If you can believe it, the first incarnation of Ultima: Aiera (yes, it had a colon in the name back then) went live on August 9th, 2004. Which means I’m observing the anniversary a day late — a first for me, and a reflection of just how much busier my schedule has become since the heady days of 2004 (when I was still a university student with relatively few cares in the world), or since 2008 (by which time I was married and had a kid on the way, but still had lots of time for leisure and idle pursuits) and the migration of Aiera to the WordPress CMS that it — and the Codex — continue to make use of to this day.

You can, as always, read the history of Aiera, and of the Codex, in this article that I wrote a couple of years ago. I still can’t really improve upon it…and actually, this year, I want to take the celebration in a bit of a different direction anyway.

Because 2014 is a significant year…and not just because it’s the decade of the release of Ultima Online: Samurai Empire.

And here I have to confess something: I missed the significance of the year. And it’s no comfort that our friends at the Wing Commander CIC seem to have missed it as well. Nor is it much consolation that — to the best of my recollection — nobody reminded me of the significance of this past February via Twitter or in a comment here. I don’t think there was even a mention of it on the Ultima Dragons Facebook group, nor did I see even a cursory mention of it on any of the gaming news sites.

So I forgot…and so did almost everyone else, it would seem. But it was in February of 2004 — ten years ago, in other words — that Origin Systems was closed by EA, its assets consolidated to that company’s main headquarters at Redwood Shores.

And it was in June of 2004 that Ultima X: Odyssey was cancelled.

And now here we are in 2014…with both Lord of Ultima and Ultima Forever cancelled, the former already permanently offline and the latter going dark toward the end of this month.

Contra the excitement of last year, we are now closer to a return to where things stood in 2008…or in 2004, for that matter. Now, as then, Ultima Online is the only still-supported, still-active game bearing the Ultima name, and the future of the series and its ideas seems somewhat bleak. Shroud of the Avatar is, thankfully, still in production and inching closer to what now appears to be a 2015 release…but many Ultima fans have significant reservations about that game, not all of which existed a year ago. As Divinity: Original Sin proved, claiming the Ultima mantle is no easy thing to deliver on; Original Sin failed in this respect, and this same weight of expectation is hovering over Shroud of the Avatar now.

So for the tenth anniversary, I would rather not focus on the site and its history, or on where things appear to be going for the Ultima IP and that which it has inspired. Instead, I’d like to focus on memories…of Origin, of Odyssey, and of Ultima in general. I’ve got a couple new permanent additions to the Codex lined up that I’ll get online soon, and there’s a lot of great Ultima Forever art that I plan to post in short order.

Stay tuned for all of that. Life has gotten a lot busier since 2008; it might take me a while to get everything online. But hopefully it will have meaning for people, and inspire a few happy remembrances.