The History of Britannia

This article is about the actual book that came with Ultima IV''. For a chronicle of the in-game history of the main world of the Ultima series, see History of Britannia.''

The History of Britannia is one of two manuals included with Ultima IV. It is 36 pages long and written by Roe R. Adams III, fictionally as Kyle the Younger.

Description
This is the first Ultima manual entirely written from a Britannian perspective, and lacks all gameplay instructions. It was accompanied by The Book of Mystic Wisdom, which contained detailed instructions for the Britannian magical arts. The book appears in the introduction sequence of Ultima IV, wherein the player is instructed to read it following its discovery by their in-game counterpart. The book provides an objective overview of the land's history and the particulars of its society, thus helping the player - like the Stranger - the understand the substantial changes the land has gone through. However, the actual objective of Avatarhood is only hinted at, with Lord British explaining he could give more details when being visited.

Book Content

 * Political History of Britannia
 * Geography
 * Professions
 * Shops
 * Transportation
 * Weapons and armour
 * Magical Arts
 * Bestiary
 * Combat and ethics of war
 * Contemporary civilization
 * Afterword from Lord British

Other Editions
There do exist different versions of this book. The release by the publisher U.S. Gold was printed on smooth, yellowish paper and the cover was just black on the same paper. The release for the Japanese MSX-computers was translated (it stayed content-wise the same) and also only printed in monochrome on yellowish paper. The also Japanese release on the FM-Towns got a totally different cover, but was content-wise like the original, apart from the translation. There also is a rare French release that combines both books and is fully translated.

For the Sega-Port of Ultima IV, the book was somewhat shrunk down in size, but stayed content-wise the same. Each of the three languages sported a different cover color (blue=English, red=French, yellow=German) and was fully translated. For some unknown reason, Britannia was renamed "Britannien" on the German book.

The foreign language titles are as follows:
 * "Die Geschichte von Britannien" (German)
 * "L'histoire de Britannia" (French)

The book was later re-printed in the Age of Virtue manual with some minor adjustments.