Age of Armageddon



The Age of Armageddon (sometimes referred to as The Guardian Saga) refers to the time period of the final trilogy of Ultima games (Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part 2, Ultima VIII and Ultima IX). This time period also includes Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds.

Overview
The Age of Armageddon is the final Ultima age. The world of Britannia is again under attack, this time by a malevolent extradimensional entity known as The Guardian. His plots, both subtle and blunt, often carried out with the help of willing lackeys, threaten to tear Britannia and other worlds asunder. Only the Avatar, the famed Britannian hero and paragon of the Eight Virtues, can set things right - and in the end, in a way totally unexpected.

In the process the Avatar will discover the sheer wake of despair and destruction the Guardian has caused by his conquest of numerous worlds, and the depths of deceit the red titan is capable of in order to achieve his goals. Despite the sheer scale of the atrocities the Guardian has caused, only the path of Virtue can is the correct one, even if being forced to commit questionable deeds in the process of fighting the Guardian.

Protagonist

 * The Avatar

Antagonists

 * The Guardian (in all of them)
 * Batlin (Ultima VII, Ultima VII Part Two)
 * Mors Gotha (Ultima Underworld II)
 * The Elemental Titans: Lithos, Hydros, Stratos and Pyros (Ultima VIII)
 * Blackthorn (Ultima IX)

Notable Locations

 * Britannia
 * Pagan
 * Serpent Isle
 * Killorn Keep

The Games
This trilogy takes an extremely dark turn. It introduces the Guardian, an extremely powerful and subtle adversary, and also contains a bit more violence and a darker story tone, overall. This is seen very graphically right at the beginning of Ultima VII, with the bloody murder scene. The player is also confronted with subtle problem like political corruption, bigotry and environmental detsruction, which is far from the simple plots of the earlier installments. Ultima VII Part Two and Ultima VIII take place in completely different worlds other than Britannia; Serpent Isle and Pagan, respectively. In interviews, Richard Garriott has stated that he wanted to get away from Britannia for awhile after so many games taking place there. For the finale, the action does return to Britannia.

While both parts of Ultima VII were in the tradition of the previous games, Ultima VIII was heavily critized for its over-reliance on action gameplay and abandoning of RPG-tropes. This crtitcism was repeated in sharper form for Ultima IX, which due to its chotic creation process became - in the option of many - a complete mess that was not a good ending for the trilogy.

Other Ages

 * Age of Darkness
 * Age of Enlightenment