Despise

Despise, typically portrayed as a natural cave system, is a dungeon in the Serpent's Spine mountains north of Britain. As one of the eight greater dungeons of Britannia, it is the corresponding symbolic counterpart to the ideal of Compassion. Throughout its history, a number of artifacts relating to that particular virtue have been found within it.

Ultima IV
Despise came into being contemporaneously with the christening of Britannia, and was traversed by the Stranger in the course of questing toward Avatarhood. During the hero's explorations in this age, the dungeon contained the Yellow Stone of Compassion, in addition to numerous magical orbs that gifted those who touched them with supernaturally enhanced dexterity. At its lowest levels, it connected to the great Altar Rooms of Love, which interlinked it with the dungeons Covetous, Wrong and Hythloth.

Ultima V
After the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom was taken from its seat in the Great Stygian Abyss, the Great Council placed a seal over Despise and its seven subterranean cousins, hoping to shield the surface world from the horrors that lay within. The influx of magic required in raising the Codex, however, had the unforeseen outcome of creating a vast and expansive Underworld beneath Britannia's soil, providing a haven for the selfsame evils the Council sought to banish.

After Blackthorn's rise to power, the members of the Council were criminalized, and suffered persecution at the hands of the Oppression. With those who knew how to unseal the dungeons forced into hiding, the returned Avatar had to search out the reclusive Annon, who knew the Word of Power that would reopen Despise: Vilis. Once armed with knowledge of this evocation, the hero could use the dungeon—also known in this era as the "Maze of Lost Souls"—as a means of reaching the Underworld below it, where the shipwrecked Ararat could be found, and its guilt-wracked Captain Johne recruited to the quest to restore Lord British to power.

Ultima VI
By the time of the Gargish conflict that came to define the Age of Enlightenment's twilight years, Despise had been opened to commercial mining, and supplied much of the gold used by Britannia's Royal Mint. In this era, the dungeon sat over-top one of the largest underground lakes in the world, and those who wished to explore it in search of treasure were well-advised to carry a skiff.

Ultima VII
As well as its traditional location in the northernmost reaches of the Serpent's Spine mountains, the cavernous Despise came to incorporate the dungeon historically known as Shame as its western region by the early Age of Armageddon. During this time, the extensive caverns were home to the rogue mage Selwyn and his band of rebels, who had also built a fortress atop the mountain range with the hopes of laying siege to Castle Britannia. More importantly, it housed the Guardian's Sphere Generator, which the Destructor of Worlds had used to create a temporal loop that he might imprison the meddlesome Time Lord.

While an assortment of spiders, gazers and trolls found their place in these caverns, Despise was also treacherous for its maze of locked doors, teleporters, false leads and dead ends. Many an adventurer had descended into the cave system never to return, having starved to death after becoming lost in its labyrinthine depths. Two missing persons, the monk Brother Wayne and the mage Garok Al-Mat, could each be found wandering disoriented within the dungeon and assisted to the outside world by the Avatar.

Ultima IX
In the years before the Great Cataclysm, Despise was largely fortified and converted into a walled dungeon. A mage by the name of Kiran saw fit to ensconce within his father's magic shield—an artifact that would lure many a treasure hunter to the former caverns.

At the dungeon's lowest depths, the Avatar would encounter former comrade, Iolo, who had been seduced by the power of the Guardian's nearby corrupting column, and would have to determine whether or not to kill the old man in battle.

The Ultima 6 Project

 * Adan: miner (deceased)
 * Sadon: thief (deceased)

Ultima VII

 * Brother Wayne: monk
 * Garok Al-Mat: mage

Ultima IX

 * Castro: treasure hunter
 * Felix: treasure hunter
 * Mourdin: treasure hunter (deceased)
 * Ooli: Wyrmguard
 * Thadious: treasure hunter

Trivia

 * Despise is the only dungeon in Ultima V with no dungeon rooms.
 * It is also the only dungeon named after a verb instead of a noun.
 * In Runes of Virtue, the dungeon Despise is known as the Cavern of Hatred. A young princess named Melissa can be found within its depths, and will reward the hero with a large gem.
 * In Runes of Virtue II, the hero rescues Tholden, the mayor of Britain, from his imprisonment in the final level of the dungeon after being captured by the Black Knight.
 * In the SNES Port of Ultima VII, the  Enchanted Hourglass is ensconced in Despise, whereas the Sphere Generator is housed in a dungeon known as Undertaker.
 * In early drafts of Ultima IX, Despise was comprised of both caverns and man-made tunnels. In addition to one of the Guardian's columns, contained within was one half of plans for a balloon, required in order to reach the concealed sanctuary town of Cove.
 * In the cancelled Ultima Online 2 and the Technocrat War trilogy, Despise was to be included as a dungeon on the northern continent of New Britannia.