The Book of Mystic Wisdom

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The cover of a book, with a red background, dense with runes and a drawing of a snake.
The Book of Mystic Wisdom

The Book of Mystic Wisdom is included with Ultima IV as a companion manual to The History of Britannia. It is 61 pages long and written by Dave Albert, fictionally as Lord British's court magician Philpop the Weary.

Description[edit]

The book details the mechanics of Britannian magic and its individual spells. The manual holds narrative significance, appearing in the introduction sequence of Ultima IV where the player's in-game counterpart initially hesitates to open it due to its ominous appearance. The Book of Mystic Wisdom contains numerous full-page illustrations, including one to accompany each spell. Detailed casting instructions for each spell and many of the required reagents are covered. While it covers detailed casting instructions for each spell and many of the required reagents, most of the content, apart from the reagents themselves, serves as flavoring. Metallic gold runic text is inscribed into the faux-leather cover; however, some editions of the manual lack this embellishment.

The runic script framing the cover, translated, reads: "Being a compendium of the processes and effects of combining human will and natural forces as discovered and recorded by the greatest sorcerors [sic] since the beginning of time."

Book Content[edit]

Within, the following topics are described:

  • The reagents of magic
  • The 26 magic spells

Other Editions[edit]

There are different versions of this book. The release by the publisher U.S. Gold was printed on smooth, yellowish paper and its cover was simply black and printed on the same paper. The release for various Japanese computers by Pony Canyon was translated (though its content remained the same) but featured the correct colors on its cover. The Japanese release on the FM Towns by Fujitsu featured a completely different cover, but was content-wise similar to the original, aside from the translation. There was also a rare French release for the Atari ST that combines both books and is fully translated. A Korean version for the PC also combined it with the spellbook.

For the Sega-port of Ultima IV, the book’s size was reduced somewhat, but its content remained the same. Each of the three language versions sported a different cover color (blue=English, red=French, yellow=German) and it was fully translated.

The book was later reprinted in The Age of Virtue manual. The book was compressed onto fewer pages, the full-page illustrations for each spell were scaled down to fit beside the text and the illustrated page borders were removed.

Alternate Covers[edit]

  • The cover of a book, with a beige background, dense with runes and a drawing of a snake.

    U.S. Gold release

  • The cover of a book with a red background, dense with runes and a drawing of a snake. Some Japanese writing is included.

    Pony Canyon-version (Japanese)

  • The cover of a book, with a blue background, dense with runes and a drawing of a snake.

    SMS-version (English)

  • The cover of a book, with a beige background, dense with runes and a drawing of a snake.

    SMS-version (German)

  • The cover of a book, with a beige background, dense with runes and a drawing of a snake.

    SMS-version (French)

  • The cover of a book with a brown background and gold printing, titled "The Book of Mystic Wisdom". A large ankh is included.

    FM Towns-version (Japanese)

  • The cover of a book titled "ULTIMA IV" with a yellow-orange background. A large ankh is included with small illustrations along the edges.

    Combined French manual

  • The cover of a book titled "Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar" including some Korean lettering. The background image is of a mage carrying a staff with an ankh filial, confronting crashing waves along a shore.

    Soft Bank version (Korean)

External Links[edit]

Ultima Game Manuals
Age of Darkness Akalabeth (manual) ☥ Ultima I (Playbook, manual) ☥ Ultima II (manual) ☥ Ultima III (play guide, cleric guide, wizard guide)
Age of Enlightenment Ultima IV (History of Britannia, Mystic Wisdom) ☥ Ultima V (Book of Lore, journal) ☥ Ultima VI (Compendium)
Age of Armageddon Ultima VII (Fellowship, Isle of Fire) ☥ Ultima VII Part Two (Serpent Pillars, Silver Seed) ☥ Ultima VIII (Chronicle) ☥ Ultima IX (Spellbook, journal)
Underworld Underworld (Memoirs) ☥ Underworld II (Safe Passage)
Worlds of Ultima Savage Empire (Ultimate Adventures) ☥ Martian Dreams (Red Planet, Time Travel)
Compilations Ultima Trilogy I (Trilogy manual) ☥ Ultima Trilogy II (The Age of Virtue) ☥ Ultima Collection (Ultima Atlas)
Other Escape from Mt. Drash (Manual) ☥ Shroud of the Avatar (Adventurer's Manual)
Ultima Console Games Manuals
Age of Darkness Ultima III (manual), (Hint Book)
Age of Enlightenment Ultima IV (NES) (manual) ☥ Ultima IV (SMS) (History of Britannia, Mystic Wisdom) ☥ Ultima V (manual) ☥ Ultima VI (Japan) (Compendium)
Age of Armageddon Ultima VII (Japan) (Fellowship)
Others Runes of Virtue (manual) ☥ Runes of Virtue II (manual) ☥ Underworld (Memoirs) ☥ Savage Empire (Ultimate Adventures)
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