The Dragon Gallery - part III
Shadow of Light Dragon

Frank 'Parcival' Rieter-Lambers, 2003-11-26

Personalia

I live in Australia and was born in 1979, which makes me 24 right now. Single and (still) loving it. :) I've been working for Australian Consolidated Press, a very large magazine company, for the past year, doing things like typsetting, proof reading, markup and layout. Maybe I'll work up to doing editorials in the future, but our department focusses on
morotbikes, boats, cars, trucks and stuff like that, which don't really stir me into writing frenzies. :)

I finished university a couple of years ago (did Professional Writing and Editing, which was much more fun than Applied Physics). Hobbies include
writing (mainly fantasy), drawing (mainly dragons), gaming (mainly Ultima
Legacy) and dialogue writing for a couple of Ultima remakes. The 'high
ambition' in life is to be a published fantasy novelist.

Ultima

I was first introduced to Ultima by a couple of friends who lived in my street. They'd just got Ultima 6, and invited me and my brother to come take a look at it. I remember very clearly that we were amazed by the graphics and music as we watched the introduction. :) Looked like fun, too. It wasn't long before my brother and I got hold of Ultima 5, which is my first and favourite Ultima. I love that game! The storyline was intricate. You had good guys and villains, but also the shades of grey. You had to make choices and figure things out, not simply run into things and wave a sword around.
And the Shadowlords... *shudders* I'm sooo looking forward to seeing them in the Lazarus remake. :)
I also really like Ultima 7 (part I and II) and UW2. The Guardian is a great villain. :) Martian Dreams also has a special place in my heart.

Memories

My favourite Ultima character... I'll go for Dupre. He always makes me laugh. :) And my most memorable moment in Ultima... hrm. I'll pick two. One is from Ultima 5 when you approach the Soulstealer Mirror near the end of the game.
The other is from Ultima 7, when you return to Alagner's house in New
Magincia after showing a certain book to Lord British... I won't give any
more details than that at the risk of spoiling people.
I don't play the single player Ultimas much anymore. Mostly I play Ultima
Legacy, which is a free RP-based Ultima Online shard. Great fun, and lots of other Ultima fans play it too. :)

Ultima Internet Community

I think I joined the Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter in 1998. For several
years prior I'd been writing fanfiction about Ultima, and one day I happened across the Dragon Press site. Dragon Press hosts Ultima fanfiction written by people in the UDIC. Once I got over the fact that other people were as addicted to Ultima as I was to write fiction about it, I signed up and started writing things to submit. The Dark Realm got some very nice critique. :)

The Dragons Lair

This year or last (time does fly), I took over Dragon Press and, with the
help of several other Dragons, recovered all the old fanfictions to return
it to 'its former glory'. Or something like that. :) I still update it when people send in their own fanfics.

Contributions

I have been in three Ultima remakes: Utima 4: The Dawn of Virtue, Ultima 5:Lazarus, and Ultima 9: Redemption. I signed up for these when I didn't have a full time job, mind you, and while I enjoyed all three I decided to leave the latter one earlier this year

Beyond Ultima

I love RPGs and fantasy adventure games. Last one I played was Baldur's Gate 2 (plus Throne of Bhaal). Next on my list is Planescape Torment. :) A few old favourites are the Monkey Island, Space Quest and Kings Quest games, The Bard's Tale trilogy, and Faerytale.

Pass it on

So many to choose from... Houston Dragon, perhaps. I think his Ultima
website was accused of being a religious cult by a magazine or something
once. :) Or Paulon Dragon. He's like the Guru Of Ultima. :) Should see him
with the annual Ultima Jeopardy Contest in RGCUD.