“How have the people lost their honor?”
Here you’ll find inaccuracies in Trinsic and its corresponding dungeon Shame in Ultima IX. That part of the game was the hardest one for me when I once played it, thanks to a damn plot stopper bug, which prevented Lucian from appearing. Took me two weeks to find it out. In any case, there’s a short flash of reason in Trinsic, when you learn that the Chalice is but a symbol. Too bad that the developers soon dismiss this idea when it turns out that the Chalice is a magical artifact despite of it.
Ignorance of predecessors
-
How did Dupre’s ashes get back from Serpent Isle to Britannia? Why do
Iolo, Gwenno, or Shamino not tell the Avatar where the ashes can be found? (They must have
been brought back by them.)
Oh wait... It’s even worse: The ashes turned to flames when Dupre’s spirit was united with the Chaos Serpent! But who cares about such minor details?
Hey, there might be an explanation: When Iolo carried Dupre’s ashes in his backpack on Serpent Isle, some of the ash was left in there because the urn was a bit leaky. When he returned home and told Gwenno to clean his backpack, she noticed the ash and asked him about it.
“Aye, these must be the leftovers of Dupre’s ashes. I suggest we put ’em into a new urn and worship the good ol’ drunkard.”
Hey, I was just trying to rationalize Ultima Ascension!
(by Hacki Dragon) -
It’s not new that the Avatar forgets the 8 mantras all the time, but
this time, even Blackthorn must send a spy to learn the mantra of Honor. Someone should
give those folks notepads!
(by Hacki Dragon) -
The people of Trinsic were very proud of their city walls in former times.
Given that, it’s strange that there are no walls surrounding new Trinsic.
(by Tribun Dragon) -
The blacksmith in Trinsic is able to easily create a Blackrock Sword for the
Avatar. This goes against what we already knew of Blackrock, which is that it can only be modified
through magical means, thus a blacksmith could not simply forge a sword out of it,
and even if he could, Blackrock is too unwieldy to use as a weapon unless the weapon is magically
modified (as the Black Sword was).
It always annoyed me that the Black Sword in Ultima VII, one of the best fantasy weapons ever, was reduced in importance when a simple Blacksmith could forge a similar sword without any special tools.
(by Silellak)
Technical shortcomings
-
Lyssa, the protector of the Bell of Courage in Serpent’s Hold, lives
quite dangerous; in midst of the ruins of a castle beneath the sea, in a closed room without
water and food, surrounded by quarrelsome ghosts...
How long could one survive under those conditions?
(by Hacki Dragon)In the patch, we hear about some kind of spell that seems to protect her.
-
In Shame, a shitload of Chalices are lying on the floor in a certain room
- I’d like to know where that collection came from. Did the designers not know a better
solution to place an alternative Chalice to the Avatar’s deposal quickly?
(by Hacki Dragon)Thanks to the patch, you occasionally also hear in the game that Paladins are trained in Shame. Everyone who succeeds the test may take a chalice. Outstanding idea! (maybe even originally planned by the designers?)
-
The whole design of Trinsic is hilarious. Although everyone has lost their honor, got lazy,
blablabla: Trinsic sheds a bad light on the worldbuilders’ skills.
In order to go from one part of the town to the other, you have to go through the bastion. For two reasons, this is silly.- When the building was still being used, the paladins surely didn’t want traffic through their bastion. Could everyone walk in and out there?
- We can assume that the strange happenings in the bastion have been occurring long since. You can’t really expect the people to walk through a haunted house, can you?
(by Tribun Dragon)
General problems
-
The Avatar dares to ask Myrea, the keeper of the Shrine of Honor, how the people have
lost their Honor!
Well, let’s consider this for a moment: In Britain, New Magincia, Moonglow, Minoc and Yew, the people had lost their Virtue due to a big evil Column... Such a device is located near Trinsic, too, but it has certainly nothing to do with the loss of Honor, right?
(by Hacki Dragon)Stupid questions were eliminated in the patch.
-
Why can only a paladin close the phase gap? Yes, in Ultima IV, we learned
that paladins also have magical abilities, but this doesn’t answer the question why a
mage couldn’t manage the situation as well. Which logically takes us to the question
as to why the Avatar can’t close the gap; he’s usually the man for everything.
(This question becomes especially interesting when the player chose the paladin class for the
Avatar at the beginning of the game...)
(by Hacki Dragon) -
Could those phase gaps actually appear anywhere? As a citizen of Britannia, I’d find
this alarming... Lord British should set up an investigation on it, ’cause I’d
really love to know where the gap came from.
(by Hacki Dragon) -
It’s wonderful that we hear at least once that the Chalice of Honor is but a
symbol in Trinsic - the designers should have taken the fact that the runes and sigils
are nothing but symbols into account for the whole game - but if the Chalice is really just
a symbol, then why does it unleash mysterious powers in a magical ritual later
on?
(by Hacki Dragon) -
In Ultima IX, the Avatar asks lots of stupid, really stupid questions! But this one gotta be
the worst at all. Enjoy the most memorable quote in the whole game:
(You don’t believe me? Here’s proof.)“What’s a Paladin?”
(by Hacki Dragon)Fortunately, stupid questions were eliminated in the patch.
-
If the clever player believes he could keep Blackthorn from stealing the Chalice of Honor by
not asking Dupre about the mantra (so the spy doesn’t hear it and doesn’t report
it to Blackthorn), you are presented with a most hilarious situation. You are in the crystal
chamber and speak the correct mantra, yet you are angrily told that the mantra is not correct.
Then you are thrown out. The crystal won’t accept the mantra until you have talked
to Dupre. (But then it’s too late and Blackthorn is already there...)
(by Tribun Dragon) -
The inscription on Dupre’s gravestone must be a joke:
“Here lies Sir Dupre, the most honorful man ever.”
- Why so dramatic, why so exaggerated? I wonder if Dupre would have liked such a bragging inscription...
- According to Ascension propaganda, the Avatar is the most honorful man in the world.
(by Kensai Dragon)
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