Pirates Harbour
| Pirates Harbour | |
|---|---|
 Location of Pirates Harbour | |
| Located in: | Earth, 2112 A.D. |
| Type: | town |
 Map of Pirates Harbour | |
Pirates Harbour is a city on Earth in the remnants of post-apocalyptic Russia in 2112 A.D. It exists within the alternate time line created by Minax's interventions in Ultima II.
Description[edit]
Pirates Harbour was the last surviving human settlement on the planet Earth following the holocaust of 2111. It was likely created, not by survivors of the actual catastrophe, but rather by persons fleeing through time doors into the far future.[1] Specifically, the city seemed to house the escaped remnants of the Soviet Union, as the trappings of the socialist nation could be found throughout the area. Buildings for the TASS and a "Ministry of Propaganda" were present, although the later had fallen into severe disrepair, and signs for the СCCР (Cyrillic characters for "SSSR" – the transliteration of "USSR"[2]) were prominently displayed.
Several of the institutions of Pirates Harbour reflected the Soviet environment by including "Red" in their names. In addition to "da Red Skware" (a Russian-ish mispelling for "the Red Square" in Moscow), the town sported a shop known as Red Magic and even a Red Lobster. In addition to these establishments, Pirates Harbour hosted a shipyard, an airplane hangar, a barracks and a rocket launch site. A solitary church, with a sign reading "Catolik", stood in the southeast corner of the town, badly damaged from flooding.
The Stranger would ultimately find it necessary to abscond with one of the shuttles which were stored in Pirates Harbour, although doing so inspired the rage of the KGB[3], the guard force of the city which was likely the remnants of the original Soviet Committee for State Security.
Inhabitants[edit]
- Chuckles the Bumble: a jester who later would become Lord British's personal entertainer
- Red the Pirate: a nefarious software pirate, offering up illicit versions of Ultima III
- Waren Beatty: an actor in search of Diane Keaton
- The Village Idiot: an individual who, in spite of his name, offered the insightful suggestion of giving gold to the clerk at the "Hotel California"
Trivia[edit]
- The mountainous walls in the water form the number "666", the in-game space coordinates of Earth.
- Coincidentally, this appears to be a reference to the legendary Number of the Beast from the eschatological Book of Revelations in the Christian Bible; still, this could be just a coincidence, because in at least one other occasion Origin staff admitted their ignorance of the Bible.[4]
- Actually, the solar system coordinates in Ultima II are a three-dimensional 10x10x10 grid. The center of the grid is at 5,5,5. The coordinates of Earth and Sun are symmetric about it: one is at 4,4,4 and the other one is at 6,6,6.
- The arrangement of swords and shields in the center of Pirates Harbour may be a reference to the official emblem of the KGB, which contains a shield and a sword.
Gallery[edit]
"Da KGB"
Map from the patched PC version
References[edit]
- ↑ Rollo, Mary Taylor. "The Story of Minax". The Second Age of Darkness (Ultima II). Sierra On-Line, Inc.: 1983. Page 14.
- ↑ CCCP is the abbreviation of Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, i.e. SSSR or "Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik" in Latin alphabet, i.e. USSR or "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" in English
- ↑ KGB is the abbreviation of "Комитет государственной безопасности", Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, Russian for "Committee for State Security".
- ↑ "When first coming up the name for Ultima III, Origin at first didn't know what the word "Exodus" meant. It was just a cool-sounding name for the main villain." --- Ultima III: Exodus #Trivia