Minax
Minax is an important NPC villain in the history of Ultima. Also called the Dark Mistress, Minax first appeared in the PC game, Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress, which was released in several formats from 1982 through 1985. She was also featured in the manga, or Asian comic book, Ultima: The Terror of Exodus.
"The climax was the devastation of 2111, Minax's greatest triumph, when ancient civilizations born of love and beauty, wisdom and reason, turned on one another in hatred and destroyed most of the very earth that had nurtured them. If it were not for the time doors, we would not be here now. Only the ability to move in time enabled any living thing to survive..."
-- from the writings of Lord British
Minax was the young female apprentice and lover of Mondain, also a great villain of Britannia. As revenge for her mentor’s death, Minax has sought to destroy the world.
She has been seen in-game on several occasions, such as when she led an undead invasion of the City of Trinsic and during the Age of Shadows expansion when she led a series of attacks on Britannia. During that event cycle, she was seen in the bottom level of the dungeon Destard, wielding a powerful artifact called the Doom Kiss.
Her followers are also one of the four Factions that constantly vie for control of Felucca.
Minax is currently alive. She has some kind of connection to and is in communication with Travesty, the Peerless of the Dungeon that is located in the Tokuno Islands, known as the The Citadel.
UOStuff History
(It should be noted that this material, imported from UOStuff.com, appears to represent Minax's history in the single-player Ultima games. It does not represent UO history. It is plain that in UO, Minax is still alive, though inactive at the moment.)
Minax was apprenticed to the dark wizard Mondain at a young age. In time, she grew to become his lover as well as his pupil. She survived her paramour's death and went into hiding.
Underestimated because of her youth, Minax was furious of the death of her tutor (and lover). Revenge set itself within her dark heart. As her talent for magic and capacity of malevolence far exceeded Mondain's, Minax decided to take control of the evils of the world without the gem.
Twenty years after the death of Mondain, Minax invaded Sosaria with her legions of Darkness. In order to assure that the Stranger would not interfere with her plans for vengeance, Minax invaded his homeworld of Earth. Once there, she used her dark powers to disturb the fabric of time, and destroyed the planet.
Lord British called for a hero to crush Minax's evil plans. The Stranger had narrowly escaped the destruction of the Earth, and answered British's call. Minax's castle, named Shadowguard, could only be reached through timegates (similar to moongates in the later games), and even then an enchanted ring was required to pass through the force fields inside.
The war against Minax's vile legions was long and hard, but eventually the hero hunted down the wizard, pursued her as she teleported throughout the castle, and destroyed her life with the quicksword Enilno.
With the dark energies released with the death of Minax in her castle of Shadowguard, the lands of Sosaria changed once again, reforming into two continents: Sosaria proper, and Ambrosia.
Unbeknownst to all, Mondain and Minax had produced a progeny, Exodus, an entity neither man nor machine.
References
- Tanaka, Seiji. "Urutima: Ekusodasu no Kyoufu" ("The Ultima: The Terror of Exodus") Tokyo: JICC Shuppan Kyoku. 1988. ISBN # 4-88063-434-4.