Ephemerides
| Ephemerides | |||||||||||||
 Ephemerides, from Ultima VI | |||||||||||||
| Species: | human | ||||||||||||
| Profession: | astronomer | ||||||||||||
| Appearances | |||||||||||||
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Ephemerides is an astronomer in Moonglow in Ultima VI.
Description[edit]
Ephimerdes told the hero that he was an astronomer, working to calculate the movements of the stars and moons. He personally specialized in tidal predictions, and at the behest of Lord British was creating an almanac of the tides to assist the general populace. The excitable astronomer even helped explain how the motion of the two Britannian moons Trammel and Felucca affected the tides of the kingdom. Working with Troy of Minoc, the two men sought to develop a mechanical model of the Britannian planetary system. Ephimerdes in his spare time also fashioned devices like sextants and lenses. The astronomer gladly sold the Avatar one of his sextants, while showing off his theory of a flat world with a model, explaining exactly how he envisioned Britannia.
Later, after being shown the red concave lens created by Lor-wis-lem, the intrepid craftsman was able to create an opposing blue convex lens to restore the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom to the void. To create this, he required the magical properties of a glass sword which he could melt down to produce the lens. He even took the time to trick the Avatar into thinking he had destroyed the sword during his first attempt, but quickly fessed up. If the Avatar did not have a glass sword, Ephimerdes pointed the hero to Minoc in search of a craftsman who could create such an object.[1]
Lore[edit]
| “ | The astronomer is little better; he lives for his star-gazing, and for grinding even fancier lenses for his telescope. – from The Book of Prophecy (Ultima VI)
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Goods[edit]
Prices in Ultima VI are as follows:
| Cost (gp) | ||
|---|---|---|
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Sextant | 30 |
Trivia[edit]
- His dialogue about the flat world is one of few in-game references to the new world model in Ultima VI, in which Britannia had suddenly become flat.
- The mechanical device mentioned by Troy in Ultima VI may be the precursor to the orrery visited by the Avatar in Ultima VII.
References[edit]
- ↑ Ephemerides. Ultima VI transcript. Ultima VI. "name, job, inst, glas, buy, tide, sosa, orre, nead, quad, spri, vort, swor, mast, fly".