What exactly did the Silver Seed DO?

[Sliding Dragon]

I was thinking about this recently - in-game, what does planting the Silver Seed do? Aside from finishing the quest, does it change the game mechanics so there are fewer teleport storms/enemies/etc.? The conclusion seems to imply that your journey will now be easier, but I'm curious what the end result is.

[Dominus]

It just gives you a warm feeling, that's all

[MV]

No, it doesn't change the future when you're back in it. I never really got what it did either.

I guess what it does is create balance in the past that is then taken away in the future so they can fight over it again.

[Incriptus]

I can't vouch for the accuraccy right now, but this is the wiki entry

http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Tree_of_Balance

¡Some might wonder what purpose the planting of the Seed serves for the story since nothing happens in future afterwards. Most do the planting well before the Banes are released, since the sooner the powerful items of past have been acquired, the easier the game is afterwards. But if the Seed is planted after the Banes have been released, Karnax mentions that the Tree of Balance will bring all the people killed by the Banes back to life again after Balance is restored. This solution provides a nice restoration for the cut/alteration made to the original plot of the Serpent Isle.

[MV]

That makes no sense. The tree is planted before the banes are released anyway, like hundreds of years before. It shouldn't matter at all if the banes are out in the future or not before you went back.

[Korneluk]

well time travel stories tend to be pretty ridiculous. Maybe you should have retrieved the silver seed from the past and planted it in the present.

[Sergorn]

I like to think that planting the Silver Seed allowed for the Imbalance to be kept in check following the end of the War, thus preventing the universe from self destructing despite the Serpent of Chaos having been cut into Banes and such.

-Sergorn

[agentorangeguy]

LOL i think dominus' answer was the most accurate. I don't think it did anything in game at all. I always skipped the damn thing, just got the cool items then left them to deal with the silver seed thingy themselves

[Korneluk]

^^nice,
but I really wish this game would have dialogue for when you do such things.
I supplemented alot of the story in my head...

[Gruck/Dungy]

I like to think I got an awesome keyring and gauntlets of power. Screw you causality!

[Crowley]

Doesn't it give you a big heap of experience?

[MV]

Yea, gets me to level 9 or so. Lets me train up magic anyway.

[Scythifuge]

I like to think of Serpent Isle/ Silver Seed as a paradox caused by EA's..cough..I mean the Guardian's meddling with the ether and the space-time continuum. The results where Ultima VIII and IX... followed by Lord of Ultima...

[Gruck/Dungy]

To the defense of Lord of Ultima, it does exactly what it intends to do and it does it well. It may not be related to Ultima in any way, but it is every bit of a good way to entertain oneself for a few minutes a day as say Farmville and all those other brower-based strategy games. Also, sadly, there's more people who play those browser games than EVER played Ultima VII.

[Mike Mayday]

The most likely explanation is the usual timetravel business:
Messing around with the past creates a separate timeline- a branch, an offshoot. However by returning to the future the avatar actually returns back to the timeline he came from- one where the silver seed wasn't planted. So yeah- you learn a lot of stuff and gain xp and lewt but that's it.

[DreamMaster]

Ah, the old 'Dragonball Z' theory of temporal causality.