Shiva

Shiva in the Abyss

Shiva [シヴア] is a twenty-two year old druid who is one of the major characters of Yoko Tanaka's 1989 Ultima-inspired manga, Ultima: The Quest of the Avatar. He replaces the character of Jaana from the original Ultima IV.

Description

Shiva was the elder step-brother of the manga's protagonist, Deane. A driven young druid, he sought to gain Avatarhood through study and dedication. Going on his own pilgrimage years before his younger brother's, Shiva traveled widely throughout Britannia, mastering all of the virtues save Humility in his course of study and meditation.

When Shiva eventually entered the Codex chamber of the Abyss, he saw his own inability to overcome the weakness of his human condition. Jaded by the experience, the young man determined that the attainment of Avatarhood was an impossible ideal, and that the lofty ideals of the virtues were ultimately hypocritically unobtainable. Thus despairing, the young aspirant fell under the sway of the wicked Lord Hawkwind, readying himself to slay all who would seek enlightenment and preparing for a new order under the sage's leadership.

When Deane at last found Shiva in such dire circumstances, the boy pleaded with his former idol to turn back to the light of virtue, begging his brother to recognize their bond even as Shiva revealed their lack of blood lineage. Moved by the boy's pure heart, Shiva found he could not bring himself to kill him, and in an act of supreme sacrifice juxtaposed his body between Deane and an assassin's arrow, saving the youth's life at the cost of his own. As he lay dying in his brother's arms, the last thing Shiva felt was Deane's tears upon his face.

Gallery

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  Shiva's sacrifice

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  Shiva on the Druid card