Elves are very much a part of Ultima Lore, and though they have never been instituted as player races, they have been recognized as existing aspects of Sosaria multiple times throughout the history of Ultima Online. So with apologies to thread author, I will briefly hijack this thread to defend Elvendom. I will list the facts, and only the facts, and leave it at that. Hopefully that will be enough to avoid a long digressive debate on what each of thinks should or should not be added in the game.

OK, lets start from the beginning. In Ultima Online, the only two "canon" or official games from the Ultima Prime Series (Ultima 1-10) are Alkabeth (parts of it) and Ultima 1. The reasoning behind this is simple, as UO "shards" came into play directly after the shattering of the gem of immortality.... which was done at the end of Ultima 1. Certain pieces of background material from the Prime Ultima games, which were concurrently developing during Ultima 1's timeline, should also be considered also canon. After this period, all of the shards began to run on seperate timelines, each with their own independent residents and progression. Some things, despite the shift, continued to grow parallel throughout all the timelines. The implemnentation of the Virtues, for example, and the presence of all of the Companions of the Avatar. Ironically, there is technically no Avatar as those who played the Ultima Prime series know him, instead we have what is commonly reffered to as "the Stranger", a mysterious extraplanar being who came to help set matters right (that's you in the single player games). The quest for the Avatar did not exist, and in fact the virtues were not even created until a few decades ago (4 years RL time, I believe, right before UO:R, with the implementation of the Order/Chaos wars).

All right then, here is a partial timeline of the canon Ultima 1 and Alkabeth Prime history, which contains references to the other Ultima games, but only when time refences are given that link specific PAST events (which would make them canon as well, since they take place before the death of Mondain). You can check out the full timeline from the Ultima Prime series here.

This timeline represents the "known" events which took place in the worlds of Britannia and Sosaria. By known, I mean those events which are known to have taken place, and for which some context is directly extractable from the game conversations, documentation, books and scrolls, etc.

* Zog casts Armageddon. (U6, wisps)

* The religious cult of Truth is founded.

* The island of Ambrosia is battered to pieces by "rocks from the sky". It is thought destroyed.

* Humans drive the Cyclops race underground. (U1 doc)

* Mondain's father, Wolfgang, is born. He becomes King of a region in Sosaria known as Akalabeth. (Aka doc)

* Later, Wolfgang's first son (unknown), and second, Mondain, are born. (What happens to the brother is unknown....) (Aka doc)

* Mondain is born.

* British arrives in Sosaria through a blue moongate, and meets Shamino. (U5 BOL)

* At age 15, Mondain kills his father, and takes his ruby gem. (U5 BOL)

* Mondain uses the ruby gem against itself, creating the Gem of Immortality. (U5 BOL)
(Possibly he retreats to Barataria? One of the castles in the Lands of the Dark Unknown)

* (Mondain crosses man/Baratarian bull to create minotaurs) (U1 doc; Minotaur)

* British drives Mondain from his corner of Sosaria ("Akalabeth"), and becomes Lord British. (Aka doc)

* Various heroes enter the service of Lord British, ridding the local realm of monsters, and earning the title "Knight".

* By performing vile experiments on his own servants, Mondain crosses his own servants with reptiles and creates the Lizardmen. (U1 doc; Lizard Man)

* Various Lords of Sosaria outlaw the practice of magic. (U1 doc)

* Shamino gets his own kingdom in the "Lands of Danger and Despair". (U1)

* Presence of sea monsters confirmed as the frigate Pembroke is sunk by one in plain sight of a small armada. (U1 doc; Ness Creature)

* Mondain recruits help from "starwalking monsters of unparalleled savagery". Possibly the Kilrathi? :-) (U1 doc)

* Minax is born.

* At age eleven, Minax is apprenticed to Mondain. (U2 doc)

* Exodus is "conceived".

* The Stranger appears in Sosaria for the first time, entering through the moongate known as the "Siege Perilous". (U1 doc; U3 doc)

* The Stranger uses a time machine to step outside of natural time and penetrate Mondain's stronghold. In the ensuing battle, the Stranger shatters Mondain's Gem of Immortality and then slays Mondain. Three stray shards of the Gem are accidentally scattered.

* The release of magic at Mondain's death causes great upheaval, rending time and space, and 3/4 of the world disappears. This may possibly have been a magical failsafe device of Mondain's, designed to make Lord British's realm disappear, leaving the rest of Sosaria ripe for Mondain's conquest.

* At this time, the shards of Ultima Online are born, and we cease to follow the timeline of the next Ultimas. I could contnue into a further timeline of what we know has happenes in UO since then, but it has no bearing on the topic.

So, we have established that Ultima 1 and pieces of Alkabeth are, without a doubt, canon material for the foundational structure of Ultima Online. Lets dig a little deeper into Ultima 1, and I will read you a piece of the Ultima 1 manual, page 3-4. {Download the manual here in .pdf}

Fellowship

The lands of Sosaria are populated by as diversity of races as varied as the elements. From the tinest Bobbit to the most towering human, our folk show a strength of character unknown in other parts of the world. Until the coming of the foul Mondain, our folk lived in harmony and worked together in the true spirit of comrade-ship. The principal inhabitants of Sosaria are:

Human: Endowed with a natural intellect higher then aby other race, the humans are the backbone of Sosarian society. Found in all walks of life, they are strong of body and of unexcelled spirit.

Elf: Shorter than their human counterparts by the span of three hands, the elves of Sosaria are slight of build and swift of movement. Their superior natural agility makes them excellent muscians and clever thieves. At home amoungst the trees of the deepest forest or in the alleyways of the capital, the Sosarian Elf makes a stalwart companion and a relentless foe.

Dwarf: Mountain Folk and legendary miners, the dwarves of Sosaria stand but half a human's height, yet often outweigh slender elves. They are matchless in courage and possess and inordinate endowment of natural strength. Never accept the Sosarian Dwarfs challenge to wrestle for drinks in a tavern, unless the supply of gold be endless and the generosity ample.

Bobbit: A small and gentle race, the sosarian Bobbits are believed to have come to our Realm from a distant place. They are said to favour mountainside meadows and the serenity of forest clearings. Their dimunitive height being even less then thatof a dwarf, they shun any task that involves hard, physical labour, preferring instead the pursuits of study and contemplation. Bobbits are naturally weak, yet possess a serenity indicative of profound wisdom.

So there you have it, black and white, straight from the mouth of OSI themselves. Elves, Dwarves, and Bobbits were considered viable player races in the Sosarian world even as far back as 20 years ago. They are canon, pure and simple, because the world that Ultima Online comes from has them already set as a part of their history, whether we as players wish it or not. In fact, in the early days of Ultima Online's fiction creation they even gave out a set of weapons crafted by Bobbits, Dwarves and Elves on all of the current shards... yet another factor in their obvious existence. You can read about it here if you wish.

Now it is true that UO has never given us the option to create player character races, but as I stated in my original post, this was because of artwork and Dev Resources, not because those races were considered non-canonical. This has been stated in past Dev Chats, and they even had tenatively development plans to create a racial "face builder" as far back as pre-UO:R, and again with LBR. Both of these were shelved for more important projects (don't get me started on that).

Now despite all of the proof of racial inclusion within the very foundational structure of Ultima's world, I think there is an even more important factor. Elves don't just exist because OSI said so, they exist because we said so. It isnt the OSI who breathes life into a race, but the player's who take the characters who claim such heritage and craft that life with their own skill and desire. I have yet to find a single shard where I cannot find a non-human town of some sort. We build them because we want to experiment with our creative juices, to find somethign new and different and give it birth. It is our chosen path, our "playstyle". Regardless of everything else, that is why there are Elves, Dwarves, Deamons and more in UO. Because we gave birth to them with our own hearts and minds.

For most of us in TGC, Sosaria was NOT our original home... we moved from an outpost just outside the city of Neverwinter in the world of Toril, when the universe of Faerun was destroyed in a great cataclysm (when AOL closed down the original NWN game back in 96-97, I forget which). If you like, you can read about those adventures HERE and HERE.

Now as for Elves native to Sosaria, we actually do have a number of new initiates who are members of that race, as such we have a vested interest in the fictional consistency of Sosartian Elvendom, so much so that we put on a 2 and half year quest to explain exactly what happened to the Elves in Sosaria. You can read those exploits HERE, but briefly... a necromantic guild started using Elven, Bobbit, and Dwarven life essences as their "preferred" diet. Since their lifespans were considerably longer then humans, they also therefore had more life to feed off of. Communities vanished, leaving nothing but ruins (like the city of the dead) where once proud Elven, Dwarven, and Bobbit settlements once stood... but there ARE occasional survivors who managed to hide throughout the Times of Affliction and survive.

And that's our explanation. Hope it helps, Elv'ng, and sorry I missed you at Jordi and Pad's wedding... I was looking forward to meeting you.

Talanithus Tarant

• I am glad to learn that I was wrong Selwyn 02:39:04 pm, 5/05/3 (0)
• Re: Regarding Elves in UO.... Elv'eng 09:53:38 am, 5/04/3 (1)
  • Re: Regarding Elves in UO.... Maya 03:47:18 am, 5/05/3 (0)