Britannia

Britannia is the original homeland of Ultima Online — the kingdom forged by Lord British from the disparate realms of pre-Akalabeth Sosaria, and the namesake of the very first map that shipped with UO in 1997. The term is often used loosely as a synonym for Sosaria (the world) or even for the totality of all UO facets, but in its strict and technically correct sense, Britannia refers to the original UO map: the continent containing Britain, Trinsic, Yew, Moonglow, Magincia, Vesper, Skara Brae, Minoc, Cove, Jhelom, Buccaneer's Den, Nujel'm, and Serpent's Hold. Everything else — the Lost Lands, Ilshenar, Malas, Tokuno, Ter Mur, the Stygian Abyss, Eodon — was added later, in expansions, and lies geographically (and in some cases dimensionally) elsewhere.

The original kingdom

Lord British forged the Kingdom of Britannia by uniting the eight City-States that survived the death of Mondain. Each city was assigned to a single Virtue and a single Companion of the Avatar, anchoring the moral cosmology of Ultima IV in a literal political map: Britain for Compassion, Trinsic for Honor, Yew for Justice, Moonglow for Honesty, Magincia for Pride (a parable city of Humility's opposite), Vesper the merchant city of no single Virtue, Skara Brae for Spirituality, Jhelom for Valor, Minoc for Sacrifice, and the seat of Humility kept hidden in the Isle of the Avatar. The countryside between them — the swamps near Trinsic, the deep Yew forest, the Bog of Desolation, the Lost Pyre, the Wind tunnels — fills the rest of the original UO map.

The four facets and what "Britannia" means in each

The launch map was duplicated in 2000 with the Renaissance expansion, splitting the world into two parallel facets — Trammel (no PvP) and Felucca (PvP). The Lost Lands were already accessible from both. Subsequent expansions added separate, geographically distinct maps: Ilshenar (1998, The Second Age-era expansion), Malas (2003, Age of Shadows), Tokuno Islands (2004, Samurai Empire), Ter Mur (2009, Stygian Abyss), and Eodon (2015, Time of Legends). Britannia in the strict sense exists only on Trammel and Felucca; the other facets are different lands, different governments, different (or no) Britannian sovereignty.

The colloquial reading of "Britannia" — the one most players and GMs use casually — is the entirety of Ultima Online's world. The strict reading reserves it for the original two-facet continent. Both readings are valid; the context of the sentence usually tells you which is meant.

Government — a chronology

Britannia's monarchy and council have a tangled history shaped almost entirely by event-cycle storytelling:

Geography — the original map

Britannia's land is roughly oriented north-up. The dominant landmarks:

• Britannia Peninsula (centre-west): Britain, Castle Britannia, the Sweet Dreams Inn, the Royal Britannian Bank, the Magic Shop, the Rangers' Guild. The river Yew runs north from Britain.
• Yew Forest (north-west): Empath Abbey, Court of Truth, Yew vineyard, the Bog of Desolation. Justice's home.
• Minoc (north-east): Mining town. Sacrifice's home. Major iron-ore source.
• Vesper (east): City of Canals. Mint of Vesper. Vesper Museum. The trade artery.
• Moonglow (Verity Isle, far east): Lycaeum. The Royal Zoo. Honesty's home.
• Magincia (south-east): Pride's parable. Destroyed in the 2007 Warriors-of-Destiny invasion; New Magincia rebuilt; later destroyed again in 2011's Virtuebane scenario; a new bazaar-economy city rebuilt by player vote.
• Trinsic (south): Walled paladin city. Honor's home. Bank of Britannia / Trinsic Royal Bank dual-bank. Order of the Silver Serpent.
• Skara Brae (south-west, on Spirituality Isle): City of Spirituality. Two-tile bank-to-stable layout, beloved of tamers.
• Jhelom (far south, Valor Isle): Valor's home. Pit fighters and warriors.
• Buccaneer's Den (south-east, separate isle): The pirate haven. No alignment with British's law.
• Nujel'm (east, on Dagger Isle): The decadent island court.
• Serpent's Hold (south-west isle): Britain's military garrison.
• Cove (north of Britain): Walled village. Originally the Council of Mages' seat.
• Wind (mountain dungeon): The Council of Mages city, accessible only via dungeon Hythloth in early UO.

The Lost Lands are reached through the great cave-tunnel beneath the Britannia Peninsula and via the underwater entrance from the southwestern shore. Two cities reside there: Papua (south) and Delucia (north), each with their own banks, vendors, and quests. The Terathan and Ophidian war defines the region.

Britannia in the deeper Ultima saga

Britannia did not always exist. Before Ultima I, the world was called Sosaria and was carved into many small kingdoms. After Mondain's defeat, three of the four continents of Sosaria were lost (the magical aftermath of the Gem of Immortality's destruction is the in-fiction explanation; "server capacity" is the out-of-fiction explanation). Lord British forged Britannia from the remnant, the kingdom of Ultima IV onward.

The single-player Ultima saga then layered new myth atop that foundation: the Avatar of the Eight Virtues (Ultima IV), the Underworld beneath Britannia and the Stonegate citadel of the Shadowlords (Ultima V), the gargoyle invasion and Codex of Ultimate Wisdom (Ultima VI), the Black Gate and the Guardian (Ultima VII), the Serpent Isle voyage (Ultima VII Part Two), the Pagan exile (Ultima VIII), and the final return to Britannia in Ultima IX. Ultima Online picks up the threads of this myth, splits Sosaria into shards (the in-fiction explanation for the multiple game servers), and runs its own continuous fiction from 1997 to the present — a quarter-century of evolving Britannia.

See also

• Sosaria — the wider world
• Lord_British — the sovereign
• Lord_Blackthorn — the current king
• Mondain · Minax · Exodus — the Triad of Evil
• Shadowlords · Guardian — later cosmic villains
• Felucca · Trammel · Ilshenar · Malas · Tokuno_Islands · Eodon — the facets
• Britannian_Royal_Guard — the protectors
• Virtues — the moral cosmology