“Where is Destard?”
Here you’ll find inaccuracies in Valoria, where even the greatest coward doesn’t mind living in a volcano, and its corresponding dungeon Destard in Ultima IX. What can you say about it? On the positive side, you are finally presented with a quest that requires you to travel around several places in Britannia. On the other hand, Valoria is simply hilarious. Jhelom was destroyed by a volcano outburst, OK. So what are we gonna do? Right, we rebuild the town inside of the volcano! Bravo! Besides, the word “town” isn’t the right choice for those few huts. At least Destard is pretty large and relatively interesting.
Ignorance of predecessors
-
In Ultima V, the Word of Power was used to open a dungeon from outside. Why
won’t it work that way in Ultima IX? While it is explained in the game that the dungeon
was sealed from the inside, the question isn’t really answered:
-
Why the heck
was it sealed from inside? It was meant to trap the dragons in there! Sir Drake was even stupid
enough to leave a piece of paper with the Word of Power in the dungeon - Great!
- I think you should still be able to open the dungeon from the outside, although the face is inside.
-
In Ultima V, you could not seal the dungeons from inside. In Ultima IX, it seems to
have worked with Destard.
(by Avatarsgarbidge) -
Is it a coincidence that the Word of Power for Destard is the same as in Ultima V?
I don’t think Sir Drake could have found it out. In Ultima V, only two people knew the
Word of Power for Destard: Goeth, who became mad in the isolation of Jhelom and who spoke all
words the other way round so that nobody could understand him, and the Avatar, who got it out
of Goeth nonetheless. None of them could possibly have told it to Sir Drake, because Goeth
lived long before Sir Drake was born; and if the Avatar would have told it to someone, then
we would have noticed that, I think.
So, how shall we explain it? Did the stupid Avatar companions blab it out? Did someone listen to you when you yelled the word in Ultima V? Did the Avatar mention it when recording past adventures in the time between Ultima VII and Underworld II? Alas, the game completely ignores the question.
(by Hacki Dragon)In the patch, you find an ancient book written by Sutek, which tells you the story about the sealing of the dungeons. All 8 Words of Power are included. Therefore, this flaw has been corrected.
-
How exactly did Sir Drake manage to seal Destard? In Ultima V, only the wise
members of the Great Council were able to do that.
(You could reseal the dungeons yourself in Ultima V, but not in Ultima VI or VII... Or Ultima IX, for that matter.)
(by Hacki Dragon) -
Please tell me: Since when was there a village called Dawn in the west of Britannia?
It must have been built after Ultima VII, exactly at the time when the Guardian terrorized the whole world, destroyed towns and castles, and natural disasters twisted the land!
Let’s take a closer look at the whole affair: We assume that the construction of the village started immediately after the destruction of the Black Gate. (Which alone doesn’t really make sense, since nobody in Ultima VII speaks about such plans.) 18 months later, the Avatar travels to Serpent Isle. We can also guess how long he stayed there, let’s say 3 months. When he was thrown to Pagan, the Guardian attacked Britannia.
How long does it take to build such a village? When everything runs smoothly: 6 months. This means that the inhabitants of Dawn could hardly live one year in peace; and you have to remember that “peace” is the wrong word to describe that time when teleport storms and Imbalance from Serpent Isle took over to Britannia.
Regardless of all this, Ultima IX gives the impression that Dawn has a longer history and that the problems there did not start until the Columns appeared. The worst thing about it: Apparently, even the Avatar already knows the village.
I am sure this is not the same Dawn as in Ultima III (which appeared only during certain moon phases), since we never heard about it in Ultima IV, 5, 6, or 7.
(by Hacki Dragon) -
So, the Order of the Silver Serpent have renamed themselves into “Knights of Valor”.
There’s a small problem: the Order of the Silver Serpent strived for the whole principle
of Courage; not only for Valor, but also for Honor, Sacrifice, and Spirituality.
(by Hacki Dragon)
(by Hacki Dragon)
Technical shortcomings
-
Eris, too, has the ability to make an item appear just with the power of his mind,
like Lord British (see Lord
British’s Castle).
(Maybe Eris can use magic. However, that explanation would go against several statements from previous Ultimas, when it was always said that fighters generally despise magic.)
(by Hacki Dragon) -
Next to the Destard entrance, there lies a powder keg on the ground, which screams at you:
Too bad you can’t use powder kegs in Ultima IX. Did the designers place the powder keg in front of the entrance to anger old Ultima fans, who might remember the mass of detail found in Ultima VI and 7?“Blast the entrance open with me! Use me! Use me!”
(by Hacki Dragon) -
It’s quite strange that Geoffrey has already arrived in Valoria instantly
after the Avatar has cleansed the Shrine of Valor. If all of the Avatar companions had not
been exorcised from the Guardian’s influence until the respective Shrine was cleansed
(as in Katrina’s case), then Geoffrey did the following while the Avatar walked the few
inches from the Shrine back to Valoria:
- Finding his way out of the big dungeon Destard.
- Wandering to Britain through Deep Forest and across Serpent Spine.
- Talking to Lord British, and asking what happened in the last years.
- Getting a vessel.
- Sailing to Valoria.
(by Hacki Dragon) -
After you’ve done everything in Valoria, Raven says - attention, here it comes! - she
heard that Lord British was searching for the Avatar! Oh my god, what a pathetic
design: Raven was alone on the Silver Hart all the time! Are we supposed to believe that she
quickly swam to Trinsic to listen to the latest rumors there? (If the player’s last shrine
before Skara Brae is not Valoria but Trinsic, then Raven’s statement makes more sense
of course - but after all, it seems that Valoria is supposed to be last shrine for the player,
isn’t it?)
(by Hacki Dragon)No more pathetic dialogue lines in the patch.
-
The “signal fire” is totally senseless because you just see Raven’s
ship after lighting it; that’s all.
(by Paulon Dragon) -
After the Avatar has discovered the second entrance of Destard, he simply jumps down!
Wouldn’t it be much safer to use a rope? Then he could later on leave the dungeon the
same way as he entered it.
(by Hacki Dragon) -
Actually, the location of Valoria is ridiculous. Who in the world was stupid
enough to build a town in midst of a volcano? (I think the volcano is a much better
reason to worry for the people in Valoria than the daemons.)
(by Tribun Dragon) -
The people in Valoria may be nervous cowards, but they have invented automatic sliding
doors long since!
(by Hacki Dragon) -
Can’t a dragon in Destard burst through the ice from below much the
same way the Avatar does from above?
(by John Witlock) -
Even after you have slain all guards and reopened Destard, the slaves in the mines don’t
even think about getting out. They happily continue mining gems and don’t
want to be disturbed. You get very little thanks for saving their asses.
(by Tribun Dragon) -
The wooden spikes protecting the road to the fort against the daemons are
ridiculous. You have to push a little yellow button and the spiked wall will just go down and
you can pass. Daemons are far more intelligent than any human (according to previous Ultima
lore), but we are expected to believe that they aren’t smart enough to push a
stupid little button to get access to the fort?
The inner gate doesn’t look very daemon-proof either, by the way.
(by Little Stinky Dragon)
General problems
-
Why don’t the inhabitants of Valoria just move away if they are worried
about the demons that much? Don’t they even dare to walk outside of the keep? This wouldn’t
be very meaningful, because the daemons could invade the keep through the big opening of the
volcano every time.
(by Hacki Dragon)In the patch, people actually want to move away.
-
How comes this daemon simply appears in midst of the town center? If the daemons
are capable of that, and if they always wanted to have the Dagger of Valor, then why then haven’t
they invaded the town long since?
(by Hacki Dragon)The demons can’t just destroy Valoria, since only the knights know how to reveal the Dagger of Valor, says the patch.
-
It seems that Geoffrey, too, doesn’t have any ambitions to join the Avatar’s
quest after he’s been exorcised from the Guardian... Perhaps he’s not
fully healed from Cowardice yet!
(by Hacki Dragon) -
In Valoria, Geoffrey breaks his own record of lacking will to talk from Ultima
VI: He only says he is going to stay in Valoria, and then the conversation is over. What a
reunion after 20 years!
(by Hacki Dragon) -
The Guardian just kills the Valorian mage Meranthon before the eyes of the Avatar, out of the
blue, without any problems. If the Guardian is really that vile and evil, then why
doesn’t he kill all of the Avatar companions, including Raven?
(by Hacki Dragon) -
You have to wonder what the three daemons wanted to do with the Dagger of Valor.
As soon as they get it into their possession, they just wait for the Avatar to kill them.
(by Artic Blaze Dragon) -
The daemons’ origin is meant to be in the Age of Darkness. If we believe Ascension (and
as an exception of the rule, we’ll do that now), then the triumvirate is even older than
the Guardian. However, the daemons are just killed without any trouble in
a simple swordfight.
(by Artic Blaze Dragon) -
No way that the Shrine of Valor and the moonstone survived the eruption of Valoria’s
volcano. Why are the shrine and the moongate still there?
(by Tribun Dragon) -
Lots of problems with the sealing of Destard: (Note that we must consider
that the second entrance was most certainly not used.)
Before the deportation of Dawn’s inhabitants:
- How could the people be deported to Destard when the dungeon was closed?
- How could the cultists enter the dungeon?
- How did the Wyrmguards get into the dungeon?
After the deportation:
-
How
do the Wyrmguards leave the dungeon, and how can the deal with Talornia (dragon
eggs for the Guardian) actually be handled?
- Why do they mine gems in Destard when they can’t get them out anyway?
- How in the world do the people in Destard survive?
(by Tribun Dragon)
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