Age of Darkness

The Age of Darkness (sometimes referred to as The Ages of Darkness) refers to the time period of the first trilogy of Ultima games. This also includes Akalabeth (sometimes known as Ultima 0, and Richard Garriott's first game).

Overview
The Age of Darkness takes place in, well, a time of darkness. The land of Sosaria is a collection of warring city-states; there is no one leader. Monsters and monstrous humans roam the lands at will. The Virtues have not yet been discovered, and the world is in dire peril, threatened by a trio of powerful, evil magic users.

Protagonist

 * The Stranger

Notable Locations

 * Sosaria
 * Earth (Ultima II only)

Villians

 * Mondain (Ultima I)
 * Minax  (Ultima II)
 * Exodus (Ultima III)

Real world notes
The games that comprise the Age of Darkness (Ultima I, Ultima II, and Ultima III) were, at their core, fairly standard RPG games of the "kill the big bad guy" variety. It was not until Ultima IV that the Ultimas took on greater moral depth and gained a larger, over-arching storyline.

The games in this period were generally written and programmed by Richard Garriott himself, often with the help of one or two others.

As the Ultima series continued, these earlier games were made part of Britannia's legends, storyline, etc. in a form of retconning.

Other Ages

 * Age of Enlightenment
 * Age of Armageddon