I’m not going to re-tell the history of Ultima Aiera and the Ultima Codex again this year, because I really don’t think I could improve on last year’s account of events. Those of you are are curious about the history of this site and its predecessor are certainly encouraged to read that account in full, as I’m told it’s a fairly interesting piece that captures the attention handily.

Here’s the short, short version: I’ve been running an Ultima fansite — fan hub, really — for a while. Longer, in fact, than I have been married. Longer than the combined ages of my three children. The first iteration of Ultima Aiera went online on August 9th, 2004…nine years ago, today.

Of course, even as little as a year ago, Ultima was…kind of dormant, but as an actual IP and as something that served as inspiration for new RPG universes. Now? Quite the opposite! Ultima Forever launched yesterday:

And Richard Garriott’s Shroud of the Avatar is in development as we speak, after the completion of a successful Kickstarter campaign:

Suddenly, Ultima is back, and back in force, both in name and in spirit. Contra the state of things when I first decided to really focus heavily on growing Ultima Aiera’s audience and coverage (2008, when it seemed that Ultima was well and truly a thing of the past), now is a grand time indeed to be running an Ultima fan hub, and let me tell you…it keeps me busy.

You, however, are in luck, good reader; you’ll be able to reap the fruits of my being busy today. There’s lots of content lined up for posting (for your enjoyment!), both things that have been seen before and things that have been unseen until now. Watch for it in the next few hours!