Shrines of the Principles

The Shrines of the Principles are physical manifestations of the three principles that guide the Gargish race: Control, Passion and Diligence.

Age of Enlightenment
It is not known precisely when the shrines were established, or who built them, but in their original form, the three altars contained the spirits of the Triad of Evil, whom the gargoyles had bound to their holy places as representations of their principles. Mondain, the great sorcerer who in his thirst to exert dominance over the world lost his hold on his own sense of self, came to represent the ideal of Control, which had been the focus of his life and works. Likewise, his paramour, Minax who had been driven to acts of desperate evil by her grief for his death, came to embody Passion. Their progeny, the daemon-machine Exodus who had coolly and meticulously studied the world around it for decades that it might avenge them, was the living representation of Diligence.

During the Avatar's quest to avert the fatal predictions the Book of Prophecies held for the gargoyles in Ultima VI, the hero came to visit each of these shrines in the Gargish homelands, learning from each slain foe the story of their spiritual downfall and receiving from each on part of the tripartite mantra of Singularity.

Age of Armageddon
Eventually, however, the world the gargoyles inhabited was rent apart by the destructive forces unleashed by the collapse of the Underworld. While it is unclear if the original shrines of the Principles were successfully transported to Britannia or if they were destroyed in this cataclysm, the latter case seems likely, given their remote location and the later evidence of Exodus' psyche freely roaming the Void. When the Gargish people began to resettle in Britannia, altars to the three Principles were established on Terfin, which were most probably replicas of the original statues.

Two hundred years after the Gargish peace, in Ultima VII, these altars were under the care of a sage known as Teregus. In these confusing times, the followers of the traditional Gargish virtues often found themselves in conflict with the new philosophies of the Fellowship, and in the midst of such friction a plot was launched to destroy the shrines using explosives. The Avatar, during their adventures in the realm at this time, had an opportunity to foil this conspiracy should they investigate it.

Regardless of the altars fate under Teregus, however, the monuments did not survive the years of the Imbalance and the Great Cataclysm. By the time of Ultima IX such structures were not to be found on the isle of Terfin, which had by then fallen to the conquering Guardian.