Hearth of Britannia Logo

The Hearth of Britannia is...


...an Ultima companion cookbook, a virtual home for wayward Ultima Dragons,
a creator of Ultima LARP events and system, producer of Ultima trinkets, & so much more!






The Initial Inspiration

It all started with a simple quote from a random NPC in a game from my childhood.



Shubin from Ultima VI

Shubin

, from Ultima VI once said


"Being a cook is like being an adventurer, Avatar.
Adventurers are always searching for this and that.
So are cooks."

These are the words that started me down the path of a lifetime of adventure through cooking, which ultimately lead to the founding of The Hearth of Britannia.





The Cookbook

The project that started it all.




Circa 2005, before every IP had a companion cookbook and the idea was still somewhat novel, Rustic Dragon had a spark of inspiration while playing one of the classic Ultima games to create a companion cookbook for the Ultima series. Not just any companion cookbook, however. A narrative driven, fully illustrated, and immersively realistic cookbook to pair a real-life recipe with every food reference in the single-player Ultima games and add the lore of the Ultima series.

Narrative Driven

Or, everything must happen for a reason, just like a good Ultima game.

The Hearth of Britannia, unlike some companion cookbooks, will not be a mere collection of recipes based loosely off of an IP. Rather, it will be written from the perspective of the Avatar (i.e. you, me, and all players of the Ultima series), but not just any Avatar. An Avatar with an insatiable passion for cooking who scoured the lands of Sosaria and Britannia in search of recipes and culinary knowledge from all corners of the worlds. This passion will allow for backstory and tidbits of original lore for each recipe.

The Hearth of Britannia will be a blend of a traditional cookbook and an epistolary novel showcasing ephemera such as journal entries, correspondence from notable NPCs, and other found artefacts to paint a colourful picture of how the recipes came to be known by the author. If you enjoyed The Official Book of Ultima, you will love The Hearth of Britannia!

  • A recipe for every food reference in all of the single-player Ultima games
  • Original lore ranging from the off-hand tidbit to the well-composed backstory for nearly every recipe
  • A map (naturally!) showing where and when the best things the author has eaten in Britannia took place
  • A few recipes directly from the real people the Ultima NPCs were based on!
Fully Illustrated

With beautiful line-art illustrations, just like a proper Ultima manual.

While some supplemental photographs may ultimately be available online, The Hearth of Britannia will be fully hand illustrated by Rustic Dragon for all parts. Think Cook's Illustrated meets Denis Loubet's "fine line" illustration style for the Ultima manuals.


Immersively Realistic

As close as possible to a genuine artefact from Britannia.

While some companion cookbooks make silly, cute recipes that are only titularly related to the IP, The Hearth of Britannia will do better. The author has a strong distaste for companion cookbooks that include silly recipes with no empirical basis in the reality of the lore. For example, "Heart Piece Cookies" should have no place in an immersive Legend of Zelda inspired cookbook (though it would be perfectly appropriate in a general Nintendo cookbook). It's cheap, silly, and The Hearth of Britannia will have none of it!

Additionally, The Hearth of Britannia will, as much as possible, seek to find plausible substitutes for fantasy ingredients with immersive explanations based on both Ultima lore and cooking science. There will be a Well Equipped Britannian Kitchen section that details not only what staples and equipment are nice to have on hand, but also narratively explains how to procure mundane Earth based ingredients when access to a moongate isn't possible.

Lastly, the planned Hearth's Heritage Edition of The Hearth of Britannia will look and feel like a book straight from Britannia. While standard soft-cover editions will likely come with modern annoyances like a UPCs and copyright pages (ultimately depending on how it's published), the Hearth's Heritage Edition will not. If all goes as presently planned, the Hearth's Heritage Edition will have...

  • Off-white, deckle edge paper
  • Hard backed, leather binding with raised bands
  • Marbled end papers
  • Multiple ribbon bookmarks for keeping track of your favorite recipes
  • No distracting modernities such as UPC symbols, copyright pages, and publisher info

As of September, 2019, there is a focused effort to have the cookbook ready for publication by November, 2022. If you wish to assist, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.





Events

Arguably what The Hearth of Britannia is most famous for. Read the overview below or peruse the events archive.



Since The Hearth of Britannia expanded its scope beyond just the cookbook, it has run three major Ultima events and a handful of related smaller events. These events range from small online Dragonsmeets and telethons to full blown immersive high-budget live action role-play (LARP) events.

While there are no plans to run another event until the cookbook and possibly HoBLARP are completed, you can peruse the events archive to see descriptions, photos, and more from past events. These are the events that inspired, enabled, and/or otherwise paved the way for other great events in the community including the Festivals of the Silver Serpent, VirtueCon, SotA Con, and the UDIC 25th Anniversary Bash.

If everything goes as planned, events will return once certain criteria are met. If you wish to assist, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.





Trinkets, Items, & Props

Or, you know, products! After all, what is an Ultima game without trinkets?



Richard Garriott de Cayeux as Lord British from Ultima VI 
Pixel Art ©Electronic Arts, Inc.

In 2015, whilst discussing strategies for starting
The Hearth of Britannia Patreon,


Lord British


said to Rustic Dragon...


"The Hearth of Britannia has already established a reputation of high quality for creating
trinkets and deliverables."


Over the years, The Hearth of Britannia has designed and brought to life myriad Ultima trinkets, items, and props. Aligned with the Hearth's (and Origin's!) desire for immersive realism, many of these trinkets and props were not mere silly products with tangentially related content like logos or quotes (i.e. regular items). Instead, The Hearth of Britannia has striven to create trinkets and props that seem to come as directly from the game (i.e. they are as realistic) as possible. Some of the great trinkets, items, and props from the past include...

Over the past two years, The Hearth of Britannia has acquired several pieces of important equipment. This equipment enabled The Hearth not only to produce items in-house without a minimum order quantity, but also to directly control the quality of said items. This equipment will be leveraged moving forward both to create trinkets, items, and props for self-sustaining income for The Hearth and to reduce the number of external variables when designing and running major events.

With that preface, The Hearth of Britannia is pleased to announce the acquisition of the following specialized equipment for item creation: Loubet, Dracothraxus, Arbeth, and Pyros, much of which to be housed in Minoc.

Loubet, Dracothraxus, & Arbeth

What an odd trio, wouldn't thou think?

Loubet, named after the inimitable Denis Loubet of Ultima and Origin fame, is seen just left of center of the photo above. Loubet is an Epson SureColor P800 Inkjet Printer with an Optional Roll Media Adapter using dye sublimation ink. Loubet can print up to 17" x 129"!

Dracothraxus, named for the powerful dragon guarding the ether gem on the Isle of Fire in Ultima VII's add on, Forge of Virtue, is seen on the right side of the image above. Dracothraxus comprises two heat presses: one 16"x20" press for large items and a smaller, 12"x15" press with attachments for mugs and hats.

Arbeth, on the far left, is last but not least. Those of you in the know will remember Arbeth as the talented spinner who lived in Paws at the end of the Age of Enlightenment. He was famous for his ability to spin spider silk into thread for the completion of the lighter-than-air device. Arbeth now works for The Hearth of Britannia in the form of a Brother 1034D Serger. Arbeth allows beautiful finished edges to be put on cloth maps.

With their powers combined, Loubet, Dracothraxus, and Arbeth allow the production of the following products:

  • Bespoke cloth maps up to 16" x 20" with finished edges and no minimum quantities
  • Mugs of different sizes
  • Mouse pads up to 16"x20"
  • And many more secret items yet to be revealed!
  • Stone & glass tiles with full color, permanent artwork
  • Shirts & hats with no minimum order
  • Coasters
Pyros

A real titan of industry.

Pyros is named after the Titan of Fire Ultima VIII. He is a G.Weike L1390N Laser Cutter with an upgraded 150W CO2 laser, which is more than three times more powerful than a Glowforge Pro. He weighs 350kg (772 lbs.) and measures 1,820mm L x 1,310mm W x 1,070mm H (72" x 52" x 42")! He has an effective cutting area of 1,300mm x 900mm (51" x 36", more than double the Glowforge in length and more than triple in width!). He can cut and etch up to 30mm thick acrylic, 20mm thick wood, and 12mm thick MDF as well as almost any softer material such as paper, leather, and textiles. Pyros is used to produce the following products:

  • Cutting Boards
  • Journal/Spellbook Covers
  • Dice Towers
  • Coasters
  • Cookie Cutters
  • And many more secret items yet to be revealed!
  • Christmas Ornaments
  • Wooden Spoons
  • Trivets
  • Leather Pen/Tool Tools
  • Keychains
Minoc

A central place for tinkering.

As I live in a shoebox of an apartment, it is damned near impossible for me to to work on anything without shuffling everything out of the way to make space. To solve this, I have secured Minoc.

Minoc is a two car garage that serves the fourfold purpose of acting as a workshop for wood and leather craft, housing Pyros' six foot booty (as he simply will not fit through any normal sized doors), storing my extra stuff so I can actually leverage my apartment to create the previously mentioned dye sublimation products and ship items as they are ordered, and housing my car, Mandrake.


If you wish to vote on which products are created next, receive a discount, or requisition custom work with the above tools, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.





HoBLARP

Expanding and formalizing the HoBLotH ruleset so the world can play Ultima together in real life.



Hearth of Britannia HoBLARP Sigil Logo
Projected to launch in Spring 2024
(or earlier if certain criteria are met)

The Hearth of Britannia Live Action Role-Play system (HoBLARP), is based on the legendary HoBLotH events, the largest and most realistic Ultima LARP events in history. HoBLARP will formalize the HoBLotH rules into a complete system allowing players all over the world to form their own local chapters where they may learn, adventure, and quest together. The goals for HoBLARP are:

  • To formalize the HoBLotH "LARP light" rules
  • To allow the formation of local chapters and regional areas
  • To create a mobile app for GMs
  • To build a robust website for players to store and share their characters
  • To form a 501c3 non-profit membership organization
  • And many more secret goals that are too exciting to reveal now!
All HoBLARP information will eventually be hosted at
www.hoblarp.org

To both influence the direction and increase the speed of development of HoBLARP, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.





Secret Project(s)

There is always something exciting brewing in Rustic's head that he isn't ready to reveal quite just yet.



A secret project!

There is a list of project ideas that is so long that Rustic is confident that, short of winning the lottery and hiring a staff full time just to bring them to life, there is no way they will all come to fruition within his lifetime. While this makes for near-constant distraction, occasionally one of these ideas catches hold and finds its way into the project queue.

Thus, do not be surprised if the occasional project appears seemingly randomly. There are always things going on behind the scenes that no one but Rustic knows about.





Accomplishments

While Humility is a Virtue, modern marketing requires empirical evidence of competence.



The Royal Warrant of Lord British

The Hearth of Britannia has been a Royal Warrant holder since November 2014 when it was awarded to Rustic Dragon during the closing ceremonies of HoBLotH II. Since that time, The Hearth of Britannia has striven uphold the precedent of quality established since its official founding in early 2013. Since then, The Hearth has populated an impressive list of accomplishments.

The Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter Celebration

The very first official Hearth run event, the celebration was a live-streamed dinner party using authentic Hearth of Britannia recipes to celebrate the successful Kickstarting of Shroud of the Avatar. During the stream, The Hearth let viewers observe the kitchen activities, told viewer's fortunes Ultima VI style with potions, interviewed some of the Portalarium staff, and gave away generously donated prizes. This event came to be known as the first Hearth of Britannia Dragonsmeet and set the tone and demand for all future meets.

For more information, please visit the events page.

Dragonsmeets

Semi-weekly Google+ hangouts for fans of Ultima, Shroud of the Avatar, Origin Systems, and Lord British games. Twenty-four Dragonsmeets occurred before logistical considerations put them on hiatus in 2014 with a brief return of nine meets in 2017. There are presently no plans to restart Dragonsmeets, however, they may return if certain criteria are met.

For more information, please visit the Dragonsmeets page.

The Hearth of Britannia Telethon of the Avatar (HoBTotA)

This is the event that arguably put The Hearth of Britannia on the community's radar. The HoBTotA was the world's first entirely fan-run fundraiser for a high-budget commercial video game. Despite not reaching the audacious goal of raising $1,000,000 in a single day, with sponsorship from Unity and the help of many folks in the community at-large, this 24 hour live-streamed event raised $12,999 in a single day for Shroud of the Avatar. This live-streamed event included interviews, competitions, prize drawings, musical performances, discussions, and much more. A custom set of Ultima themed Virtue Cards and "Legends of Ultima" Cards were created as rewards for this event.

For more information, please visit the events page.

Shroud of the Avatar Lords of the Manor Dinner

One of the rewards for Lords of the Manor, the highest pledge level Kickstarter backers for Shroud of the Avatar, is to attend an event at Britannia Manor IV in NYC with Lord British. The Hearth of Britannia was asked to prepare a special meal for the very first of these events.

For more information, please visit the events page.

Hearth of Britannia Lords of the Hearth (HoBLotH)

A month after NYC, The Hearth of Britannia opened its doors for a weekend long semi-LARP event in Indianapolis, IN that served the same meal that was designed for the Lords of the Manor event described above. For this event, one did not have to be a $10,000 backer of Shroud of the Avatar, one simply had to make it to Indianapolis (wearing appropriate garb, of course). The food was copious, the libations were flowing, the boffers were boffering, and a grand time was had by all. Special guests included Tracy Hickman (in person) and Lord British and other Portalarium staff via Google+ Hangouts.

For more information, please visit the events page.

Hearth of Britannia Legends of the Hearth (HoBLotH II)

Clocking in at over 200 prep hours, this event was the largest, most complex, and possibly only Ultima LARP event in history (until HoBLotH III, of course). With a budget of over $12,000, The Hearth of Britannia put on a weekend long quest for 40 attendees with a star studded NPC cast of over 20 former Origin staff members. Attendees were tasked with attaining Avatarhood through mastery of the Eight Virtues (or through the eight Alternate Virtues of Mandrake!) Questers spent the fully0catered weekend engaged in intellectual puzzles, dances, feasts, battles, rabbles, and even a concert by the The Spacebards (a.k.a. Recap). A double-sided cloth map, debossed coin bag, laser engraved ankh, and custom journal were created for this event.

For more information, please visit the events page.

Hearth of Britannia Lifeblood of the Hearth (HoBLotH III)

Taking the lessons learned from HoBLotH II and embracing the magic of delegation, The Hearth of Britannia returned to Austin, TX in 2016 to put on an even larger event with the same budget as the previous incarnation. This time lasting five days and hosting a whopping 80+ players and NPC's, The Hearth of Britannia put the power of quest creation in the hands of the players creating the largest, most immersive, and engaging Ultima (and SotA!) LARP experience to date. Similar to HoBLotH II, a unique double-sided cloth map, debossed coin bag, special trinket, and custom journals were created.

For more information, please visit the events page.

If you wish to sponsor future additions to this list of accomplishments, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.





Proprietor

The man behind The Hearth of Britannia.



Sir Edward Vitralis, ONBE, also known as Rustic Dragon in the UDIC, and formerly known as Joseph Toschlog, is the proprietor and driving creative force behind The Hearth of Britannia. He has been running over-the-top events since 2004 and enthusiastically exploring cooking since 1997. Rustic is a former community manager and web developer at Portalarium and Order of the New Britannia Empire (ONBE) holder since November 2016. He holds a Bachelor of Science in computer graphics from Purdue University with minors in art & design, computer science, and English and a completed minor in theatre from Ball State University.

To learn more about Rustic Dragons's qualifications and to see work unrelated to The Hearth of Britannia, please visit his website.


Richard Garriott de Cayeux as Lord British from Ultima VI 
Pixel Art ©Electronic Arts, Inc.

"...a person I would call
the ultimate Ultima fan,
a man named Joseph Toschlog."

Explore/Create: My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark, Page 89
by Richard Garriott de Cayeux


Rustic Dragon currently spends his days working as a Lead User Experience Designer in Chicago, IL and his evenings and weekends working on The Hearth of Britannia. However, it is Rustic's dream to one day work on The Hearth of Britannia full time. To learn more about this dream and the benefits of going full time, please read the Chronicle of Resurrection.

To help Rustic achieve his dream of working on The Hearth of Britannia and nothing else, please consider becoming a Patron of the Hearth.



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