Lord Blackthorn
I have some questions about the character development of Lord Blackthorn. Pardon me if some of these questions have been answered elsewhere, I left right around the time of Lord Blackthorn's ascension.
Blackthorn has always been one of my favorite lore characters. I very much enjoyed the early stories of his rivalry with Lord British and his concerns with his choice to reunite the shards. And while my connection meant that I could rarely participate in Order vs. Chaos, I had more than a few characters who were fans of the character.
Does Blackthorn still advocate Chaos? Or is he an advocate for Virtue now?
It would seem that the Britannians are largely accepting the Virtues, given that we can now practice them and increase our Virtue. What role does Blackthorn have to play in all this? Is he for this, against, or a passive observer?
One of his suggestions in his writings was the further integration of other intelligent races into the Kingdom, such as the Orcs and Ophidians. Is he still of that mind?
The Time Lord and Lord British were planning to reunite the shards, and Lord Blackthorn stood in opposition to this. The Time Lord and Blackthorn seem to have resolved things, given the two are conversing in his castle in Britain. What resolved things for the two?
If I remember correctly, the Chaos Dragoons were largely made up of Chaos Knights who followed Blackthorn's Clone into the service of Exodus, falsely believing that this would lead to Blackthorn's successful overlordship of Britannia. Now that it has been revealed that he was a doppleganger, and the true Blackthorn was held captive all this time, are the legions of Chaos abandoning Ilshenar and returning to his service? (Perhaps answering my own question, I would assume some might believe this Blackthorn is the false one.)
Comments
Blackthorn now is a muppet whose strings are yanked with no real thought. His personality is splintered so much (by trauma?) that to have him as the king is dangerous. The move for governorship of the cities within each shard was promising, but again, governors deal with a shattered king who seems to gain directives from entities far more powerful than himself, or the Time Lord.
The gods that dictate how Sosaria _is_ do not keep the Spirit within them. This is the downfall of all shards - separate or combined.
Small sects and individuals scattered around the shards still have some hope - myself included. We once helped guide our respective shards' histories - each with their own politics, sects, riches and unique characteristics that brought the peoples together - either good or bad (or shall we say, "Ordered or Chaotic"?). So much has changed that there is no going back though, and so...
we have a shattered king who is far from being the Lord Blackthorn who would champion anarchy against dictatorship.
((( OOC - Granted, it is far easier to maintain server code with each shard being the same, but the wipe of particular histories related to individual shards has disillusioned so many players who had a stake in these histories. It is why many have gone to lands-we-shall-not-name where histories are preserved.
In reality, RG and SL brought their world-building idea into role-play with the Order vs. Chaos... it even happened like this in SotA, but without the shard aspect. However, the difference is in that world, they listened a bit (maybe too much) to players regarding the development of world politics. That is discussion for other threads.
.... I had such a long dissertation here, but I think it is useless now. UO is far from what it was going to be and is constantly changing. Looking back on the lore of what-was vs. what-could-have-been and comparing it to what-is and what-shall-come makes for a very different game. People who share my views but play in other worlds all say the same thing, "It hurts to play in UO because I remember, but no other game gives us the opportunity or even comes close to what we want."
The saying, "build it and they will come" can only go so far. ))
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