Exult Forum

My question is about the ophidians. Where did they come from? As far as i follow the king of white dragon killed everyone off prior to the rise of ophidian civilization, so where did they come from?

https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Ophidians

I guess the King of the White Dragon wasn't thorough enough.
I can imagine not every person going to his party. I wouldn't have. I don't like crowds.

If I remember the account of the massacre correctly, he only killed the citizens of his kingdom. The people from Shamino's kingdom would have been spared (though apparently they were having problems of their own, as the ghost of Shamino's squeeze tells you).

(Hmm, I never noticed before that both SI and Planescape:Torment had angry ghost ex-girlfriends who confronted and later forgave lovers that left them... I wonder if that was a reference...)

Also, Shamino's castle is the only place in the game where you fight the "animated armors", which you come across in some sort of armory/barracks. These were the first type of Automaton, which makes it pretty obvious that Shamino's subjects went on to become the Ophidians.

But those were merely magically animated suits of armour. Not much different from stone harpies coming to life.

They are definitely the earliest version of Automaton, though. From one of the books in the game:

Over the years, we who follow Order have devised a number of ingenious servants to simplify our lives. The earliest attempt is known as the "Animated Suit of Armor". Though automatons have made these nothing more than curiosities, some functional units are still in use today (e.g. the Fiend's Domain, but I implore you not to go exploring just to see one) The animated suits of armor have picked up many knicknames, such as "Suits," "Brass-brains," "Dummies," etc. They are severely limited in capability, able to understand but a few words, and even then are more than likely to forget orders more than three words in length. They were used primarily as guards, for they could take more damage than a human guard and were replaced easier if slain than a man would be.