Articles to Negate Time

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This article is about agents that suspend time including powders. For other powders, see Powder (disambiguation).


Strange coins and powders were used in Ultima II and Ultima III respectively to negate the flow of time.

Description[edit]

During the Age of Darkness, certain artifacts could be found to halt the flow of time temporarily for all by the user, allowing for careless thieves to evade town guards or wounded adventurers to escape close combat.

In Ultima II, during the time-warped world crafted by Minax the enchantress, strange coins served this purpose, halting the passage of time when the bearer rubbed their surfaces. Later on, in the lands of Sosaria during the events of Ultima III, a mysterious powder was frequently traded amongst thieves for this same task[1] – quite possibly being the end result of a wizard's Altair spell having been prepared in advance.

Eventually these methods of temporal manipulation vanished from common usage. Some span of time later, in what had come to be named Britannia, a spell known as An Tym[2] with the same function as Altair was developed, having been created by powerful enchanters seeking thaumaturgical means to impact the greater cosmos.

References[edit]

  1. Adams, Roe R.. "Preparing for Thy Journey". The Book of Play (Ultima III). Origin Systems, Inc.: 1983. Page 2.
  2. Garriott, Richard et al. "The Eighth Circle". The Book of Lore (Ultima V). Origin Systems, Inc.: 1988. Page 52.