Gumshoeing for (Lore) Geeks.

Arroth_Thaiel

From the Town Cryer article.

"...in the wake of last years invasions by the Elemental Titans...those pagan zealots...." 

Ultima 8 Pagan is going to be your lore source. U8 is also the Titan story arc.

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Tenebrae: Sorcery: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Tenebrae
"Tenebrae, the city of eternal twilight, is the only known city remaining in Pagan after the great war, situated on the island of Morgaelin."

Boreas: Theurgist: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Boreas
"Boreas was more than a healer of wounds and ills. Pagan seemed to gleam during her lifetime...buried grief that still burns raw for Boreas, wisest of the Theurgists"

Moriens: Necromancy: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Tomb_of_Moriens
"The Tomb of Moriens is the prominent central feature of the Cemetery of Pagan in Ultima VIII. As the name suggests, Moriens, the first Necromancer, is buried here..."

Carthax: Tempestry: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Carthax_Lake
"Carthax Lake is an underground body of water which lies beneath the Catacombs of Tenebrae, deep within the heart of Morgaelin. It houses the ancient temple of Hydros, the Titan of Water."

Titans: http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Elemental_Titans_(Pagan)
Lithos: Moriens
Hydros: Carthax
Stratos: Boreas
Pyros: Tenebrae 

Larisa

Thank you Kyronix lol see how with a little lore it makes a BIT more sense.....not really though because to GET to these words the clues were less then helpful. Thank you, from those of us who never played any Ultima game besides UO, history is cool!  Still, bad, vague clues to get to this point, but I appreciate the history lesson.

Garth_Grey

Jasper: "Along with this book, I suggest you go and read the entire Crier literature before starting this quest"..

Larisa

Yeah I did....sorry my brain doesn't work that way...I read titans and pagan zealots and because I haven't PLAYED any other ultima game had no clue about the history...not all of us who play UO are Ultima geeks who've played every game and know the entire history...my knowledge about the titans is limited to the 20th anny event arc....that's it....I'm sure that's the same with a lot of players, so I still hold to the fact that the clues were less then stellar...I'm glad there are players who know the lore and were able to help those less knowledgable and I was able to complete my guide. 

Arroth_Thaiel

I've never played U8 either, but I saw that pagan zealots line and was like.....wait a second here, I know there is a game named Pagan.

Didn't know how wrapped up the story was with Titans until I started reading the wiki.

Larisa

Ohh yeah I read up on just the Titans when I did the 20th anny arc...that was pretty cool....but too much reading and I feel like I'm in school lol

Arroth_Thaiel

So, here is a little more. I may be stretching a bit with some, but it looks like Kyronix was tying things together pretty well.

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Boreas:
From the tombstone,
"Born: Vesper, lived Moonglow, worked Yew, died Britain. In death find eternal slumber"

From the wiki,
"When she drew near death, she forbade her friend to extend her life. She was old, she said, and her lifetime was complete."

Boreas died and went into eternal slumber. She was not resurrected.

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Tenebrae:
From the tombstone,
"A shifty character, yet loved by all."

From the wiki,
"Tenebrae, the city of eternal twilight...the only known city...the center of life for many."

Twilight, shadowy, shifty, shifting from light to dark, the only city to survive a war. The center of life. Hmmm....

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Moriens:
From the tombstone,
"Esteemed actor with immeasurable character count. Rest easy friend."

From the wiki,
"the first necromancer....The Birthplace of Moriens is a sacred location..."

Moriens was the "first", his birthplace sacred, that probably qualifies as an "esteemed actor". As for the "immeasurable character count", well he was a necromancer. He never ran out of characters, he could just raise new ones.

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Carthax:
From the tombstone,
"From the first letter he wrote to his righteous love, forever romantic."

From the wiki,
"drowned the beloved of the Necromancer, Kalen...Kalen, desperate to have his lover's body...offered him the return of his lover and a modicum of her [Hydros] powers...Kalen accepted... and thereafter became the first Tempest..."

If you want a love story in Pagan, there it is. The first letter he wrote was to become the first Tempest maybe?

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Maybe I'm way off on these, but it seems to me that the epitaphs on the tombstones are pretty strong clues towards the names in Pagan.

Especially Moriens. "Immeasurable character count" as a reference to a necromancer. That's just........

Larisa

Again...this isn't Ultima...it's ultima ONLINE...totally different story line.....it's pretty awesome what he did there, I will agree....but again...it really doesn't have much to do with UO....and more to do with the original series. I guess he just wants us all to take History class again lol. So much appreciated with the history of the original series but I still think it's a bit far fetched....but more understanding now of what is mind was doing while he was creating this quest lol.

jaytin

Pagan was the only Ultima game I didn't play, it just never appealed to me, Underworld 1 & 2 were my favourites.

Mene_Drachenfels

Tscho... but as you see the old ultima history becomes more and more part of Ultima Online - and I think this is not the worsest solution to find good story lines for the common events. But yes - if in your life you never played  a n y   of the old Ultima Single Player Games - you know more less than these who did this once

Arroth_Thaiel

You know,

I think the epitaphs are long anagrams. If we use the message from the Britain gravestone (birth, lived, worked, death) that could equate to a 4 part passage (beginning, part 2, part 3, end).

Using only the italicized portion of the messages: 

1. "Esteemed actor with immeasurable character count Rest easy friend"

Notice there is no punctuation, yet the R is capitalized. I think the R is the first letter of a proper noun. Also "esteemed actor" is the beginning of an anagram for "meteor" something, something. Or maybe periods just don't appear in the epitaph text and the R is the beginning of a new sentence.

2. "From the first letter he wrote to his righteous love, forever romantic"

Strangely placed comma in that sentence. Also "forever romantic" is an anagram of "a covert informer". Just saying.

3. "A shifty character yet loved by all"

4. "In death find eternal slumber" also can give "hidden elemental rift", "hidden runes", "rituals" etc.

Anyway, I think the 4 epitaphs go together to form...something. Or maybe I've just stared at anagrams till I see things I want to.