of the spirits, leaving his body to slowly begin to die in the material plane.

In Ultima IX, Shamino was able to speak to the returned Avatar through various sacred statues throughout the land the land. He was able to thus provide the hero with valuable information he had discovered about the eight Columns the Guardian had created to pervert the course of the virtues, and eventually was able to instruct the hero in the ritual needed to reestablish the link between his body and his soul, allowing him to finally reawaken to the lands of the living.

Later, Shamino assisted in the final defeat of the Guardian, journeying to the Great Stygian Abyss to cleanse the corrupting column linked to it, helping to cut off the Guardian's power and to divert the catastrophic collision of Trammel and Felucca.

The Tale of Shamino and the Spirits: A Parable of Spirituality
''The dead of Britannia have always been a restless lot. Why this should be I do not know, but I have sometimes thought that the vitality of the land itself is so great, it bestirs the memory of itself even in lifeless flesh.''

''Be that as it may, my final tale concerns itself with a certain town, where the inhabitants of the graveyard had forgotten their proper decorum. Nor was this a mere aimless revenant or two, but a veritable plague of lifeless stalkers. Most every night was disturbed by a squad or company of the dead making riot, for the creatures did not wander aimlessly, but set themselves about the business of terror and destruction with a methodical efficiency that demanded a malign will behind their excursions. ''

See the complete tale at: The Tale of Shamino and the Spirits: A Parable of Spirituality

Trivia

 * Shamino's counterpart in reality is none other than Richard Garriott, himself. Garriott also appears in the games as Lord British, whom Shamino often greatly resembles in physical appearance. Garriott's other counterparts include Shamuru, Richard Sherman and Lord Thibris
 * The Shamino character comes from Garriott's activities in Society for Creative Anachronism, though the name was reportedly taken from the Shimano brand of gears in Garriott's bicycle.
 * Although Shamino is from Sosaria/Britannia, he has hardly aged at all since his first appearance. Such a longevity normally belongs to the Companions from Earth or other worlds.
 * After the initial encounter with Beatrix in Ultima VII Part Two, should Shamino ever be injured near to death over the course of the game, Beatrix will reappear and intervene, restoring him to health and forgiving his abandonment. After doing so, she will gift him with a book of love sonnets which she wrote for him and then depart for the void. This book is Shamino's "personal item" which can be used by a Hound of Doskar to track him when he is possessed. Alternatively Iolo's lute or Dupre's enchanted shield may also be used - given that the three Banes are in the same location.
 * According to the original design documents for Serpent Isle, Shamino the Anarch was to have originally played a much greater role in the game. According to the original draft, Shamino the Anarch was to have deposed Filbercio and set himself up as ruler of the city of Moonshade, overturning law and lifting the citys' restrictions on magic. In the ensuing chaos, Anti-Shamino was to have murdered Pothos, appointed Ensorcio as Chancellor of the city; and forcibly taken Frigidazzi as his paramour. The Avatar would have had to kill him in an ambush in the MageLord's palace, after being informed by the ice sorceress of a secret passage into the palace.