Ultima Reality

From TheUltimaSociety

Most of the rest of this site is dedicated to exploring Ultima from an in-game perspective. Ultima Reality examines Ultima itself -- the game, the players, the creators, and so on -- as a real-world phenomenon.

Table of contents

1 Ultima History 2 Canonical Games 3 Fan Games 4 Fan Culture

Ultima History

The pages discussed in this section describe the history of Ultima. This is not the history of the mythological game world, which is discussed in Ultima Mythology. Rather, this is the history of the game series itself, from the early days of Richard Garriott's computing career to the most recent Ultima happenings.

Canonical Games

These are the original Ultima games created by Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) and/or Origin. Some avid fans of Ultima debate whether or not certain of these games -- especially Ultima VIII, Ultima IX, and sometimes the Worlds of Ultima series -- should be considered canonical. There are some valid arguments to be made in all of these cases. However, simply for the sake of convenience, the Ultima Society currently recognizes all Ultima games created by Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) and/or Origin as canonical. (Note that at least currently, this only applies to games created for the personal computer. Nintendo games that do not have a PC correlate are not currently considered canonical.)

• Ultima I
• Ultima II
• Ultima III
• Ultima IV
• Ultima V
• Ultima VI
• Ultima VII: The Black Gate
  • The Forge of Virtue
• Ultima VII: Serpent Isle
  • The Silver Seed
• Ultima VIII
• Ultima IX
• Worlds of Ultima
  • Ultima Underworld
  • Ultima Underworld 2
  • Savage Empire
  • Martian Dreams

Fan Games

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Fan Culture

The Ultima Dragons were the first example of an Ultima fan culture that identified itself as such and came together outside of an in-game context.

The Wayfarers are the first and only known example of a movement of people who examine and appreciate the implications of the Way of the Avatar as a philosophy that is applicable "in real life." Few if any of these Wayfarers embrace the Way of the Avatar as their only or primary life philosophy. However, all of the Wayfarers have in some way found themselves touched or inspired by this little thread of meaning woven into the context of the rich interactive mythology that is Ultima.