Mondain
Mondain
Mondain is the first villain of the Ultima saga, the dark wizard whose defeat in Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (1981) set the entire Britannian mythology in motion. Long-dead by the time Ultima Online opens in 1997, his shadow falls across every era of the game: his apprentice and lover Minax is the Ultima II villain, his offspring Exodus is the Ultima III villain, the shards of his Gem of Immortality become the Shadowlords of Ultima V, his Skull is destroyed by the Avatar to fulfil the Quest of the Avatar in Ultima IV, and the shattering of his Gem is the in-fiction explanation for Ultima Online's multiple shards (servers). Through Minax, Exodus, and the Shadowlords, Mondain's legacy is the Triad of Evil that defines Britannian villainy for two decades of single-player Ultima and a quarter-century of UO.
Origin — son of Wolfgang
Mondain was born somewhere in the lands of pre-Britannian Sosaria, the second son of King Wolfgang, the powerful wizard-king of the City-State of Akalabeth. Wolfgang tutored Mondain in the arcane arts. As his knowledge grew, so did his ambition: he wished his elder brother's inheritance for himself. He began experimenting on minor creatures — bending their minds, controlling their actions, killing them without compassion. His strangeness alarmed his father.
When Mondain was fifteen, Wolfgang intervened:
"Thou shalt take a year off from magic, Mondain. To improve thine attitudes and develop thy virtues. I have arranged for thee to live with the brothers in the abbey, where thou shalt practice compassion and humility. Learn thy lessons well, my son, and this ruby gem, which harnesses the power of the sun, shall be thine."
Mondain had other plans. The next night, he slew his father and took the gem. Using the captured ruby as his focus, he forged a black jewel — the Gem of Immortality — by turning the ruby's solar power against itself, rendering himself and his evil immortal.
The Triad of Evil and the war on Sosaria
With the Gem on his person, Mondain became unkillable. He bred hybrid creatures in his laboratories — minotaurs, lizardmen, orcs, goblins — and called the dark legions of the universe to his service. Even alien races answered: tales spread of a tiger-headed creature wielding wands of strange fire. Sosaria fell into terror; Lord British's vision of a unified kingdom became, suddenly, the only hope.
In their darkest hour, Lord British summoned a hero from another world — The Stranger, who would in later games become The Avatar. The Stranger and the young British battled Mondain deep within the labyrinth of dungeons. Mondain was defeated and driven from Akalabeth; British received the title "Lord British, Protector of Akalabeth" for the victory. Such a defeat would not be forgotten.
The Stranger pursued Mondain across Sosaria. In a final confrontation, the Stranger destroyed the Gem of Immortality, ending Mondain's immortality, and slew him. The Triad of Evil was, in Ultima I's ending, broken — but only the first head of the hydra had fallen.
The cataclysm — what Mondain's death did to the world
Mondain's death triggered a magical cataclysm whose consequences are still felt:
| Aftermath | Where it surfaced |
|---|---|
| Three of the four continents of Sosaria disappeared | Established in Ultima II prologue. Lost ships occasionally drift in from the missing lands; no one can sail back. The fourth continent — the one that became Britannia — is the only land Lord British inherited. |
| The Gem's shards became the Shadowlords | Ultima V. Captain Johne shipwrecked on the Underworld shore, found the shards, and the evil within them drove him to slay his three companions; from their blood the three Shadowlords arose. |
| Mondain's apprentice Minax sought revenge | Ultima II. Minax used time-doors to attack the Avatar's home world (Earth) in 1990, 1990 BC, the year 2111, and the year of Time's End. |
| Mondain and Minax's offspring Exodus rose | Ultima III. The sentient computer-creature programmed by four punch cards, defeated by the Avatar in the Castle of Death. |
| Mondain's Skull | The Skull of Mondain was a powerful magical artifact in the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom era. Casting it into the Stygian Abyss is an optional act in Ultima IV that proves the Avatar's Humility. |
| The shattering of the Gem | Ultima Online's in-fiction explanation for the multiplicity of shards. Sosaria became many parallel planets, each a copy. The Time Lord later confirmed this to Lord British, in a conversation overheard by Blackthorn and Sherry the Mouse. |
| Gargoyle theology | The gargoyle race, in their Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, identifies Mondain as the physical embodiment of the virtue Control (paired with their three principles of Control, Passion, and Diligence). |
Mondain in Ultima Online
Mondain himself does not appear in UO — he is centuries dead by the era of the game. But his presence is everywhere:
- Mondain's Legacy expansion (2005). The expansion's title and its central conceit — that the elven race exists because of Mondain's lingering influence on Sosaria's magical fabric — make him the absent prime mover of the entire ML setting. See Mondain's Legacy.
- The Gem of Immortality, named in patch fiction, in artifacts, in BNN articles. The Crystal Shards from which the Shadowlords spring; the Crystal Portal artifact in early UO; the crystal lattice that gives the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom its name.
- Mondain's Skull — referenced in artifacts, occasionally appearing as decorative items. The Cabal of Mondain in Order of the Silver Serpent fiction is a reference.
- Mondain (Ultima) — the manga Ultima: The Terror of Exodus (Tanaka, JICC Shuppan Kyoku, 1988, ISBN 4-88063-434-4) shows Mondain in flashback, alongside Minax and the young Exodus.
See also
- Minax — apprentice and lover, Ultima II villain
- Exodus — offspring of Mondain and Minax, Ultima III villain
- Shadowlords — born from the shards of the Gem of Immortality
- Mondain's_Legacy — the UO expansion bearing his name
- Lord_British — the young defender who fought Mondain in Akalabeth
- Avatar — The Stranger who destroyed the Gem and slew Mondain
- Sosaria — the world Mondain's death shattered
- Virtues — the moral cosmology born from his defeat