Looking for confirmation from other shards per GL event information

[Trebr Drab]

In an event on GL, and left in the game, I stumbled across a place that has lots of books and other things related to that event. But much of it is also related to UO and the Ultima lore. Some new stuff, at least to me of course, and maybe many others.

This is a book written by a Gargoyle, I'll >bold< the one particular part I have a question on, but including the entire things in case someone else can offer more.

To Remember...
by Vasbeninlem

I saw a man wrapped in strands of destiny. He was chanting "Vas Quas Por Wis Tym." He looked at me, and I saw a great sadness in his eyes.

"Hail Vasbeninlem, dreamer of Ter Mur, I am very glad to meet you. You may call me Hawkwind."

I stuttered that I did not understand.
"You are bal-sil-fer. You have the gift and the curse to see the river of time. That is how I am speaking with you now. I need you to do something for me. I cannot tell you if it will be something great or something terrible...

"You must retrieve a book." He waved his hand, and I had an image of the proud people who the Anskitas had been. I saw their city of Monitor in flames. I saw the waters of time washing over them. I saw the book and the last desperate spell to save a tiny fraction of who and what they were.

"Send one of your benevolence spirits to retrieve it. You must craft a container that will protect it for a very long time."

Again, he showed me a strange vision. I saw an older man, wisdom and worry written on his face. The wizard worked in front of a crest of the silver serpent, reading the same book. I saw his eyes brighten as he read. I asked Hawkwind what it meant. He sighed "I can only show you the pieces." My mind was flooded with images:

Twin ruby gems forming over millions of years...

The gems being cut and infused with magic, one was brilliant like the sun, the other smoldered like fire...

A great fire creature handing the Scorched Ruby to a group of demons, binding their fates together...

An air elemental carrying a burning ruby high into the sky and hiding it behind a blue moon...

A cruel human standing over his dead father, the Sun Ruby in his hand eclipsed by his evil heart...

A sword smashing the dark gem, sending shards flying across the floor, shattering a world...

My own hand carving strange words onto two stone pillars...

The good wizard from before casting a desperate spell with a crystal shard. The light of the blue moon dims slightly for a moment, as all of its magic is focused through the crystal...

A dark queen strikes down an ally in a room of Justice. She holds the same shard...

A human king moves a single gem away from a pile of similar shards. He looks into the gem, and a flash os red fire causes him to frown.

"My Lord, the Crystal of Duplicity is tainted. You cannot bring it with you..."

Finally, I saw a queen ordering her subjects to bring the crystal into the light, hope written on her young face...

Hawkwind waited a few moments for my mind to recover before he spoke:

"Much good and much evil will happen. We cannot change everything. At best, we can give tools and weapons to those who stand on the thin grey line. We can only hope that it is enough. Good luck, dreamer."

With that, I woke up.​

"An air elemental carrying a burning ruby high into the sky and hiding it behind a blue moon"...this would seem to have a lot to do with Nystul's magic that created Trammel. I'm wondering if any other shards, besides GL, have had anything like this revealed there as well.

The reason for this question is to try to determine if this is part of a wider storyline, and if it's to be considered UO canon. Or are events not being run as part of something bigger? Are EMs making up their own stories?

Another aspect I'm curious about from this event. There is a very strong implication that Ilshenar is connected to the lands in Ultima 8. Again, is this to be considered UO canon?

Any answers would be appreciated, including should a Dev wish to jump in here and help out.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

the seer wants to move thru time, perhaps to change/reverse something- or to make it 'appear' something has changed? guessing, still a very cool story. thanks for sharing.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

What you are seeing, so far as I can discern, is the Great Lakes Event Moderators' attempt to tie the In the Shadow of Virtue story arc to their own demon-centric Blood Feud story arc, cleverly using Ultima history and lore and UO history and lore as the connection points.

I had sent you a link in PM sometime last week, in which was a link to a Great Lakes forum post I did that sought to summarize both the In the Shadow of Virtue and Blood Feud story arcs to the best of my recollection and knowledge.

At least some of what you ask here was answered in that link. If it wasn't clear enough I apologize.

On all shards, the Crystal of Duplicity is the object used by Lord British and Nystul to create Trammel and escape from the brutal tyranny of Minax. On all shards, Queen Dawn thinks that the Crystal can be used to cleanse Magincia of evil magics and hence rebuild it.

On GL specifically, however, there is another item, known as the Scorched Ruby, which is either the same thing as or is contained somehow within the Crystal of Duplicity. That Scorched Ruby was a demonic item stolen by an Elemental Titan named Stratos. Stratos's evil brother is Pyros, the Elemental Titan of Fire. Pyros is involved somehow in the plot, the specifics aren't clear to me.

Early on in the plot, we managed to imprison Stratis's just-as-evil-as-Pyros-but-less-competent brother, Lithos, the Elemental Titan of Earth, near the Compassion Shrine in Ilshenar.

The 4th Elemental Titan of the family, Hydros, we haven't seen or heard much if anything from.

The stuff with the Elemental Titans, who are inspired by an old Ultima game called Pagan, appears to be specific to the Great Lakes EM fiction.

Basically, to us on Great Lakes the Crystal of Duplicity has different meanings than it does in the meta-fiction.

The parts of that book you bolded are so far as I know Great Lakes-specific.

However, other parts of the book relate to things that have occurred on all shards.

Examples:

The good wizard from before casting a desperate spell with a crystal shard. The light of the blue moon dims slightly for a moment, as all of its magic is focused through the crystal...

would appear to me to be Nystul's creation of Trammel. (So Nystul's reaction of Tarmmel is indeed in that book, just not in the part you cited.)

A cruel human standing over his dead father, the Sun Ruby in his hand eclipsed by his evil heart...

is transparently Mondain slaying his father.

A dark queen strikes down an ally in a room of Justice. She holds the same shard...

is Minax slaying her General, Keeonan I think his name was (the dude whose Chain Mail is a Vesper Museum artifact) in the Court of Truth in Yew.

A human king moves a single gem away from a pile of similar shards. He looks into the gem, and a flash os red fire causes him to frown.

"My Lord, the Crystal of Duplicity is tainted. You cannot bring it with you..."


is likely the second time Lord British disappeared, when he was thought to have brought the Crystal with him.

And of course:

Finally, I saw a queen ordering her subjects to bring the crystal into the light, hope written on her young face...

is clearly Queen Dawn breaking into the Vault to get the Crystal in an attempt to cleanse Magincia of the magics that prevent rebuilding.

You are correct that stuff in the book refers to game-wide events. You were so far as I know incorrect, however, about what you cited. The passage you bolded appears to refer to Great Lakes-specific events.

-Galen's player

 

[Trebr Drab]

Galen, thanks for all the input. This is a rather bold thing, in my opinion, to add lore in such a manner, yet be specific to one shard. I don't like it, but that's only relevant to me, I suppose.

I was really hoping that this could be shard wide, as far as this addition to the lore. It still could be. Just because they haven't seen it on any other shards doesn't mean it's not canon for all.

In my opinion, this is great stuff. IF it's for UO, and not just something for GL.

To the Devs, if you don't have a unified effort here, if this isn't canon for UO, I suggest you make it so. I suggest you get the EMs together to create this wonder that is, or could be, UO, and make it consistent.

This event on GL appears to be one of those works of artistic inspiration, the sort that fits Ultima like a glove. We need this.

GL EMs, to you I give a well deserved "Well Done" award->

But it just lacks something if it's instanced for GL only.
Devs?
Ball's in your court.

Meanwhile, to other players on other shards, can we keep a line of communication open here to look for such unified efforts? This could be great fun for those of us who like this stuff.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

When you look, they add nothing that contradicts, subverts, or breaks any of the official fiction. I'd be wary of suggesting so; these are strange days and people read strange implications into things.

I think Malachi and Elizabella are too clever for to break the official fiction.

All they've really done is add depth. Indeed a lot of this book is describing things that have already occurred, just doing it with poetry.

If this is adding lore in the manner you appear to suggest then any villain, character, item, event, location, or set of circumstances added by any EM on any shard is adding lore. Which it is in some sense, I suppose, but not in the sense you appear to be implying.

Having said that, I would surely love for the game-wide fiction to have this depth and knowledge, but it runs a risk. For every suggestion that the EM fiction is bold there are other voices asking for each shard to have a unique history, villains, locations, and set of circumstances.

-Galen's player

 

[Trebr Drab]

They've added a "Scorched Ruby" that's a twin to the Sun Ruby that the Gem or Immortality was made from, and placed it by hiding it behind a blue moon. That's some significant addition to the lore, isn't it? Or was all this from U8 (Pagan)?

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

They've added a "Scorched Ruby" that's a twin to the Sun Ruby that the Gem or Immortality was made from, and placed it by hiding it behind a blue moon. That's some significant addition to the lore, isn't it? Or was all this from U8 (Pagan)?

Significant in some senses I suppose, but again, adding pirate caves or new villains or having a different administrative structure in the realm are all significant in some way.

Not "significant" the way I think you mean. I think you see this as more questioning of the Ultima mythology or the UO mythology and history than it actually is. I've run into some things in RP across the various shards I have played on or observed from a distance that's more questioning of Ultima lore than this stuff is.

Mostly what I see here is filling in a lot of blanks.

The EM fiction shouldn't question the lore and this stuff doesn't. What it does do is fill in the blanks with style and add way more urgency and depth to the story.

And none of this conversation can possibly take into account what's going on behind the scenes in meetings between, say, Mesanna and the EMs.

I also don't really have the impression the Scorched Ruby was a twin to Mondain's gem. Not sure if anyone else has taken it that way but it wasn't my impression for sure. I thought it was pretty clearly lesser than Mondain's. As well it should be.

There's likely lots of magical gems in the UO world.

As to what was from Pagan my "memory" of that game comes from secondary sources so I really don't know.

-Galen's player

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

"An air elemental carrying a burning ruby high into the sky and hiding it behind a blue moon"...this would seem to have a lot to do with Nystul's magic that created Trammel. I'm wondering if any other shards, besides GL, have had anything like this revealed there as well.

No, it obviously doesn’t, unless you think Nystul was an air elemental... It has to do with Stratos stealing and hiding the Scorched Ruby. You found one book and are willfully taking it out of context. A modicum of research would have filled you in on the rest of the story.

Another aspect I'm curious about from this event. There is a very strong implication that Ilshenar is connected to the lands in Ultima 8. Again, is this to be considered UO canon?

This is a stretch… Ilshenar is the Lands of Danger and Despair.. We’ve covered this before. EM Malachi either agrees or is running with it due to GL’s interpretation of things. Anything the EMs do ‘on their own’ isn’t UO cannon, it’s the specific shard’s cannon.

The specific book you quoted is from the Game Room of the Xenve An-Amo-Lem fortress. It was revealed a few months back when we had a necromancer free the trapped spirit of Vasbeninlem, one of the three gargoyle brothers who built the fortress. He apparently met the Time Lord at some point and was given a warning about the future – a future in which the Hythloth Conclave, led by Virtue Bane, would attempt to take over the world and regain the favor of Pyros.

EM Malachi’s story makes the Bane Chosen plotline seem like a low-budget 70’s cartoon in comparison. (i.e. Tissue-paper-thin and super linear… Malachi is Gargoyles, Bane Chosen is Rocky & Bullwinkle)

Sorry, but I like having different histories and events on different shards is a good thing. It gives each shard its own unique character. EM Malachi has done a good job filling in the MASSIVE holes in the metafiction while giving things back story and tying in his own plotlines.

Extra EM fiction wouldn’t be so obvious if this Bane meta arc actually bothered to make sense, had some decent fictional meat on its bones, and had an in-game presence that anyone cared about.

*shrugs* The meta arc should be turned over to the EMs anyway, or at the very least one person with relatively creative vision, knowledge of Ultima/UO, and the ability to write and proofread a decent story.

You can find out pretty much everything about the current GL EM plotline here:

Blood Feud, Part I: Of Earth and Air

and

Blood Feud, Part II: Daemon Pyre