Minoc

Description
Minoc [meye-nock] is a city in the mountainous north of Britannia's mainland, bordering the eastern shore of Lost Hope Bay and situated north of the Bloody Plains. It is dedicated to the virtue of Sacrifice and has long been known for its craftsmen, tinkers and artisans.

Throughout the ages, a culture of traditional craftsmenship has emerged in Minoc, with the artists and tradesmen of the city eventually forming a guild to promote their crafts and to negotiate collectively with suppliers. Purveyors of textiles, glassware, metalwork, armaments and ships abound in the city of Sacrifice, and numerous goods and handiwork can be found there by discerning buyers. In the spirit of its cardinal virtue, Minoc is also notable for having established the first homeless shelter in the realm, although this institution sadly did not long stand the test of time.

Eventually, Minoc became noted as a mining town as well, as the Britannian Mining Company established it's major branch there, plumbing the depths of the cavernous dungeon Covetous for ore. It was also around this same time that the gypsies of Britannia appeared to settle in the region, putting an end to their wanderings and becoming a distinct part of Minocian society.

History
Minoc was founded sometime after the destruction of Exodus, during Lord British's renaissance of arts and sciences that heralded in the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment.

Age of Enlightenment
In Ultima IV, with the development of the Quest of the Avatar and the spread of the Eight Virtues, the city became devoted to Sacrifice. In the spirit of this virtue, a house for the poor was erected in the towne, and was under the management of a tinker known as Julia at the time that the Stranger first appeared in the city. After the hero agreed to help in Julia's mission, the fiery-spirited woman joined the adventurer in their quest for Avatarhood, and eventually became one of the champion of Virtues' fast friends.

By the time of Ultima V, the city, like most of Britannia's major settlements, fell victim to the Shadowlords. At this time, Captain Blyth, a tyrannical shipwright, appeared to have a hold on a large portion of the city's economy, and employed virtually enslaved workers to sew his ships' sails. Fiona, the last elected member of the Great Council from Minoc, remained within the city walls, tending to the impoverished there while her daughter Rew labored in Blyth's workshop. She eventually imparted the Word of Power to the questing Avatar, enabling the hero to unseal the dungeon Covetous.

By Ultima VI the city's economy was again blossoming, free of the tyranny of Blackthorn's rule. The nascent Artisan's Guild had been founded by this age, and was under the leadership of a man named Selganor when the Avatar came to the city. Lady Isabella, the mayor of the towne at this time, also greeted the hero, gladdened by the legendary champion's reappearance.

Age of Armageddon
Over the next two centuries, the Britannian Mining Company began prospecting in the area, eventually establishing their head branch in Minoc when veins of gold, lead, iron and blackrock were found within dungeon Covetous. Prior to the Avatar's arrival once more in the realm, an ambitious shipwright known as Owen established himself within the city, enjoying a meteoric rise to fame with the bolstering influence of the Fellowship, and eventually commissioning a great statue to be built in his honor. The politics of the city, however, were such that the Fellowship-sponsored monument excluded members of the now powerful Artisan's Guild under Gladstone as contributors to the project, and fear was rampant that the increased demand for ships the statue would herald in may drive up prices on materials to such an extent that the guild would lose financial solvency.

In the days immediately before the coming of the Avatar, a kumpania of gypsies appeared in Minoc, under the leadership of a man named Frederico - whose disapproval of the Fellowship sparked tensions between his people and the settled citizens of the area. As the champion of the virtues finally arrived in the city, the gypsy king and his wife, Tania, were found horrifically butchered on the floor of Minoc's sawmill - victims of the assassin, Hook.

In the years that followed, the gypsies, in spite of the prejudices that had led to the double-homicide, appeared to settle in Minoc, which eventually expanded to include the people of Cove. After the rising of the Guardian's columns, however, the people of the city were driven into violent riot, destroying much of the settlement and killing numerous people. In the wake of these events, Minoc was left almost entirely a gypsy settlement, with the gaje of the area uniting under a "First Citizen," who dictated the law in what became known as "Cove." By the time the Avatar arrived in Minoc and Cove during the events of Ultima IX, the column had so twisted the ethics of Raxos, Cove's "first citizen," that human sacrifice was encouraged for the sake of restoring the virtue's despoiled Shrine. In the meantime, the gypsies, under Rom Baro Laszlo, were roundly cursed by the returned Blackthorn, bringing a death by magical flame to all who aided the hero.

Eventually, with the assistance of Lazlo, who endured the fires of the curse that the Avatar might triumph, the city's Shrine was cleansed, and the depravity of the column was driven at last from the hearts of the Minocian people. Raxos, horrified at the murders on his hands eventually retired to a life as a simple hermit, and the once greed-filled traders of the land quit their avarice with the virtue's restoration.

Ultima IV




Ultima V


Ultima VI

 * Aaron: sawmill owner
 * Dale: glassblower
 * Doris: innkeeper
 * Gwenno: Companion of the Avatar
 * Isabella: mayor of Minoc
 * James: blacksmith
 * Julia: Companion of the Avatar
 * Michelle: basket maker
 * Selganor: music guild master
 * Tara: healer
 * Trebor: shipwright
 * Troy: clock maker



Ultima VII

 * Burnside: mayor of Minoc
 * Elynor: leader of the Fellowship branch
 * Fodus: gargoyle mine worker
 * Gladstone: member of the Guild
 * Gregor: mining master
 * Jakher: trainer
 * Jergi: gypsy
 * Julia: Companion of the Avatar
 * Karenna: trainer
 * Karl: bitter man
 * Margareta: gypsy fortune teller
 * Mikos: lead worker in the mine
 * Owen: shipwright
 * Rutherford: tavernkeeper
 * Sasha: gypsy
 * Seara: member of the Guild
 * William: sawmill master
 * Xanthia: member of the Guild
 * Zorn: blacksmith

Ultima IX

 * Alara: gypsy
 * Algar: greedy man
 * Dayla: ghost
 * Elena: reagent seller
 * Irina: gypsy
 * Irene: provisioner
 * Julia: Companion of the Avatar
 * Laszlo: gypsy leader
 * Morganna: fortune teller
 * Raxos: city "leader"
 * Vaclav: blacksmith

Ultima IV

 * Wayfarer's Inn
 * The Iron Works

Ultima V

 * Darkwatch Armoury: weapon shop/armoury
 * The Crow's Nest: shipwright
 * The Healers Mission: healer

Things to see

 * Poor House
 * Artisan's Guild
 * Sawmill