Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle

Backstory

Back in Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, one section of the game world was known as "The Lands of Danger and Despair." Shamino, a recurring character in the Ultima series, was a ruling lord here. The Lands of Danger and Despair vanished after the conclusion of Ultima I and became Serpent Isle, separated from Sosaria, as the world of Britannia was called before Ultima IV.

The original inhabitants of Serpent Isle, the Ophidians, had a culture where serpents played a central role. They eventually became polarized as the forces of Order and Chaos, respectively, and fought a great war that destroyed their culture and left their cities and temples in ruins. Order "won" the war, destroying the Chaos Serpent, but thereby upsetting the natural balance to the point where the entire universe is unraveling. (It turns out that the "Great Earth Serpent" that guarded Exodus's fortress in Ultima III was actually the Balance Serpent that Exodus had ripped from the void, triggering the war between Chaos and Order in the first place.)

Much later, Serpent Isle was re-settled by humans who had left Sosaria voluntarily, or who had been exiled. An alternate name for Serpent Isle is "New Sosaria", a reference to the original homeland of these settlers. Many of them referred to Lord British as "Beast British," and had a very low opinion of him. After he united the lands, and with the establishment of the eight virtues, those unhappy with his rule fled to Serpent Isle. Unlike Britannia, which has eight cities representing the eight virtues of the Avatar, Serpent Isle has three city-states, each with their own beliefs, which are warped versions of the Britannian principles of Truth, Love and Courage:

In the city of Moonshade, mages rule, and "mundanes" are regarded as an inferior servant-class. Instead of truth, they strive for power.
Those from the city of Fawn champion beauty above all else, instead of Love.
The Monitor warrior-culture is ostensibly based on knightly courage, but in truth is rife with feuds, intrigue and betrayal.

Serpent Isle has essentially the same map-layout as the former Lands of Danger and Despair, though this might not be immediately obvious to players. The formerly separate towns of East and West Montor have merged into Monitor; the large Sleeping Bull Inn has taken the place of the village of Bulldozer; the village of Gorlab vanished in the newly formed Gorlab Swamp (an important plot-element); and the ruined Ophidian cities of Skullcrusher and Spinebreaker, apparently named after the mountain-chains in which they lie, are located where dungeons of the same name were found in the earlier game.

Game storyline

Eighteen months after the destruction of the eponymous Black Gate at the conclusion of Ultima VII: The Black Gate (and six months after the Guardian attempted to trap the Avatar and the whole of Castle Britannia in a blackrock sphere on the anniversary of that event in Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds) it is discovered that the Guardian ordered his right-hand man Batlin to follow Iolo's wife Gwenno, who went to explore Serpent Isle. Lord British sends the Avatar and three of his companions (Sir Dupre the knight, Shamino the ranger and Iolo the bard) to Serpent Isle in pursuit of Batlin. The journey entails travelling into an arctic zone where two serpent pillars emerge from the sea; upon moving between the pillars, the ship is teleported away to Serpent Isle.

At the beginning of the game, the expedition's ship is beached at Serpent Isle by magical storms. Soon afterwards they lose most of their equipment to another magical storm that exchanges equipment for seemingly random items, such as a magical helmet exchanged for a fur cap. It turns out that the items switched locations and that the items gained thus are leads to the location of the missing pieces of equipment, such as a penguin egg indicating that the item it has swapped places with will be found among the penguins in the frozen north.

Two overarching plotlines exist within the game: The expedition must reclaim their equipment, as many of the items are required to solve puzzles and subquests in the game; and they must explore Serpent Isle and discover its history to understand the reasons for the magical storms that will destroy the land. Over the course of his adventures, the Avatar and his companions visit the ruins of the lost Ophidian cities, witness the extinction of the peaceful Gwani, and learn that Iolo's wife Gwenno was killed (though later manage to have her revived). Lord Shamino's ruined castle is also visited, and his and his dead fiancé's tragic backstory is revealed.

The storyline can roughly be divided into three parts:

Chasing Batlin

Exploring Serpent Isle while tracking Batlin (and Gwenno), the expedition learns that the magical storms, which are gradually getting worse, indicate that the world is unraveling. The apocalypse is drawing near, and when it turns out that a lighthouse on Serpent Isle was exchanged for Britannia's Royal Mint by teleport storms it becomes apparent that the problem is not limited to Serpent Isle, but is affecting Britannia as well and possibly the entirety of creation. (At one point in the game, the Avatar visits the magical dream world where he meets Lord British who confirms that similar magical storms began ravaging Britannia shortly after the Avatar left.)

The Avatar learns that Batlin is trying to capture three Ophidian demi-gods known as the Banes, but Batlin always remains several steps ahead and the Avatar does not arrive in time to stop him. Batlin was hoping to tie the Banes to his own service to attain god-like powers, betraying the Guardian, but they escape, slay Batlin and possess the Avatar's companions who in turn proceed to devastate the three cities and kill most of the inhabitants.

Fighting the Banes

After this happens, the Avatar must find a means in the post-apocalyptic Serpent Isle to track down the three Banes (Anarchy, Wantoness and Insanity) and free his companions from their influence. In the process of doing so, Gwenno is resurrected.

Many parts of the plot were cut for this section. In the game itself, the Banes occupy the cities and simply kill most of the population of Serpent Isle before withdrawing to a castle where the Avatar must find and defeat them. However, in the original plot documents of the game, the Banes take over each town instead of simply killing the inhabitants and many subplots are concerned with their cruel rule.

Restoring Balance

Finally, after defeating the Banes and rescuing his companions, the Avatar must use his knowledge about the ancient Ophidian culture to ascend to the position of Hierophant of Balance (through exploring their ruined cities and shrines, and performing a variety of rituals) to ultimately restore the lost Chaos Serpent to balance the warring forces of Order and Chaos. It turns out that a living soul must be sacrificed in the process. The Avatar volunteers, but Sir Dupre, driven by guilt for the deeds he committed while possessed by the Bane of Wantonness, insists on sacrificing himself instead and hurls himself into the crematorium.

In the end sequence, the Avatar is teleported into the void to face the Serpents, who thank him and affirm that order is restored; then suddenly, the Guardian's giant hand appears and grabs the Avatar, abducting him to (yet) another world. (Ultima VIII: Pagan continues the story from there.)

Original Plot

Many elements of the game's plot were cut from the final release, due to the deadline imposed by Electronic Arts. Most of the cut plot elements were from the second half of the game after Batlin's death, although a few ideas from earlier parts of the game were also removed. Many of these elements can still be found in the final game's usecode, and some remnants still exist in the game itself. The cut plot elements include:

The Ophidian Virtues

The Virtue system of the Ophidians is formed around the following three Principles:

In the Ophidian symbology, the Great Earth Serpent is the keeper of Balance, and lies around in a vertical plane; the opposing serpents of Chaos and Order wrap themselves around the Great Earth Serpent, each spiraling in a different direction (a symbol inspired by Caduceus).

The Ophidian system comprises six Forces, three from Order and three from Chaos; the Forces of Order are Ethicality, Discipline and Logic, while the Forces of Chaos are Tolerance, Enthusiasm and Emotion. Their descriptions are as follows:

When combined by pairs, these Forces form the Three Principles of Balance (not to be confused with the three Principles of Order, Balance and Chaos above). The Principles of Balance, their descriptions and relations to the Forces of Order and Chaos are illustrated in the table below:

There also exists Anti-Forces associated to the Forces of Order and Balance. These Anti-Forces arise from Imbalance between the Forces, and are essentially perversions of their corresponding Forces. The Anti-Forces also manifest themselves as a kind of malevolent spiritual being, collectively called the Banes of Order and the Banes of Chaos.

The Anti-Forces (and Banes) are as follows:

The Silver Seed expansion

The Silver Seed expansion adds the Silver Seed story arc to the game, in which the party visits a subterranean keep in the ancient civilization of Serpent Isle (centuries in the past, during the war between the two sects of Ophidians). The Avatar is given an amulet by the Xenkan Monks when he or she first visits Monk Isle (either by death or by physically going there), and after using this amulet at one of the Serpent Gates, the subquest begins.

Powerful magic items, including a keyring, a ring of unlimited reagents, a magic axe and an enchanted belt can be found in this area and in nearby dungeons. In later releases of the game, the expansion pack was included, and both games and expansions were released as The Complete Ultima VII.

The Silver Seed expansion was not properly finished due to a rushed release by Electronic Arts; the story told in the expansion does not properly conclude, nor does it seem to 'connect' with the larger plot of Serpent Isle outside of a few incidental 'framing' elements. It is broadly concerned with acquiring and planting a magical silver seed to maintain the balance that holds the world of Serpent Isle together.

The Silver Seed does attempt to address the issue of the population being killed off after the Banes are released; if completed after this takes place, Karnax will inform the Avatar that everyone killed by the Banes will be resurrected once Balance is restored, in the conclusion of the game itself.

Included in the box

Like other Ultima games, Serpent Isle and its expansion pack originally came with cloth maps, and in-universe manuals. It did not, however, come with a trinket. The Ultima VII: Complete Edition (1993) included all the items while The Complete Ultima VII CD (1994) included everything except the cloth maps which were replaced with paper maps. Most other compilations did not include the trinkets and came with electronic versions of the documentation.

Serpent Isle was released in English and Spanish.

Reception

Computer Gaming World's Scorpia in 1993 stated that Serpent Isle was much more complex than The Black Gate, but with "some major problems", criticizing the inventory system and need to manually feed characters, slow disk access, and several puzzles. She concluded that "Serpent Isle is a good story gone wrong. While the main plotline is solid, execution of it is inadequate ... too many poorly-designed 'puzzles' ... Origin needs to re-examine Ultima IV for a refresher course [on] how open game design and logical plot connections are supposed to work", and warned "prepare to be frustrated with this one". Cnet stated that "Serpent Isle, the continuation of Ultima VII, is often considered the best Ultima ever made. Though its look is mostly borrowed from Ultima VII, Serpent Isle offers a huge quest and some of the most fascinating characters and situations ever to be found in a role-playing game." The Free Lance-Star stated that "Ultima VII Part II, The Serpent Isle, is yet another improvement in the series, technologically, visually, and in terms of story line."

Scorpia only recommended Silver Seed to those who would play or replay Serpent Isle. She stated that "the storyline of the game doesn't amount to much", noting that planting the silver seed in the past apparently did not change the present, and that the included walkthrough indicated that Electronic Arts wanted players to quickly return to the main Serpent Isle plot with the expansion's new items. Scorpia reported that various improvements made gameplay "less of a hassle", citing the keyring, lockpicking, and food and reagent handling, but warned of various new bugs. She concluded that "while Silver Seed isn't a terrific game in itself and has a few problems, it will certainly make playing Serpent Isle a little more enjoyable".