Ultima IV: Circumnavigation

Two sessions ago, I learned a lesson - always carry a few prepared casts of Cure before venturing into the marshes. Now that I barely scraped my way back to Lord British and his free healing after suffering deadly snake bites and a poison trap, and still had a costly resurrection bill for Julia, I've learned a lesson further - always carry a few prepared casts of Cure before venturing anywhere.

But to do that, I'll need reagents. With about $1000, I can afford a few, but I've only seen them available at my starting town of Moonglow, which can only be reached by moongates.

Britannia's dual moon system cycles through 24 phases throughout the month - each moon has eight phases, and both begin their new moon phase at the same time, marking the beginning of the month, but the right moon advances exactly three times as fast as the left moon, causing it to go through three complete cycles each month.

The left moon phase determines where the moongate will be, and the right moon phase determines where the moongate will take you.

Note that while our moon phases from right-to-left, Ultima's moons phase left-to-right. Hence, the pictographs are flipped horizontally.

Phase	Location	Possible destinations	Possible departures
🌑	Verity Bay (E)	🌑🌘🌗	🌑🌗🌔
🌘	Castle Britannia (C)	🌖🌕🌔	🌑🌖🌔
🌗	Valorian Isle (SW)	🌑🌓🌒	🌑🌖🌓
🌖	The Deep Forest (NW)	🌘🌗🌖	🌘🌖🌓
🌕	Minoc (N)	🌕🌔🌓	🌘🌕🌓
🌔	Cape of Heroes (S)	🌑🌘🌒	🌘🌕🌒
🌓	Spiritwood archipelago (W)	🌗🌖🌕	🌗🌕🌒
🌒	???	🌔🌓🌒	🌗🌔🌒

 

I am near Castle Britannia, and I want to go to Verity Bay. This is possible to do in two jumps - the waning gibbous phase is a common destination from my current location and departure to my desired end point. I must wait here for the 🌘🌔 phase for the moongate to open here and take me to Cape of Heroes, and then wait half a month for the 🌔🌑 phase for the moongate there to open and take me to Verity Bay, just one bridge away from Moonglow.

Food, thankfully, depletes slowly when you wait for the moon cycles.

 

Before buying reagents, I stock up on rations, buying 300 in addition to the 100 I've got remaining.

The herb vendor charges:

• $2 for sulfurous ash
• $5 for ginseng
• $6 for garlic
• $3 for spider silk
• $6 for blood moss
• $9 for black pearls
  

The ginseng and garlic are what I need for Cure magic, and that seems a bit steep, but it is what it is - I buy 27 of each for now, for a total bill of $297, which of course I pay in full, leaving me with $437.

I tediously mix 27 doses of Cure, and take the moongate back to Britain where I buy Julia some better armor and a new sling - her mace had proven a liability to her health. I also buy a nice big sword for $300, just to have in case of a desperate melee.

And my mapping efforts begin anew, this time being more thorough with the swamplands. I can't say that the swamplands turned up anything all that interesting that I hadn't seen before, but the effort did make my map more complete and more accurate. I added some previously unseen terrain, corrected some previously unnoticed errors, and connected previously disconnected segments.

Fights were frequent, but still rather easy and mindless. It's easy to accidentally skip your turn by making an input error - the engine is mercilessly unforgiving in that regard, but otherwise so lenient that I couldn't get upset about it. Slings remained my weapon of choice, and often I'd prefer to pelt enemies at point blank rather than spend any keystrokes switching to a more suitable bladed or crushing instrument. Some of the more interesting enemies included rock-throwing ettins, and aquatic spellcasting mermen, but the toughest yet were the venus flytrap-like Zorns, who are simply tanks that shrug off your attacks and hit hard up close. But I never came close to dying; partial healing is just one rest away at all times.

Eventually I found my way back to Empath Abbey, this time unpoisoned.

So there is a healer after all! I just couldn't find the stupid thing place when was desperate for one.

• The guards tell me to visit the inner shrine to be "saturated with love."
• Another guard patrolling the hallways tells me that I must acquire a three-part key from the altars in order to enter the codex's chamber.
• A child tells me that four different professions seek truth in the oak grove.
• I find nothing in the shrine except a beggar, with little of interest to say.
• Lord Rob and Lady Marcy sit in the throne room but all I can get from them are heartfelt wishes in my quest for love.
• The oak grove is visible from the throne room, but the door is locked.
• Lady Marcy's lady-in-waiting rests in her quarters near the southeast turret, and doesn't appreciate being bothered.
• Brother Antos offers "great wisdom" in the southeast turret, but won't respond to any keywords that I can think of.
  

I used up the last of my Cure spells mapping out a small swamp on a wooded peninsula west of the abbey - the extreme northwest corner of the continent. And that was fine; I was able to continue southward toward a break in the Serpent's Spine mountain range. Here I poisoned myself opening a trapped chest, but by then I was close enough to Britain that I could walk the rest of the way and pay the healer.

And with that, I had made a complete loop around the northern part of Britannia. My map pieces, with a bit of fine adjustment, all interlocked correctly, giving me a good foundation for future efforts, and all that fighting brought in a good $2500 for resupplying and some experience points to boot - Lord British promoted me and Iolo to level 5, and Julia to level 4.

Visiting Hawkwind, compassion took a dive again - I should probably take it easier on fleeing monsters - but honor and justice went up. On valor, Hawkwind told me I was ready for elevation, and should meditate at the shrine. Of course I still need to find it, and the rune, and the mantra.

I finished up this session by spending the coin - chain mail and a Minoccan magic axe for Julia, more food, and a smattering of Moonglow reagents, mostly curative ingredients.

My map:

 

Compare with last time:

Ultima IV: East by northwest

 

After a reload, I continued mapping out Britannia in an easterly direction, this time steering clear of swamplands but otherwise following the coast. Little presented a challenge to our slings and cloth armor, not even an encounter with a daemon around Lock Lake. I did at one point return to Lord British for healing - he advanced me to Level 3. I kept going east, past Lock Lake, past the Bloody Plains, and eventually spotted a pirate ship on the coast, whose sailors were easily felled. Very soon, we sighted a new, minor-seeming city - Vesper.

• The guards are non-sentient.
• A jester mentions Nate the Snake, but will not elaborate.
• A sage hiding in the trees tells me to consult with Hawkwind on virtue.
• A ranger on the other side tells me to meditate at the shrines for 1, 2, and 3 cycles. I am still not sure how.
• A kid tells me to visit Calumny in Yew who knows the Quickness spell.
• A group of shepherds in the plaza speak of humility. The shrine is in an island southeast of Britannia, guarded by daemons, and the mantra is pride's reversed.
• A thief at the tavern tells me that Paws is a great place to steal horses.
• The guild shop sells torches, magic gems, and magic keys.
• A hidden room east of the guild holds many treasures, and a guard who sternly warns me not to touch them.
• In another hidden room west of the guild, a shepherd warns me to never use the skull of Mondain should I find it.
  

  

I continued exploring and mapping out this peninsula east of the Bloody Plains. The Shrine of Sacrifice sits on a small island in the middle of it, but my lack of the corresponding rune kept me out.

Nothing else was here, so I returned to the Bloody Plains and followed the mountainous northern coast westward. Despite difficult terrain, my food reserves continued to hold steady, and the hostile encounters remained trivial.

This ambush in the hills might have been tactically interesting, but we - a bard and mage - come out unscathed against four rogues without using any smarts whatsoever.

High up in the hills where the flanking mountain ridges block line of sight, I spotted a fortress town - Minoc.

 

There's not much to do in this mountain town.

• A tinker knows of the shrine of sacrifice - so do I - but does not know the mantra.
• At the inn, a ranger from Skara Brae gossips that his city's rune is missing.
• Also at the inn, a rune-carver tells me to seek his sister Mischief for the Sacrifice rune.
• The poor house's entrance is flooded with nasty sewage which poisons me and Iolo, and there's no healthcare in Minoc. I spend the last of my reagents preparing curative magic.
  
• Julia, caring for the paupers, asks if I will help her care for the poor. I agree and she stops caring for the paupers to join my party.
• The rest of the residents are all destitute, and chatty, but not helpful.
  
• Mischief hangs out in the grass outside the Iron Works, and tells me to seek the rune of sacrifice inside the forge.
  
• A bard inside sings "CAH." This sounds like it might be a mantra.
• The iron works sells powerful weapons, including magic swords swords and throwing axes, but they're out of my price range.
• Zircon, who works the forge, tells me that his mystic weapons and armor were sold to Sir Simon and Lady Tessa.
• Before I go inside the forge, I splurge for a three-bed room at the inn and heal up. Once again, rogues attack at night and lift a few more coins even as we fight them off (we don't get them back).

  

  The steel-melting hearth takes a toll on your health!
  

• After finding the rune, mischief tells me to ask Alkerion of the stone.
• Alkerion lives in the poor house, and tells me the stone of Sacrifice is orange, and can be used in the altar rooms of Love and Courage.
  

I left Minoc and continued my exploration of the northern coast, heading westward around the mountainous edge of the Lost Hope Bay, into The High Stepes, where I spotted a dungeon entrance but did not enter, and around a large inlet into The Deep Forest. Here, we faced an encounter against many venom-spitting snakes and skeletons.

 

The encounter left Julia poisoned, which should have been incredibly bad news - we're out of reagents, and the shelter of Britannia was a good ten screen lengths' distance away and separated by a mountain range.

Thankfully, you can recover HP while resting - it just doesn't take away the poison - and food supplies were still ample. I decided to take my chances and press on to the next town. Bad idea, it turned out - resting eventually stopped working and Julia just died.

Bad luck punished my decision further when I opened a poisoned chest. Frantically, I pushed west onward through a dark forest, nearing the western edge of the continent, looking for any signs of civilization.

Happily, I found one.

 

Unhappily, this turned out to be Empath Abbey, and not a normal city with clearly labeled healers, and I quickly died amongst the monks and beggars while looking for help.

So finally, I turned around and took the long walk back Britannia with Iolo dragging our corpses to Lord British's magic fingers.

Iolo can easily take these orcs alone

British revives me for free, but not Julia

While here, I consult Hawkwind on my virtues.

• Honesty - Some
  
• Compassion - Little
  
• Sacrifice - Little
  
• Spirituality - Little
  
• Humility - Some
  
• Honor - Little
  
• Valor - Some
  
• Justice - None
  

Despite tipping a beggar or two, my compassion took a dip! But humility and valor improved.

Resurrecting and healing Julia at Britain's healer costs me $500, and I am asked to donate blood at the cost of my own HP, which of course I accept - it's virtuous and British's free healing is right over there.

My map so far:

Ultima IV: Rule Britannia

 

Castle Britannia is a big, multi-leveled place. Some of the walls are false - the giveaway is a slightly different wall texture.

• The guards are many, nameless and not terribly talkative, but direct you to the second floor to meet Lord British.
• Chuckles the Jester uselessly promenades around the main hall, and asks about your ankh if prompted.
• Hawkwind the Seer is protected by a thick field of sleeping energy, but you can walk through eventually and consult with him on the virtues. His appraisal of my virtues:
  
• Honesty - Some
• Compassion  - Some
  
• Sacrifice - Little
  
• Spirituality - Little
• Humility - None
• Honor - None
  
• Valor - None
  
• Justice - None
  
• Mounds of treasure line a secret room hidden within the guard's barracks. Since I strive for honesty and also don't have a death wish, I leave it.
• A wounded fighter at the healer's tells me to seek out the smith Zircon in Minoc for his mystic arms.
  
• A shepherdess who oversees the waters, only accessible through secret doors, laments that her town was destroyed for its pride, and its ruins are found at coordinates latitude K'J" and longitude L'L". That isn't especially meaningful to me right now, as the map has no markers, but if I remember right, you can get a sextant eventually.
• Another shepherd on the northern side of the castle warns me that the path ahead is perilous - beyond is a ladder going down behind a locked door.
• A sage hides in the woods on the castle's east side and asks a riddle, to which I have not yet an answer.
  

Moving onto the second floor:

 

The northeast turret goes to a southward leading battlement where I am stopped by a locked door, and there's nothing else here except two guards. To be fair, the ladder going up to it was hidden. The northwest turret gives access to the castle's upstairs facilities.

• A bunch of kids walk around the kitchen. The chef, named "Le Chef," demands I try his soup.
• The prison has a few guards, a few locked cells, and one weird looking creature in a cell with no entry except a false wall to the south.
• Useless jesters and musicians loiter in the throne room.
• A maiden "Juliet" offers help, but only if I know how the eight virtues form into the three principles.
• Lastly, I converse with Lord British.
  

He offers free healing, and advice on the virtues:

• Moonglow is the city of honesty.
• Britain is the city of Compassion, and bards are the corresponding class.
  
• Jhelom is the city of Valor, and fighters are the corresponding class.
  
• Yew is the city of Justice.
• Minoc is the city of Sacrifice.
• Trinsic is the city of Honor, and paladins are the corresponding class.
  
• Skara Brae is the city of Spirituality.
• Magincia's ruins are a testament to Humility.
• Truth is learned at the Lyceaum.
• Love is learned at Empath Abbey.
• Courage is learned at Serpent Castle.

 

Next, I visit the nearby town of Britannia.

• The guards advise me to spare the lives of non-evil creatures for compassion's sake.
• At the armory, I purchase a sling and cloth armor for myself. This costs most of my cash.
• A "spicy woman" named Pepper asks if I seek something, but is unresponsive to anything I suggest.
• I compassionately donate to a beggar, who tells me that Pepper knows of the rune. So I ask her of it, and she tells me it lies at the end of a hall somewhere.
• Another Magincian shepherd at the hotel tells me that humility exists without truth, love, or courage.
• A cul-de-sac in the hotel reveals a rune when searched.
• A druid, looking for "Julio," tells me to find the shrine of compassion "east across two bridges."
• A child tells me that "Cricket" knows the mantra of compassion. I find him busking at the tavern, and after some pestering tells me it is MU.
  
• Gweno the bard dances and sings for children playing around a campfire.
• Iolo plays his lute here too, and offers to join when I praise his music. I accept.
  

 

I'm going to need more gold to get anywhere - I need food to live, and reagents to make the best use of my magely powers, and right now I can't afford either. I save my game, and start exploring and mapping in an eastward direction, on the lookout for trouble.

Two parties of orcs spawn from the north, and go down easily to our dual slingshots, yielding a few coins, but the trip through the mountains and swamps to the east are uneventful, except for when Iolo's delicate constitution gets poisoned stepping into the mire, causing his hitpoints to slowly drip away.

After crossing two bridges, we arrive at the shrine of compassion.

Following the advice of the pilgrims at the Lycaeum, we meditate on compassion for one cycle, and then chant MU.

I cannot subsequently meditate for longer cycles - my mind is "still weary."

On the way back, Iolo died from his poisoning as I sought Lord British's curative aid. This is because, as in prior Ultimas, poison damages you on every step you take, even indoors where the distance represented by each step should logically be much shorter. The winding walk from the castle gate upstairs to the throne room is quite long and damaging. And resurrecting Iolo just isn't in my budget right now.

Lesson learned - always carry a few prepared casts of Cure before venturing into the marshes. Always use it before entering locations.

At least I got a chunk of mapping done during this misadventure.

Ultima IV: First steps

 

A few technical notes on emulating Ultima IV before I start -

As with all of Garriott's games up to this point, Ultima IV's lead platform was the Apple II. I am playing a copy from the Woz-a-day collection, of which I have some confidence that their images are accurately dumped and unmodified, as opposed to the cracked DSK images which are often unreliable pirate copies.

With this copy, I found AppleWin should be configured to emulate an Apple ][+, not an //e, or else it may not boot correctly.

Ultima IV is one of only a few Apple games that supports dual Mockingboards for true stereo music, but this must be configured ingame as well as in the emulator. The ingame configuration can be accessed from the main menu; to align with AppleWin's expectations, you'll need to set both devices to Mockingboard A/C, with the first in Slot #4 and the second in Slot #5.

We also have the option to use dual floppy disk drives, which eases the pain of disk swapping a bit. The game came with two disks originally, but had to be manually flipped to access the reverse sides.

• Disk 1
• Side A - Boot
• Side B - Town & castle data
• Disk 2
• Side C - Overworld data & saves
• Side D - Dungeons & underworld data
  

Because Apple II emulators lack a "disk flip" function, this setup is emulated as four single-sided floppy disks, and you'll still need to swap A/B in drive 1, and C/D in drive 2. But since side C+D are physically on the same disk, the game did not expect it to be possible to have both sides inserted at the same time, and saving your game while in a dungeon is not possible.

 

I started a new game.

 

Rather than opening with a character creation sheet, Ultima IV opens with an illustrated prologue - and unlike Wizardry III, it doesn't merely recap the events of the manual, but follows them. Lord British has sent out a call to adventure through time and space, and you, an ordinary person from 20th century earth, have answered the phone. While going for a walk in the woods to distract yourself from the stresses of modern life, a moongate briefly appears within a mysterious circle of stones, and splurts out a gift - a silver ankh amulet, cloth map, and books. The same ankh, map, and books found in the game's packaging.

A subtle reminder to RTFM.

A renaissance fair beyond the hills, somehow unnoticed until now, catches your attention, and a strange compulsion draws you to a fortune teller's wagon, where Ultima's famous character creation sequence is seen for the first time.

I mentioned that Ultima IV doesn't really make you engage that much with its virtue system throughout standard gameplay, but here, as commenter Josh Lawrence notes, we're actually presented with a series of ethical dilemmas that have no right or wrong answers, and even though the questions are hypothetical, your choices will have tangible consequences - namely, your class and starting stats. It's just too bad that the themes presented here don't really hold up once the game starts in earnest. We'll see this system return in later Ultimas; disappointingly, the questions do not change.

In the spirit of roleplaying, I really should answer the questions as I would, but I did that the first time I played and already know what's going on here. I want to play as a Mage this time, and to do that, you must choose Honesty above all others.

I have to break character for this one.

The final card is cast.

And with that, I'm magically whisked away to another world.

Well, no better place to start searching for answers than the nearby town, which turns out to be Moonglow.

The mage "Calabrini"greets all newcomers to Moonglow

The town greeter advised me of Moonglow's noted inn and healer, and that I would perhaps be interested in visiting a shrine on an island to the north.

I mapped out the town using some new techniques - forgive the visual artifacts, as I'm still working out the system.

In a zig-zag pattern, top left to bottom-right:

• Mariah stands over a chest. Taking it wouldn't be very virtuous, would it? She yearns for adventure, but can't join me - one mage is the limit.
• Dekker the Jester doesn't know any jokes.
• Cromwell the paladin hangs out at the inn's lobby, preaching the virtues of honesty, and from him I learn that the mantra of honesty is AHM.
• Rogues try to rob me at the inn. I teach them a lesson in honesty as I crack my staff over their heads, and then a lesson in compassion as I let them run.
  
  
  
• South of the inn, the mage Tyrone searches for a blue stone in the dungeon of Deceit.
  
• The alchemist on the same street advises me that sleep spells require only one part of spider silk - contrary to the spellbook which states we need two.
• A kid enjoys a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at the deli, and offers me a bite.
• North of the apothecary, a strange old man rambles about the sun and moons and the end of time.
• The apothecary's goods are a bit expensive for me right now. The shopkeep is blind and can be short-changed, but you really don't want to do that.
• Outside the healer's, a man claims to be Shakespeare, and writes "tales of honesty" for a living.
• Also outside the healer's, a fortune teller reads my palm and prophecies that I will seek the Codex in the Abyss.
• Inside the healer's, a wounded wizard tells me to seek Nigel at the Lycaeum.
  

A few leads here, but I need my bearings. I map out my surrounding area and determine that I am on Verity Isle, far to the east. In the course of exploring, though, I discover the Lycaeum, and take a detour inside.

The guards aren't much for conversation.

 

And I mapped out as much as I could.

 

A lot of people to talk to here!

• A nameless pilgrim by the entrance seeks "truth" and advises, "MEDITATE AT EACH SHRINE FOR 1, 2, AND 3 MINUTES, THEN SHALT THOU KNOW THE PATHS OF GOODNESS!" Quite a few of the NPCs within follow the same script.
  
• A guard, Catriona, mentions treasures that are her duty to guard.
• Father Antos, up north outside the observatory, claims to hold great knowledge, but demands I be more specific when I ask him about it, and pleads ignorance on all topics I can think to inquire on.
• The observatory's telescope isn't for peering at stars, but for peering at maps! 16 settings on the knob give different maps, and one corresponds to the Lycaeum itself.
  
  
  
  
• The throne room guards are both named Jon. And they both follow the same script. They explain that the eight virtues are derived from three principals, and correspond to the eight cities.
• Scatu the advisor recommends I visit the seer often.
• Baron Rob and Lady Beth are chatty but dispense little useful information.
• Wounded fighters at the healer tell me that the dungeons' altar rooms connect to each other.
  

I think that what I want to do next is to seek out Lord British, and the cloth map tells me that his castle is on the north bank of Britannia Bay. The easiest way off this island is by moongate - Britannia has two moons, whose phase are always visible onscreen, and which determine where the moongates come and go. The left moon's phase determines when and where the moongate appears, the right moon's phase determines where it takes you. And one possible destination is right next to British's castle!

I approach the peninsula marked with a new moon on the map, and as both lunar discs fade, the moongate opens.

 

The moment the secondary moon shifts phases, I step inside.

A little to the west...

My map so far:

Game 440: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Read the manuals here:

https://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=u4

 

Anyone with a modicum of interest in CRPG history knows what a watershed moment Ultima IV was - for the first time outside text adventures, we see rich worldbuilding, a backstory that plays more of a role than simple window dressing, and two mainstays of the genre; choice & consequence and morality systems. It's these last two which are best known as Ultima IV's raison d'etre, and in time, perhaps the defining elements of the late 90's CRPG renaissance.

Truth be told, when I played Ultima IV for the first time 15+ years ago - I used the xu4 port with modern enhancements - I couldn't help feel I had been oversold on its momentousness. Certainly it deserved plenty of credit for introducing the concept of ethical decisions to the formula, arguably the only thing that justifies the "RP" part of the CRPG initialism. But in practice, I never felt like I was making any sort of ethical decisions at all; the virtues are little more than semi-visible stats which you'll need to max out in order to win the game, and the gains or loss of virtue points is the only consequences you'll ever see for your actions. Some got there through normal play, but most had to be grinded out through repetitive actions - for instance, the only way to raise Honesty is by paying your apothecary bill correctly, and I'd reach the necessary levels by making lots of small purchases over the course of several minutes.

This time, as with previous Ultimas, I'm playing the Apple II version, with unmodified copies from the Woz-a-day collection. Ultima IV also goes a step further than Ultima III's Mockingboard music board support, already an uncommonly supported feature in the system's library, and supports stereo-format music on systems with dual Mockingboards. AppleWin, of course, supports this configuration just fine.

Once again, Origin Systems gave Ultima a deluxe packaging treatment on its initial release, including a useless but fancy-looking pewter ankh amulet among the goods. The cloth map now depicts Britannia more or less as it would be for the rest of the series. A 60-page spellbook offers elaborate descriptions and full page illustrations for each of the magical reagents and spells, which are no longer split into mage and priest types. Lastly, of course, is a lengthy manual, front-loaded with history and lore.

 

The manual opens with a heavily redacted recap of Ultimas I-III - now that the series is invested in its own continuity and cohesion, it's got to revise or remove everything from past games that doesn't fit, and this would be the last time that the series needed to do this. The past is declared the Eras of Darkness, a feudal period in which the unincorporated land of Sosaria was thrice threatened by evil, and thrice saved by heroic adventurers - not necessarily the same adventurers, nor necessarily the Avatar. The time-traveling shenanigans are downplayed, the twist about Exodus' true nature is lampshaded but not explained, the fact that Ultima II was set mostly on Earth isn't brought up at all, and the totally inconsistent geography of Sosaria is handwaved; it is what it is and the events of Ultima III reshaped the world into the way it is now and will always be. Honest.

With the fall of Exodus, an era of relative peace begins. Eight kingdoms unite under the benevolent rule of Lord British, making the city-state Britannia the capital of the newly unified empire. The lands are charted, the remaining enclaves of evil routed, and academies of science, spirituality, and militarism are opened. Britannia-by-the-sea, overlooked by Lord British's castle, becomes an epicenter for culture and art. The seven other former kingdoms each have their own geographical features and respective capital cities dedicated to a craft or trade. Life, it seems, is good. Evil of course cannot be completely vanquished - orcs, highwaymen, and even wild animals make travel in the wilderness dangerous, pirates remain a nuisance at sea, and true horrors still lurk deep in the unexplored subterranean realms, but for most, day-to-day life is one of stability and prosperity.

The manual explains gameplay mechanics, which are for the most part similar to Ultima III, but there are some notable changes and additions. Your party is recruited from willing companions met during the game - a feature mentioned in Ultima III's manual, but not actually present. Conversation is greatly expanded, with townsfolk responding to keywords, namely NAME/JOB/HEALTH, but also to topics which can be discovered through investigation. Magic requires mixing reagents, which can be purchased at any town's herb shop, though some of the rarer reagents needed for the most powerful spells must be sought out in the wilderness.

The final chapter alone touches on Ultima IV's objective - humanity has survived, great evil is at bay, now what? Society needs principals to last in the long run, and people need inner fulfillment to make life worth living.

A group of philosophers at the Lycaeum have discovered the eight virtues that make the path to enlightenment. Many have dedicated their lives to a virtue or two, but the people must know and strive to attain them all. Therefore, Lord British seeks a champion - to become the Avatar and be the paragon of virtue for all to follow, you must visit the eight cities, learn of the virtues, their mantras, and meditate on and practice them. Only then, after achieving mastery in all eight virtues, in both understanding and practice, can one seek to discover the secrets of universal harmony and usher in the Age of Light.

This symbol on the back of the manual illustrates the cycles and connections between virtues.

 

Personally, I find this to be a lot of wooey nonsense, even if the video game world had certainly not seen anything like it before, and perhaps not very often since. The actual philosophy on display here is pretty juvenile - the selection of eight virtues is a bit arbitrary, and the convenient geometric symmetry that governs it contrived and mostly superficial. It strikes me as a new age syncretism of ancient moral and mystic frameworks, with aspects of Tantra, Tao, and Kabbalah, but without the cultural context needed to even begin to follow any of them, and shed of all aspects of the supernatural and divine apart from pantheistic-like reverence for the abstract concept of virtue itself.

Nevertheless, it's clear that Ultima IV became a launching point for ethics as a gameplay mechanic, which is something that's not just been ubiquitous in Western RPGs but has transcended into other genres. Quest for Glory is one example that stuck with me in real life - do good things and your honor score improves, do bad things and your honor score diminishes, which has real consequences for paladins, whose powers depend on honor, but for other classes it is merely a point of personal conscience, as it is in real life. No game to my knowledge has attempted the superficially complex ethical system of Ultima IV, not even its sequels. Some games, such as the Elder Scrolls and Fallouts supplement it with a complex reputation system, where actions can raise and lower your individual approval ratings among individuals and factions, but as far as the omniscient game world is concerned, there's good karma and there's bad karma. And honestly? I find that easier to swallow.

Next post, I'll actually start playing the game.