Mariah

Mariah is a recurring character. She first appears in Ultima IV and is one of the companions of the Avatar as well as being a respected mage. She specializes in spells of a defensive nature, such as to minimize the need for violence in confrontations.

Age of Enlightenment
The hero who would become the Avatar first met Mariah shortly after the founding of Britannia. The young mage lived at the time in the recently founded city of Moonglow, and was eager to see the world outside of the City of Honesty. When the Stranger told her that they were on the quest toward Avatarhood, the young mageling would clamor to join the hero in the undertaking. At the time, Mariah had a small cache of gold with her, and near it could be found the Rune of Honesty. It is unknown if the wizard knew of that such an artifact lay so near to her possessions, although the aspirant hero recovered it regardless, and Mariah eventually saw the Stranger and their company descend into the Abyss where the hero attained the enlightenment of the Codex.

Year later, Mariah's affiliation with the champion of virtues brought her much misfortune, as she was declared an outlaw during the time of Blackthorn's regime, along with many of the Avatar's other companions. The magician stayed in Moonglow for a time, but eventually fell prey to the marauding Shadowlords and was injured grievously by one of their enchanted bolts. After barely escaping from the encounter with her life, she sought sanctuary at the nearby Lycaeum, where healers did their best to tend to her wounds. It was in this condition that the Avatar found her in Ultima V, although she was again quite eager to join with the hero, even in her injured state. .

Eventually, Blackthorn was deposed in the wake of Lord British's return, and in the relatively peaceful years which followed, Mariah became a scholar at the Lycaeum, eventually coming to join the Council of Wizards. When the Avatar met with her in the midst of the Gargoyle War, she had become something of an expert in archaic magical languages, and was able to assist the hero in translating the Book of Prophecies - a tome of great importance which had been taken from a Gargish priest participating in the attempted ritual slaughter of the hero. Before she could accomplish this, however, she needed the Avatar to furnish her with the completed Silver Tablet - an artifact which held the key to the decoding the language in which the book was written. .

Upon translating the book, Mariah revealed that the gargoyles had prophesied that an evil one would appear to rob them of their holy Codex and destroy their home world, and that this personage would be responsible for the destruction of their race unless sacrificed. Analyzing this, Mariah made the connection that this "False Prophet" coincided with the person of the Avatar, and sent the hero off in search of Sin'Vraal of the Drylands - hoping that the gargoyle could tell them more before the ill-starred prophecy cam to fruition. .

Age of Armageddon
After Lord British and Draxinusom's eventual accord, Mariah continued to work in the Lycaeum, but eventually she fell prey, like most of Britannia's mages, to the disrupted Ether caused by the Tetrahedron Generator. By the time the Avatar met her again, centuries later, she was quite insane, failing to recognize her former friend and raving about the state of the Lycaeum's ink-wells and quills. Even in this condition, however, she was still able to sell the hero spells and reagents. Later, after the Generator was destroyed and Mariah's madness was cured, the mage was deeply unsettled at how much time had passed while she was lost to her insanity. .

After weathering the years of the Imbalance and the Great Cataclysm, Mariah, like many of the Avatar's other companions, was seduced by the power of the Guardian's columns, taking on the name Hairam and the mantle of the Wyrmguard. In this fallen state, the once virtuous mage could be found guarding the column near Dungeon Deceit. Should the Avatar managed to avoid her, rather than confronting and killing her, she would be restored with the removal of the Glyph of Honesty. If thus spared, Mariah would teach the hero the Restoration Ritual and would assist the hero in navigating the machinations of Batista, a deceitful mage who had taken possession of the Writ of Honesty.

Later, Mariah would aid in the final defeat of the Guardian, journeying to Deceit once again to cleanse the corrupting column linked to it, and helping to cut off the Red Titan's power - thus diverting the catastrophic collision of Trammel and Felucca before the Avatar's ascension.

The Ultima 6 Project
In The Ultima 6 Project, Mariah will still ask her copy protection question, but will forgo needing an answer, joking it was her little way at getting back at the hero for forgetting her name. Mariah had also borrowed a Storm Cloak from Jaana and asked the Avatar to return it to her. If the druid was in the party she returned it directly to its owner.

After being told by Budo in Buccaneer's Den that he had sent the hooded stranger to the Lycaeum, the Avatar could ask Mariah about it. She revealed how the stranger had surprised her in the middle of the night and asked about the silver tablet. She however had said nothing until the stranger left and she couldn't speak for the others. However, she did have enough hints to conclude, that the stranger was a gargoyle.

She would eventually be convinced to join the hero's party if the identity of her cloaked visitor was revealed as Beh Lem, thinking it would give her more opportunities to study the situation.

The Tale of Mariah and the Demon: A Parable of Honesty
''Above all things save one, a young mage must be curious, and so it was with Mariah. It was this curiosity that led her, in the course of her journeyman wanderings, into a certain grove that had a reputation locally as a perilous and haunted place.''

''She soon found that reputation warranted, when a soft, deep and not-unpleasant voice inquired, "How now, little mage, you wander far from the safe byways." ''

See the complete tale at: The Tale of Mariah and the Demon: a Parable of Honesty

Trivia

 * Mariah's counterpart in reality is Michelle Caddel, Richard Garriott's personal secretary at  Origin.


 * In Ultima VI, Mariah's questions regarding the language of magic form the second half of the in-game copyright protection.


 * In Ultima VI, Mariah's dialogue, like Julia's, reads as if she is meeting the Avatar for the first time, in spite of having been a potential companion in Ultima IV and Ultima V.


 * The Keyring Mod for Exult makes it possible for Mariah to join the party after the Ether is cleansed in Ultima VII.


 * In Ultima IX, the Avatar may opt to slay Mariah when encountering her as a Wyrmguard. If this happens, Mariah will later appear as a ghost, thanking the hero for releasing her from her bondage to the Guardian. She will later be restored to life along with Dupre and any other slain companions once the Shrine of Spirituality is cleansed.

Goods

 * Her prices in Ultima VII can be found at Ultima VII Magic Shops.