A few years of restless peace followed Mondain's downfall. So long had the world shuddered beneath Mondain's yoke that many found it hard to believe he had been really vanquished.

Rumors abounded. The most fearful one was that, at the time of his demise, Mondain had been training an apprentice, a protegee with amazing powerful, natural, magical abilities.

When nothing came of the rumor of a potential successor to this cancer, people were only too eager to accept its falsehood and throw off their cloaks of fear. The evils of the past were gone with their creator and perpetrator.

At last, the world was beautiful again, and life was to be enjoyed, savored.

So it was for several years, long enough for a child to grow to adulthood. They were exciting years, for the strange appearance of the time doors opened a great era of new learning, a renaissance of timelessness.

Creativity burst forth and new works proliferated.

No one wanted to notice when the disease began again.

But so it did.

First there was the single lost orc, a farmer stumbled upon. What was it? Whence came it?

Scientists knew in their secret hearts that the orc was the work of a sorcerer, and had that sorcerer been a benevolent one who had created the orc by accident, he would have come forward.

But they didn't want to know it, so they put it aside.

The orc was too sick and hurt to fight when it was first found. When it was sufficiently recovered and it had begun to assert its learned wrathful ways, it discovered a conundrum in its weak little head.

These creatures had saved its life - it grasped that much - and it didn't want to hurt them. Because the little lone orc had never been missed, it was not controlled by magical influences. It persisted with a pleasant benevolence.

All the good orcs we see in towns and villages today have descended from this one unusual orc.

But the good people of Sosaria should have realized its import those years ago.

More and more, the evils of darkness began to show Sosaria.

By the time the people acknowledged it, the evil was too powerful, too widespread to be overcome directly.

Already, its perpetrator was stronger and more wretched than any previous prince of darkness and had grown too proud to keep silent.

Mondain's apprentice in sorcery was a beautiful young woman. Underestimated because of her youth, Minax was furious at the defeat of Mondain and at the destruction of the gem, whose existence she had surmised, and which she had intended to study and replicate for herself.

Setting her fury aside, Minax decided to take control of the evils of the world without the gem.

She succeeded.

Thus was the name of Minax, "enchantress of evil," made known.

She was a master of moving objects spiritually from the age of three and proudly apprenticed to Mondain at age eleven. Minax's powers upon maturity greatly exceeded those of her evil mentor.

The Terrors had begun anew. With these powers she was able to rain wholesale destruction upon the planet, twisting and corrupting everything. Her foul web spread through time itself, ensnaring all who sought to oppose her.

The world she created made Mondain's reign look prosperous and carefree.

Finally, there arose a hero out of legend who dared face Minax in her own fiery castle and destroy her.

Thus ended the Second Era of Darkness.

Part Three: The Age Of Darkness, draws to a close

The History of Ultima was compiled using digitised Ultima Game Manuals. The digital versions were created by Micro. Materials displayed have been edited solely by the author. Ultima and Lord British are registered trademarks of Richard Garriott. Avatar is a trademark of Origin Systems, Inc. All contents ©1998 Hii King Chou. All Rights Reserved. GameRifts was granted permission for use.