Massive Changes are underway. If you'll note over to the left. The menu has been drastically altered. The old menu still exists, as well as all the old pages. Simply click on "Story of FoA" to get the "old menu" back.

I've also added a trivia game to the site. While it's here, enjoy. I'm not sure if I'll keep it here, as it is NOT specific to UO Fiction, but rather the entire history of the community altogether. If it's moved, I'll consider throwing up a trivia game that is only UO or Ultima Fiction. In the meantime, it's there so enjoy :)

FoA Summon Wisps of Darkness into the land!

I managed to attend this one this past Thursday evening (pacific time). Two "Wisp's of Darkness" were summoned overtop the two blackrock pentagrams that have shown up in the land. On Atlantic, one pentagram was on the Southwest side of the end part of the mountains of Destard, and the other was just north 2 screens from the Serpents Cross Tavern (Northwest of the Shrine of Justice by about 8 screens, and over the river and thru the woods, literally). I didn't make it to the one north of Serpents Cross, but I did make it to the one Southeast of Destard's entrance. There were several members of a player group known as OES, who were helping the wisp of darkness by healing it, and attacking anyone attacking it. The wisp didn't need much help, really. But for a time the OES did manage to keep it alive and well protected. That is, until a tamer brought in their own pet dragon, ordering it to attack the wisp from the south, so as to overshadow the wisp itself and make it that much harder for the OES to heal their evil summons. I see this kind of scenario happen a lot in UO, I'm wondering when the bad-guys are going to get enough sense to bring their own pet dragon, then we'd have some real battles going on :P.

As to what this means? Well, I really have no idea. I'm almost suspecting that it has little to do with the FoA's ultimate 'use' (of the blackrock), whatever that may be. The black wisps were intolerably powerful, finally taking a dragons fireballs and melee and at least half a dozen powerful human warriors several minutes of constant pounding to bring it down. Anyway, I've thrown a page up about it, I managed to squeak out a couple screenshots of the battle Southeast of Destard, so you can check those out. At the end of these quests, everyone who managed to loot the corpses of the wisps received a key and some very nice treasure. The key supposedly opened a black chest that appeared nearby, and part of the contents of that chest was more blackrock. That is somewhat perplexing. Why give blackrock out as reward for killing something that was summoned with blackrock? It's very confusing.

Junin Pince Traps a sword!

Junin Pince trapped a sword against the use of Lord British's guards. The town cryer posted an article on it, and I've archived it here. Go take a peek, the very need for this twist is perplexing.

Real Winslow confirmed dead! Living Winslow confirmed a FRAUD!!

Yes, it's true, we have actual confirmation that the real Winslow died somewhere in Shame, and that the one that was imprisoned, and spoke to Lord Blackthorn, is in fact a Fraud. You can read all about it here.

Rant on the state of Ultima Online Fiction.

A lot of you are perhaps angry at me. You're probably angry because of how little I have updated Quest and Event News and Stories & Secrets lately. Well, I suppose I could update them both daily, without fail, but then you wouldn't be receiving the quality of news that I enjoy reading myself. I always get the question, and I get it a lot, "What's going on with the FoA, is anything happening?" I can't really answer no, because the truth of the matter is that I've seen some activity with the FoA characters once or even twice a week. Sometimes I even manage to participate in what the FoA characters are doing. For instance, three weeks ago, Junin Pince showed up at The Serpents Cross tavern on Atlantic. Now, some of you who are perhaps not as closely tied with the roleplaying communities of your shards are perhaps feeling like I was insane not to post an event like that. Please allow me to explain...

Junin Pince and/or Martoo Saul has shown up at least twice a week at some local (usually) player-run establishment for the past 5 weeks. I'm assuming it is part of the privelage of being a Seer in Ultima Online that when you are assigned to roleplay a character, that the character is yours to roleplay with during idle times in the fiction. That, of course, is not a bad thing. It's nice to have the presence of a unique character on a regular basis, someone with some tie to the story that keeps it in our heads.

So, even though I can't tell you, "No, I haven't seen any FoA activity." I still can't truthfully say, "Yes, the FoA have been active." Because quite frankly, they haven't been. The problem, as I see it... is that what does happen feels so incredibly un-news-worthy that more and more I'm loathe to even attend when I receive word that an FoA member has made an appearance at a public establishment. Most of it is good roleplaying, but to the end of being idle posturing, banter, and general small-talk as to be a waste of my time as a chronicler of the overall story. I can't believe I'm writing that and believing it.

When I started on Stratics with Stories & Secrets, we could count on at least one quest a week relating to what was going on, and there were several players in the overall "scheme" of what was going on. When it all started, it was so new and refreshing that most people following it simply couldn't get enough of it. I know I couldn't. Who wouldn't be completely enthralled with special characters running around with specially colored weapons, armor, and clothing, roleplaying people that were involved in an all-shard fiction? Back when all this started, There was no Reputation System, we had the old Notoriety scale, and consequently the number of people desiring simply to kill other players was much, much higher. Back then, an official quest once a week was like putting Los Angeles County's Water Works in the middle of the Sahara Desert, it was just that refreshing. Consequently, updating Stories & Secrets was a tremendous pleasure 5 months ago. I used to love doing it, because what had happened the previous night was so interesting that I couldn't keep myself from documenting as best I could it and writing comments about it.

As with all fiction, questions are raised. A story isn't a list of questions and answers available for the study. No, it never could be. A story is a progression of questions raised, and their resolution. I'm a fan of the FOX series "The X Files". I dont watch it completely religiously, but I do keep up with what's happening. More often than not you wont find me available on ICQ on Sunday nights because I'm watching the latest episode. Why do I mention that? That show is perhaps the most well known modern program that nearly ALWAYS leaves you hanging. I've yet to watch an episode that left me feeling like all the questions were answered. Some may say that's good writing, as in real life, we seldom have all the answers. I at least find it interesting, otherwise I wouldn't watch it week in and week out.

The show does answer questions raised, however. Most fiction answers it's own questions. When there exists a doubt as to someone's loyalty, eventually you hope to discover somewhere along the line where that character stands. I apologize for comparing UO's fiction with that written by other people. It's not exactly a fair thing to do. It's much like comparing someone's writing with that of other people, sure you can point out obvious differences, but when it comes right down to it, it's just a difference, not a flaw.

But there is, in my own opinion, something that a fiction must do. It must answer for itself at some point to keep its participant interested. In 10 (ten) months of semi-regular quests, I've yet to see even one question answered. All I have on my desk are questions. From "Why was Hartham really murdered?"; all the way to; "Who is the Invisible hand?", or, "Who is '-W' and who was 'Lady M'?" We have no resolutions, none. Stories & Secrets is currently a model of mere speculation, and a document of nothing but constant mystery. Two months ago, EVERYONE seemed to "know" that the FoA were going to use their supplies of blackrock to cast the spell of Armageddon and cause massive shard wipes. This past Thursday night, they used their blackrock pentagrams to summon two evil wisps into britannia. This is hardly the kind of event that draws a real crowds attention, and certainly not one that answers questions, it only raises more.

Not that there's anything wrong with raising more questions in the answer to another. Good fiction has plenty of that. However, 10 months of this same process each week has left me drained of interest in the next question that will come up. My old english teacher told me that in order to really have a good feel for a whole book or novel, you need to finish the story within 8-10 days, otherwise you begin to forget what started it all, and you lose the meaning of the entire plot. The UO fiction has been going on (in force) since February, and we've yet to see the slightest hint of a conclusion on the horizon. This is extremely, internally frustrating for me... to follow a story never to see it concluded. When I started following UO's fiction, I was expecting it to be like other Ultima's with some kind of climax, some calm, and the beginning of another story with perhaps some different characters. It's been 10 months, TEN WHOLE MONTHS, since Duryn the Zog Murderer said "Soon the world will change" before he committed suicide in front of Crawworth and other questers.

I haven't seen any world-changing (fictional) events come around in UO. Am I blind? Am I missing the obvious? Someone e-mail me if I have missed it all.

I've traded e-mails with lots of people about the fiction in UO. The one message I remember most was a reply from Chris "Mental" Bailey of Ultima@Scorched. He inferred on his news page that UO simply "has no official fiction". I took some exception to that comment, and I wrote him explaining that it was unfair to say that it doesn't exist, simply because he'd never seen it. He wrote back with some very simple logic, "If I dont see it, it doesn't exist for me." I'm horribly torn between those two points. Yes, one cannot say that something doesn't exist simply because one has not seen it. But on the other hand, this is a story in a game that we all pay to play. Epic fiction is supposed to have grand far-reaching effects that touch the lives of everyone. If a story in a world doesn't affect everyone in some way, then it doesn't exist but for the small few who follow it. It's like me comparing World War 2 to the story of how I got a job. They just dont compare, only five people were concerned about me becoming employed while in High School, a couple billion people were involved in the battle against fascism. Right now UO's fiction reminds me of a television soap opera or an after-school animation series for three reasons, One: only a small group of the population follows the story(many not being able to attend, so they "tape" it), Two: Nothing really happens, and Three: Everyone's back next week to repeat on a similar quest.

I love the UO fiction, I really do. I enjoy participating in official events. I take pleasure in seeing the players organize on the various sides of the FoA, in watching all the gossip and conversations that are sprung in player-run establishments. I do enjoy that. I dont enjoy 10 months of mystery, and it's beginning to wear on me personally. My plea here to those in charge of this is to draw it to a conclusion sometime SOON. Give us something that gives us some kind of closure on some aspect of the fiction. One new ball of new mystery each week that only raises questions, and never addresses the larger question of "who's the big-bad-evil-influence" is just extremely annoying, frankly.

Maybe I'm being a crybaby about this, and to a certain degree I would agree with that. I guess perhaps I expected too much of UO's fiction, I hoped it would all lead up to something like what we had in Phase 2 Beta, where the global failure to find reagents led to British's and Blackthorn's death, and the invasion of the shard by the Shadowlords and the Guardian. That was epic, it had far-reaching effects, and it didn't take 10 months to accomplish. Anyone who logged in that day will tell you that that was the most fun they'd ever had in UO. I dont think it's unfair to compare UO's current fiction to it's past fiction.

Please take note that currently my e-mail address has to point somewhere else. You can now reach me here.

And the floodgates were opened, and there was much rejoicing...

Lots of new stuff to read and consider. The Town Cryer has re-awakened and has several updates that have yet to be published on www.owo.com. I've got all of them posted both on the Quest and Event News page, as well as on a new page to the left, entitled, "And the story takes a turn." I've got some points raised about it on the bottom of the archive page on the left.

I'll sum up my personal thoughts here, but PLEASE go read what has been written, and the points that I've raised. RAISE MORE ISSUES, I know there are probably a few I've forgotten.

Personally, I think the real Winslow is dead, and that those remains in Shame are indeed his. That would make the Winslow who was captured a fraud. Now, if that Winslow was a fraud, then I seriously doubt that it was the real Winslow who was supposedly researching wisps in Moonglow, but instead the fake Winslow, if indeed he ever was. It almost seems clear to me that that section of the trail was a deliberately placed red-herring by the fake Winslow, to throw people off the true scent. I've yet to be able to determine exactly when Winslow was killed, assuming this portion of my guesswork is even correct.

Now, if that's not the real Winslow, then Blackthorn's meeting with Winslow is in error, and he's led himself to be influenced by a fraud, and probably a collaborator with the FoA. That would make it very easy to believe that it was this fake Winslow is indeed the true person who is "pulling the strings" and asking for the three members of FoA to be killed. Winslow advising this of the Lord could never easily be proven, and who would take the time? No, it's clear to me that the directive to poison those FoA members most likely came from the "fraudulent" Winslow.

Question one, HOW LONG HAS WINSLOW REALLY BEEN DEAD? When was the last time any of us saw him with his green staff? hmmm? I can't easily recall it. Also, remember when we originally speculated that this "W" person was Winslow? Well, wouldn't it make sense considering all the evidence that's now come to light? A body in Shame with a green staff, a winslow in prison without his treasured heirloom, his being suspected of FoA involvement... it all points to something. I doubt whoever is prancing around as Winslow now can prove to any of us to be completely innocent anymore, considering the circumstances.

FoA Escorts!!
We seem to be all done with these for the most part. HOWEVER... on some shards, people are reporting that Martoo Saul, or other members of the FoA "team" that were imprisoned and escorted, are being poisoned. Yeah, that's right, knocked off, done over, and body-bagged. Someone's taking them out, and guess who's currently known to be plotting something of this kind? That's right, Blackthorn and his hired assasin, "Gruzak 'the furtrader'"

My Own Absence.
Yes, I know I've not updated in two weeks. I apologize to all of you, and I feel terrible as I believe I've missed an entire quest because of my absence(the one about FoA members being poisoned). My only excuse is that I do tend to get very busy. I love to write, I love to debate over message boards such as the U.Hall, and UOVault's Mage Tower, and of course, I have my paying job where they're now asking me to integrate and upgrade our division's main database structure. I've not received many e-mails, but then again, most of the messages I do get I get after an update here. Hopefully some of you reading this have accounts of the most recent quest that went on.

No New Pages up.
Yes, I know we've got the bones of someone and a green staff laying around in Shame on all the shards, but It's soo very little to speculate on, that I really felt almost guilty for creating an entire page on just that. I believe I'll let that item stew for a little while before I figure out what to do with it.

The Second Age Expansion
A lot of attention lately has been focused on the new expansion pack, T2A. That event in itself has diverted a lot of attention (and support resources) away from quests and events(as near as I can tell). Combine that with the Halloween weekend and you've got a recipe for inactivity on the plot scene. I myself have been playing T2A quite a bit and I've got nothing but smiles while playing it... it's nice to have the kinds of monster spawns the game was always dreamt of having... now you can literally always find a very challenging spawn, any time of the day, just about anywhere. It's a good good feeling.

Again, I'm very sorry, and I'd like to apologize to everyone for my inactivity.

Lots of new information here again. I meant to update last weekend, but I was out-of-town visiting family. (sorry)

First, the small stuff this time. I've updated the Ultima Lore link with a better clarification on how Lord British came to power. Thanks to Griffyn.

I've updated the Timeline to CURRENT, Yes, it even includes links to what happened Wednesday night.

I've got a new page up under Blackthorn's return. Blackthorn is PLOTTING something, he's meeting with assassins. This IS old news, and I meant to have it up last week. However, I'm glad I waited, some very interesting things have been e-mailed to me about it. Including an almost too-good-to-be-true screenshot of Blackthorn actually talking to an assassin.

Crawworth is Dead. And, i've got a new page up with the entire Journal of the Explorers of the New lands. This is entitled, "Crawworth dies" over on the left there. I've got a few comments at the bottom of it. If you haven't already read it, I recommend it, if you have, read and please reply to my quick thoughts on that journal. I really believe there's something more to this entire thing. The main hero of a story dying of poison just doesn't sit well, it doesn't "fit" as I'd like it to... Anyway, speculate away... I'm listening (*grin*)

I've also got a page up on the Escort duty of FoA members between Trinsic and Yew. This event was of course different on every shard. I've got the page up because I believe there's a definite pattern emerging and I need your help to confirm it. So far, Pacific, Lake Superior, and Atlantic ALL lost Martoo Saul to an escape. Has it happened on other shards? Is there a pattern? Go read and tell me I'm wrong :)

Thanks so much for everything, really, this site IS of everyone who contributes ideas and evidence to it. Noone could do it without your enthusiasm.

Much has happened in less than a week...*this is a recording*.... This update IS LONG, there's a lot of text here on the main page, I'll try and break it down as best I can.

Firstly, Lord Blackthorn has RESURFACED!! He's back people, he's back!! I've put up a page with information on his return. There I've got quotes from his return appearance, as well as the official TC Newspaper clipping on his return.

He claims to know nothing of the FoA (*this is a recording* :P )... and has asked that Winslow be let out of prison to discuss FoA with him. HMMMMMMMM....... Why would Blackthorn, after just having returned to Britannia, claiming to know nothing of the FoA, request a meeting with Winslow, who ALSO claims to know nothing of the FoA.....???
More thoughts on that later...

Second in this rapid fire news-o-shooter... After receving about 30 e-mails in regards to Duquelle's murder, I believe I've got the general picture :) Thanks to EVERYONE who submitted details on this, I simply had too many to choose from. I've put a page up on the left dealing with this tidbit.

Now, this line of reasoning, that Duquelles murder has similarities to murders another Ultima, felt like a longshot to me the first time I'd heard the corrolation mentioned. However, I've received about five e-mails painting an extremely interesting picture about this similarity. Indeed, this tie-in into Ultima 7 may yet prove to be a major key to solving important mysteries of the current plotline. Please go check the page to see what I mean.

To give everyone who loves summaries a good overview of what this development makes me believe now... I'm beginning to seriously believe that the FoA WILL NOT be casting the armageddon spell with the pieces of blackrock. Blackrock, as was mentioned by many who e-mailed in, was used in an attempt to open a black moongate in a previous Ultima. It has never, to my knowledge, been listed or considered to be a reagent in the Armageddon spell. To say nothing of the fact, that we still have no definitive proof that the FoA even yet HAVE the spell of Armageddon. Yes, the word Armageddon is in their title, but that spell is supposedly a closely guarded secret by the wisps. It would make more sense, to me anyway, (this is all my own speculation here) that after the FoA realized their own failure at casting the spell, they're now seeking to either create some form of time travel with the blackrock, or they're being directed to gather this material by influences beyond their own knowledge in an attempt to summon the Guardian himself to Britannia!!

Yes, that's a mouthful, and quite a bit to say. Please REALIZE, that that is my own opinion, I'm hoping everyone else has something to say about that opinion, and perhaps compelling evidence proving me wrong. :)

The Third Major tid-bit, is this whole thing of shard-specific, player-roleplayed characters that are created in-line or parallel to the Main FoA plot. To break it down for you all, there are a number of players roaming around the various shards, with former Zog robes in their bank accounts (which are the same color that the FoA members wear) from previous quests against the Zog. Some of these players, on some of the shards, have created characters solely for the purpose of pretending (for lack of a better word) to be a follower of FoA. On some shards, the players who did this were quite specific in either saying that they were only ALLIES of the FoA, or in definitely claiming outright to be one of "the official followers". For the benefit of everyone, there are only THREE OFFICIAL ROLEPLAYED CHARACTERS for the FoA. Their names are: Martoo Saul, Zendella Kxryss, and Junin Pince. Any other characters, are not SEER-ROLEPLAYED characters.

What does this mean? Well, it can mean anything really. First, it means that if you've been following a character other than one of those three, you've been following a player. Now, I can understand a feeling of betrayal if you've been deceived into believing anyone was an official character, but dont forget to keep the big picture in mind.... Did you have fun? If you had fun following this "unofficial" character, then you'll receive nothing but kudos from me for your diligence. The roleplaying in UO needs this kind of interaction. Quite frankly, I publicly applaud any players who've taken the time to create meaningful characters parallel to the main plot, your efforts not only bring more attention and bulk to the main storyline, but you've enhanced the fun in Britannia just that much more. Now, I haven't received any direct official words from any Seer's or GM's on these kinds of things. However, I did take part in a large group conversation with three seers last night on Atlantic, at the Serpent Cross Tavern. Unfortunately, in my lazyness, I neglected to mark a rune to this famous landmark and I was forced to run on foot from a guard tower along the road (where my rune was marked). I missed most of the meeting, and the meeting wasn't really for me anyway. Several Seers on Atlantic had become incensed at two players on Atlantic who had been holding HUGE FoA related events that were all unofficial. Nick of Time (a personal friend of mine) managed to organize an enourmous battle with his fake group of FoA members on Fire Island. Reports indicate a battle involving over 250 players on that island. Everyone told me they had great fun. (note: I wasn't there, and had no part in it's organization).

The seers and GM's didn't like this, and they have their own good reasons why they don't like players portraying false-storyline characters. Mostly, its because if plot elements that are unknown to us are unknowingly trampled on by these "parallel" characters, then we're in for some trouble. The possible end of that scenario is that we end up with players on shards who are completely confused as to where the story is going, because a clever player-roleplayer managed to muddle an unknown but important issue with their play. That is not good, I'm sure all of you would agree.

The solution, as I see it (again I've received no direct contact with anyone from OSI on this), is that players wishing to do this sort of thing must take care to separate their roleplay and character far enough from the main events so as to be separate, yet augmenting the main plot. I dont want to write a book on this, but what I'm saying can basically be summed up in this example... If player Abe wants to create a character along the main path, helping bring light to the main storyline.. then Player abe needs to associate the events in his own roleplaying with what goes on.... BUT NOT INCLUDE THEM. The moment you begin including what happens to your character in what is happening in the main plot, you've crossed the line. Roleplaying parallel means that your story is affected by what goes on, but does not have any major, discernable impact on the plotline itself. Acceptable behavior is really quite clear then. If your plan is to leave a book out for people to read about what's going on with your character, then drop it in Crawworth's home, but the second you start writing about what you did with Crawworth, or any other major character, you've overstepped your bounds as a player, and you're ruining the purity of the story for everyone else. I hope that's understandable.

Again, my purpose is not to offend anyone who's taken the time to do something like this, I have nothing but praise and respect for you. Please just keep what I've said in mind, and try and preserve the purity of the storyline, while augmenting it with sidestories and active roleplay of your own character. These things have really become the icing on the cake of the roleplaying communities on the shards, particularly Atlantic.

Fourth, and this is the most hilarious tid-bit of new information I have to give you...
I received this e-mail from Santiago, he received an e-mail from UO's support department:

From: Santiago
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 1998 5:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Will houses be wiped?

I have heard many rumors that the Armageddon storyline will lead to all houses being wiped. Is this true? I recently purchased a house deed, and I am anxious to build it, but I do not want to use it if the house will be destroyed. I spent a great deal of time and gold to acquire it.

---Santiago---)---

And, the reply:

From: UOSupport <[email protected]>
To: 'Santiago'
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 1998 1:08 AM
Subject: RE: Will houses be wiped?

This is completely rumor.

If there is anything else you need, please do not hesitate to let me know. Be sure to include all previous emails, as we do not keep old email once it is answered. Thanks,

GM Lint
Origin CS

AND, It gets better, I received THIS e-mail (supposedly true as well) from Lady Marielle, she got it directly from a friend of hers. The following was sent to support@owo via their bug submission form. The paragraph below was in the "bug" field. (some profanity and ranting "deleted")

I know what you are planning with this whole FoA quest thing, i know its not just some coincidence its on every shard. You don't have a solution to your current house problem, so the only solution you geniuses at OSI could come up with is to just ... everyone over with a mass house wipe. Well i accept it, you have the right to do it, and you will cry and moan about how its fits the 'story line' ya right! .... I don't wanna hear any 'In Character' bull____, i wanna hear OSI say we gonna wipe the houses, don't hit around at it, don't hide it behind some quest that for the first time ever is on 'ALL' shard, geeeee, what a coincidence, a quest on all shards, that the penalty for losing the quest is the destruction of all non natural things, geee, wonder what that could be. All i'm saying is atleast have the nerve to say it, and give the good players that have made you what you are today, a little forewarning......

Here is the reply:

Hail,

The FoA and Armageddon Spell are part of a quest in which the potential outcome, should the FoA succeed, is a total server wipe. However, since this is an ongoing quest, the outcome has not yet being decided. It is up to players to decide what the outcome could be. To either do nothing and let the FoA succeed, or let the players get involved and destroy the FoA plans.

That is all we know for now.

If there is anything else you need, please do not hesitate to let me know. Be sure to include all previous emails, as we do not keep old mail once it is answered. Thanks.

GM Nightwing
Origin CS

SO! By this example, I guess we really know all about the FoA's plans!! :) Not even the GM's seem to have a clear picture on the real affects this storyline will have. They seem to disagree and conflict in stories so profoundly here, that I seriously can barely contain my outward expression of humor :P

Finally, I make it to the smaller tid-bits of information :)

Players on Pacific are speaking of a large FoA hideout above the Trinsic Tinker's Guild. In it, are supposedly tons and tons of locked black chests. I've investigated this location on Atlantic, and found only an empty room.... anyone else have any stories from other shards about this room?

The house that G'thunk is standing near is supposedly a the hideout of Junin Pince! I've heard several people mention this, but I foolishly walked right by the house on Atlantic, and I failed to confirm it. Go check it out! G'thunk's location is: 93 degrees 4 minutes North, 135 degrees 54 minutes east(Thanks to Vanir for coordinates). As you can see, that's just at the Southern tip of the southernmost branch of the river delta northeast of Vesper.

A Sage appeared on Great Lakes and had a very interesting poetic prophecy to hand out. His name is Sage Xymond. Here is what he had to say....

"Magi of the tower meddle with that they know not, while the dark meddles in yet another quagmire. Much good might come yet, though nothing remains clear. The darkness is still nigh, and only the Eight can triumph in the end. Seek ye the noble, he who studies nature. He knows more than he tells, that is certain, but he does not realize all the knowledge he possesses. He is more and less than he seems."

It seems to me that he means Winslow holds knowledge that is key to solving this entire FoA ordeal... Very interesting riddle. I'm told that Sage Xymond is trustworthy, and has made numerous prophecies before, that all came true. (talk about something BETTER than 1-900-psychic-connection!! woohoo!!)

There seems to be NO BOOK written by Sage Winslow that deals with talking to wisps. Thank you to everyone who wrote me pointing to the one that was written by that other fellow. That book had been around since Beta, unfortunately. So there seems to be NO book about wisp-speak that was written by Sage Winslow.

WHEW!!!! That's all for now! Keep it all coming!!

This grand thing we call Ultima Online has reached its first full year of public consumption. For some we're reaching this mark on our knees begging and hoping the next year will be better for us, for others, the celebration began a year ago. This thing, this grouping of people, its much larger than any one person's wishes, it's larger than any small group. We've formed a very viable community over the past year. More times than not, our own individual portions of that community have 'butt heads' with others in-game and out, over disagreement on how to play this game. Those that have left, for the most part, didn't quite hold fast to the idea that this game reaches far beyond the code we use to envelop ourselves in a fantasy realm. Those that have stayed, please realize that playing Ultima Online means you'll have to defend your own ideals, your character's integrity, and your virtual posessions against whoever and whatever desires to rip it away. Many times that includes other players, many of them unable to spell their name well, but the principle still holds true. That may not be what most of us originally wanted from this "PC game", but it is what I and many others enjoy about Ultima Online. It truly is more than just a game, because we're here to make it more.

To form a community, to make something worth visiting over and over again, you have to put in, you can't expect Ultima Online to play itself out on your screen. That may not be what any of us expected when we purchased "just another game" off of the shelf, but it's certainly what we got ourselves into. Whatever happens, you've earned well-deserved pride that you made it this far. You've earned well-deserved pride that you overcame the adversity, the conflicts of hundreds of other players to uphold your ideals in a virtual setting. You have all, by your very actions defied what many graphical MUD designers believe to be the basic necessities for a game by thriving in a setting with more freedom and potential(for good or bad) than any multiplayer game thus far created. Most of all, you've earned the right to call yourselves Citizens of Britannia, Land of the freedom of virtue.

Happy Birthday to our land, to our community, and may the virtues keep us all in the second year.

Updated again as promised :)

Today I've got a large selection of new things to choose from!

• First: I've added a small paragraph to the Ultima Lore Page (with the help of Griffyn) that explains how Lord British arrived in this realm.
• Second: I was informed by a few of you that it was Winslow and NOT Crawworth, who distracted the masses when the relics of Mondain were stolen. I corrected that error :)
• Third: On the FOA Manhunt Page... I've updated with a real in-game conversation some players had with Martoo Saul. This conversation seems to make it clear that at least part of the intentions of the FoA are to eliminate the urbanization of the forests of Britannia.
• Fourth: I've made several additions to the Manhunt Walk-thru page
• First.. Lethic of Baja mentions a book laying around in the Lycaceum in Moonglow, about speaking to wisps, that was supposedly written by Winslow himself. I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this book on other shards.
• Second.. I now have Julia of Minoc's complete text (we think) of everything she'll say up to this point.
• Third.. the Map in Duquelle's study seems to have been a red herring... It is confirmed that there is a map in Duquelle's study on every shard, but everyone also confirms that this map is easily editable by players, which would make it's contents extremely suspect. I've removed the map. I'm sorry for leading everyone down the wrong path on that one :(
• Fourth.. I've decided (finally) what my "policy" will be in regards to individual stories about the FoA hunts. The stories told on every shard about each encounter with the members of FoA really differ from shard to shard, making my chronicling of them haphazard at best. So, I'm going to say that I'll be glad to read them, but I probably wont be able to post any of them... sorry! :(
• Finally: G'thunk has spoken some more, and I've included his new speech on his Revenge page.

That's truly all I have for now...err... well, not COMPLETELY..

One final thing... It seems that there is some corrolation between how Duquelle was murdered and disembodied and some famous murders in previous Ultimas. If anyone has any inkling of what that might be, or where one might go to see accounts of murders by a character named "Hook" in previous Ultimas, please talk to me! :) [Thanks greatly to Mr Mueller for bringing this to my attention]

Dont give up hope people.. I would guess this week would be very active when it comes to the main storyline. I realize that much has probably happened already, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were several more "attacks" by FoA members before the week is out. Enjoy!

I have not copied all the accounts from all the various shards as to how and when the various FoA members have been killed or captured. It DOES have relevance to what I want this site to update you on, however, keeping track of every individual development on every shard is simply too much work. This site is to chronicle the OVERALL PICTURE that the story paints. Wether or not Martoo Saul is cut to pieces on Atlantic, or captured on Sonoma is simply too much work, and too confusing to the overall picture to post here. TO SUM UP for those who are not "on track" enough to know what's going on, there are three members of the FoA roaming around each shard... their names are "Martoo Saul", "Junin Pince", and "Zendella Kxryss". (Thanks to Glaurung, and Kay'ele for that info) These three followers of FoA have been securing chests around the maps of each shard... Each chest they secure supposedly brings them closer to the casting of the spell of Armageddon. The basic quest right now is... either find one of these three people, and capture/kill them, OR... find yourself a chest, and guard it, protecting the contents from getting into the hands of the FoA.

G'Thunk Spotted
G'Thunk has appeared east of Vesper... He seems very angry at FoA. I'd recommend checking this page out... and going to see if you can get G'Thunk to say more :)

IS CrawWorth mister "-W" ??
I've thrown up a page filled with circumstantial evidence, than when interpreted by itself, points to CrawWorth as being the evil one who has coordinated the attacks on our lands so well for the past year. I ask EVERYONE to take a look at it, and send in comments.. as I believe we may be on to something here. Thanks much to Calaquendi for that bit of insight. I realize others on U.Hall have been posting about this for a while now... and I thank you all for opening my eyes to this possibility.

That's it for now, I'm very tired... and I've got a ton of e-mails from you to read tomorrow. I will post more tomorrow. There's simply too much going on right now to ignore it :) Thanks to everyone.

WINSLOW A SUSPECTED TRAITOR!!
IN PRISON FOR HIS ASSOCIATION WITH FOA!!

This update has been too long in coming.... And I want to first say that there's MORE COMING... MORE MORE MORE.... I am sooo inundated with e-mails right now that it took me three days to sort through all the recent FoA dealings. One night, I literally had 70+ e-mails to read through to find out what was going on.

Firstly, I must excuse my absence as best I can. I've been beta testing, Yes, T2A, as well as EQ. I wont post opinions on either of them here, and let me say up front that if you e-mail me asking about them, your e-mail will be ignored. I dont have time to read about UO's story, and attempt to update people on upcoming games. It's simply not in the purpose of this site either.

Ok, that done, much has happened!! This hunt for FoA has REALLY heated up. I've updated the current walk-through as best I can. I still believe it's probably several steps behind, but its as current as I can make it, as I haven't been able to attend any in-game events (for VARIOUS reasons).

Also, there's a very large topic roving around all the chat boards. I'd call it nothing more than a rumor, but I felt to be fair, I should post this to let other people decide for themselves.

From Dakkonfire:

...Finally, it is my belief that the FoA is nothing but sugar coating for something much more significant to the players. As we all know, UO has been exploited by the bugs from day one. The landside is littered with houses from gold dupes, people have duped items and made gold off of that. Suffice it to say, UO has been rather corrupt. What is the best way get rid of the corruption? Wipe everything.

This is where everything starts to tie together. Origin wouldn't want to just delete us all, because that would cause a huge uproar. So what do they do? They make a story around it. The FoA is just a means to an end. They want to wipe the shards so they can get rid of all the damage that the exploiters and hackers have done. So, they think of the Armageddon spell. This spell killed person in Ultima VI. Nice way to wipe us huh? Anyway, it is my belief that if the FoA succeeds, there will be a wipe of all the shards, called the Armegeddon spell.

You know what will be the funniest part of it all? Origin will blame it all on us for 2 reasons. The first they won't outright say. They are obviously mad that people have messed the game up with all the exploits in it. The second is a little more devious. They make a quest that we are supposed to role play and solve. But, what percent of people do you think really role play at all? I would guess next to none. So, if the FoA succeed in casting Armegeddon, it will be our own fault that we never stopped them, because we didn't follow the story, and we didn't role-play our characters like we're supposed to. Nasty huh?

When will D-Day be fore this Armageddon spell? I'll bet by best sword that it will be right around the time of the new expansion's arrival. Why? Obviously for a clean start. Also, if everyone starts on the same level, more people will buy the game.

This is the first time, I believe, that this topic has recieved attention from a non-CZ website. While I like to entertain notions that conspiracies do exist, I really can't go with my gut on this one. My opinion is that this is probably just wild speculation, and some facts that are thrown together rather circumstantially. I hope this gets it enough attention to prompt a response from OSI. (I'd love to know for sure, as I'm sure all of you would too.) Again, please don't send me e-mail to debate this point, I'm not interested in debating it over e-mail.:)

Keep at it! I've heard of confirmation of a house in Moonglow, as well as someone denying that Moonglow has any part of this quest. I've heard some people saying that the end that I've reached on the walk-thru is as far as the similarities go, and that from here on out, the quest will be different, involving different characters and locales on each individual shard. That I'd tend to disagree with, but with as many short e-mails I'm getting now about the furthering of this FOA hunt, that's a possbility.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. If I failed to mention your name, e-mail me and I'll correct myself.

I've updated us to the Present time with all of the Town Cryer Newspaper clippings. I've also rearranged the Menu once again, this time only slightly. The trail of the story involving the FOA (formerly the Zog Cabal) causing the earthquakes all over Britannia is now separated with the threads of that story underneath it.

I received word from a reader here that the power words for the Armageddon spell in Ultima VI were "Vas Corp Bet Mani", which would coincide with the fact that the paper that it was seen on was torn, and some of it was obscured. Perhaps the "Vas" was obscured or torn off.In any case, I've included his e-mail with the Quake Investigation page on the left.

ALSO, I received an update from another reader who gave details of how much further in the hunt for the FOA members he had gotten with the clues. Aparrently he's stuck as well, but a little further up the trail. that information, as well as the TC newspaper clippings on the "manhunt" are over in the FOA Manhunt page on the left. Enjoy!

I promise to re-update the Timeline, and to re-engineer the quest listings in a manner that will allow you to flow through the story more easily. I plan on doing this sometime this weekend. I'm not quite sure what I'll end up doing yet. I do know that I want to put dates on each event (which will take time), and I've pretty much got the idea that I want a sort of web "ring" that will allow you to flip forward and back in the story's progression any time you want to refresh youself on all that's gone on.

All previous news has been moved to the Update Archive.