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Utima Underworld

World of Fantasy    Ultima Underworld II    Ulitma Underworld Extras


How It all begans...

 The Ascent of the Avatar

    The Isle of the Avatar was discovered during the Fourth Age (as related in Quest of the Avatar), at the climax of the Avatar's quest. The Stranger from Another World, who came to Britannia in answer to Lord British's summons, completed the Test of the Eight Virtues and became the Avatar --- the embodiment of the pure axiom of life.
    It was during his journeys that the Avatar unearthed a chilling artifact: the skull of Mondain the Wicked, the first of the Triad of Evil. There were those who claimed that the artifact held the power to destroy all life on our world. Fortunately, it was the Stranger who discovered it, and not someone of lesser Virtue.
    Upon completing the Path of the Eight Virtues, the Avatar embarked on a search for the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. Legend linked this ancient tome with the subterranean maze known as the Great Stygian Abyss. "Truly, no one has ever plumbed its depths," wrote Shamino, who arranged by magic to obtain a map of its corridors. "I cannot imagine the horrors that await the first to venture into the Stygian depths."
    The entrance to the Abyss was found to lie on an uncharted island southeast of the mainland, guarded by a squadron of sailing ships crewed by ghosts of ancient pirates. Forcing his way past the spectral fleet and unraveling the myster-ies of the Abyss, the Avatar at last succeeded in obtaining the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. In honor of this achievement, the mystery island was christened the "Isle of the Avatar."

 Peace and Treachery

    With the Avatar's triumph accomplished, Britannia settled down for a period of reconstruction and consolidation. The kingdom's seers took note of the discov-eries made by the Avatar on the Isle of the Avatar --- notably, the entrance to the dungeon Hythloth (which was sealed shut) and the location of the Shrine of Humility. Lord British also caused a second sanctuary to be built, where the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom was enshrined.
    Curious scholars researched the ancient records of the land, and identified the Isle of the Avatar as the former home --- in another age --- of the great daemons who destroyed Old Magincia for its lack of humility. The same beings had guard-ed the Shrine of Humility through the eons, but now the mystic creatures could no longer be found.
    Beanwhile, the raising of the Codex from its subterranean resting place had caused great disturbances across the face of the land, and opened a vast under-ground network of caverns which came to be known as the Underworld. The Great Stygian Abyss became one of the many entrances to this subsurface world. Vulcanism tore up the Isle, reawakening its central volcano.
    The next drama in Britannian history (as related in Warriors of Destiny) involved the kidnapping of Lord British. Since the king was believed dead, his realm fell under the rule of Lord Blackthorn, whose good nature was corrupted by the Shadowlords. The Avatar was once more summoned from his distant world to combat the menace, and his tortuous quest took him once more to the Isle of the Avatar and the depths beneath it, before his victory.

 The Time of Prophecy

    When the Avatar liberated Lord British from imprisonment, the act had both geological and spiritual reverberations. The most dramatic of these was the col-lapse of the Underworld, which forced many denizens of the depths to venture into our surface world.
    Among those who emerged from below were the Gargoyles, whose sages prophesied that their race could only be saved by the recovery of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom (which they claimed as their property) and the destruction of the Anti-Prophet (whom they believed the Avatar to be!). With diabolical cun-ning, the subterranean beings summoned the Avatar to Britannia in an attempt to kill him, but Lord British intervened in time to rescue the otherworlder.
    Still, the Gargoyles remained a threat to the peace of Britannia, and the Avatar embarked on a difficult quest which once again brought him to the Isle of the Avatar. The Twin Shrines were in time liberated from the Gargoyles' posses-sion, and in the lower regions of Dungeon Hythloth --- from which most monsters save drakes and dragons had been driven by lava --- the Stranger rescued a mariner with priceless information about the Gargoyle menace.
    Eventually, the Avatar realized that there was but one way to peace to Britannia --- making the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom accessible to both Lord British's subjects and to the Gargoyles, by placing the Codex in the Vortex and then supplying both enemies with mystic Lenses by which they could view the arcane tome. By working his solution from the Shrine on Avatar Isle, the other-worlder brought peace to our world.

 Ten Years Later

    The Avatar has now returned to his world, and we must seek our future through our own devotion to the Eight Virtues. Thus it has come to pass that I, Cabirus, have set about to found a Town of Virtue within one of the arcane foci of Britannia --- on the Isle of the Avatar, within the Great Stygian Abyss.


Sir Cabirus

Historian


...and now begins the first part!


  from Ultima manual part I