Lore question: Are we -all- "The Avatar" of U1-U9?

I'm a fairly big lore whore when it comes to Old Brittania and Sosaria that was before that, and as I work up my story and lore for Harmony Muse, I find myself thinking

What place do the old Ultima games stand, canonically and fanonically, in regards to SotA and New Brittania?

I mean, both series make it a plot point that you are your own player character in a very real literal sense. Does this also mean that given their shared origins that the "Me" tooling around Soltown listening to people playing Stones on the inn Piano is the same "Me" who sprung a princess out of Lord Brtish's dungeon after giving Iolo a phazor enema for the key? The same girl who kept robbing the McDonall's in Port Bonifice and then sprinting out of town? The same girl who freaked out the doctor in Castle British by giving blood until I nearly passed out, crawled up the stairs for the free heal from LB and went back down to repeat the process?

....The same girl who got a gypsy prostitute to have sex with Sherry the Mouse?

And , more importantly, if that's the case, what about every other one of us who's played the Ultima series?

 

Yes. We all are. For those who need logical conclusions to fictional dilemmas, you might need to separate the You who plays through the story, and the You who interacts with other players in the sandbox.

 

Clear as mud.

*walks off cliff* I was following my GPS!!!

 

tl;dr, monkeyrogue, I'm asking if SotA and the Ultima series are in continuity with each other, and, if that's the case, would that technically make every single person playing "The Avatar" which in the ultima series was a recurring hero of legend you played as that solved whatever problem was facing the world at the time.

 

Another reason to play offline

 

I think with SotA only being a spiritual successor to the Ultima series, we all are other Avatars than the one in the original series. Even though SotA does share some parts of the story with the Ultima series, it still is a new start off the ground and I view it as a separate stroyline.

 

While talking to the gypsy at the beginning she says that you have been resurrected just like Lord British and that the events in Britannia are past. So basically this implies that you are the Avatar from Ultima 1 -9.

 

For whatever bizarre reason they might have, some people disagree with me on things like this. To the first question.. Yes Shroud is a continuation of Ultima.. and No you are no THE Avatar. The opening cinematic should make that pretty clear regardless if you're playing multiplayer or not.

That being said.. there are any number of discrepancies in game dialogue, text and statements even from Richard himself. So we must examine what we know and find our own answer. I don't really give a rip what Arabella says. Everything I've heard from her so far is geared solely for a single player experience. For an excess of 100,000+ avatars (and I'm sure it'll be a LOT more than that), the same generic cinematic, manual dialogue and whatever it sounds like Arabella is saying right now can't possibly be true for every last 'avatar' so it makes little sense to apply it towards the multiplayer experience.

Next, not even Richard Garriott plays Lord British as if it were his real life self. I believe the intent is that players play consistently and honestly but that doesn't mean it must be YOU.. to my mind they've done a pretty poor job of explaining the intent and some people are taking it quite literally. Of course if anyone wants to take that route that's perfectly fine, but no one should feel bound to it.

Recall also the Avatar was to ascend to become to Titan of Ether, having remerged with the Guardian. Granted the actual game leaves it pretty open ended, but ultimately that character was rather set in stone by Ultima IX as the blonde guy. I suppose in the single player you could make a case for taking on that character again, but again in the multiplayer setting it just doesn't fly.

Of course, the game cannot say it's the same world.. but it shows us that it is. Daedelus, the result of the collision of the two moons. The return of the Lands of Lord British.. the benefactor symbol showing the other land masses resembling the Ultime IX map. The 8 orbiting planets related to the 8 virtues. Remnants of the virtue system existing in the world. The constellations containing all of the virtue symbols etc.

 

If that's true it's in direct contradiction to the opening cinematic where you're supposed to have learned about New Britannia through the internet and somehow found a way to go there.

 

I myself would prefer it if we are not THE Avatar but someone else from Earth.
Maybe THE Avatar could make a cameo appearance during the story...

 

I believe that was the intent.. well.. don't know about the cameo but that is certain possible so long as they don't identify the character as the one true Avatar.

 

I think the answer lies in a multiverse approach - everyone was "a" avatar in their verse. However once the shards have now united, you are no longer "a" nor "the" avatar.
Hence the Arabella.

 

Several issues with the multi-verse / UO approach. Firstly, the Avatar never appears in any of the shards since he existed in the original reality. There is no basis in lore for anyone entering or leaving the shards. UO lore was quite clear that the 'hero from another world' never comes back in any of the shards. Also, reuniting the shards has no basis in lore either, and 3 shards on top of that were destroyed in U5. Reforming a complete gem of immortality from all the gems is quite impossible. Furthermore, there has never been any indication that anyone in 'reality' was ever aware of anything that may have happened inside any of the shards. So no events within UO can be considered lore.

The more you try to explain every little thing as being accurate the less sense it's going to make. Even Richard Garriott makes mistakes. Rather than trying to reconcile every inconsistency I think it's better to recognize the differences and take what makes the most sense and drop the rest as human error.

The Avatar is a person who came from Earth.. did his thing and now his part of the story is over. None of us are that character in the multiplayer game. Anything else makes no sense.

 

I think that is up for interpretation.

 

The Avatar (s) in SotA some arrive with a 5 mile baggage train bringing all thier 21st century purchases and rule the roost from Day one.

The majority will arrive with nothing, and have to learn everything.

But everything will be available online with no NDA, Players creating/selling Books on the world's secrets from day 1.

The Lore players already want to create it and become part of it even in Alpha.


For the Lore I think the only way will be to play the offline Game and wait for each episode, and keep well away from what's being cobbled together online.

 

Well, I would disagree with your interpretation, Bowen

This is my interpretation of what has transpired

Having ascended to a higher plane of existence at the end of Ultima IX, you have been cast back down to Earth into human form to save "New" Britannia (which has recovered from the devastation that occurred during Ultima IX and afterwards) once again from some evil menace. As is often the case when godlike beings regain human form, you have amnesia and don't remember much about your past adventures (except perhaps for some brief memory flashes) until you begin doing some research on the internet...(intro sequence to Shroud of the Avatar)

As the land recovered, so did Lord British (since his lifeforce is tied to the land), which explains why he is young and vital again Lord Blackthorn, who was slain by Lord British in a great mystic duel at the center of the Great Stygian Abyss in Ultima IX was also reborn on earth in human form, with no memory of his past - until the current High Priestess of Chaos, Amber Raine, finally managed to locate him, restored his memories, and summoned him back home to New Britannia, where he assumed the guise of Lord DarkStarr

And yes, since I believe we exist in the multiverse - ignoring the whole UO explanation of it and going for scientific theory instead - (http://www.space.com/18811-multiple-universes-5-theories.html), every one of us can be the "The Avatar"

 

Hmm, what devastation at the end of Ultima IX? The land was saved and everything seemed ok...

 

There were plague, famine, and other natural disasters which were occurring due to the great columns in Ultima IX. And then came the devastation caused by the collision of the twin moons which obviously occurred after you ascended to a higher plane of existence over 400 years ago

It all fits...

 

Well in a sense both statements are true. We do have to find our way here. We used the web to find SOTA. Now this new land is calling us. We heard the cry and bought the game. Is it the same avatar that played 1-8 Ultima. Last time I checked it is me.

 

Nope we are not. If you don't have a backstory the short answer would be, yes, maybe. But if you do have a backstory, you have the ability to write any backstory you like. My backstory for example, I'm not the Avatar, never have been. To claim such is blasphemous. If you're the Avatar, you know there are a lot of parallel universe guardians running around. My dude is a traveler, most familiar with Serpent Isle, former follower of the great Serpent, now a follower of the all seeing Oracle! To ask such a question is to admit a lack of knowledge of ones self.