Sergorn Dragon hasn’t posted any updates to the Ultima Return website for several years, so it doesn’t come as any surprise that the update he posted there last month is, in part, an announcement that the project has come to an end.

…it’s time to come to the logical conclusion : at this point in time my Ultima fan project “Ultima: Return” is essentially dead.

The engine switch which made us start from scratch and also coincided with the diminishing of free time for all of us essentially took its toll on Return and the game has been going nowhere for years. While I hope to return to it in some form, some day, I should stop to pretend it is still going anywhere at this point.

However, by way of apology, Sergorn also released — in the same site update — a lengthy summary of the plot of Ultima Return, and much of the lore he had developed for the project.

Ultima Return — in case you weren’t aware, or had forgotten — was once called Return to the Serpent Isle, and that should give you an idea of what its setting was. Its aim was to tell the tale of the former Sosarian continent a few decades after the events of Ultima 7 Part 2; Cantra would have figured prominently in the story, as would have several other characters from Serpent Isle.

But the most important aspect of the history of Serpent Isle was Cantra. I think that as with many fans I was always captivated by Cantra in Serpent Isle. She’s one the first person you meet, immediately gets friend with the Avatar, and made enough of an impact that I remembered seeking her after the Knight’s Test to tell her about… dissapointed that she was nowhere to be found.

And she gets thrown into this tragic story, serving as a host for the Wantoness Bane, getting killed by Batlin, resurrected by the Monks but crazed… and remained uncurable because of a bug in the game. The annoyance of all Serpent Isle fans ! Especially as based on these doctored screenshots on the back of the box, I expected she would turn into a companion…

(Now, of course Return considers the Avatar DID cure her.)

But that also gave her a connection to the Great Serpents nobody else on the Serpent Isle had after the Companions left and I just KNEW she had to be an important figure in the isle’s history and ever since I dreamed up the first premise of “Return to the Serpent Isle” 20 years ago, she was always a major character in it. You can even say in a way that Cantra was the reason I wanted to write and tell this story.

Fair warning: it’s a long read. But I think it’s fair to say that Sergorn crafted a truly compelling idea for this project, and the story he wanted to tell would have done considerable justice to the lore established in Serpent Isle. It’s a pity we were never able to make it a reality.