Other games have a mob called Wisp. It has been characterized as an elemental sometimes. However my question is what do you think of our game calling the bright ball we see a will-o-wisp. By definition this is a description of swamp gas that seems to glow at times. Is our game creating an entity by having will-o-wisps flying around non swampy areas? Does anyone have information on this?
You can find them natively in swamp areas of the game. Will O'Wisp are summoned beings for magic users. No different than a Fire Elemental being summoned to non-lava, non-plane of fire locations. Just because something lives in a place doesn't mean a magic user can't summon it someplace else.
I guess I was not clear. Other games call a wisp a wisp. Here they have become a will-o-wisp. These are two different entities. Is the fact that our game calls them by a new name simply a mistake? I am pretty sure our glowing balls are wisps. Oh... and here they are not relegated to swampy areas, but can be found in places like Nightshade pass. A wisp is an elemental intelligence. A will-o-wisp is just swamp gas.
The will-o-wisps were famous creatures in UO. Didn't do much and showed a strange behaviour. Players interpreted many things into them - leads to treasures, gives answers if asked the right question, etc. .. - and developed into a quest on its own. Nevertheless they didn't do anything special, afaik. The current wisp seem to be a SotA-remake.
I know them as will-o-wisps since I started playing Ultima (Ultima III to be exact) and Bard's Tale (the original EA rpg)... atleast if my memory is correct.. but it's definitly not a "new" name for them.
Richard got that from D&D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o'-wisp_(Dungeons_&_Dragons) D&D got that from folklore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o'-the-wisp Up here in Sweden those are known as Myling or Lyktgubbe. My grand-grandma talked about mylingar when warning us kids about swamps, so it was quite the thrill when I did meet them in the ultimas of old.
In UO you could communicate with them but their language was not known. Sometimes they would speak an english word. And it wasnt good to kill them. I have seen them in several places in Sota and accidentally killed a few. But generally i leave them alone as i think they are pretty. To me they are just giant fireflies. LOL
Yah, I've always seen them as mischievous but not evil so I tend to ignore them if I can and try not to harm them when possible. I remember years ago in UO (before Trammel) Wisps were really tough - I got ganked by a bunch of them once when I tried to kill one - needless to say, I learned my lesson and have never gone after them in any game since
Sometimes old habits are hard to break. Fighting a wisp is one of them. So far these arent too terrible to kill but gives ya the feel bads for doing it. LOL
There was a sort of wisp cult in UO on Chessy server. Tried to find meaning in the wisps proclamations.
Mizb <---<<< The old Wisp in the mirror trick Check that name out by looking in a mirror if you've never seen it before Just hold it up to a mirror and the name "Wisp" will appear... ~Time Lord~