Ultima Series

The Ultima series of games is created by Richard Garriott under the pseudonym Lord British and published by Origin Systems as a "trilogy of trilogies". The predecessor to the series is a simple dungeon hack "Akalabeth". The first trilogy is "The Age of Darkness", where the player adventures in a land named "Sosaria", and battles the warlock Mondain, his consort the sorceress Minax and their demon spawn Exodus. The second trilogy is "The Age of Enlightenment", where the player becomes the Avatar by upholding the eight virtues. The stories are much more developed, and deal with issues such as the legislation of morality and social tolerance. The last is "The Guardian Trilogy", where the Avatar faces his greatest challenge in the form of the Guardian, and is forced into morally vague decisions at times. The final title in the series, Ultima: Ascension, was released in late 1999. In addition there are the Worlds of Ultima series and the Ultima Underworld series. There is also a multiplayer spin-off series, Ultima Online, which is thriving.