Game 586: Pagan: Ultima VIII (1994)

Both the title screen and the box agree: The master name of the game is Pagan.

        

Pagan: Ultima VIII

United States

ORIGIN Systems (developer); Electronic Arts (publisher)
Released 1994 for DOS
Date Started: 24 July 2026

    

I've told this story before, but I basically took a break from almost all gaming starting around 1991; partly because I wanted to actually finish college; partly because I stupidly bought a Mac in 1993, not realizing there were virtually no games for it; partly because Irene and I started dating. All of these things were rectified by 1998: I had graduated; I had a proper Windows machine; and Irene had discovered that you date Plan A and you marry . . . well, a CRPG Addict.

   

On my first trip to CompUSA at the end of this dark period, I bought a Might and Magic compilation and an Ultima compilation. I was so eager to catch up on what I missed in Britannia. At that time, I had never even finished Ultima VI: The False Prophet. I damn near wept at the opening strains on the title screen of Ultima IV. I loved Ultima V just as much as I had a decade earlier. I enjoyed Ultima VI. I gaped at Ultima Underworld. It took me a while to get used to Ultima VII: The Black Gate, but I ultimately made peace with it. I couldn't finish Serpent Isle. And I bounced hard off of Ultima VIII. I didn't get through more than 15 minutes of it. I hated everything about it. Because of it, I never even looked at Ultima IX when it came out. Nearly 30 years later, I don't remember precisely what I balked at, so I'm curious to see whether I have the same reactions this time. I hope not, because I have to finish it.

     

I don't think this guy would have fit through that Blackrock Gate.

       

The cinematic opens where Ultima VII: Part Two - Serpent Isle (1993) left off. You may recall that in that game, the Avatar follows the spirit of the Great Earth Serpent through the Wall of Lights and into the Ethereal Void. There, he watches it take its place between the Order Serpent and the Chaos Serpent, restoring balance to the universe (or, at least, Serpent Isle). But before he can enjoy his victory, the giant red hand of the Guardian emerges from the void and grabs him. The Serpents are apparently powerless to stop this, and they're the gods of an entire world, so it makes one wonder how the Guardian needed a bunch of cultists to build a Black Gate for him to visit Britannia in the previous game.

   

Pagan begins with the guardian's hand thrusting through a pentagram, then opening to reveal the Avatar standing on his palm. "You have been a thorn in my side for far too long, Avatar," the Guardian says in a reverberating bass. "Your two worlds will be crushed, Britannia first, then Earth. I shall parade you before their conquered peoples as the fallen idol of a pathetic ideal." He turns his hand over, dropping the Avatar through the clouds and into the ocean near a volcanic island. "I banish you to the world of Pagan. No one here knows of the Avatar." Nice to get the banallure out of the way in the beginning.

     

Kind of wish I weren't wearing a full suit of armor.

          

Ever since Ultima IV's The History of Britannia as Told by Kyle the Younger, the Ultima series has been famous for its epistolary manuals. I still think the manual for Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the best piece of game documentation that we've seen through 1993, with the story of Britannia told in a beautifully subversive way. It's thus no surprise that Ultima VIII comes with The Chronicle of Pagan as written by "Bentic, a humble scholar and student." I have to admit that I rolled my eyes at it and lost patience a bit as I read it. Is that because it feels like the Origin team was just going through the same old motions, or is it because I let my previously-negative view of the game cloud my perceptions? I'm not sure. I'll just say that it feels a bit less inspired than previous Ultima manuals, as if someone was just checking off a box that said: "Write game manual from the perspective of someone in the world."

    

The summary of the backstory is that the first inhabitants of Pagan were known as Zealans, and they worshiped gods called Ancient Ones, including Amoras (goddess of love and joy), Odion (god of strength or something like it), and Apathas (god of logic). I say "including," but that might in fact be the entire pantheon. I'm not sure. The Zealans were united under a war chief named Khumash-Gor, but his empire fell apart after his assassination. Sometime thereafter, residents started hearing whispers in their minds from someone called the Guardian. The Guardian told of the coming of a Destroyer who would, well, destroy the land with earth, water, air, and fire. The Zealans could avoid this fate by turning their worship to those very elements. Some, but not all, of the Zealans joined this new cult, raising an enormous temple. Their faith gave birth to four elemental titans: Lithos, Hydros, Stratos, and Pyros. I'll let you figure out which lord goes with which element.

      

This all feels a bit cribbed from Might and Magic II.

          

A civil war began between the Zealans who worshiped the old gods and the new "Pagans." (Seriously, that's even worse than having the world inexplicably named "Pagan.") The Pagans won this war, culminating with Lithos sealing the recalcitrant Zealans in the Lost Vale. That's going to become important later. But no sooner had the Pagans achieved victory than the Destroyer appeared in the sky. "[His] malevolent yellow eyes glared out across the land." He summoned lighting, storms, floods, cyclones, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Eventually, the titans united and destroyed the Destroyer. "The world that remained was pitted and scarred, a vast wasteland with a smattering of island chains." The survivors gathered on the largest island, Morgaelin, to reconstruct their civilization. The clouds the Destroyer summoned never went away, so the world is in perpetual dimness.

     

(I would bet a week's salary that the being we know as the Guardian is not in fact the Guardian of Bentic's history. I'm betting the Guardian was the Destroyer and that he stole the Guardian's identity at some point. That raises the question of the identity of the original Guardian. It has to be someone we know, like Lord British or the Time Lord. Don't spoil it for me either way, please.)

      

This would be a good place for the story to end, but it doesn't. Instead, the titans turned evil, demanded sacrifices, and went to war with each other. The short of it is that four different heroes dealt separately with the four elemental lords, their efforts resulting in the creation of four schools of magic: necromancy (earth), tempestry (water), theurgy (air), and sorcery (fire). There's a lot more in this section, but I'll reference it as I encounter things in-game that make use of the additional lore. The story concludes by saying that we are now in the Fourth Epoch; the elemental lords are "appeased or controlled"; and "people are free to live normal lives."

       

From the manual, the symbols of the elemental lords.

       

At this point, the book has a section on Britannia, featuring stories that supposedly originated with an old woman named Mordra. A check of my notes reveals that Mordra was the healer in Skara Brae before a magical accident killed everyone, Mordra included. In that game, she helped the Avatar with the ritual that destroyed Horance the lich. It's hard to imagine that this is the same Modra since she was a ghost in Ultima VII and thus presumably couldn't have traveled to Pagan to tell a story that includes the events of Ultima VII. The manual suggests that she only knew the events through Ultima VI, so perhaps she visited Pagan, told the history of Britannia, and returned. Or maybe she came from Pagan in the first place. In any event, the whole section is just the obligatory history of the Ultima series from Mondain through Batlin and the Fellowship. I don't know whether it's there to orient new players to the universe or whether it will actually have some relevance to the plot of Pagan.

 

It's worth noting that we've had a couple of references to Pagan before, one in Ultima Underworld II and one in Serpent Isle. The latter was the longer one. The Avatar meets a blind hermit named Morghrim who explains that he is from Pagan, and that the Guardian invaded his world and burned Elerion, the great world tree. This event is not referenced in Pagan's backstory. Perhaps there will be a reference to it later, but it would be entirely on-brand for Origin to retcon lore written only one year previously. 

            

Our previous experience with someone from Pagan.

         

Let's move on to the game itself. Character creation is nothing more than giving a name. There is no option to select any Avatar except the blond male one, which is a major step backwards, although clearly this guy's been the canonical Avatar for a few games now. 

   

The game begins with the Avatar waking up on an unfamiliar shore, in a fisherman's camp, a crackling fire having dried his wet clothes. The fisherman, Devon, addresses the Avatar by name (I went with "Gideon," my standby) and sheepishly admits that he went through the Avatar's logbook, which I didn't even know I was keeping. He explains that he pulled the Avatar up in one of his nets. "You are welcome to stay with me for as long as you need," he says, "until you wish to head to the city." As he turns away, he mentions a crowd gathering on the city docks. "That can only mean trouble." He also has a few things to say about Lithos and Hydros, but they mostly repeat what's in the manual, which I'll cover later.

     

My first dialogue options.

        

The interface isn't quite as different from Ultima VII as I thought I remembered. It uses the same northwest-facing oblique view, though rotated a bit more on both axes to give greater depth to the perspective. Most of the same keys work: Z for stats and wearable items, I for backpack, C to enter combat, and so forth. What does not work is any movement with the arrow keys. It has to be done entirely with the mouse, which is extremely unwelcome. The right mouse button causes the Avatar to mince along, walk, or run, depending on the distance of the cursor from the figure. The left mouse button is used to grab things, use things, and talk to people. Both mouse buttons together jump.

         

Running, jumping, suicide.

        

The ESC key brings up the game options, including "Read Diary" and "Write Diary," which turn out to be the game's clumsy way of saving and reloading. I thought they might activate an actual diary at first.

   

The Avatar is depicted wearing a full set of armor (boots, helmet, gauntlets) and either an ankh pendant or an ankh emblazoned on his tunic. In fact, a trip to the equipment screen shows that he doesn't have anything. (He must have ditched it so he didn't drown.) He starts the game with 15 strength, 15 intelligence, 15 dexterity, and 30 hits and mana.

    

The Avatar fights the power.

        

While meddling with the jump and movement controls, I soon discover that despite a lack of armor, the Avatar sinks like a stone when he enters water—that's instant death. I also manage to kill myself by wandering into Devon's fire. The game is a bit insidious when it comes to character death. It makes you wait. There's a pause of about 10 seconds between the death and the appearance of a gravestone and the ability to reload. I've often asked for this kind of thing, to make death and reloading a little less cheap.

         

How does anyone here know what "the Avatar" is?

     

At this point, I should mention that I'm playing the game version purchased from GOG, which combines features from several previous releases and patches, including the extra audio that came on the 1994 CD-ROM release, the later 1994 "Pagan Speech Pack," and a 1995 patch that trivialized the game's famous jumping puzzles, although the original version was apparently so annoying and buggy that no one minded the reduction in challenge. I was still hoping to at least experience the original version anyway, but I'm having trouble discerning which of the versions available online are "original." In the meantime, I'll just play this one and maybe compare it later.

   

I think I'm a minority on this, but I don't like the graphics. I particularly don't like the black outline around the Avatar, the NPCs, and most of the interactable objects. The figures strike me as a bit too . . . I'm having trouble finding the right words here. "Soft." "Rounded." "Blended." Note how in the graphic below, you can't really distinguish the character's boots, or whether the ankh is a pendant or something embroidered on his chest. They would have looked good in 1994, sure, but these days, I'd prefer something actually detailed or completely abstract, rather than this weird, ungainly doll wandering across a matte painting.

      

The Avatar stands there and takes my insults.

            

As for that background, yikes. It feels like a huge step back from Ultima VII. The shoreline here looks nothing remotely like a real shoreline. The patterns of the rocks and forest floor are just blobs of color. I'd rather have the grasses and ruddy forest floors of its predecessor. 

    

Getting back to the game, I head west and then north, where I find a dock with a couple of barrels and my first items: a dagger, a keyring, some wine, several mushrooms, and a scroll written to "Most Honorable Lady Mordea," warning that the Skull of Quakes "has been removed from the upper catacombs."

       

Five minutes into the game, and I already can't find anything in my backpack. The interior space is even smaller than in Ultima VII.

      

Up on the dock itself is the "trouble" that Devon was talking about. A bunch of people stand around a man kneeling in front of an executioner's block. From subsequent conversation, he is named Toran, and he's been accused of "blasphemy against our Lady Mordea and sentenced to death by beheading." (Lady Mordea is the ruler of Tenebrae and a Tempest.) Toran expresses confidence that he will meet Lithos honorably, but Mordea tells him that his body will be cast into the sea, so in death he will be ruled by Hydros rather than Lithos. "This is forbidden, lady," a guard named Tarna notes. "The Ritual of Interment is sacred." Mordea tells him to shut up and then tells the executioner to get on with it. In a gruesome animation, the executioner chops off Toran's head, which rolls off the dock and into the sea and is promptly consumed by a sea monster.

     

The grisly scene. Are those carved skulls all along the edges of the dock? That's morbid.

       

Mordea and her entourage walk off the dock. Tarna the Guard demands to know who I am and what I'm doing there. I decide to be ornery and tell him that it's none of his business. "You are sadly mistaken," he says. "For every moment you spend in Tenebrae, what you are doing and where you are doing it is exactly my business." He gives me two more opportunities to explain myself, but I refuse both times, so he attacks me. I haven't even equipped my dagger yet, and even with it, I don't think I'd be any match for this guard with his bardiche. I'm soon dead.

      

This guy should work for ICE.

      

I guess I already have to explain stuff from the chronicle. At the beginning of the Third Epoch, Lithos wouldn't cut it out with the earthquakes. So a hero named Moriens went to bargain with him. Lithos agreed to stop the quakes if the people of Pagan would serve him in death. Ever since then, when Pagans die, their bodies go to Lithos, and they serve him as undead workers indefinitely. That must be the worst bargain ever struck. I'd rather die in an earthquake than spend eternity serving an insane earth god.

       

Maybe it's just their bodies that serve him. That would make more sense.

       

Meanwhile, Hydros (also known as the Lurker) was still battering the land with storms, one of which killed the beloved of a necromancer named Kalen. Lithos told Kalen about Blackrock, which Kalen used to trap Hydros in her temple. He planned to kill her, but she agreed to give magical powers to him and the subsequent line of tempestry practitioners if he'd let her live.

   

On a reload, I go east from Devon's camp instead of west. There are some mushrooms that look like I should be able to pick them up, but I can't. I kill a couple of spiders and small enemies called skellots with my fists; these are not among the creatures described in the manual. Combat involves clicking repeatedly with the mouse on a moving enemy while trying to face the character the appropriate direction. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I don't care for it in these initial stages.

      

My first taste of combat.

      

I soon come across a high, impassable wall. A pile of bones at the base has a fire gem within them. I follow the wall a distance to the northwest until a large portcullis appears with a winch at its base. Another guard with a bardiche demands that I explain my presence. This time, I introduce  myself (I don't have any option to do otherwise), and he gruffly notes that Mordea is in a bad mood today and suggests I "see for myself" at the dock. Trying to manipulate the winch gets me nowhere. 

     

Why is "Get that polearm out of my face" not an option?

         

I wander around some more but find nothing, and it becomes clear that the only way to proceed is to go to the docks. I watch the execution again and this time answer the guard's questions. I tell him my name, that I come from another world (he doesn't like that), and that my business in Tenebrae is to find a way to return home. He tells me I can go about my business. He says he's going to escort Toran's grieving widow from the docks, but he doesn't do that. He just wanders around while the woman remains kneeling by Toran's corpse.

      

Frankly, my dear . . .

        

There is no sense of any passage of time so far, partly explained by the backstory, although the graphics don't suggest perpetual darkness so much as perpetual cloudiness. Despite the presence of food items, the Avatar doesn't seem to get hungry. I don't necessarily mind these deletions from the previous Ultimas, but they are emblematic of the many mechanics that Origin simplified for this release.

   

The city gate is now open, so I stride into Tenebrae. The manual calls it "The City of Eternal Twilight," the only city that still exists on Morgaelin and perhaps in the entire world. The Great Palace is Mordea's seat of power.

    

Even though I haven't made much progress, I'll wrap up here and explore Tenebrae next time.

   

Time so far: 1 hour 

    

****

    

Next entry in this series

    

For further reading:

  

• My Index of Games Played by Lineage has the Ultima series and its clones.  

  08/14/2026