Pagan: The Books of Pagan

        

I'm a sucker for lore, so this bonus entry chronicles all of the books I'm finding in Pagan: Ultima VIII. It will be updated continually until the game is finished. (Note that this entry published at the same time as "Pagan: Skull Island." Don't miss the previous one!)

      

Adventure Quarterly, Vol. IX

An issue devoted to the Forgotten Riches of Knarl. Knarl was a dungeon deep in the earth where magical weapons were forged and magicians were trained. Somehow, it got sealed off, maybe by an earthquake, maybe by a secret sect of monks called the Dark Brothers. Again, I wonder if this place is to be found in-game.

    

Adventure Quarterly, Vol. XII

Discusses the legend of an enormous Ship of Doom that was sent to find a solution to a particularly devastating winter. The ship never returned, but the weather did let up, suggesting that the crew might have found someone to help.

          

The Beauty of Rhian by Toran

A pleasant if prosaic ode to Toran's wife. Toran is the man executed at the beginning of the game; Rhian is the woman kneeling and crying on the docks.

      

You tempted fate with those final lines, Toran.

         

The Big Book of Adventure

Talks about common adventuring obstacles, including lever puzzles, traps, chests, spell chits (scrolls), mazes, and Tricks of the Trixter (exploding books).

     

Brogdan's Helpful Guide to Mushrooms by Brogdan

Blue Bulgie and Green Capper are tasty, but a blue mushroom called Daemon's Paw is often mistaken for the former and causes various maladies. The yellow and green Adventurer's Friend heals; the Stench Mushroom keeps most monsters at bay but attracts undead; the Fire Mushroom explodes. 

      

Captain's Report 

Guard Captain Stovan recommends a guard named Grommet for bravery citation. Grommet recently saved a little girl from a troll—then accidentally killed the girl while attacking the troll. (See Honor Lost below.) "She was only a peasant, however, and of no import." This place is messed up.

         

De-Venoming the Kith by Ioria

Detailed instructions for removing the venom sack from a kith, a type of giant spider-like creature that the Pagans domesticate for silk and food. It's funny seeing the word used this way since I recently finished Avowed, in which "kith" is used as a term for sentient humanoid races.

    

Ear of Arricorn by Kram, Volumes III and IV 

I haven't found the first two volumes yet. These two describe an outcast called a "Shadowlander" entering a tavern, getting insulted by a herdsman, and shoving his fist down the herdsman's throat and literally turning him inside out. The rest of the tavern-goers then flee for the hills.

     

Expedition Journal, Book II 

Chronicles Days 17-22 of the journey of a party from somewhere to Tenebrae. The party is menaced by a group of strange "children" who might be the conjurations of a companion named Salem, who everyone thought dead. This seems to be referencing something, but I don't know what.  

     

Maybe they met these children.

             

Eye of the Boulder: The Runes of the Myth Drainer 

Chronicles an adventurer's search for the six pieces of the Eye, a meteor with magical properties. Once obtained and fitted into the author's skull, the Eye turned out to be "antithetical to [his] own" magic, leaving him worse than if he'd never found it. There are digs at the famously bad third game in SSI's Eye of the Beholder game: "The images I beheld lost resolution, and the sounds around me began to seem like bland reproductions . . . I am ashamed to have wasted so much time and so many of my resources upon such a disappointing thing." Given how poorly Pagan was reviewed, maybe Origin shouldn't have been so quick to throw shade. 

     

The Final Sunlight by Nolandru the Blind Idiot of Tenebrae

Describes the cataclysmic day in which the elemental titans defeated the Destroyer, which was the last day that the sun shined on the world of Pagan.

     

Honor Lost by Metzars the Troll 

Chronicles the thoughts of the titular troll, who suggests that trolls were once a noble and educated race, but they've fallen into barbarism. Metzars himself fell into a magical sleep while the troll race was still civilized and awoke after they'd turned animalistic. He recently rescued a human child from a fellow troll and plans to bring her to a human city, hoping it will engender goodwill. Captain's Report would seem to be an unfortunate follow-up.

     

We're meant to believe that these guys were once poets and scholars.

        

My Dearest Prevan 

A letter in book form. The letter writer, a healer named Veras, tells her husband about a troll attack on a small town in which the trolls kidnapped several children. A young mother called on the god Stratos to protect her, and her knitting needle turned into a silver sword that slew the trolls. The sword was named "Protector," and the writer intends to put it in a shrine on Argentrock Isle. This island is mentioned in the game manual as the "home of the monastery to the Order of Enlightenment," or the theurgists.

      

The Mythology of Zealan Deities 

Discusses how before the titans, the people of the land worshiped common emotions—love, hate, apathy, joy, grief, and fear—and personified them in the deities Amoras, Odion, Apathas, Felicitar, Doloras, and Timyra. The latter three were eventually dropped from the pantheon. The Zealans built temples to these gods, housed them inside, and filled them with mazes and traps so that the average person couldn't reach one of the gods.

     

The Saga of Bone Crusher 

The earth god Lithos demanded that the people of Tenebrae serve him. They pleaded that they already served Hydros. He sent undead to attack the city. The people asked Hydros for help, and she gave them a weapon called Bonecrusher. Lord Elsmil wielded it in battle and defeated the skeletons, but both he and the weapon were lost in battle. The skeletons might have carried them off. I also wonder if this will be something I can find.

       

Stories to Make Children Sleep by Brother Grim 

Only has one story, told in rhyme, about a young boy named Jelly who refused to eat anything but cheese. His father offered money to a mage to cast a spell that would free Jelly of the compulsion, but the mage accidentally turned the boy into a girl. Another mage came along and reversed the spell, and the father gratefully accepted his cheese-eating boy rather than deal with a normal girl. "'Tis not that I don't want a girl,' claims the tired old father, 'But when a boy is young, he is less of a bother.'"    

      

The Voices of Mary by Salem 

A rhyming account of a dream or hallucination or mental breakdown or something. Final lines: "As the waters roll in and I'm swallowed by sea, I can hear Mary whisper, calling to me. 'Come on, baby,' from somewhere she cries. 'I want you to love me like spiders love flies.'" 

      

"And so it waah-aas, that later . . ."

        

Untitled, Anonymous Treatise on Magic

Investigates accounts of magic that are not based on the elemental titans. These include a fisherwoman named Kilandra who claimed a ghost could cast spells (the author decided she was mad); mysterious lights on a plateau (an ornery hermit on the Plateau named Mythran said that they don't exist); and a magical axe called Deceiver, supposedly found on an island in Stone Cove (the author says the island doesn't exist). Mythran is in the game manual, given as a master of thaumaturgy.

     

Untitled Biography of Moriens

A glowing biography of the first Necromancer, who arranged the deal with the earth god Lithos that stopped the earthquakes but ensured the people of Pagan would serve Lithos in death. 

    

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For further reading:

  

• My entry on "The Books of Britannia," this entry's counterpart for Ultima VII.

08/19/2026