Symbols and Symbolism in Ultimas
        Pentagrams, Religion, Zionists and Prejudice

      An article by Richard Garriott aka Lord British
            Taken from the Net by Alex van Kaam

I often receive letters either asking about the sources of certain
symbolisms and messages in Ultimas, or expressing concern about
events or symbols in Ultima that are in conflict with some
peoples' personal values. I do not expect the following tome to
win me friends in certain circles, in fact I may offend a few
people, perhaps even a few at Origin. At the very least, I expect
it will generate some lively responses. It is important to
understand that I am not a religious person. I have no religious
or supernatural beliefs of any kind. In fact you could say, I
don't "believe in" anything. Rather, I use the reliable aspects of
reality as a tool for exploration and understanding, view the
unknown with great curiosity and adventure, and anything that
appears supernatural or incongruous with a healthy dose of
skepticism and at best a reason to go back and check earlier
assumptions. What follows is sort of a retrospective of the
evolution of how and why certain symbols and situations are
included in Ultimas.

Back in 1982 when we founded Origin an interesting thing happened.
For the first time I received what some might call 'Fan Mail'. I
suspect people may have written to me before at my earlier
publishers, but these notes never reached me. It's funny that most
letters start fairly complimentary of any game further back than
whichever was the last one, but quickly turn to what I/we did
wrong in the most current release and how we could improve it. As
U3 was the first time I received such, it was strange to acclimate
too. Now though, I look forward to it as an important aspect of
improving our craft.

Back in the 1980s, 'role-playing' games like Ultima and D&D were
under a huge amount of criticism from religious groups and others
who felt that role playing and pretend magic were an invitation to
the devil, and role players were slowly turning themselves over to
the dark side. One of the favorite letters I've ever received was
a strongly worded note calling me 'The Satanic Perverter of
America's Youth!' (This person had not played or even seen an
Ultima, they had only seen an Origin ad.) At the time I was rather
shocked. At the time, I wasn't sure how to respond to such a
charge. Clearly I didn't agree.

We founded Origin in my parents' garage, but quickly moved to the
northeast for a few cold years. (That is another story.) Having
dropped out of college to play games for a living, living on my
own for the first time, getting to the age where I began to think
about my place in the world and being called the satanic perverter
of America's youth, all added up to a very introspective year.

Though obviously role-playing is not satanic, and combat games do
not cause murders, I do think there is a connection between play
habits and real life habits. All you have to do is watch small
kids who hit each other after playing a combat game to see this.
Role-playing is used at all ages as a teaching tool. Children
role-play to learn basic social skills, teens role-play in many
classes, I've even role-played tough management situations, to
learn how to deal with them. Role-playing does have a powerful way
of touching people.

The plot lines in most RPGs are basically the same old drivel,
over and over again. I call it the standard RPG plot. I think you
will find it familiar: You start the game as the great hero. (You
know this because you are told so in the instructions.) Your job
is to kill the big evil guy.  (Also, from the instructions.) You
pillage and plunder everyone and everything to become strong for
your final battle. (Of course the supposed bad guy is doing no
evil right now, but you sure are.) When ready at last, you kill
the 'bad guy' who has been sitting there peacefully waiting.

Well, after 3 games of my own that retold this story, combined
with all that introspection, I was ready for something more. I
felt that role-playing would be even stronger in a more realistic
setting. I felt that people are basically good, not merely for
fear of some divine being, but because it was logical. Thus was
born the modern Ultima design. I was really worried before we
released Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, that people might think
I'd gone off the philosophical deep end, but instead, it was my
first best selling game.

Ultimas since then have had a deep sense of ethics, which I
carefully separate from morals. By my definition, Ethics are
logically based, while Morals are religion based. Thus, if you
object to pre-marital sex because it is against God's laws, that's
Morality; if you oppose it because of the risk of unwanted
pregnancies, that's an Ethic. I do not subscribe to any Morals,
yet believe I am a very Ethical person.

The Virtues in Ultima are Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice,
Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility. A fictional
collection, to be sure. A good basis for ethical behavior, yes. A
good series of thoughts to use to provoke personal introspection,
yes. My entire personal belief system, no.  Some have asked, what
I meant by Spirituality, as it often is used in a religious
context. In this case I mean for it to mean the concept of
introspection about one's inner values and the deeds they
manifest.  I do not mean one's soul or piety. I do consider myself
a very spiritual person.  However, to this day, I still get the
occasional 'Die heathen' or 'Satan worshipper' note.

I quickly learned that I could not appease the religious right
since I am not religious, and do not share their editorial
approach to fiction in general. It has been interesting to note
the various lines people draw as to how much is too much. Some say
playing an RPG is bad enough, some say just don't pretend to do
magic, some say just avoid Pentagrams and similar symbols. Me, I
have no line. Worse yet, I seem to have developed a bit of a
sadistic retaliation streak in response to their attacks.

Most people who would be offended by role-playing are not
generally buying role-playing games. So, if I poke fun at these
people, whom I feel to be closed minded, within the game, well....
Years ago I started playing with the edge of good taste. I put a
666 on my office door, my car, my phone extension and other
places. I don't actually believe in any of it, but it is
interesting to watch other people's reactions.

Ultima is full of stories with a mythical theme and often shares a
sense of parable that is found in places like the Old Testament. I
am told that Ultima Parables are very much like parables found in
other cultures. (As I am an unread, illiterate bum, I wouldn't
know first hand.) With this in mind I am very happy with the
positive undercurrent that exists in Ultimas. But don't get me
wrong ... I love lots of games that have far less lofty
inclinations.

It has been interesting to test the limits of peoples' comfort
zones down through the years. Over time I have grown to believe
that testing peoples' comfort zones makes them think about their
closely held beliefs. I think this is always a good thing, as I
think no one should believe anything dogmatically, especially if
their reason for a belief is how they were raised which is where
most people gain such beliefs. Let me share some of the stories of
testing the comfort zone down through the years, at first
inadvertently, later by design.  When Origin was founded in 1982,
I finally had control over all aspects of the game including the
manuals. I had always dreamed of creating an experience that felt
real from the moment you opened the box. For the magic books, I
wanted them to feel real, so I went to the bookstore and bought a
bunch of 'real' magic books.  Boy, what a disappointment. I hoped
for books, which read like arcane yet meaningful tomes, yet what I
found was a bunch of boring text that was not very inspirational.
So, I decided I could do better myself. I wrote spells that felt
as real as I could imagine them. I created reagents, language and
symbolism that to me felt real. We even put the most powerful
spells behind a sealed tab, which read, 'open only when you are
ready, for powerful evil can befall the weak.'

I had a spell where you had to prick your finger and add a few
drops of your own blood to the potion. This was my first line
crossing. My family members, (who were my business partners,) were
afraid that children would actually try this at home, so they made
me cut it out.

Then when we went to print these manuals, some local print shops
wouldn't print them, as they thought they were satanic. Then a few
years after the release of U3 we got an angry letter from a Rabbi,
who said that we had included a graphic which was the
never-to-be-written-name of God. (As I thumb through the book now,
I can't tell which symbol that was.)

The next time I discovered a comfort zone was during U4. While
creating dungeon rooms, 256 of them, it was hard to continually
think of compelling new spaces. All I had to work with was
furniture, monsters, treasure and the ability to use something and
change out a few tiles in response. So, any thing that seemed
clever gave me much satisfaction. So, I did orc rooms, wizard
chambers, torture chambers, then a few that I was fairly proud of.
For example a room near the end of the game, where I put 1 of each
of the 8 player types, knowing that the player would also have
these 8 in his/her party. Thus the player might wonder what to do,
fight or flee. (Don't forget this game was about proving yourself
to be an Avatar, so be good!) One of the next I thought of was a
room with cages full of children and a lever in the middle. If you
pulled the lever, the children were released. The children were,
of course, monsters and thus would attack you. As you were the
Avatar I knew this would cause a dilemma as to how to handle the
situation, as the players knew that their deeds were often
recorded by the game. I was quite happy having thought of some
rooms I hoped would spark mental quandary.

Well, one day, my brother, (the GM of Origin), called me into his
office. It seemed that a play tester had written him a letter
stating that he refused to work for a company that so clearly
supported child abuse, and demanded I remove the room full of
monster children. Amazingly, my brother agreed with him! Even my
parents got involved in the debate and cautioned me against this
room's inclusion for fear of media and public outcry and pleaded
with me to remove it. I argued that this was exactly the kind of
provocation I was going for and was set in my belief that it
should stay. Besides, I argued, you could put them to sleep, you
could charm them, and there were many ways to avoid having to kill
or hurt the children. The room stayed in.  No one had a problem
with it. But ever since then Ultimas have had an event involving
killing children.  More recently, there was the fiery pentagram on
the front of U8.  That caused quite a stir. Some stores wouldn't
carry it. Some stores' ads had the center removed. Numerous
players called foul.  To me classical imagery provokes thoughts
and meaning that have value to the realistic feel that I want
Ultima to have. So, they stay.

Over 10 years ago, I created an artifact in one of the museums in
Britannia.  It was merely skeleton, the same as was used when a
creature died. I labelled this one, "The Bones of Zog" and
included an explanation to the effect that Zog was an ancient
Britannian who had cast the armageddon spell and wiped out all
life on the planet at that time. More recently, The UO Live team
was looking for a good name for a new doomsday cult in UO, so they
called them Zog.

Well, sometime between these uses, some dumb obscure anti-Semitic
group has called themselves something like the Zionist Occupation
Group. So when we used our zog, some people protested loudly.
Unfortunately, I was out of town at the time.  Origin changed
'zog' to the 'FOA', Followers of Armageddon. I would not have made
this decision, as our game had nothing to do with a few peoples'
sensitivities over an obscure unrelated cult.

On the other hand, we have had some real incursions of hate groups
into our virtual world. They are not welcome. They have, and will
always be, banned upon identification. Our virtual worlds should,
just as our real world should, have no tolerance for these close
minded people. Just as I will not have the religious extremes
effect our art, nor will we let these extremists do so, either.
Both are closed minded groups and do not share the spirit of
Ultimas, which is the path of constant learning, constant
thinking, challenging yourself, and challenging your own beliefs.

I hope this sheds some light on the hows and whys certain things
are included and excluded from Ultimas.

I have a friend who was telling a client about Heather's and my
travels to the Antarctic and the Titanic. This woman expressed her
concern that clearly we were still searching for the meaning of
life, that could only be found in God. Which reminded me of a
bumper sticker I had made in High School in response to all the "I
Found it" stickers that were popular at the time.  Mine read, "I'm
not even looking for it!" Really though, to me life is a grand
adventure, and I hope we are building grand adventures for you.

Some people do get it. I am reminded of a letter I received after
U4. A woman wrote me after she and her daughter played the game.
She was pleased to see how her daughter saw direct cause and
effect of good and bad deeds without having to make those mistakes
in the real world. She felt that her daughter had truly learned
and grown through the experience. Ultima IV was a highlight for
me. I hope the work we are putting into Ultima IX: Ascension will
have similar depth and impact.

Well, that seems to be more than enough for one letter. Now its
time to think about my new castle. Today, Halloween, we broke
ground. Its address will be 13 Rue De La Morte (Road of the Dead);
it overlooks Dead Monkey Cove. Happy Halloween!

- Richard Garriott a.k.a. Lord British

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