Julia

Julia is a recurring character. She first appears in the Ultima IV and is one of the companions of the Avatar. She is known both for her skill as a tinker and for her fiery temper.

Biography
In Ultima IV, Julia was operating a shelter for the poor and destitute within the city of Minoc. If the Stranger agreed to help her in providing assistance to those in need, she would ask to join in the hero's quest to obtain Avatarhood. If declined, she would denounce the Stranger as a bum - hinting already at her biting temperament. .

Julia was declared an outlaw during the time of Blackthorn's regime, and was forced, along with many of the Avatar's other companions, into hiding. By the time of Ultima V, Julia had come to dwell at Empath Abbey, seeking refuge from the Shadowlords and awaiting the return of the Avatar in the hopes of fighting alongside the hero again. .

After the fall of Blackthorn, Julia eventually returned to Minoc and to her trade as a tinker (this time specializing in crafting musical instruments). During this time, she joined the nascent Artist's Guild there.

In Ultima VI, the Avatar was sent to her by the guildmaster Selganor, who had informed the hero that the woman would be able to assist in crafting a set of panpipes,. which were at the time necessary to obtain the Rune of Sacrifice. If asked, Julia would join the Avatar in the quest to end the gargoyle wars, although she proved bitter if asked to leave. .

Two-hundred years after the end of the war, Julia remained in Minoc as a tinker, although the centuries left her somewhat weary of the profession. By the time of Ultima VII, the city of Minoc was embroiled in political drama, with the Artist's Guild facing financial dissolution in the wake of a Fellowship commissioned monument to the town's shipwright, Owen. When the Avatar arrived on the heels of a pair of mutilation killings at the local sawmill, Julia proved eager to join her former adventuring companion again, and would jump at the chance if asked.

She was able at the time to assist in helping a local hermit, named Karl, analyze a set of blueprints he had stolen from Owen - a man whose faulty craftsmanship he blamed for the death of his brother. If shown the plans, Julia would confirm that Owen's outlines were grossly incompetent, potentially sparking a series of events which would lead to the cancellation of the monument and Owen's death by his own hand. .

She would tell the hero later, regardless of whether or not she joined the quest to stop the Guardian, that after the murders in Minoc, she took to traveling Britannia and seeing the sights of the world during the Reconstruction.

In Ultima Underworld II, Julia was among the guests attending the fete at Lord British's castle to celebrate the Reconstruction, and was trapped inside of the great blackrock dome that the Guardian crafted to imprison the revelers. During the stress of this tribulation, her quickness to anger came to the forefront, with her taking out her wrath on the oft-times incompetent mayor of Britain, Patterson, who she insinuated she would feed to the lurkers. During the eventual raid upon the castle by otherworldly invaders, she was injured by the Guardian's champion, Mors Gotha, but survived to see the Avatar break the blackrock prism and win the castle's inhabitants their freedom.

Prior to the events of Ultima IX, Julia was sent by Lord British to investigate the column that had spawned near Minoc. Like many of the Avatar's other companions, she was slowly seduced by the power of the columns, taking on the name Ailuj and the mantle of the Wyrmguard. She could be found guarding the column near Dungeon Covetous. In the course of fighting the Avatar, Julia would confess her love for the hero, which she had been harboring for many years. If the Avatar chose to try to talk her out of her madness, instead of slaying her outright, she could later be found in Minoc.

Later, Julia would aid in the final defeat of the Guardian, journeying to Covetous again to cleanse the corrupting column linked to it, helping to cut off the Guardian's power and to divert the catastrophic collision of Trammel and Felucca.

The Tale of Julia and the Clock: A Parable of Sacrifice
''In olden days Minoc was well known as the center of all the finest artisans and craftsmen of the land, and among that honored company two were most famous. Jervaise, the carver, was everywhere acclaimed one of the greatest artists Britannia had ever produced, being able to create items from rock or wood that were not only durable and practical, but also astounding works of fine art. A table or lamp from the hand of Jervaise was valued above many a marble statue or painted portrait in the great houses of the land. The other, younger, dean of Minoc's crafters was Julia, the Tinker. While Jervaise was, above all, an artist, Julia was an artisan. It was said her timepieces would remain accurate to the very second for a hundred years, if kept wound and properly tended. She also invented many cunning devices of the sort to make difficult tasks both simpler and more precise. ''

When one of the great nobles of the land wished something that was both beautiful and intricate, he would often commission both Julia and Jervaise to work together on it, and these collaborations became almost instantly the stuff of legends.

See the complete tale at: The Tale of Julia and the Clock: a Parable of Sacrifice



Trivia

 * Julia's counterpart in reality is a girl Richard Garriott once dated in the past.
 * Julia's hair color (like Gwenno's) is inconsistent throughout the series. While it is shown as red in Ultima VI and in Ultima VII, it later becomes brown in Ultima Underworld II and blond in Ultima IX.
 * Julia's accent, like her hair, tends to wander. She is portrayed as having a thick Scottish inflection to her speech in Ultima VI which disappears in Ultima VII and becomes a stereotypical "gypsy" accent in Ultima IX.
 * In Ultima I, there is a Princess Julia imprisoned in the Castle of Lord British (Each of the eight kings have imprisoned a princess for untold reasons). It is not known whether this character bears any relation to the famous tinker Julia.
 * In the NES port of Ultima IV, and in the manga adaptation Quest of the Avatar, Julia is replaced with a male character. In the former, her replacement's name is Julius; in the latter, despite the gender swap, it remains Julia.
 * In Ultima VI, Julia's dialogue, like Mariah'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.
 * In Ultima VI, Julia will refuse to rejoin the party if she had previously been asked to leave it for any reason, saying, "Aye, and be dumped off in the middle of nowhere again? Not likely! Find some other sap to do your bidding!" She will also insinuate that the Avatar is insane if asked to join the party while still in it..
 * While many companions end up under the influence of the Guardian's columns in Ultima IX, Julia is the only one whose gradual change can be witnessed. Her journal, which can be found behind a waterfall in Minoc, catalogs her descent into corruption.
 * In Ultima IX, the Avatar may opt to slay Julia when encountering her as a Wyrmguard. If this happens, Julia will later appear as a ghost, thanking the hero briefly for releasing her from her bondage to the Guardian. She never mentions her love for the Avatar while dead, and will later be restored to life along with Dupre and any other slain companions once the Shrine of Spirituality is cleansed.