Britannia
Britannia is one of four realms from the world of Sosaria. Over the past several hundred years three of the other realms somehow disappeared from the world, or perhaps Britannia has disappeared from them. The other realms were the Lands of Danger and Despair (also known as the Serpent Isle), the Lands of the Feudal Lords and the Lands of the Dark Unknown.
Being fairly vast and unsettled, Britannia encompasses fourteen settlements that range from just sparse villages to sprawling cities. Several of the cities and towns have solidified around a chosen Virtue. Britain, for instance, is the town of Compassion. On the other hand there are places like Buccaneer's Den where anything goes, from gambling and piracy to murder and mayhem.
The people of Britannia are mostly peasant class, having little or no education but a strong and thriving work ethic and a staunch faith in their missing leader Lord British, who helped pull Britannia out of the Age of Darkness. The nobility of the Realm has no claim to the throne and are barred from raising armies, rather they have ancestral estates and grant land to peasants to work or build on. In turn they collect the bulk of the taxes and are in turn modestly taxed by the monarchy of Lord British. Apart from their generally wealthy nature and their ancient land rights the nobles are not civic or military leaders. For the most part the different towns and villages choose their own forms of government. For instance Trinsic is ruled by a small council of paladins who govern themselves and the city over which they preside entirely by their own sense of honor.
Overall, Britannia has varied subcultures all residing under the even-handed rule of Lord British. It is the monarchy's responsibility to maintain the Royal Guard, adjudicate disputes that the High Court of Yew cannot, levy taxes fairly, and see to the protection of the realm from any threats that arise.
Oddities
The most common threat to the Realm of Britannia is creatures from the Underworld. The Underworld is considered to be the dungeons and other places like them. Generally speaking the creatures of the Underworld breed exceedingly fast and have to fight for food and resources. This has brought many of them up to the surface world where they are an unending nuisance to travelers and tourists. On the bright side, they are seldom organized into anything more than a pack mentality and so a clever person can elude them easily with speed or take them out with cunning.
In the skies above Britannia there are two moons named Trammel and Felucca. The former travels very slowly across the sky while the latter moves two to three times as quickly. One peculiarity of the moons is that there are no tides in Britannia due to the dual nature of the pull of the moons. Instead there seems to be a sort of tide in the ether (that from which all magic flows). Because of this portals known as Moongates open and close based on the positions of the moons relative to each other. However, something happened in Britannia's past which locked the moongates open at all times to all destinations.
For many, many centuries now Britannia has been visited by people from other worlds. It is almost a cultural expectation that anyone of particularly distinction or noteworthiness is from another world, and very often from one called Earth. It is rumored that Lord British, himself is from this Earth and that the Hero which he summoned to defeat the evil wizard Mondain was also from Earth.
Specifics
About which specifics would you like to read?
- UO Roleplay Lore
- Britannia
- Home
