Garriott also received criticism about supposed Satanic content, particularly the demonic nature of the antagonist of Ultima III who appeared on the game packaging.
[2] The Avatar makes their first appearance in the fourth Ultima game, where their goal is to follow the path of the Virtues, and retrieve the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from the Great Stygian Abyss.
[3] In the fifth game, the Avatar defeats a repressive regime in Britannia, and in the sixth, he brings peace between men and gargoyles.
He creates many strange, hybrid creatures in his dark laboratories, including minotaurs, lizardmen, orcs, and goblins.
Three shards of the gem are found at the location of the sunken remnants of Terfin in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, along with Mondain's skull.
Underestimated because of her youth, Minax was furious at the death of her tutor and revenge set itself within her dark heart.
As her talent for magic and capacity of malevolence far exceeded Mondain's, Minax decided to take control of the evils of the world without the gem.
In Ultima II, Lord British called for a hero to crush Minax's evil plans.
Minax's castle, named Shadowguard, could only be reached through timegates (similar to moongates in the later games); even then an enchanted ring was required to pass through the force fields inside.
The war against Minax's vile legions was long and hard, but eventually the hero hunted down the sorceress, pursued her as she teleported throughout the castle, and destroyed her with the quicksword Enilno.
Castle Exodus is protected by various magical barriers, requiring the Stranger's party to obtain marks in order to safely pass through.
Instead, Exodus is a magical computer that can only be destroyed by inserting the four cards of Love, Sol, Moons, and Death into its four slots.
After destroying Exodus, the Isle of Fire sinks into the ocean until Ultima VII: The Black Gate.
In the Forge of Virtue expansion of Ultima VII, the Dark Core of Exodus remains on the island.
In order to complete the quests for the add-on, the Avatar must banish the Dark Core into the Ethereal Void.
By the game's conclusion, Lord British is restored to his throne and Blackthorn sent to exile through a red moongate to an unknown world.
While on Serpent Isle, Blackthorn takes refuge among the Xenkan Monks and finds redemption, eventually joining their order.
In the end Blackthorn perishes at the hand of Lord British after an extensive magical duel at the center of the Great Stygian Abyss, completely contradicting everything written prior to Ascension and after Ultima VII.
Lord Blackthorn was the virtual persona of Ultima Online project director Starr Long.
The ultimate plan was to create a black moongate to allow the Guardian to physically enter Britannia and conquer it.
The Guardian planned to send troops through a portal within the castle to conquer Britannia by killing its leaders first.
Batlin attempts to betray the Guardian and is killed for his disloyalty but not before releasing the apocalyptic forces of the Banes of Chaos.
In Ultima IX: Ascension, it is learned that while the Avatar was trapped on Pagan, the Guardian has managed to erect eight huge columns throughout Britannia, in order to pull the two moons out of orbit, crashing into the planet and destroying it.
Furthermore, two members of the Fellowship in The Black Gate, Elizabeth and Abraham (E&A) provide dubious guidance for the Avatar throughout the game and are ultimately unmasked as evildoers.
Lord British is the ruler of Britannia, and an in-game personification of the creator of the series, Richard Garriott.
[12] Garriott released early games, such as Akalabeth, under the name and occasionally appeared in Ultima Online playing as Lord British.
Numerous plotlines and side-quests in the Ultima games revolve around one of Lord British's adventures or public works projects.
[14] During Ultima VII, an easter egg allows British to be killed by a falling gold plaque, which is a reference to an incident at the Origin building; a metal bar, where the magnet on the door attached to it, fell on Garriott's head, warranting a visit to the hospital.
The Great Earth Serpent is snatched by Exodus and forced to guard the Isle of Fire in Ultima III.
The Avatar visits the Gypsy to determine his or her strength in the virtues before taking on each quest of Ultima IV, V, VI and IX.