Mariah

Mariah
Mariah, from Ultima VII
Species:	human
Profession:	mage
Appearances
Ultima VII Location: Lycaeum Ultima IX Mariah, from Ultima IX Location: Deceit Transcript: Mariah Ultima VI Mariah, from Ultima VI Location: Lycaeum Transcript: Mariah The Ultima 6 Project Mariah, from The Ultima 6 Project Location: Moonglow Ultima V: Lazarus Mariah, from Ultima V: Lazarus Location: Lycaeum Ultima V Mariah, from Ultima V Description: companion of the Avatar Location: Lycaeum Transcript: Mariah Ultima IV Mariah, from Ultima IV Description: young mage Location: Moonglow Transcript: Mariah

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This article is about a character from the Ultima game series. For the character from the manga Ultima: The Quest of the Avatar, see Mariah (manga).

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Mariah is a recurring character. She first appears in Ultima IV and is one of the companions of the Avatar as well as being a respected mage. She specializes in spells of a defensive nature, such as to minimize the need for violence in confrontations.

History

Age of Enlightenment

The hero who would become the Avatar first met Mariah shortly after the founding of Britannia. The young mage lived at the time in the recently founded city of Moonglow, and was eager to see the world outside of the City of Honesty. When the Stranger met her, the young mageling would clamor to join the hero in the quest toward Avatarhood. At the time, Mariah had a small cache of gold with her, and under it could be found the rune of Honesty. It is unknown if the wizard knew that such an artifact lay so near to her possessions, although the aspirant hero recovered it regardless, and Mariah eventually saw the Stranger and company descend into the Abyss where the hero attained the enlightenment of the Codex.

Years later, Mariah's affiliation with the champion of virtues brought her much misfortune, as she was declared an outlaw during the time of Blackthorn's regime, along with many of the Avatar's other companions. The magician stayed in Moonglow for a time, but eventually fell prey to the marauding Shadowlords and was injured grievously by one of their enchanted bolts. After barely escaping from the encounter with her life, she sought sanctuary at the nearby Lycaeum, where healers did their best to tend to her wounds. It was in this condition that the Avatar found her in Ultima V, although she was again quite eager to join with the hero, even in her injured state..

Eventually, Blackthorn was deposed in the wake of Lord British's return, and in the relatively peaceful years which followed, Mariah became a scholar at the Lycaeum, eventually coming to join the Council of Wizards. When the Avatar met with her in the midst of the Gargoyle War, she had become something of an expert in archaic magical languages, and was able to assist the hero in translating the Book of Prophecies – a tome of great importance which had been taken from a Gargish priest participating in the attempted ritual slaughter of the hero. Before she could accomplish this, however, she needed the Avatar to furnish her with the completed silver tablet – an artifact which held the key to the decoding the language in which the book was written..

Upon translating the book, Mariah revealed that the gargoyles had prophesied that an evil one would appear to rob them of their holy Codex and destroy their home world, and that this personage would be responsible for the destruction of their race unless sacrificed. Analyzing this, Mariah made the connection that this "False Prophet" coincided with the person of the Avatar, and sent the hero off in search of Sin'Vraal of the Drylands – hoping that the gargoyle could tell more of this prophesy..

Age of Armageddon

After Lord British's and Draxinusom's eventual accord, Mariah continued to work in the Lycaeum, but eventually she fell prey, like most of Britannia's mages, to the disrupted Ether caused by the Tetrahedron Generator. By the time the Avatar met her again, centuries later, she was quite insane, failing to recognize her former friend and raving about the state of the Lycaeum's inkwells and quills. Even in this condition, however, she was still able to sell the hero spells and reagents. Later, after the Generator was destroyed and Mariah's madness was cured, the mage was deeply unsettled at how much time had passed while she was lost to her insanity..

After weathering the years of the Imbalance and the Great Cataclysm, Mariah, like many of the Avatar's other companions, was seduced by the power of the Guardian's columns, taking on the name Hairam and the mantle of the Wyrmguard. In this fallen state, the once virtuous mage could be found guarding the column near Dungeon Deceit. Should the Avatar managed to avoid her, rather than confronting and killing her, she would be restored with the removal of the glyph of Honesty. If thus spared, Mariah would teach the hero the Restoration ritual and would assist the hero in navigating the machinations of Batista, a deceitful mage who had taken possession of the Writ of Honesty.

Later, Mariah would aid in the final defeat of the Guardian, journeying to Deceit once again to cleanse the corrupting column linked to it, and helping to cut off the Red Titan's power – thus diverting the catastrophic collision of Trammel and Felucca before the Avatar's ascension.

The Ultima 6 Project

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This is an Ultima 6 Project-related NPC article or section. The information within may not apply to Ultima VI or other Ultima games.

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In The Ultima 6 Project, Mariah will still ask her copy protection question, but will forgo needing an answer, joking it was her little way at getting back at the hero for forgetting her name. Mariah had also borrowed a storm cloak from Jaana and asked the Avatar to return it to her. If the druid was in the party she returned it directly to its owner.

After being told by Budo in Buccaneer's Den that he had sent the hooded stranger to the Lycaeum, the Avatar could ask Mariah about it. She revealed how the stranger had surprised her in the middle of the night and asked about the silver tablet. She however had said nothing until the stranger left and she could not speak for the others. However, she did have enough hints to conclude, that the stranger was a gargoyle.

She would eventually be convinced to join the hero's party if the identity of her cloaked visitor was revealed as Beh Lem, thinking it would give her more opportunities to study the situation.

Lore

“

In a small field north of the path into town we encountered a young mage. She was sitting on a chest of gold with her chin cupped into her hands and her elbows resting on her knees. Long blond hair flowed down her back, and her bright green eyes sized us up with a quick glance. She stood as we approached. The top of her head came just to my chin. "Greetings," she said, "My name is Mariah." – from Ultima: The Avatar Adventures (Ultima IV)

“	I must admit a certain fancy for the scholar-mage Mariah, but I'm afraid I don't suit her fancy. At least you can always get a straight answer out of her. – from Ultima VI Cluebook: The Book of Prophecy (Ultima VI)

“	A member of the council of Mages. Mariah is a student of ancient languages. After playing her magic trumpet. she can always create another by using her ankh. – from Runes of Virtue manual (Runes of Virtue)

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I suspect thou dost know already of the Lycaeum, and of Nelson and Zelda who are its chief administrators. The mage, Mariah, stays there, too, but rumor has it that she has lost a great bit of her mind. ... Here in Moonglow, Mariah has chosen, and therefore sells, spells that will do the least amount of harm to others. Her goal was to find enchantments that would either pacify an opponent or affect its will. – from Key to the Black Gate (Ultima VII)

“	Girls can be adventurers too! Mariah is my hero! – from a small girl (Ultima IX)

Goods

• The prices from her magic shop in Ultima VII can be found at Ultima VII magic shops.

Prices for potions in Ultima VII were as follows:

	Goods	Cost (gp)
	Awakening	10
	Invisibility	90

“The Tale of Mariah and the Demon: A Parable of Honesty”

Main article: The Tale of Mariah and the Demon

Above all things save one, a young mage must be curious, and so it was with Mariah. It was this curiosity that led her, in the course of her journeyman wanderings, into a certain grove that had a reputation locally as a perilous and haunted place.

She soon found that reputation warranted, when a soft, deep and not-unpleasant voice inquired, “How now, little mage, you wander far from the safe byways.”

Trivia

• Mariah's counterpart in reality is Michelle Caddell, Richard Garriott's personal secretary at Origin.
• In the Nintendo remake of Ultima IV, Mariah gained the abilities to wield a mace and to wear a magic cloth (armor exclusive to the NES remake).
• In Ultima VI, Mariah's questions regarding the language of magic form the second half of the in-game copyright protection.
• In Ultima VI, Mariah's dialogue, like Julia's, reads as if she is meeting the Avatar for the first time, in spite of having been a potential companion in Ultima IV and Ultima V.
• The Keyring Mod for Exult makes it possible for Mariah to join the party after the Ether is cleansed in Ultima VII.
• In Ultima IX, the Avatar may opt to slay Mariah when encountering her as a Wyrmguard. If this happens, Mariah will later appear as a ghost, thanking the hero for releasing her from her bondage to the Guardian. She will later be restored to life along with Dupre and any other slain companions once the Shrine of Spirituality is cleansed.

Gallery

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  Ultima IV, NES remake

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  Mariah from the Quest of the Avatar manga

References

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The Companions of the Avatar
The Companions	Mariah ☥ Iolo ☥ Geoffrey ☥ Jaana ☥ Julia ☥ Dupre ☥ Shamino ☥ Katrina