We Build The World
When I was younger there was a set of books out that let you make decisions during the story. For every choice you made you had to jump to different page. Each page was different and there were 30 different outcomes per book. The beginning of the story was always a guideline while the middle and end were always up to you. Ultima Online is like that. Yes, the original construct was based on a game we all know and love but the truth of the matter is that the multiplayer aspect of it and the fact you have so many characters wandering Sosaria that were never incorporated into the original game. Thus you have the difference between Ultima Lore and Player Lore. Ultima Lore was what we started with. Player Lore is what we did with it.
OES of Atlantic, Twilight Fellowship of Pacific, Magincia Trading Company of Baja….They all have some very pointed things in common. They are all player run communities and they all deviate from Ultima lore. At the beginning of 2010 deviations from Ultima Lore became recognized for their own merit. Town Banners were erected by Mesanna to pay homage to the characters and the lives created by none other than the players themselves.
There are guilds that don't so much deviate as they do expand and explore. Sage of Pacific, Citizens of Avalon on Baja, Dawn of Baja, and several of those on Europa all take the lore and twist it somewhat. What is the point of paying a monthly fee for an online game if you don't have some say in how it gets portrayed. Let's take a look at The Twilight Fellowship for example. Yes, they basic structure of the Ultima Lore was there. But they also involve the pen and paper games as well as a thousand different other characters created over time. Intricate stories that challenge the backgrounds of the original cast of characters and fleshes them out is the backdrop for all future creations. A lot of time and effort went into the connections and the story lines without any assistance from the devs (as we like to call them). It was pure imagination.
The order of the Ebon Skull and the Dark Tower have a very specific piece of Ultima Lore attached to them. They have the Well of Souls. That's where that stops. OES took over from there and a whole culture was born. Charnel Hill of Atlantic is one of those sites that, while commemorated with a town banner, exists completely in the minds of the players. And antagonist for the do gooder Light bringing guilds, the Lich loving mob are the exact opposite of everything Ultima stood for originally. And yet they too are revered and respected enough to erect a tome to in the middle of Umbra on their home shard. There is something to be said for being different it seems.
Europa's extreme's take a slightly different turn. Many of the guilds there reject the fantasy aspects that make Ultima what it is and use a bare bones mentality. But the players who pay the fees enjoy it and as such are also respected. There are those that argue that Ultima has to be followed to the letter, that the islands and the people have to hold to the truths of the game. I would argue they completely miss the point of a MMO if they do that. They shaped the world and it is up to us as individuals to fill as we see fit. Not to form ourselves into a cookie cutter mold and blindly accept what we get handed.