Origin Systems historian Pix has posted a very interesting update, announcing a new piece of Ultima development history — in this case, for a cancelled game — that has hitherto not been available online: a design document for Ultima Underworld 3!

Some years back, I posted a story document for the proposed Ultima Underworld 3. Since then I’ve managed to get hold of a later design document which has been greatly expanded to include backstory, gameplay and design details. I’m reasonably sure this matches up with the one in the Richard Garriott archives at the University of Texas but without a side by side comparison I’ll never know.

Pix has made a scan of the document available for download at this link, so do be sure to grab it and pore over it for yourself. Pix also summarizes the game thusly:

…Underworld 3 was going to be built in the Wing Commander Prophecy engine, include multi-player, have a George Oldziey soundtrack (using modified themes composed for the already cancelled Silverheart) and would be set on a whole different world to Britannia.

The first story document bore little mention of Ultima but this has you crossing swords with an imprisoned Shadowlord who was banished to the world of Jaal in Ultima 5 when the Avatar destroyed his shard. The 3 Shadowlords apparently need to reunite to form into the Guardian which seems to imply this game would have been set some time between Ultima 5 and 7. I much prefer this idea to the Guardian being the Avatar’s dark half but I’m still not entirely convinced.

This is quite an excellent find! Obviously, the Underworld follow-up we are getting now will follow a very different plot, but it’s always fun to find out how things could have gone, under different circumstances.