Ultima IX: Ascension

Story

At the beginning of Ultima IX, the Avatar had somehow returned to Earth for an undetermined amount of time before returning to Britannia. The game begins shortly after the end of Ultima VIII, in which the Avatar is transported to a Guardian-controlled Britannia. He arrives in Britannia atop a mountain that towers over the Guardian's keep in Terfin. The Avatar is taken to Stonegate by Hawkwind, the Seer (from Ultima IV), where he learns that great pillars have appeared throughout the land, their malign influence causing plagues, famines, and other natural disasters. Under their power, the people of Britannia have twisted the virtues into a mockery of their true meaning. The Guardian is aided by Lord Blackthorn, who leads the Wyrmgardists and forces the people to obey the Guardian. As the game progresses, the Avatar learns that the Guardian has stolen the Runes of Virtue and turned them into the glyphs that are at the heart of each of the pillars. Most of the game consists of traveling through the dungeons to recover the glyphs and visiting the shrines of the virtues to meditate and purify them. Finally, it turns out that the Guardian is nothing but the dark half of the Avatar himself, and the only way to save Britannia is for the Avatar to ascend to a higher level and take the Guardian with him. The player can do this by casting an Armageddon spell behind a barrier of life that takes the Avatar and the Guardian to a higher plane outside of Britannia.