Lord Marsten

Lord Marsten
Lord Marsten, from Ultima VII Part Two
Species:	human
Appearances
Ultima VII Part Two Location: Monitor

Lord Marsten is a Serpent Islander and Monitorian knight who rules Monitor as Lord and heads the city's Leopard Command. He appears in Ultima VII Part Two.

Description

At the time of the Avatar’s arrival on Serpent Isle, Marsten was acting Lord of Monitor, having temporarily taken on the mantle of leadership that was annually rotated among the three Command leaders. The hero first encountered him in the midst of funerary ceremonies for a fallen knight known as Groat, who had perished of his wounds following a recent, brutal goblin ambush that had claimed the life of Monitor's Knight Champion, Astrid. This incident, which saw no other survivors save for the injured Templar, would prove to be crucial with regard to the events that were fated to unfold in Monitor, as many came to conclude that Astrid's patrol had been betrayed by a human collaborator. Marsten, however, was adamant from the beginning that there was no traitor in Monitor and tried his best to put an end to speculation regarding one.

Marsten, who led the Leopard Command, claimed that he strove to foster compromise and understanding between Monitor's three factions, doing his best to mediate the constant quarrels between the Wolves and Bears. He was fairly forthcoming regarding the Avatar's inquiries, particularly after the hero undertook the test of knighthood and was initiated as a knight of the city. He would relate how Iolo, who had been mistaken by the Monitorians for an enchanter, had interrupted Groat's funeral by teleporting haphazardly into the proceedings and would prove willing to free him from the prison into which he had been cast once the hero had attained knighthood and offered to vouch for him. He would also mention, in passing, that he had been responsible for expelling the sage Batlin from the city.

If asked, Marsten would reveal that he and Astrid had been bedmates but would also quick to emphasize that their relationship was not a romantic one, claiming "I loved her, but we were not in love." This connection to the fallen champion, however, seemed to have no bearing on his willingness to entertain the possibility that she had been betrayed; even following a public declaration by Templar that there must have been some manner of conspiracy to attack Astrid's patrol, Marsten still appeared reluctant to believe that any of his fellow knights had colluded with the goblins. Should the Avatar approach him regarding the attempted assassinations carried out by Shmed and Lydia or with the discovery that Simon was a goblin plant, Marsten would concede that a traitor or traitors had been active in the city, but he proved quick to assert that no further collaborators existed and seemed anxious to lay to rest any further investigations into the matter.

Eventually, the Avatar managed to raid the goblins' encampment, slay their chief Pomdirgun, and retrieve the Helm of Courage. With these deeds accomplished, the hero would have the opportunity to uncover documents penned by both Marsten and his treasurer, Spektor, that revealed their involvement in a conspiracy to coordinate goblin attacks against members of the Bear and Wolf Commands; the ultimate aim of this exercise being to consolidate power for the Leopards and to establish their permanent rule over the city. With these missives in hand, the Avatar could choose either to confront Marsten and Spektor directly or to take the evidence to the other Command leaders, who would take immediate steps to ensure that the traitors were arrested and imprisoned. Following Marsten's removal, command of the city would fall to Brendann, lord of the Wolf Command.

Spektor, either from his prison cell or at the point of dying, would offer a confession that would bring to light even more of Marsten's crimes, relating how he and Marsten had worked in concert with Standarr the blacksmith to develop a new type of experimental weapon, which they intended to use against the goblins following their seizure of power and the establishment of a Monitorian kingship. Several weeks prior to the Avatar's arrival on Serpent Isle, however, Cantra's father had come across the place where this weapon was hidden, and he had been killed to protect its secret.

Ultimately, even should Marsten survive the discovery of his deeds, he would not endure long as a prisoner in the city's jail. Should he be alive at the time that Batlin released the three Banes of Chaos, he would be slaughtered when the unleashed Bane of Wantoness, possessing Sir Dupre’s body, led a great army of goblins and monsters against Monitor.

Trivia

• The model for Lord Marsten's character portrait is Fred Schmidt, Origin’s Vice President and General Manager from 1988 to 1993.
• A search of Marsten's quarters on Leopard Street will turn up 4 monetari; his offices at Monitor's town call contain an additional 11 coins.
• The letters implicating Marsten and Spektor as collaborators with Pomdirgun reveal that Bull Tower would have been the next target of a goblin attack. Should the Avatar bring the evidence against the two men to Caladin, he will remark upon this and send messengers to alert the pikemen there.
• Should the Avatar confront Marsten with evidence of his guilt, Marsten will deny his involvement and bid the hero leave immediately. He will not, however, turn violent, leaving it to the player to initiate combat against him (which will draw the attention of the local pikemen) should they wish to kill him in combat and receive his dying confession.

Gallery

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  Fred Schmidt, as photographed for Lord Marsten's portrait