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9/30/2024 Update:
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Hello Everyone:  Lord Baldrith here with a very interesting story by Redfish entitled Ancient Aliens by Giorgio.

Here is the text:

Ancient Aliens by Giorgio by Redfish

 
This is a book I wrote in Ultima Online, and would not be lore-appropriate for this game. However, the topic of ancient aliens came up in another thread, so I thought I’d share on the forums anyway,

Ancient Aliens
By Giorgio

STANDING in Britannia are mysterious landmarks built by the ancients – shrines and moongates – erected in connection with the eight virtues. Those who are devoted to the virtues visit the shrines and, in meditating, gain insight no mortal person – no matter how virtuous, wise, or gifted in magecraft – could achieve otherwise. The moongates, of course, provide travel in Britannia, much as the mark-&-recall spells, and across the shards created by Modain’s gem, but the moonstones that create them also allow otherworldly travel, as we know from the black and silver moongates that have been reported to exist by many sources. Both of these types of magic – in the shrines and the moongates – are beyond the power of any wizard living to-day. How did the ancients build these wondrous objects of magic that – even with our modern knowledge of the arcane – our most powerful wizards could not even fathom to create?

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Music by Szymon Matuszewski-01

Our sages offer no full explanation to how or when these monuments were built. We’re simply told that their presence here in Britannia goes back to when our land was part of Sosaria, before the cataclysm that cleaved us from the other continents, and even then it was not known when they had been created and who created them. They had simply always been there from time immemorial.

The closest among us to figure out the secrets, I believe, is the mage named Alkan, who had lived in Cove, and who had at one time been a close friend of Wolfgang, father of Mondain. Wolfgang, of course, is known for the famed Gem of Immortality, which was shattered, and has led to our current predicament. The Gem of Immortality is known to have been a form of ruby that could “harness the power of the sun” – a sunstone, if you will. Alkan had a different focus and that was not on sunstones, but on moonstones. In his studies he had discovered a mysterious substance known as blackrock. According to his research, this mineral had the ability to bend space and time, and even could resist and disable magic. A combination of electrical and magical energy caused the mineral to become permeable;

Music by Szymon Matuszewski-02_0

that is, one could put one’s hand through the substance as if it were water. He believed he could transform this material or a myriad of arcane purposes. Not much is known about what happened to Alkan. However, his son, Erasmus, had swore upon his disappearance that a red daemon had reached his hand through a shimmering black moongate and had dragged him otherside. Erasmus believes this is what he comes to refer to as an *ultraterrestrial being*, which he says comes from a dimension alongside our own, and that he believes too in what he calls *extraterrestrial beings*, who come not from displaced worlds, but from the stars – far deep within the ethereal void – where there are other worlds similar to Sosaria. He has proposed that one could even build an enchanted ship that would travel across the void, much like our ships can travel across the ocean waters.

The Gem of Immortality, we know, was shattered by a mysterious stranger, who our scholars believe came from another world. We have also known a mysterious being known as the Time Lord, who likewise is foreign to our lands. Are the stranger and this Time Lord both ultraterrestrials like the red daemon described by Erasmus, son of Alkan? Or are they extraterrestrials, who used some means to travel from one planet in the void to ours?

Music by Szymon Matuszewski-Fallen

Strangely, in Arcane Lore, there is some mention of a means of travel called a Siege Perilous, a name later given to one of the shards found of Britannia, but this refers to a point in time before Mondain’s gem had shattered, and before the shards were then created. Its unclear whether this Siege Perilous is another world, a shard beyond our shards, or a means by which one traverses worlds. A third quite interesting possibility may be that its both. After all, the shards that we know of – as products of Mondain’s gem – were created from a certain fixed moment in time in the history of Britannia. These are all shadows of the world as it existed at that one moment. But may there be shards that we have no knowledge of that go back further? May there be some that go back to the formation of Sosaria, to the creation of the world? At that point, at the point of creation, there might be some means to reach across all of space and time, across all shards that were created thenceforth, and all shards that could be created therewith.

Whatever is the case, we are told that the stranger who shattered Mondain’s gem traveled across this Siege Perilous. Whether he himself comes from an ancient time, or from an ancient world from which he is a descendant, it seems not a coincidence that he came in time to destroy this gem, the sunstone. And if that is true, if it not be a coincidence, one could easily surmise that he or his peoples are also connected to the moonstones. And if they are in some way connected to the moonstones, then they are also connected to the monuments – the shrines and the moongates – that are scattered throughout our land.

Music by Szymon Matuszewski-Fluffy

These strangers who cross the shimmering gates and are aliens to our world may in fact be the source of all civilization in Sosaria. We arrive from their shrines all of our wisdom, and through the moongates, expeditious travel. If this is so, why did they help us? Discussion of this topic is not accepted by the wizards who control the councils; talk of ancient aliens is outright rejected as nonsense. But there are a growing number of wizards who are challenging accepted wisdom, and these scholars – ancient alien theorists – will, I believe, bring us to a watershed of a new truth, one that will transform our knowledge of the arcane and shed light on the facts of our very existence. Whatever the end of this mystery, it strikes at the very heart of not only the history of Sosaria, but of all history in its entirety.

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REFERENCES

^ RESEARCH INTO BLACKROCK, Alkan of Cove

^ MEMORIES OF MY FATHER, Erasmus of Cove

^ CHARIOTS OF THE STRANGERS? UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF THE PAST, Daniken of Minoc

^ DOCTOR WHO? THE SECRETS OF THE TIME LORD, Moffat of Minoc

^ A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOSARIA, Hawking of Britannia

^ THE BOBBIT, Revel of Moonglow

^ MONDAIN’S LAMENT, Belson of Trinsic

^ MONDAIN RISING, Belson of Trinsic

^ INCOHERENCE OF THE ANCIENT ALIEN THEORISTS, Algazel of Moonglow

^ STRANGER FROM A STRANGE LAND, Jubal of Britain

^ THE SOSARIA CHRONICLES, Zecharia of Moonglow

^ THE FELUCCA MYSTERY, Templeton of Trinsic

^ THE AWAKENING: THE SUN AND THE MOONS, Masaka and Korgano of Britain

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ARCANUM NOSTRUM PRESS

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9/18/2024 Update:
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Hello Everyone.  Here is a great story by Browncoat Jayson.

Music: Eliot Corley – Water Temple  Eliot Corley – Water Temple

Here is the text:

Kings Wharf by Browncoat Jayson

A Page from an Outlander’s Journal

Author Unknown

 The ship that brought me here was little more than a dinghy with a mast. Seven days it took, riding up breakers and crashing down to surf, to get from Port Graff. Now mining gems is a backbreaking life, but you are less likely to be killed by an errant storm while underground. From stories I expected an idyllic place of farmers and sheep, not the dreary port that awaited me. I don’t know which lord this Kingsport was named for, but I imagine he was an enormous rat in a crown — king of the wharves, indeed! I was a fool to leave Port Graff, and now I wish for nothing more than a way to return.

The Vale, ’twas said, was a place to go where the Oracle’s eyes would not follow. Those mechanical monstrosities send shivers up my spine. The whole mainland is infested with the things; I hoped here would be better. But an hour off the water, sitting outside the Hearth of New Britannia, I watch one of the multi-legged things crawl up through a sewer grate.

I’m not a nosy sort, you understand, but after a few minutes I crawled down the nearby rungs and pulled open the grate, entering the dark recess beneath the docks. It was black as pitch, but a nearby box held a dozen torches so I borrowed one and ignited it from a handy sconce. The sewers branch, seemingly at random, so I picked a direction in the same manner, soon coming upon a pool. From the debris within, I have a sense that the rat-king’s privy may be located just above this area, so I turned to leave the way I had come.

Music: Alexandr Zhelanov – https:/soundcloud.com/alexandr-zhelanov-Steeps of Destiny

A dozen feet from me stood what was once a man.

The beast still wore scraps of cloth, and the rusted head of its mace swung just inches from the stonework. However, no flesh showed beneath the gaps; indeed, the entire dermis was missing, yet the bones stood as though still encased. Its jaw dropped into a rictus grin as it raised its weapon. Had I my pickaxe, I might have stood a chance against even such a perversion, but I was unarmed. As it swung, I darted to the side, narrowly avoiding a fatal concussion, and ran as fast as my legs would carry me.

Music: Alexandr Zhelanov – https:/soundcloud.com/alexandr-zhelanov-Escadre

Once I reached daylight I went immediately to the guard, but they dismissed my tale. I even went to the mayor, having to interrupt his seemingly endless chat with the local guildmistress. For my troubles, I was escorted from the premises and told to lay off the ale. The nerve!

I found brief employ at a warehouse, which earned me enough to stay for the week in one of the hovels near the waterfront. As soon as a seaworthy vessel makes port, I’ll be aboard, and begging Ol’ Graff to take me back. It can’t be long…

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9/16/2024 Update:
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Hi Everyone.  A great story by Womby here submitted in the Tales from the Vale thread on the Shroud of the Avatar forums.  A story entitled Tablets.

Here is the Text:

Tablets by Womby

Tablets The inscriptions were in a language that Lucas did not recognise. Apart from those strange hieroglyphics the surface was mostly featureless, save for two tiny glass insertions near one end. He turned the small, smooth tablet over and examined the front. Some craftsman had gone to considerable effort to seamlessly insert a glass pane in the other side, although the reason for this was a mystery.

“It’s a smartphone” said the Traveller, apparently suffering from the misconception that this description was in some way helpful. “You can surf the net, play games, all sorts of stuff.” Lucas was having difficulty understanding how this small tablet could be a useful aid to fishing, although it could possibly be part of a board game of some description.

“Where is the rest of the set?” Lucas replied. “Unfortunately I left the charger behind” replied the Traveller. Lucas imagined a small carved figurine depicting a jousting Knight, and was disappointed that the rest of the game was missing. Still, what he saw had a certain novelty value, and would make a fine conversation piece. “I’ll offer you two carrots for it.” “Done!” replied the Traveller.

Music
Wilderness 128 by Avatar Acid (Ultima VII Remix)
Love A Virtue by Avatar Acid (Ultima VII Remix)
Seedy Bar by Avatar Acid (Ultima VII Remix)
Harpsicord Tune by Avatar Acid (Ultima VII Remix)