Britannia - A Torus-like World

[Soule]

I remember people mentioning that Britannia in U7 must be a torus, since when u sail North, u end up at the South end of the map.

I was on the plane today. Do Britannia has timezones? In my memory, I think it's night and day everywhere at the same time. How about U9?

Does a torus take account of this fact?

[Gradilla Dragon]

That's just a theory made to explain things

My way to explain it is that the world is HUGE, and the so called "underworld" is just another place on the surface. Think about a big ball made of foam, then you pierce it with a pencil and go all the way through until it pops outside again, without passing even close to the core, and there it is, a dungeon that connects to the"underworld".

Also remember there are others who come in ships and never return home again, like Utomo in U6 and Gorn in U5-U7. I suppose there is some kind of barrier isolating the continents, with the purpose of leaving each reign without the support from the others, thus making them easier to conquer by Exodus. Evidently, few people accidentally find a way through.

Well, that's just my own theory.

[Garrett]

And yet I can sail and sail and sail and never see those nifty Serpent Pillars rise out of the ice... or ANY ice for that matter.

[Kyle]

Maybe...

Due to exodus the world (Sosaria) was torn apart and seperated. The spearate lands are magically held apart. I think there were four: Britianna, The lands of Danger and Despair (Serpent Isle), The land of the Fudal Lords, and one other. You can travel to the other relms via magic means as in Ultima VII part 2 when you go to the lands of danger and despair. You are otherwise magically bound in a specific relm. When you go too far to the north of Britanna you are magically teleported to the southern part. All the relms exist on the same planet, they are just disjointed.

Just my thoughts. =)

[Petrell]

Due to exodus the world (Sosaria) was torn apart and seperated...

actually Sosaria was torn apart when the Stranger shattered Mondain's Gem of Immortality if I'm not mistaken.

Exodus on the other hand caused the imbalance war in Serpent Isle (that eventually made the people [phoebians or something(sp?)] there extinct) by drawing the Great Earth Serpent (Balance Serpent) from the void to protect his stronghold in the Isle of Fire.

Exoduses defeat on the other hand triggered yet another cataclysm that reshaped Land of Lord British to shape we see in U4 (and later). After the Cataclysm land was (re?)unified under the sovereign rule of Lord British and was renamed Britannia.

[Tristan de Inés]

Or maybe a U7 dev asked what to do at the edges of the world and Gariott answered:
"Hell if I know... make it wrap around or sumethin"

[Soule]

NO matter how the shape.. how come Britannia has no time zones??!

[Dominus]

because no one programmed it and you can't see the sun anyway?

[Wizardry Dragon]

To refute Petrell, no, the Shards of the Gem of Immortality each have their own version of Britannia, a way of explaining the multiple servers.

The sundering of the lands occured in the throes of Exodus' death and thedreafter, when Lord Shamino's lands, the Lands of Danger and Despair, and the Lands of Lord British (Britannia) were split.

~ Wizardry Dragon

[marzo]

To refute Wizardry Dragon: No, that is only the way EA spun the story so UO could make sense with more than one server. Back in real Ultima, there where only three shards of the Gem of Imortality: the Shard of Falsehood, the Shard of Cowardice and the Shard of Hatred. These three shards created the Shadowlords back in U5.

Exodus was the cause of the War of Imbalance in SI when he summoned the Great Earth Serpent (GES) from the Void; this summoning is mentioned in U3's Book of Play and in SI's story. Since SI states that the sundering of the lands had already taken place by the time the GES was removed from the Void (and the Ophidian civilization had already flourished and worshiping the three serpents), it means the sundering happened (long) before Exodus' death.

I am also fairly sure Petrall was also right about what caused Old Sosaria to split, but I can't remember where I saw it; most likely an in-game book or conversation. It is a fact that none of the other three lands from U1 (Lands of the Feudal Lords, Lands of the Dark Unknown and Lands of Danger and Despair [SI]) were available for travel in U3... but it doesn't appear to be mentioned in any of the accompanying docs, though.

[Master Katarn]

The info on Old Sosaria splitting was in the Serpent Isle manual, Beyond the Serpent Pillars.

[Master Katarn]

Also, the manual states that it was Mondain's defeat that caused the Sosaria-splitting (it doesn't specifically mention the gem), so the UO story can still stand.

[marzo]

Considering you had to destroy the gem to defeat Mondain, I'd say its hard to decide which of the two events caused the split. But like I mentioned, the shards of Mondain's gem created the Shadowlords in U5, not alternate copies of Britannia...