After repelling them with the amulet (a feat that cannot be replicated later in the game), the Avatar brings the heavily wounded Shamino to Iolo's nearby hut where Iolo fills him in on recent developments: Lord British has been lost on an expedition into the Underworld, and a tyrant known as Lord Blackthorn now rules Britannia in his stead.

Over the course of the game the Avatar learns that the Shadowlords sprang from three shards of Mondain's Gem of Immortality (destroyed at the conclusion of Ultima I).

Representing Falsehood, Hatred and Cowardice - the antithesis for Truth, Love and Courage, the three principles of the Avatar - they have corrupted Blackthorn and subverted his rule.

With the help of his old companions and some new ones, the Avatar forms the Warriors of Destiny in order to eliminate the Shadowlords, undermine Blackthorn's rule, and rescue Lord British to restore him to his throne.

Warriors of Destiny was the first Ultima to implement a time-of-day system in which the sun rises and sets,[1] and non-player characters follow daily routine schedules.

As in Ultima IV, the player can interact with non-player characters (NPCs) by typing a word or phrase that signifies the topic to discuss.

The NPCs will say what they care to share about a subject when it is mentioned, and the player can repeat key words used in the NPC's response to ask for further details.

The Shadowlords play an integral role in enforcing the oppressive atmosphere of Britannia in Ultima V. They appear at various times in different towns, and affect the townspeople.

Later in the game, the player learns to track the movement of the Shadowlords by observing planetary orbits via a specific telescope (spyglass).

First, the player must learn each Shadowlord's name by interviewing NPCs, Second, the three shards of the Gem of Immortality must be recovered from their scattered locations in the Underworld.

The magic carpet is a handy way of traversing the game world, as it can float over almost any terrain (not mountains), as well as increasing the party's speed to make it easier to escape monsters.

This was also the last time in which Ultima creator Richard Garriott did a major share of the actual coding; in the later parts he acted as a game designer only.

[2] In his approach to Lord Blackthorn and his involvement in the overarching narrative, Garriott wanted to create a more insidious villain that wasn't just passively waiting for the heroes to arrive.

Introductory parts were cropped; graphics and gameplay were relatively limited (a clear example is that the swamp terrain was represented by magical poison fields); and there were few music tracks.

It also supports Commodore 128 mode and if run on a C128, the extra system RAM is used for background music that is absent when the game is played on a C64.

The first IBM version depicts (left to right): a fountain in a dungeon; Castle British area including the player, a ship and a horse; and the interior of an inn.