Why does the magic system change so much through the Ultimas?
All of the same basic spells appear in each Ultima. (for example there is a magic missile and blink spell in each Ultima) Some new ones are created due to progress in the magic arts, while some old ones are lost. It seems that spell components were abundant in earlier times (Ultima I-III) such that if you needed something, it was easily found along the countryside. After Exodus was destroyed, the lands went through violent change and spell components became harder to come by. It thus became more expensive to collect these reagents and thus players were now charged for them which is a practice that began in Ultima IV. Also in Ultima II players were also charged for acquiring spells but we must remember that this episode took place on Earth, were magic is rare and to practice it is expensive. Think of all the props that David Copperfield must buy! 😉 Seriously the presence of magic on Earth during Ultima II can only be explained by the presence of the time doors which linked up Earth an
