Help Iceblade Rewrite Ultima 9’s Manual

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Iceblade has posted a request in the Ultima Dragons Facebook group:

Okay, time for some (hopefully) constructive criticism. I’ll be posting sections from my rewrite of the history sections for the U9 journal. These are written from the perspective of Anton trying to write a comprehensive and well-researched summary of history – he did have some discussions with Lord British and the companions whose memory is not perfect given its been centuries.

I’m looking for criticism over inaccuracies with given lore and we’ll hopefully see a healthy discussion regarding canon events.

In the same post, he also included a sample of the changes he’ll be making:

The Beginning of Lord British’s Rule

At the start of the First Age of Darkness, Mondain – second born of Wolfgang, a great king and wizard of old – wished to gain his brother’s inheritance, and so slew his father and brother and gained great power. Through the years, Mondain traversed the lands of Akalabeth and beyond spreading evil and death as he passed. He created deep dungeons, so deep and extensive that their lower depths had never been explored. From these dungeons he unleashed evil upon the surface with foul creatures and sickness.

It was at this time that the man we know as Lord British found his way to Sosaria. He quickly became a Champion of White Light and had many skirmishes with Mondian’s forces. He would eventually route the dark wizard in his labyrinth of dungeons and drive him from the kingdom of Akalabeth, earning him the kingship of this land and subsequently co-rulership of one of the four major Sosarian continents.

First Age of Darkness – The Gem of Immortality

Though bested, Mondain’s reign of terror was not over. He journeyed to the continent known as the Lands of the Dark Unknown to continue his dark works. While there he created dark creatures and unleashed vile magics in pursuit of immortality by corrupting the Sun Ruby Gem. The details from here become murkier, but it is known that a stranger from Earth came to Britannia summoned by Lord British to rid all of Sosaria of the threat from Mondain. This stranger known to us as the Avatar succeeded in preventing Mondain from gaining immortality by shattering the Sun Ruby Gem and slaying the dark wizard within his castle.

Feedback can be left here, or (preferably, I would assume) in the comments of Iceblade’s post on Facebook.

3 Responses

  1. Sanctimonia says:

    I certainly can’t contribute to canonical accuracy, but I’m a pretty good editor. If you’d like, when it’s all said and done, I could give it a read and an edit. I wouldn’t be changing the meaning or anything significant, just the flow of the sentences as necessary to make it feel more authentic based on the circumstances under which it was written (as you would describe to me of course). After reading some of Tracy Hickman’s work for SotA and my dad’s novel “No Hero” I discovered one thing every author needs is a good editor. The writer, it would seem, becomes blind to his own words no matter how many times he reads them (including me).

    • Iceblade says:

      Thank you very much. I could certainly use a translator to yee olde Ultima English

      • Sanctimonia says:

        Awesome. Let me know when it’s done, or at least mostly done, and I’ll give it a go. You can email it to me here:

        kevinfishburne
        at
        eightvirtues
        dot
        com

        In case you want to hear some really crazy Old English, check out The Folk of the Air by Peter S. Beagle. It’s unintelligible. Middle English is more along the lines of what we’re used to hearing in Hollywood, which is more like Shakespeare. You can also read anything by Geoffrey Chaucer if you want a taste of the real deal. It’s pretty crazy.