Compendium

Compendium

Compendium is the manual for Ultima VI, written by Greg Malone. It is 48 pages long and called upon to pass the game's three copy protection sequences, in which questions regarding the bestiary, reagents, and magic syllables of the realm are respectively posed by Lord British, Selganor, and Mariah. Penned from an in-game perspective, British is the fictional originator of the book's content, having dictated it to the scribe Moebius of the Lycaeum.

Description

In anticipation of the Avatar’s return to Britannia and the expected involvement in the conflict in favor of Britannia, Compendium is expressly written for the hero's use and covers many of the same topics as The History of Britannia and The Book of Lore, with greater pertinence to its intended reader. While Lord British strives for neutrality concerning apolitical matters, Britannia at the time of writing was embroiled in the Gargish invasion that gave rise to the events of Ultima VI; as such, the race is subjectively portrayed in a negative light when discussed.

Translated, the runic script framing the cover reads as follows: "Contained within these pages lies the accumulated wisdom of the great scribes of Britannia ·· being recorded by the hand of Moebius at my command ·· Lord British."

Compendium reuses numerous illustrations from previous Ultima manuals The First Age of Darkness (Ultima I), The History of Britannia (Ultima IV), and The Book of Lore (Ultima V).

Book Content

• Foreword
• History of Britannia
• Travel guide
• Runic alphabet
• Commerce
• Classes
• Adventuring as a party
• Cosmology
• Reagents
• Weapons and armour
• Bestiary
• Magic

Other Editions

For the various ports to Japanese computers, Compendium was fully translated into Japanese, including the cover title. The book was also localized in Taiwanese Mandarin and Korean with different cover images.

Also, unlike the western console release – which only got a booklet – the Japanese edition of the SNES-port of Ultima VI did come with the Compendium combined with the game manual. While it is somewhat shortened – with some sections removed entirely and some reduced – the remaining content still features all of the original illustrations.

Compendium was later reprinted in The Age of Virtue, the manual included with the Ultima Trilogy IV V VI compilation. While the text itself is identical, the original's decorative page borders are absent, as are many other illustrations (although far less than in the same reprint of The Book of Lore).

Alternate Covers

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  Japanese cover

• 

  Japanese Famicom cover

Fan Versions

In The Ultima 6 Project, a fan-revised Compendium forms part of the user interface, and its fictional scribe, Moebius, can be found at the Lycaeum. This edition, which aims to remain faithful to the narrative style of the original, was re-created by Tribun Dragon in PDF format, adding in sections that were skipped by the in-game book (like history) while trying to emulate the look of the original book. That version is available in English and German.

• 

  The in-game Compendium

• 

  PDF-version shops

• 

  PDF-version professions

Trivia

• While Moebius does not appear as a character in Ultima VI, his name is a reference to Origin’s 1985 action-RPG, Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony, designed by the real-world author of Compendium, Greg Malone.

External Links

• Compendium (PDF)
• Compendium for The Ultima 6 Project (PDF) at The Ultima Codex, Sylore's Compendium of Random Knowledge, and SirJohn's Page.
• Compendium - high quality (PDF)
• Compendium - Japanese edition (PDF)
• Compendium - Japanese Famicom edition (PDF)

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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	Shroud of the Avatar (Adventurer's Manual)

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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)