Anodunos
Anodunos was a great city-state on the southern continent of an unknown world. Its ruins appear in Ultima Underworld II.
Description[edit]
Anodunos had been a prosperous center of commerce in the tropics of its planet, and was renowned for its rich deposits of the medicinal mineral filanium. Its wealth, however, attracted the attentions of northern empires, who laid war to the kingdom. In desperation, the Anodunian sorcerers forged a pact with the Guardian in the hopes of winning the conflict, and though the Red Titan brought them military victory, the people of the city soon found their benefactor demanding increasingly burdensome tributes to fuel his own wars of inter-planar conquest.
Under the rule of Beatrice, the people of Anodunos refused to cooperate further with the Guardian. Outraged at their insubordination, the malevolent entity cursed the fountain of the city to freeze over with magical cold, and eventually the whole of the domain and its surrounding continent lay frozen under a great sheet of ice.[1]
Inhabitants[edit]
- Sentinel 868: Ice Golem with the duty to guard the dam controls.
- Beatrice: lonely Dire Ghost.
- Mokpo: a mad visionary.
Lore[edit]
| “ | Bishop! Since my death centuries ago, I had not thought to be able to take vengeance on Him who laid waste to my city. Now you appear and speak of one who may yet come, a hero who shall take our battle beyond the confines of any single world, into the multiverse. I am impressed - there are not many who can stir hope in the hearts of the dead.
Know ye then, hero, that I am Beatrice, and I once was mayor of the greatest city on the southern continent, a trading center on the banks of a vast, slow-moving river. It was a tropical city, a single huge market place buzzing with living souls! The Guardian brought that to an end, though that is a story for another time - I must tell thee of our city as it now stands, encased in glacial ice. |
|---|
Trivia[edit]
- Little is known about the rest of the world which Anodunos inhabits, although Beatrice indicates that Mokpo has been driven to the city's ruins from a neighboring country.[2]
- A crystal ball in the remnants of the Anodunian magician Alorik[3] has the power to show the Avatar their future, and it will give prophetic glimpses of the hero's journey to Serpent Isle and the death of Dupre.
- The box art of Ultima Underworld II shows a scene taking place in Anodunos, giving an idea what the area would have looked like without the technical limitations.
- After visiting Anodunos the first time, the magical cold seeps through the passage to Britannia, freezing the chamber surrounding the blackrock jewel. This gives another hint where the Guardian's magic is located on Anodunos and the frost vanishes once said magic is broken.
Gallery[edit]
The ice caves of Anodunos
The ruins of Anodunos
The ice caves as envisioned in the Ultima Underworld II cover art
Anodunos in a rejected illustration
References[edit]
- ↑ Beatrice. Ethereal Software’s Ultima Underworld II transcript. Ultima Underworld II.
- ↑ Grossman, Austin. "Ice Caves". Gems of Enlightenment (Ultima Underworld II). Origin Systems, Inc.: 1992. Page 19.
- ↑ Grossman, Austin. "Ice Caves". Gems of Enlightenment (Ultima Underworld II). Origin Systems, Inc.: 1992. Page 20-21.
| Worlds in the Ultima Series | |
|---|---|
| Main Worlds | Britannia ☥ Sosaria ☥ Serpent Isle ☥ Pagan ☥ Earth ☥ Eodon ☥ Mars |
| Worlds of the Blackrock Jewel |
Tarna ☥ Killorn Keep ☥ Anodunos ☥ Talorus ☥ Scintillus Academy ☥ Pits of Carnage ☥ Rhiannon ☥ Ethereal Void |
| Ahistorical Solar System |
Sun ☥ Mercury ☥ Venus ☥ Earth ☥ Mars ☥ Jupiter ☥ Saturn ☥ Uranus ☥ Neptune ☥ Pluto ☥ Planet X |
| Other Worlds | Nexus of the Worlds ☥ Caledonia ☥ Balema ☥ Ashtalarea ☥ Alucinor |