Memoirs of Sir Cabirus
Memoirs of Sir Cabirus is included with Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and is 30 pages long. In-game, Corby, the scribe of Sir Cabirus, is the author of the book. The real author is W.G. Armintrout.
Description[edit]
Dictated by Sir Cabirus to Corby many years before the events of Ultima Underworld, his memoirs were designed to portray The Abyssal Colony in a positive light. The book does read a bit like an advertising brochure where Cabirus waxes about the positives, but neglects to mention the negatives about which the Avatar later learns. The final pages of the work, written by Joye the Librarian, suggest that the colony had broken down after Sir Cabirus’ death, and warns travellers to avoid the dungeon, for communication had been lost many years ago.
On the cover, the runic script in the border lists the Eight Virtues. However, on the bottom, the writing still goes from left to right, despite the letters being correctly flipped vertically. Strangely, Honesty, Compassion and Valor are repeated, instead of listing the principles of Truth, Love and Courage.
Book Content[edit]
The following topics are part of the book:
- The proclamation
- History of Britannia
- Inhabitants of the abyss
- The classes
- Runic Magic
- Bestiary
- Afterword
Other Editions[edit]
The European editions of the book are in a somewhat smaller format and the paper is more glossy. The Polish translation of the book was included in that country's package. The translations to French and German were only done for the Underworld Series, and only in PDF format, thus no hardcopy versions of the book in these languages exist. The German translation of the book is seen as very poor, as it manages to get many of the facts and terms of the Ultima-universe wrong. The translation of all later manuals would have much higher quality.
The book was also fully translated into Korean and Chinese (Taiwan), but these editions feature entirely different covers. The Japanese versions of the book were fully translated and feature the correct cover, albeit with paler colors. The book was translated into Spanish by Drosoft, but its cover is completely different (no information is currently available regarding the interior of this edition). The book also was translated to Polish.
For the PSX-port of Ultima Underworld, the book was heavily reduced into a booklet. Beyond being written in Japanese, it contained only the most important facts and little more.
Alternate Covers[edit]
Japanese cover
The booklet of the PSX-port
Taiwanese cover
Spanish cover
Fan Versions[edit]
Sir John re-translated Memoirs of Sir Cabirus into German. He was forced to translate the book from English, as the original German translation was nearly unusable due to countless grammatical and content errors. In this corrected translation, the names from his translations of Ultima V: Lazarus and The Ultima 6 Project were used for locations and characters. Additionally, the error with the reaper picture was corrected. The book is available on his page Die Heimstatt des Sir John.
Cover of the new Memoirs of Sir Cabirus
Section about the Abyss
Errors[edit]
- In the manual, when discussing reapers on page 24, a picture of a greer plant is shown instead. This error was repeated in The Book of Fellowship.
- In the afterword, in the section on the Standard of Honor on page 27, Sir Geraci is referred to with a masculine pronoun, despite it having been previously established that this character is female.
External Links[edit]
- Memoirs of Sir Cabirus (PDF)
- Memoirs of Sir Cabirus (PDF or text)
- Memoirs of Sir Cabirus (PDF) – high quality
- Memoirs of Sir Cabirus (PDF) – UK edition
- Memorie di Cabirus (PDF) – Italian
- Die Heimstatt Des Sir John – The German fan translation can be found here
| 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) |