Sutek

Sutek is an enigmatic and very powerful mage who appears in Ultima V and Ultima VI.

Biography
During the reign of Lord Blackthorn, he secluded himself in a small hut built upon the isle that would come to be known as Spektran, devoting his studies to ascertaining the nature of the three shards of the Gem of Immortality and their spawn, the Shadowlords. In Ultima V, Sutek was instrumental in the Avatar's learning of the method by which the Shadowlords could be vanquished.

By the time of the gargoyle uprising as chronicled in Ultima VI, Sutek had descended into madness and taken refuge in the abandoned Palace of Blackthorn, wherein he conducted bizarre experiments and hired several ill-fated engineers to construct a series of catacombs beneath its walls. Upon setting foot on the mad wizard's island abode, the Avatar happened upon the fruit of Sutek's endeavours: killer bunnies and monstrous, two-headed animals. The solitary mage proved arrogant and incendiary in conversation, with a penchant for referring to himself in third-person, but revealed the balloonist upon whom the False Prophet's current pursuit focused—Minoxian weaver Michelle's father—had met his end in the castle's subterranean passageways. The Avatar then left Sutek to his self-proclaimed delirium and encountered the last of his creations: the Pushme Pullyu, a two-headed horse that spoke in rhymes and riddles.

Sutek's fate subsequent to the events of Ultima VI is unknown.

Ultima V: Lazarus
The wise mage Sutek was quick to tell the hero that he knew how to defeat the Shadowlords, upon meeting on the small swampy island of Spektran. He urged the hero to recover the three shards of Mondain's gem from deep within the Underworld, and to cast them into the Flames of Truth, Love, and Courage within their respective keeps while the Shadowlord stood upon the flame.

Sutek told the hero that he was a mage and scholar, for he took the effort to truly understand the nature of magic. He told the hero that he understood that the removal of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from beneath the Stygian Abyss would have grave consequences, and had warned Lord British and the Great Council, but they had refused to listen to him. He remarked that Lord British's desire to help his people by removing the Codex had caused suffering for many. Ultimately, Sutek had assisted the Council in raising the Codex, but that had caused many of the evils once banished from Britannia to return to the surface, ultimately necessitating the sealing of the eight Category:Dungeons with a Word of Power. The void created by raising the Codex had caused all manner of evil to be sucked into where the Underworld now lie, and for a century the caverns had stagnated, unbeknownst to Britannia, until a group of adventurers discovered its entrance within Spiritwood.

At the behest of Lord British, Sutek had explored the depths beneath the dungeon Covetous, and upon discovering all manners of evil within its depths had intended on returning from Minoc to Castle Britannia aboard the ship the Ararat. On the return journey, the ship, sailed by Captain Johne, was beset by a whirlpool, and was drawn deep within the Underworld. It was there that the mad Captain Johne had created the Shadowlords from the shards of Mondain's Gem of Immortality, by plunging them deep within the chest of his companions. Sutek was eventually able to escape the Underworld with this knowledge intact.

Upon returning to Britannia, the Shadowlords had hunted Sutek, and he had been forced to flee from town to town, living as a recluse to stay ahead of their power. As the power of their evil grew, Sutek had been forced to abandon all companionship for the fear of causing harm those he spoke to. Eventually he chose to confront them within the heart of their power Stonegate. In the encounter, Sutek had been forced to flee from the wraiths. While trying to escape from the Shadowlords, he had encountered a party led by the warrior Vigil, who was escorting Sir Sean of the Lycaeum to Stonegate to encounter the daemon Balinor. Due to Sutek's power, Vigil, her companions Thentis, Leof, and Joshua, and Sir Sean had managed to survive the encounter, while the rest of the party had been slain. After the encounter, Sutek had remained in contact with the adventurers, and had used the Resistance to waylay a message to the Avatar in North Britanny.

Trivia

 * Sutek's name may have been taken from the ancient Egyptian deity (more commonly known as Set).


 * While in dialog with the Avatar, Sutek says, "They say there is a fine line between genius and madness. Well, Sutek hops up and down on that line, cursing the fools that surround him!", paraphrasing a quote by Oscar Levant, "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."


 * "Sutek" appears on the training simulation high scores in the first Wing Commander.


 * In Ultima V: Lazarus, Sutek's character portrait is modeled on quest engineer Magnus "Sutek" Norling.