Iolo

A character who appears in most of the Ultima series of CRPGs. Iolo is a bard and a close friend of the Avatar. He is an expert with the crossbow and prefers light armor, such as leather. He accompanied the Avatar on many quests. Additionally, in Ultima 6, Iolo is the portal to Iolo's cheat menu. He married Gwenno and has a small house in Spiritwood. Or was it Deep Forest? I forget. Anyway, he also had the famous horse, Smith. I think... what, you don't know of the famous horse, Smith? Try Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny.

Like most of the major characters in Richard Garriott's Ultima series, Iolo is based on a friend of Garriott. In this case, Iolo the bard is based on Ultima music composer David Watson. Watson is responsible for the "Stones" tune in Ultima V as well as tunes for Ultima VI and VII. "Stones" became the Ultima Online theme song.

Garriott met Watson when they were both members of the SCA. In the SCA, Watson used the pseudonym "Iolo Fitzowen". Like his computerized version, Watson is also a crossbowman and owns his own crossbow manufacturing company, New World Arbalest. In conjunction with his business, he wrote a book about the history of crossbows called Iolo's First Book of Crossbows (1997).

The Iolo character has been with the Ultima series since the beginning...all the way back to Ultima I.

Watson's wife also turns up in many Ultima games as the character Gwenno.