Sergorn Dragon stokes the fires of controversy, arguing that the Guardian as portrayed in Ultima Underworld 2 is inconsistent, in many respects, with the Guardian as portrayed in other Ultima titles…even Ultima 9:

[No] matter how you look at it – there is something that just doesn’t quite fit when you compare [Ultima 7/8/9 and Ultima Underworld 2‘s] visions of the Guardian. Now there are not necessarily incompatible, but they don’t really feel consistent with each other.

There is also the modus operendi of the Guardian to consider. The thing is in the core game the Guardian is always presented as a very patient and subtle being. He takes his time and always works in the shadows, behind the scenes to manipulate his people and the land he intends to conquer. This is true about Ultima VII, about Pagan, but also about Ultima IX.

Having the Guardian bringing his off-world armies to conquer Britannia and rule it would have felt wrong (this is also why really some Ultima fan-fics view never worked for me). On the other having the Guardian making the Britannian turning on upon themselves through civil war and manipulations (as in Bob White plot) or by warping their vision of virtue (as in Ascension), while in the meantime he works upon his real plan leading toward destroying the world to become stronger: now *that’s* the Guardian I know of.

He does not need to come and bring armed force to “conquer” world – because the people inside the world are doing it for him. This is what makes part of his genius (and also why I have always believed that the Wyrmguard of Ultima IX were simply Britannians. Nothing more.)

It’s an assertion that’s certain to rub at least a few Ultima fans the wrong way. But that’s a discussion that is best had at Sergorn’s site (and I’m turning off comments on this article in order to foster that discussion).