Ilshenar the Gateway

I participated in the recent events documented in the Call to Arms event (UO Guide) and I received the Weathered Journal at the end of the event. It was heavy on some things that go back to the early days of Ilshenar. I’d like to mention that I think this item should be made available in a manner similar to The Shattering because it clearly hints at the future of UO. Something this important should not be confined to a small group of players who could log in during a very specific time.

When I say early days, I mean the really early days – the original fiction of Ilshenar, not what we currently have. They are two different things. Those of you who have been around before and during the Third Dawn remember that plans for Ilshenar appeared to be very ambitious.

Now I want to address one thing – some people are pointing to the Ilshenar lore, both current and past, as a hint about shard mergers. Shard mergers are not going to happen – they would cost much more than any claimed hardware savings and they would require developer resources that are not available. Many people would also quit rather than lose their houses and potentially thousands of items if they have to downgrade from castles/keeps/18x18s to something smaller on another shard. It’s just not going to happen.

An inter-shard gateway would not only placate the shard merger fans, but it would make things incredibly interesting and incredibly fun in UO.

Ilshenar – the Early Days – March of 2001
Just for some context, when Ilshenar was created, the idea of shard transfer tokens was not really around. UO was filled to the brim with players, and all of the shards had housing problems of some sort. That’s not to say that people didn’t want to transfer, but the tokens weren’t in existence. The lore seemed to indicate that Ilshenar was a special landmass:

The lore of Ilshenar has changed since the map was introduced.
For the original backstory, see BNN: An Introduction to Ilshenar – Part I. This history revolved heavily around the abilities of ancient Ilshenarians to travel easily between facets and even potentially between shards. However, this lore was erased, with the fictional explanation being that Lord Blackthorn and Exodus had altered the timeline by bringing the Juka race into our present.

Some have suggested that the spell travel limits to and from Ilshenar and the suggestions of shard travel indicated that Ilshenar was intended to be an area where players from different shards could interact. Originally, global interaction was a major marketing point for Ultima Online.

When you get to Part III of the introduction to Ilshenar (note: this is from March of 2001), it gets interesting:

The biggest question we have to face is what happened to all the people of Ilshenar? Little by little we are finding the clues and are amazed at what we are finding out: knowledge that will change our view of things, forever.
Somewhere around 150 years after the “shattering” the most amazing thing happened. A brilliant mage name Ulvol opened a portal between facets. The Anskitas do not call them facets, they call them Arktermar or “hidden worlds”. Ulvol discovered that he could tune these portals like a lute string and find new destinations. At this time we are hoping to find a record of how to do such a wondrous thing, but so far to no avail. The people of Ilshenar traveled between facets like you or I would walk to the moongate in Britain in order to get to Skara Brae. This in itself is amazing. The question then is, where are these gates? The texts speak of permanent gates, called Vasgres, used for commerce between worlds. No one has found such a thing.

June of 2012 – The Awakening
Let’s jump ahead to this month, June of 2012, and The Awakening – Act V, Part 2:

Blackthorn quickly backpedaled, thrusting a hand into the satchels hidden pocket, and withdrawing a large, peculiar stone that he’d hoped he wouldn’t have cause to use. The gleaming black sphere, something that Gilforn had boasted about being a ‘composite moonstone’, began to dance in his palm as he did his best to stay out of reach of the mechanical monster and he poured forth the magical energy from his body, his mana burning through his body with the rage of a dam breaking, every second his mind telling him he’d be just fast enough to keep out of Exodus’ reach.

The Weathered Journal – June of 2012
The Weathered Journal is Lord Blackthorn’s journal and is very ancient. It harkens back to the early days of Ilshenar mentioned above, prior to the lore about Ilshenar being a special place with special moongates:

In the course of my friend’s quest to reunite the shards, despite my misgivings about his plan and all the consequences it entails, I felt that it would be entirely idiotic of myself not to perform more research upon some of the magicks that Nystul and Cantabrigian’s claim will be utilized. Much of it seems somewhat similar to Gilforn’s research, but he prattled on about using my connection with Cantabrigian to try and force Nystul to tell him everything he knew. It seems that Nystul’s distaste for me is more of a private matter than I imagined, or Gilforn would probably not have bothered asking.

A few assurances that I’d try however, and he told me more about moongates and the teleportation technology than anyone but perhaps Nystul and the Stranger know. He was particularly interested in using moonstones in the process of creating permanent moongates. I feel that had I continued to ask questions, he may have spoken to me until both of us died of old age; I wonder if he is not obsessed over it in the same way that Anon is with those mongbats of his. Hopefully Heckles has had some success with speaking with Chuckles about the current state of things with Nystul, and if not, I can at least send him to the Lycaeum to pick up some more research materials for me.

……Or could it be something even more fantastic than I could possibly imagine? I find myself stricken at once with anticipation and anxiety, curiosity and dread, and while I hope that this land will hold enlightenment to a great many things I fear that like our own, there may lurk untold horrors within its depths.

Blackrock
Remember Blackrock? It’s caused a couple of infections (see the Blackrock infections in the article). It was mentioned in the latest part of the story arc posted yesterday. The Gargoyles are facing infection problems. Ver Lor Reg, the Gargoyle city in Ilshenar, was a major part of the current story arc, and was the focal point of the battle against Exodus.

Inter-Shard Gateway?
It would be an amazing addition to UO, worth any two expansions. Allowing everybody to easily come together. Some would complain that their items were worth less or that houses would be worth less if players could easily move between shards, but I think the overall positives would easily outweigh the negatives. It would also add to UO’s uniqueness.