The Avatar
The Avatar from Ultima IX: Ascension
Game series	Ultima
First game	Ultima I (as the Stranger), Ultima IV (as the Avatar)
Creator(s)	Richard Garriott
Voice actor(s)	J.C. Shakespeare (Ultima IX)

While the games avoid overt references to religion, the system of Virtues is loosely based upon various aspects of Christianity and Buddhism, and the Avatar certainly shows some traits of a messiah. The Avatar from Ultima IX: Ascension. ... Ultima IX: Ascension (1999) is the ninth and final part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... It has been suggested that Mongbat (Ultima) be merged into this article or section. ... Ultima I (1986 re-release) on the Commodore 64 Ultima, later known as Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness or simply Ultima I, is the first game in the Ultima series of computer role-playing games and was published by California Pacific Computer Co. ... Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, first released in 1985 (USCO# PA-317-504) for the Apple II, is the fourth in the series of Ultima computer role-playing games. ... Richard Garriott in Lord British attire Richard Allen Garriott (born July 4, 1961; nickname Lord British) is a significant figure in the video game industry. ... Ultima IX: Ascension (1999) is the ninth and final part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... Buddhism is a dharmic, non-theistic religion, which is also a philosophy and a system of psychology[]. Buddhism is also known as Buddha Dharma or Dhamma, which means the teachings of the Awakened One in Sanskrit and Pali, the languages of ancient Buddhist texts. ... In Judaism, the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ Standard Hebrew Arabic: Al-Masih, المسيح), Tiberian Hebrew , Aramaic ) initially meant any person who was anointed by a prophet of God. ...

History

The Avatar was first known as the Stranger (or, more fully, Stranger from another world) in Ultima, when he (or she) defeated Mondain. He returned to bring an end to the revenge of the enchantress Minax, and to dispatch their hellspawn, Exodus. It is widely debated whether or not the Stranger and the Avatar are the same person, as the games themselves are not quite consistent on this issue. Ultima IV says the heroes of the first three games were several different persons, and implies that the party of heroes from Ultima III still lived in Britannia. But later Ultimas (Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle as the most definite example) imply the Stranger and the Avatar are one and the same person. Ultima I (1986 re-release) on the Commodore 64 Ultima, later known as Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness or simply Ultima I, is the first game in the Ultima series of computer role-playing games and was published by California Pacific Computer Co. ... Spoiler warning: Mondain was a fictional evil wizard in the first Ultima game and one of its main villains. ... Spoiler warning: Minax was a fictional evil enchantress in the second Ultima game and one of its main villains. ... Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, first released in 1985 (USCO# PA-317-504) for the Apple II, is the fourth in the series of Ultima computer role-playing games. ... Ultima III: Exodus, the third game in the Ultima series. ... Ultima VII is the seventh part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ...

As far as the gameworld itself is concerned, this could be explained with gradual muddling of history (as Batlin explains in Ultima VII: The Black Gate). The games cover a very long time span, and due to different rate of time in Earth and Britannia, there are long intervals between the games. Batlin is a character in the computer game series Ultima, first appearing in Ultima VII: The Black Gate and then in Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (as well as being referenced in Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds). ... Ultima VII is the seventh part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ...

The fourth time the Stranger returned, his quest took a different tack. Instead of defeating an enemy, his goal was to follow the path of the Virtues, and retrieve the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from the Great Stygian Abyss. In the fifth episode, the Avatar defeated a repressive regime over Britannia, and in the sixth he brought peace between men and gargoyles. The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom is a fictional book in the Ultima series of computer role_playing games. ...

In the seventh, eighth, and ninth episodes, the Avatar battled the Guardian, finally destroying both himself and his foe to rid the world of him. The Guardian from Ultima VII intro The Guardian is the final villain of the Ultima series of computer role playing games. ...

Dialogue

In Ultima I to III, the Stranger was a silent protagonist whose speech was never shown. In Ultima IV and onward, the player must choose keywords (in early parts by typing them out, in VII by picking them). Thus the other characters discuss things with the Avatar, but apart of the topic, the player never sees what the Avatar actually says. By tradition, the dialogue choices the player knows beforehand are "name", "job" and "bye" (and also rarely "health"). This is also parodied in Ultima VII where an actor playing the Avatar boasts about how he has hundreds of lines to memorize, only to reveal that every line consists of "name", "job" and "bye". A silent protagonist is a central character who does not verbally interact with other characters within a storys narrative. ...

The first time the Avatar had actual dialogue lines was in Ultima VII, but even there full dialogue lines were very rare and only appeared in a couple of places in the games.

Ultima Underworld broke this tradition by being the first Ultima where the Avatar had full dialogue lines throughout the game, and Ultima IX not only had full dialogue lines, but speech to go with them.

Appearance and customization

Since the games focus on spiritual growth and hope to teach some good ideas to the players as well, the implied idea behind the Avatar character is to make the in-game character a mirror image of the players themselves (the character in the game, in a way, becoming an "avatar" of the player), but this is not explicitly mentioned. Example of an avatar as used on internet forums. ...

In all Ultima games (except for Ultima IX), the player is allowed to name the Avatar character how they want. Ultima IX does not allow the character to be named, but the option is again open in the fan-made dialogue patch, though none of the full audio dialogue is present. Ultima IX: Ascension (1999) is the ninth and final part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ...

In Ultima IV and V, due to graphical limitations, the player could only choose the gender of the Avatar character, but in most later games (including Ultima VI, Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle and the Ultima Underworld series) several different character portraits with different skin and hair colors are available. However, in Ultima VII: The Black Gate the choice is reduced to gender only - both the female and male portraits have blond hair and fair skin. (If played with Exult with Serpent Isle installed, the Serpent Isle portraits are also available in the Black Gate.) The Avatar sprite is determined by class in early games, and always the same in Ultima V and VI. Ultima VII has two different sprites, one for each gender. In Ultima VIII and IX, there is no choice in gender, portrait or sprite/3D model - the character is male with blond hair. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988) is the fifth part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... Ultima VI: The False Prophet, released in 1990, is the sixth part in the computer role-playing game series of Ultima. ... Ultima VII is the seventh part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... Ultima Underworld is a series of two computer role playing games published by Origin Systems in the early 1990s. ... Ultima VII is the seventh part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... Exult is a Free Software reimplementation of the Ultima VII game engine. ... In computer graphics, a sprite (also known by other names; see Synonyms below) is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene. ... Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994) is the eighth part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ...

The Avatar's trademark clothing often includes a chain mail, with a white, red or orange tunic (with a golden Ankh symbol on the chest and back) over it, and a red cape. Typically, he's also shown wielding a sword. His appearance varies from game to game and version to version, but usually follows this schema - and it is, of course, possible to use whatever clothing, armor and weapons necessary in the games themselves. For other uses, see Chainmail (disambiguation). ... Tupa Inca tunic The tunic was the common masculine garment of Roman civilization. ... Ankh The ankh (pronunced // in English, symbol ) was the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that stood for the word , meaning life. ...

Cameos in other games

The Avatar is also the last heroic adversary in Dungeon Keeper, also released by EA (though developed by different subsidiary, Bullfrog). Dungeon Keeper is a PC strategy game released by Bullfrog Productions in July 1997. ... EA redirects here. ... Bullfrog Productions was a UK computer game developer that was founded in 1987 TX by Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux, and was one of the entrepreneurs of video gaming. ...

"Avatar" is one of the titles the main Hero can purchase for himself in Fable, yet another game by Peter Molyneux (one of the creators of Dungeon Keeper). It is, notably, the most expensive title one can purchase in the game. Fable is a video game for Xbox. ... Peter Molyneux OBE (born 1960 in Guildford, Surrey, UK) is a computer game designer and game programmer, responsible for well known God games Populous and Black & White, among others, as well as Business Strategy games such as Theme Park and most recently, The Movies. ...