- Lord Blackthorn
General CVG character
width= 250px
name= Lord Blackthorn
caption= Lord Blackthorn as he appears in ""
series= "Ultima"
firstgame= "Ultima V "
creator=
artist=
voiceactor= Doug Forrest ("Ultima IX ")
japanactor=
motionactor=
inuniverse=In the "Ultima" game series, Lord Blackthorn (also frequently spelled Blackthorne) is a recurring character that first appears in "" (1988).
Character history
In "
Ultima V ", Blackthorn becomes regent of Britannia whenLord British disappears while exploring the Underworld. Originally, he is a wise and just ruler, but he is twisted by theShadowlords and becomes an oppressivetyrant . By the game's conclusion, Lord British is restored to his throne and Blackthorn sent toexile through a redmoongate to an unknown world."" explains that his destination is the Serpent Isle. While on Serpent Isle, Blackthorn takes refuge among the Xenkan Monks, eventually joining their order. He left the island before the Avatar came to the Serpent Island.
Blackthorn returns again as a villain in "", this time as a servant of the Guardian. Blackthorn perishes at the hand of
Lord British after an extensive magical duel at the center of the Great Stygian Abyss.In "Ultima Online"
In "
Ultima Online ", the timeline of which diverges from the main series after "Ultima I ", Blackthorn is the closest friend of Lord British, but at the same time he is also his fiercest enemy. He has been defending the peoples' individuality and freedom of belief by creating his own virtue, chaos. In this case, chaos does not represent the destructive force with which it is usually associated.In later "Ultima Online" expansions, starting with ', Lord Blackthorn forged an alliance with various dark magics and emerged as an evil force, similarly to how he evolved in the single-player "Ultima" games. After "surviving" through a few years, he was finally killed in an assault on the city of Yew that was depicted in-game shortly after the release of the ' expansion. Blackthorn and his minions were partly robotic and partly biological in nature.
For "Ultima Online 2", noted comic book artist
Todd McFarlane redesigned Blackthorn and drew and conceived his minions. When the project was scrapped all of Todd McFarlanes artwork and redesigned was moved to what became "Lord Blackthorn's Revenge" an expansion to the existing "Ultima Online".fact|date=September 2007Real-life counterpart
Blackthorn's real-life counterpart is
Starr Long , one of the long-time Origin employees, best known as the co-creator of "Ultima Online".Fact|date=September 2007
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