Burnside

Burnside is the mayor of Minoc in Ultima VII.

Description
A man seemingly torn between his beliefs and his politics, Burnside had been mayor of Minoc for near to twenty years when the Avatar ventured into the city in Ultima VII. In a settlement rife with controversy, the politician struggled to balance his alliances in the wake of the horrific murders of two gypsies, Frederico and Tania - trying to court the respect of the powerful Fellowship however disillusioned he might be with their beliefs.

Reluctant to involve himself in a double-homicide he felt best left to outside investigators, Burnside confessed that his primary concerns at the time were with the economic stability of Minoc, and that he hoped that the erection of a statue to Owen the shipwright would bring both prestige and commerce to the town of craftsmen. In spite of such optimism, Burnside confessed a growing unease with the statue's primary backers - the Fellowship - regardless of his own largely ceremonial membership in their organization. Regardless of such doubts, the mayor seemed strangely ignorant of the growing friction which the affair was causing with the local Artisan's Guild and was adamant that construction of the monument should continue.

Should the Avatar present him with evidence of the unsoundness of Owen's craftsmanship, the mayor would initially ask that the hero assist him in burying the scandal, worried that blighting the shipwright's reputation would mar Minoc's prestige. It was only with the hero's underscoring of the deaths caused by Owen's failures that Burnside would concede to his conscience, and halt the plans for his monument's construction. If thus tasked, he would charge the hero with informing the unlucky shipwright of the cancellation - unaware that such news would precipitate the unstable merchant's suicide.

Later, Burnside would commission the local guild to create a public art piece to occupy the now vacant pedestal which was to have held the statue, congratulating himself for his decisive action in quashing the construction, despite his initial bid for a cover up. In the years that followed the Fellowship's eventual dismantling, Burnside maintained his office, coordinating the efforts toward labor reform that followed the exposure of the Britannian Mining Company's practices.

Trivia

 * In the SNES Port of Ultima VII, Burnside is portrayed as a selfishly ambitious man who wishes to curry the favor of Lord British through Owen's monument, seeming almost resentful when the Avatar brings him the shipwright's plans. In this version of the game, however, he will not recognize them as being faulty until Julia has added annotations to them. Once he understands the documents' flaws, he not only ceases plans for the statue, but also bans Owen from building further ships.