Bats

Bats are (generally) insectivorous flying mammals, common to many worlds and dangerous to  man in several realms featured within the Ultima series.

Description


Numerous species of bats have been found in the lands of Sosaria and later Britannia. While often similar to the shy nocturnal creatures of Earth, several blood-drinking breeds of bat which inhabit the lands of Lord British and its connected worlds have proven uncharacteristically aggressive, attacking travelers and infecting human victims with disease and venom.



Cave Bats
The most numerous bats of Britannia are similar in most regards to the large body of terrestrial chiropterae, timid and of little threat to humans who do not provoke them. While these cave bats may prove a mild threat to those who encounter a hostile cauldron of the animals, this common bat of the Britannian caves and wilderness has done little to earn the ill reputation commonly associated with these animals.

Giant Bats
The Sosarian Giant Bat and its relatives are a more aggressive species of bats than their diminutive kin. Seemingly a relation of the vampire bats of Earth, these bats are hemotophages, feasting on the blood of animals for their nightly sustenance and going so far as to seek out and attack waking victims. Far more threatening than the peacable cave bats, giant bats are relentless aggressors, attacking viciously in coordinated groups.

Vampire Bats
The vampire bats of Britannia's dungeons, unlike the similarly named creatures on other worlds, are actually poisonous mammals, possessing venom glands in connection to their fangs. These small animals are characterized by their bright red fur and unrelenting ferocity, and have been known to hunt and kill humans as prey.

Perception of Bats
Like their cousins on the Avatar's homelands, the bats of Britannia are associated with wickedness, disease and darkness, although their reputation for such characteristics is somewhat more solidly rooted than that of the Terran chiropterae, as the Britannian bats often live up to the image of a ferocious, infection-spreading predator. Long intermixed with evil men and dark places, these animals have an ongoing association with the wicked, going all the way back to the wizard Mondain, who assumed a bat's shape in times of peril.

On Earth, bats are largely free of disease, with only 0.5% of vampire bats being infected with the commonly bat-ascribed rabies virus. Sick animals, however, account for the majority of rabies case not caused by dog bites, and the disoriented and volatile behavior of a rabid bat may account for many of the fears of bat aggressions. Unlike the beasts of Britannian, most Terran bats are largely uninvolved with humanity, staying far from the light of day and silently contributing to the ecological balance of that world by curbing the realm's insect populace.

Lore