I've got a new page up under "Mondain Alive?" displaying the evidence that would suggest that this "missing character" is actually MINAX. Please check it out.

I've also updated Mondain's page. It seems that we've a controversy over the power words found on the piece of paper at one of the scenes of the earthquake investigation. I need your help in confirming if these are the power words for the Armageddon spell, or if we even know what they're supposed to be.

Well, I've not seen much more in the way of events/quests. I'm attempting to piece together elements from the last quest that was seemingly left open on all shards. It essentially involves the diary's of Crawworth left in his home in Trinsic. I believe this entire quest is still "laying out" on all shards, and I would like to encourage everyone reading this to go to Trinsic, find Crawworth's Home & Diaries, and follow the clues. The end where everyone seems to be stuck at the moment is the room underneath the "thieves guild" (which is actually the tanner shop) of Vesper. Please, everyone, go follow the clues and see if you can get farther than I and some others could :)

I've been trying to come up with ways to make this site easier to use. One of the first things I did was delete all the useless links on the left menu here. Someone has also asked me to DATE each of the pages I put up. So, what I'm trying to say is.. expect some major revisions to the structure soon, something that will enable you to read documents in order and keep a working knowledge of the progression of these events.

Number one, The quest known as "The Movement" is an ATLANTIC quest only. I've been getting a lot of e-mail from a rather loyal and helpful reader of this site. Andrew, I appreciate your updates, and I'm sorry I haven't responded back in e-mail to you. The e-mail address below is submission only, as my ISP will not relay outgoing e-mail I cannot easily reply to anything anyone sends to me. It's a nagging problem that I've never done anything about. If you send me something that really interests me, I will respond. Most of the time I'll simply post it here, but sometimes I'll respond personally. I'm sorry for this, I'll look into fixing it. Once again, the quest known as "The Movement" is one that is specific to the Atlantic shard, and as such I'll not cover it on this site (even though I play on Atlantic). For an explanation as to why I wont cover it here, please visit "About this site"

Second, many of the players on Great Lakes are e-mailing me stating that the black tent is the Tent of the evil Mordread of Great Lakes. The explanation goes on to state that the tent belongs to Mordread and that Mordread is the enemy of the famed Rhysart the Hermit (a seer Role-Played-Character [RPC] on Great Lakes). As far as I know, this is not possible. This same tent was seen on Atlantic, making this part of the ongoing plot. As all the other screencaps I have of it are from Great Lakes, I'm willing to entertain this thought, but since I have a confirmed screencap of it from Atlantic, I'll wait until either the seer who Roleplays either character to confirm such, or a GM to correct me. I'm sorry for this if I'm in error. It is simply easier to keep it as I do have other people saying they've seen it on shards other than Great Lakes.

Third, I seem to have failed to examine all the evidence with regards to "M". I recieved a very well-written e-mail from a follower of the storyline nearly begging me to consider that "M" is not Mondain, but rather Minax the Witch. A quick summary of that evidence goes something like this... First, Mondain's life was irrevocably tied to the gem of immortality, and as such, he cannot be resurrected, or revived. Second, The Ultima Online timeline is parralel to the real Britannia at around the time of Ultima IV. Third, the initials "LM" that were on a note on (I believe) the body of G'Splat were never explained. And many people since the beginning have claimed to me that it those are better suited to mean "Lady Minax". More on this theory later, as have time to collect more evidence.

Fourth, and this is totally off the wall... True black dye was not created by a job hacking into the servers. It was created by a clever use of the black coal that was given to players at Christmastime. I'm tired of hearing people say that true black dye is a hack, and a cheat, its not, and never was. It was patched quickly because players without all the facts were calling GM's on these supposed "cheaters" and flooding the GM queues. (sorry for that)

Finally, It seems that section of 'Mondain "Alive"??' that covers the underground of the Vesper Tanners was actually a plot set in motion by Lord British's speech. I feel like a complete idiot that I didn't put 2 and 2 together and realize that the speech was being used for that. I've numerous reports of an NPC in britain leading the quest off, with many twists and turns taking you to Scara Brae to another NPC, to Crawworth's home in Trinsic, with clues he left behind before leaving for the expedition, with the final clue taking you to that underground "meeting place" in Vesper. I'll arrange all this in a day or two so that everyone can have a better picture what that was all about.

Thanks again everyone, and please keep your eyes peeled. I get the impression that small bits on the ZC[Zog Cabal] will be showing up over the next week or two, giving the players chances to track down various "members" and capture them. (how to you capture someone in UO?? *shrug*)

*Steps around lightly in a sea of too-easily offended liberals*

Well, it seems we've a new name for our FICTITIOUS bad guys. The COMPLETELY MADE UP name of Zog Cabal was aparrently too close to an anti-semitic(i.e. Jew-hating) group for someone on the planet. I used to think I was taking Ultima Online too seriously, but in light of this news-bit-pressure presented by Gamespot I guess I'd have to lump myself closer to those who call themselves "extremely apathetic." In the words of William Shatner, "Get a life!!..., will you people, It's... it's just a...." [PC GAME]

The funniest thing is to take this line of reasoning to its ultimate extremes. You see, since they were called Zog, someone assumed there was some reference to an anti-semitic group. So, by that reasoning, OSI was trying to instill anti-semitism throughout the world by reinforcing the name of an obscure "hate-group" in the United States. (a group which I'd never even heard of before Gamespot said anything, and I read the news every day). That would make it possible to believe that Electronic Arts is really some kind of hate-mongering corporation who's real goal is trying to control the emotions of the worlds young by giving them a new sense of racism. Wow, forget the plotline.. I should cover that ongoing development. Honestly... what am I doing worrying about where the story goes as long as Electronic Arts is making a play to become the first fascist control center in the U.S.???

It's called FICTION people, ITS NOT REAL, NOR HAS ANY CONNECTION TO ANY REAL EVENTS OR CHARACTERS, PAST OR PRESENT, FUTURE OR OTHERWORLDLY. Which means that any association with real life or complaints thereof SHOULDN'T EVEN BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

That aside... the new name for the Zog Cabal is "The Followers of Armageddon"... or "The group formerly known as the Zog Cabal".

Lord British has Declared that The group formerly known as the Zog Cabal are criminals to Britannia. You can read all about his declaration here. As well, you'll read about a member of the group who quit because he fell in love. (aww, how sweet) Unfortunately, a member managed to sneak inside Lord British's castle as one of the guards (how did they not recognize him as an outsider if none of them wear helmets???) and throw a kryss into the back of this informant BEFORE he was able to divulge who "W" is. Of course, we all expected this though, didn't we?? :)

I've posted a page on the possibility that "W" is Mondain back from the dead/undead whichever you wish to call it. I've got a new "W" sighting posted in that page. It seems that in the bottom of the Vesper Tanners, there was a meeting place before Lord British's speech that was used by the group. The items should still be there and I'd encourage everyone on all shards to go there and take a look at it. There are some interesting clues left behind.

I've also posted the TC newspaper story of the recent earthquakes all over Britannia. This was approximately two weeks ago, and I'm sorry I didn't post earlier. This was the botched attempt by The group formerly known as the Zog Cabal to cast the Armageddon spell (or so we're led to think, anyway). I'm of the gut reaction that this wasn't the Armageddon spell at all. I think it was something else, perhaps the resurrection/revival of Mondain himself.

In the big picture, I guess what we're looking at here is another setup. The month or two of time that we saw the Zog, Lord Jou'Nar, and the Trolls (who've fallen into invisibility) all terrorize the land was some kind of setup for these "quakes", as far as I can tell. I dont believe the quakes were a miscast of the Armageddon spell, its simply too fast, and too easy of an explanation. I believe we have yet to really discover what those quakes mean to the world.

POSSIBLE PLOT LEAK??

It is with no small pause that I attempt to update and inform the patrons of Stratics, and the public of UO, what has transpired since my last update to Stories and Secrets. All that can be easily said is that much has happened, and much is about to happen, in the unraveling of this story we see before us. Firstly, we had the earthquakes that shook Britannia all over, displaying openings in the earth not known before that day. It was assumed these quakes were the work of the Zog Cabal, attempting to use an ancient spell of (long since dead) Mondain the Wizard to destroy Brittania, or at least damage it enough to enact their own rule. This level of speculation is what we can typically find on the streets of Virtuous cities today. It is not completely known what is happening, and the public is left to ponder, fear, and hope for the best.

One interesting thing is known for certain thus far... a new land has been discovered by Lord Crawworth himself since the earthquakes. (this guy get's around, ya gotta give him that) At this point, of course, we've mostly just mere speculation as to what awaits the poplace in this new continent.

[However, I've been given definite assurance that the land IS NOT based on The Serpent Isles of pre-U8(?), but rather a "frontier" in support of player run towns and establishments. Here we're seeing how UO is a different monster from the Ultima series in that decisions for its well-being and longetivity are made in favor of the community, not necessarily the Ultima fiction. I find this refreshing, actually. Although, regular appearances by Lord British(R.G.) and Blackthorn(Yes I know he's not here right now) are essential I.M.H.O.]

There is one picture of the puzzle that doesn't quite fit. Of what use were Mondain's body parts if all the Zog needed to do was to cast a spell to cause a great earthquake?? The investigator at the scene of the mountain slides indicated that all known (standard) reagents were used in the creation of this spell, as there was residue from each. However, there's been no mention of the use of Mondain's body parts themselves as magical reagents, channeling sources, or what have you. Of what use were these to the Zog Cabal?? Certainly they did not mean to glean the ancient spell of Armageddon directly off of the dead and ancient brain itself, and what kind of magic would even be used for such?

I believe the answer may be something even more sinister... even more foul, of a nature unimaginable by the most devlish horrors that have yet walked Britannia. Now, a caution to my readers that this is mere speculation at this point... so first I will simply provide my evidence for making this assumption, and then make the assumption plain and hope that perhaps I've struck on something valid.

Lets us consider, for instance, these instances of the letter "-W" that are left on notes at scenes of crimes against prominent citizens across the land. Many have speculated that these are evidence that Sage Winslow has a hand in what is going on, and is signing only his final initial as to identify himself to those doing the dirty work of the evil one. Indeed, it was the Zog Cabal's first boast that they had already infiltrated our society far enough to accomplish whatever vile deed they were plotting. It would easily figure that Sage Winslow is working for the Zog Cabal, and was part of the plot against Lord Crawworth.

However....

We've all, since the beginning of this plot, noticed an unseen hand... an influence that seemed to stretch far beyond just the Zog Cabal, for the Zog Cabal controlled nothing of the Lich Twins, Lathiari or Kyrnia, neither did they seem to have direct control over the evil Lord Jou'Nar. Seemingly all three of these groups operated independently from each other, yet at times, their net effect seemed to have a definite focus, a "goal" if you will. While the ends of all that was done by these evildoers were never explicit, and not revealed to the visions of any of our most famous Sages, it has been generally thought that some entity attempts to gain control of the world... most obviously, by force.

We've forgotten to look for evidence of this person or being, and gotten ourselves caught up in examining the individual parts, and forgetting the hollistic perspective that one can always gain by taking in the big picture.

It was with no small amount of pleasure that I attended the West Coast Player luncheon this past weekend. After such, I managed to walk up and shake hands, and talk with DD personally for about 5-10 minutes. -->[I actually cut in line in front of him and Rich Vogel while attempting to enter the rented room at Dave & Busters. You see, because of all the wanna-be celebrities here, the rule of thumb in Los Angeles is, that if someone claims to be a celebrity, you deny their claim initially, and then hope you didn't insult a real celebrity. It's called playing the odds... usually works :P]

Anyway, After the luncheon, I walked up and started a conversation with DD. Mostly I had just come up with (what I thought to be) an interesting idea to include player-written midi's within the abilities of bards. That broke the ice and we discussed a number of things after that, with me finally identifying myself to him towards the end. At this point in the conversation.... in perhaps what will be called the Irvine Faux Pas.... DD immediately requested of me an answer to this question(these are his exact words)..."Have you figured out who 'M' is yet??"

Now... I attempted to gloss over his question and change the subject, not completely because I knew he'd said the wrong thing, mostly because I wanted to make a point about the availability and advertisement of quests in-game. I was attempting to paint the picture as I see in my e-mail box... that most people never see the quests, never hear about the quests, and generally dont believe me when they read my site because other than what I post, they've "seen nothing of it".

That story aside....
Do we honestly believe that Designer Dragon meant to say the letter "M" ???? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to say the letter "-W" ????

Now, at this point, a good portion of you are probably going... "So what?? Why on earth did you make us read all of this for that!!"

Well, there was one other possible tie-in with "-W" besides Winslow there was Mondain the WIZARD. Please take note of the Wizards first name... and you'll see why I think we've got a rather interesting plot leak... particularly interesting as it came in person. :)

So, can we safely assume that the "-W" is actually Mondain, the Wizard, back from the dead, resurrected by Zog Cabal and attempting to pick up where he left off??? Or, have I gone off the deep end!?!

I'm tuning into Lord British's speech tonight... I'm hoping the event will create some confirmation of the theory above.

CRAWWORTH LIVES!!!

Yes, he's alive, although its obvious that he fears for his life still. He seems to hold some kind of information that this operative '-W' seeks to gain. It's still not completely clear who's working for who, except that whoever this '-W' is, he has enough control over mobs of orcs and ettins to do his dirty work for him. Who exactly is supporting the Zog Cabal, and who is a supporter of a peaceful Britannia, is still not entirely obvious. However, for the now, Crawworth is alive, and has returned to his home in Trinsic.

Blackthorn Mystery Grows...

Aparrently, in U7-Serpent Isles (was that U7?), a monk residing inside the Serpent Isles was thought to be Blackthorn, and evidence was brought forth explaning such. to be honest, so many questions have been raised by his strange dissapearance, and long absence, that I've started a page on it, over on the left, enjoy :)

Also, It seems I screwed up :([yes, again, and I made a larger fool out of myself yet again]. I accused OSI in a letter posted on the UOSS main page of ignoring the Atlantic shard to the point of not informing their customers about reasons for downtime, and approximate return of service. I finally got myself back in today, and discovered that low and behold, there was a patch server message posted late last night. My apologies to the GM staff for that false accusation. However, I would re-iterate, and it goes doubly so since I'm posting on this page, within the theme of storyline and Roleplaying, that without approval of many of the appointed Seer's RPCs that this game lacks interesting things to do... and becomes a once-a-week-quest, for those that are lucky enough to find the quest and participate.

Finally, (I dont want to end on a completely down note...) I've put up a purpose page to explain a bit about myself, this page's function, and where to possibly find other kinds of information regarding quests and events in Ultima Online. Its posted on the left as "About this Site"

On the south bank of the Forest Bridge south of Britain, there is what is described as 'The Armor of Crawworth', and is of the same gold hue that Crawworth wore, post Zog-hunt hiatus. On some shards, even his famous red-hued viking sword lay among the items left there. these things were left in pools of blood, with no body. Nearby to the crime scene was a scroll/map/deed with a location for a meeting described on it. The coordinates for this 'meeting' are 170 DEG 46' S 129 DEG 7' W. Now, on the cloth map, those coordinates do not exist, because the meridian rests on LB's throne. However, via the sextant, they do, as anything greater than 180* E becomes a West Longitude. I went to these coordinates, which rest atop the sacrifice spot of the "demonic shrine" on the island of Hythloth. In this structure, there is a blood pentagram and bloody Ankh. Inside the blood pentagram, I found this message. 'You missed the meeting, assumed you were captured. -W'

Jumping to obvious conclusions at this point would have us peg Sage Winslow for apparently conspiring and orchestrating the murder of Crawworth. On Lake Superior, there was a corpse of a troll lying nearby the armor of Crawworth, perchance that would also put Winslow, or whoever executed this, in cahoots with G'thunk and his band of trolls.

Screenshots and speculation about this are now posted on the right. I believe there is much more here than meets the eye. The lack of a body of course leaves us to wonder if Crawworth is indeed dead or not. The presence of a troll corpse would indicate that some kind of fight took place, the many pools of blood around the armor is almost excessive, leading one to believe it is all a setup. Who would want us to all think Crawworth dead is unknown. Perhaps Crawworth was being plotted against by Sage Winslow, vanquished the assasins at some trap, and faked his own demise. Or, perhaps Crawworth is not the man he seems, and is out to try and frame his biggest opponent. We need time, and more evidence to go much further than that in the speculation.

Is Blackthorn Evil?

I received a very interesting e-mail this past week, from a person very knowledgable in Ultima lore. He explained what happened to Blackthorn in the previous Ultima (I believe it was U5). Essentially, Lord British had discovered the underworld, and led a team of men to explore it. During this absence, Blackthorn was given temporary authority over the land. During this time, the three Shadowlords began to influence Blackthorn to force the poplace into a kind of 'slavery'. Blackthorn had turned evil, though not entirely of his own accord. When Lord British returned from the underworld, He gave Blackthorn a choice, between certain death for his crimes, or to jump through the RED MOONGATE that Lord British had opened up.

This was a huge red-flag to me. :) It is very very interesting. Does this mean that our Blackthorn is perhaps a single entity, still being influenced by the Shadowlords? Perhaps the day our Blackthorn jumped through the red moongate was the same time that he did so on the "original" Britannian shard. There are many many possibilities opened by this...

Large Large Update. I updated the Timeline (yes, finally). Updated the names list slightly, with some clarifications provided to me over E-mail, thanks again, Fangorn Dragon. I updated the menu a bunch on the left. It's supposed to take up a percentage of your screen to make it easier to see at the higher resolutions (1024 and up) At standard internet viewing res, 800x600, its rather cramped :( Sorry about that but if I made the names any smaller you'd see links entitled "cabal1", "Cabal2", "cabal3" etc...

I also put in the three newest quests. The middle of which I totally missed for being out of town. It was a ship sinking by G'thunk. It didn't sound that interesting anyway :P The first was a huge, all-out battle with 5 Zog Cabalists. It was quite bloody on ATL.(which usually is) The third was an escort mission. We escorted a courier from Vesper to Trinsic. All in all it's all very good to hear. We've got events happening again, with a clever reputation system that should do a huge job keeping the random acts of violence from interfering with the events, and the lag was nonexistant in the largest of the three quests.

Keep the E-mails coming! See you this Wednesday night on ATL!

From Tarin,

Another possibility that I've mentioned before (but may as well repeat) is the idea of Lord Blackthorne going over to the side of evil. I've heard by someone (not sure the truth in this as I've never played previous ultimas) that in one of earlier Ultimas LB turned evil. If that's true...combine the fact that he's been "abducted" and that during the adventure into deceit (when Humbolt died) it was rumored he was seen "escaping" from his rescue via red moongate. Could it be Lord Blackthorne has become a villain?

Excellent Hypothesis!! Mostly because it really changes the entire scene of the game. Imagine, if you will, the conflict between Britain and Blackthorn going farther than we've EVER thought possible. It could even go all the way to the point of organized war between the two parties all over the world!! Thanks a ton Tarin!

I got about 10 good e-mails on Crawworths latest quest this week. It seems that AFTER (it might be before, but I'm leaning towards after) the relics were stolen, Crawworth led some people to the Shrine of Spirituality, where a black locked tome was found. This tome was returned to Crawworth where the questers were given gold and magical armor. This is an intereting twist on the entire story. It makes it much more of a lame "guard failure" [to guard the relics] story in Britain.

I am of the opinion that it was indeed poison [physical or magical] that killed the guard and the bystanding peasant. However, I cannot help but laugh at the idea of a town guard getting bumped on the head and killed because the guards never wear helmets. That' to me, is hilarious, and I think to save face LB should institute a new law, requiring all guards to wear helmets. To think that the most powerful magical relics in our world were stolen on nothing more than a whack to a [godly] guards head, it's too humorous to comprehend. :)

I was quite unable to locate any "base" for the Zog Cabal between Trinsic and Britain, however. And, I did look rather long.

This is somewhat in the hopes that "The Plot" is beginning to roll along again now that the Rep patch is indeed in the game. (and what a blessing it is to the game so far)

New to my archive today is part four of my own character's background tale ("Marks Left"). AND, believe it or not, a plot related update that was posted to the Town Cryer Newspaper!!! ("Greater Evil at Work") Oh yes, I'm quite serious, head on over there to see it for yourself. :)

Essentially, they're reminding us of the existence of G'thunk, and his possible motives, or masterminds at work behind him. i.e. a "Let's all take a couple days and refresh ourselves of what's gone on." kind of update. Which is fine. I'm of the opinion that perhaps we'll be seeing G'thunk around this week.

Stay tuned for Part 5 of my own characters story, which is promised later this week.

Yes, I've been away, but this isn't entirely my fault! There've been some new additions to the security here at Stratics and I was unable to get my own access resolved until just today acutally. That means that I must apologize, I haven't recieved any e-mail from Stratics since about May 5th or so. So, I'm sorry if I haven't responded, but I really wasn't able to!!

Now, In the time I've been away from this site, I have to report that I've really not seen anything occur storyline related. That is the second reason for my absence. The last thing I've seen appear on the Town Cryer newspaper, or in-game for that matter, is the quest to "free" Lord Blackthorn and engage the Lich Twins by Sage Humbolt. I've received an e-mail that during the quest to engage and kill the Lich Twins, Lord Blackthorn was seen to have escaped his rescuers thru yet another Blood Red Moongate. I've only heard this once, so maybe its a fib, or maybe its not. Can anyone confirm?

I just checked my Stratics e-mail and I got a really good e-mail from a Mr Whittick. Here it is...

Perhaps I am the only one who sees what is happening, the cabal is obviously trying to ressurect their long dead leader (being Zog of course). The necklace that the cabal has recovered is linked to the twin liches attempt to bring their mother back to life. The gathering of the monster forces whether orc, troll, or undead is obviously in prepartion for something big. Big like Zog coming back.

That sounds VERY plausible! *applauds for Whittick* So possible, in fact, that I'm willing to take that as my own current belief! If so, that would explain the reason the Liches and Sage were so dispensable to the story. They're merely co-stars in the plot so far. I guess I was thrown off by all the importance thrown their way. In any case, I'm very anxious for this new Reputation system to get itself in game, so that the GM's can return to executing this storyline.

*grows another grey hair waiting for the Rep System's implementation*

Any Ideas?

A small article was placed on the TC newspaper about Sage Humbolt's death. however, it contained no information on the specifics of what the good sage was doing to kill the two lich twins. In fact.. it contained SOO little information, that I've decided not to put it up....

I'm quite curious as to why the lich twins, and Sage Humbolt were so quickly and quietly dismissed...

Yes, the kind man who gave out tons of special items to questers is dead at the hands of the lich twins Lathiari an Kyrnia. At least... that's the story we've got from the Vault... as there's nothing posted on the Town Cryer Newspaper....hmmmm........

I was NOT in-game last night for this event, and I haven't been in-game much in the past four weeks as my ISP suddenly grew a corporate greedy side and decided to charge by the hour over 100 hours a month. 100 hours a month sounds like a lot for one person... but when you're sharing your isp with others who tend to be home more often..... Phooie, I say good riddens to those guys, and a pox on Corporate America in general, Monty Python was right.

Enough of that, I want to know what happened!! If anyone has a detailed account of what occurred on this quest last night, please e-mail me pronto!! [email protected] I'm quite interested to know what "weapon" the sage used on them, and exactly how they all died. Please, good people, I could use everyone's help.

I'm planning on adding music to this site this week. I enjoy listening to "blessed MIDI" while browsing. I find it adds greatly to the enjoyment of a site. I'm also still planning on finishing part four of Rainman's story. So please stay tuned. :)

One final Thing, I've moved all previous information into an archive, linked at the bottom. "Ancient News", enjoy!