Iceblade decided to mark the anniversary of Ultima 8 on the weekend in his own way: by releasing the first volume of a multi-part series of stories chronicling the efforts of Mariah to recover the lost Moonstones prior to the events of Ultima 9. Or, rather, the events of Ultima 9 as Forgotten World will eventually relate them, since the team will be making adjustments here and there.

But I digress. Here’s the news from Iceblade:

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Ultima VIII. That journey that the Avatar took, quite unwillingly, in the sunless realm of Pagan. This journey will see the Avatar follow much darker paths and face his greatest moral quandary: remain on Pagan and allow the Guardian to add more worlds and power to his domain or doom the people of Pagan in the hopes of seeking out and stopping the Guardian.

Meanwhile in the far fairer lands of Britannia. The kingdom continues to recover from the days of the Fellowship and Imbalance. At the present time, we find the Revocanda has scarce seen any breakthroughs and Mariah now adventures to find the missing Moonstones. Join her in the first of a series of books simply titled the Recovery of the Moonstones. Volume 1: The Stone of Compassion

Finding yourself behind already? Don’t worry about looking back through the news archive, we post links to all of our released books on the Forgotten World Downloads page.

You can grab the book, in PDF format, from either the project entry here or the Forgotten World downloads page.

And let me just say: this is one to grab and read. Bluevib3 — yes, she’s the author — has done a marvelous job and told a gripping, informative tale that sees Mariah (among others) embark on a journey across the length and depths of Britannia. There are marvelous little callbacks to earlier Ultima games, and some characters that are pivotal in Ultima 9 are also expertly factored in. I, for one, can’t wait for the next volume!