Virtues

The Ultima Virtues

The Virtues are part of the moral system of Ultima Online, along with the philosophy of Chaos.

There are 7 Virtues: Humility, Sacrifice, Honor, Compassion, Valor, Honesty, Spirituality, and Justice. Each Virtue is associated with a Sin that is its opposite. Each Virtue also has a mantra, which helps to focus concentration on the Virtue during mediation, especially at the Shrines.

Each of the 7 Virtues are derived from 1 or more of the 3 Principles: Truth, Love, and Courage.

Each principle is embodied by an item: The Book of Truth, The Candle of Love, and the Bell of Courage.

All 3 have been seen, or in some way dealt with, at some point within the history of UO. The Bell of Courage was broken and then repaired through use of Blackrock. The Candle of Love is located under the winery in Yew. The Cavern of the Candle of Love is currently closed off, but blessed candles lit by the Candle of Love are owned by some players and can sometimes be seen. The Book of Love is located in a chamber under the Lycaeum, and can be seen by players.

Here is a popularly used chart that states the mantra of each Virtue, its associated Sin, and the Principles from which it is derived, along with other information (for example, one will need to know the associated color of Humility to accomplish the Cloak of Humility quest).

Virtue	Principles	Towns associated	Mantra	Dungeon/Sin	Color	Symbol	Word of Power
Honesty	Pure Truth	Moonglow	Ahm	Deceit	Blue	Open hand	Fallax
Compassion	Pure Love	Britain	Mu	Despise	Yellow	Heart	Vilis
Valor	Pure Courage	Jhelom	Ra	Destard	Red	Sword	Inopia
Justice	Truth, Love	Yew	Beh	Wrong	Green	Scales	Malum
Sacrifice	Love, Courage	Minoc	Cah	Covetous	Orange	Tear	Avidus
Honor	Truth, Courage	Trinsic	Summ	Shame	Purple	Chalice	Infama
Spirituality	Truth, Love, and Courage	Skara Brae	Om	Hythloth	White	Ankh	Ignavus
Humility	Truth, Love, and Courage independently	New Magincia	Lum	Doom or Hythloth	Black	Shepherd staff	Veramocor

The mantras are occasionally used in UO. The "Words of Power" have not yet been used. The Virtues in Ultima lore were also associated with certain professions, but those seem less important in UO's more flexible system, and thus have been omitted from the chart.

The Embodiment of the Virtues in the game is the Avatar. In the single-player Ultima games, the Avatar was the character being played. In UO, the Avatar is basically a mythical "Christ figure" who is referred to but is not seen. He was the "stranger" who slew Mondain.

The relationship between the Principles and Virtues is sometimes explained this way:

Honesty is respect for Truth ("that which, when you possess it, means all may rely on your every word");
Compassion is Love of others ("the quality that compels one to share the journeys of others");
Valor is Courage to stand up against risks ("that which answers when great deeds are called for" and "the cloak that protects the other virtues");
Justice is Truth, tempered by Love ("that which should be the same for nobles and serfs alike");
Sacrifice is Courage to give oneself in name of Love ("that which is loath to place the self above all else");
Honor is Courage to seek and uphold the Truth ("that which shirks no duty");
Spirituality is to seek Truth, Love and Courage from one's own self and the world around ("that which, in knowing the self, knows all");
Humility is the opposite of Pride - the absence of Truth, Love or Courage ("That which serfs are born with, but nobles must strive to attain").

Humility was described in the single-player games as the foundation of the Virtues. Without it, the other Virtues will of necessity fall into Pride, and become meaningless. The demon attacks on the city of Magincia during the fall of 2007, based on events in the single player games, were a form of punishment for the city's Pride. For another example of the importance of Humility as expressed within UO, see the article on the Shield of Recognition.

The "Virtue System" in UO

Also, the "Virtue System" refers to an in-game system wherein players can perform certain actions based on or related to the Virtues, and achieve certain in-game powers.

The system is accessed from the character's paper doll, in the 2d client by double-clicking the symbol above the character's head, at the top of the paper doll.

For more on how to access the Virtue system in the Kingdom Reborn client, see Virtues Menu.

Humility: A Shepherd’s Crook (not active at the time of writing)

Sacrifice: A Teardrop (achieved by sacrificing Fame, enables the character to resurrect him- or herself)

Honor: A Chalice (achieved by honoring monsters, enables the character to walk amidst monsters without being attacked, for a brief period of time)

Compassion: A Heart (achieved by doing NPC escort quests, enables the character to resurrect other characters with up to full health, depending on the level of Compassion)

Valor: A Sword (achieved by fighting monsters at champion spawns, enables the character to activate and advance champion spawns)

Honesty: An Open-Palmed Hand (not active at the time of writing)

Spirituality: An Ankh (not active at the time of writing)

Justice: A Set of Scales (achieved by killing player killers, also known as reds, enables the character to receive power scrolls based on the actions of other, designated characters at champion spawns

Note: Reds / PKs Are unable to use the Virtues

See: Virtue Quests for info regarding the Virtue quests which were added in Publish 38

Virtues

The Ultima Virtues

The "Virtue System" in UO

Also see: