Ultima Online: Spirit of Virtue

Player race concepts

These images were taken by Withstand the Fury Dragon in February of 2013, at the behest of Paul Barnett at Mythic Entertainment. They showcase some concept art (and mockups) for a proposed overhaul of Ultima Online that Origin Systems evidently put together around the same time that the Age of Shadows expansion was under development.

Tentatively entitled Spirit of Virtue, this project would have likely done away with Ultima Online’s Classic Client. The basic idea behind Spirit of Virtue, as Ben “Bandit LOAF” Lesnick of Cloud Imperium Games explained to me, was to enhance Ultima Online with an Ultima 9-style game engine; whether this would then have taken advantage of the 3D capabilities of the Third Dawn client, or else would have migrated the game to a wholly new client, is unknown. Some of the screenshot mockups and concept art bear more than a passing similarity to Ultima X: Odyssey, as well.

As far as Ben is aware, Spirit of Virtue never made it beyond the conceptual/pre-production stage. Even so, it is a hitherto unknown chapter in the history of Ultima Online, and the Ultima Codex is indebted to Paul Barnett at the team at Mythic Entertainment for allowing it to be shared with the world.

Alternatively, Spirit of Virtue may have been an early name for Ultima X: Odyssey. That, at least, is what Chris “Binky” Launius speculates may have been the case. Meanwhile, Stephen Emond had this to say about the project in Ultima Online: The Ultimate Collector’s Guide: 2013 Edition: “Despite sharing some similar features to Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, Ultima X is not the “Project X” he had planned after Ultima IX. See the “Ultima Worlds” section for additional information. The game was also briefly referred to by UO players as “UO 2.0” although that turned out to be another project entirely (which was also cancelled). More persistent were the players who mistakenly referred to it as UOX. One alternate name that may have been used internally for the game early in its production was “Ultima Online III: The Spirit of Virtue“. In December 2003 two wallpapers bearing that logo were mistakenly released (and quickly removed).”

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5 Responses

  1. Many of the images do appear to be similar to the Ultima X: Odyssey concept art, so it is possible that they were either recycled or an evolution of the same project. Very interesting find.

  2. These are all concept art and screenshots for UXO aka Ultima X: Odyssey. UO: Spirit of Virtue was an early working title for the game.

  1. February 19, 2013

    […] Here are nearly thirty images I took at the behest of Paul Barnett at Mythic Entertainment, during my recent visit there. They showcase some concept art (and mockups) for a proposed overhaul of Ultima Online that Origin Systems evidently put together around the same time that the Age of Shadows expansion was under development. […]

  2. February 19, 2013

    […] This resulted in two separate additions to the Origin Gallery: a set of Ultima Online: Age of Shadows concept posters and the first images we’ve ever had of something called Ultima Online: Spirit of Virtue. […]

  3. February 22, 2021

    […] there…when I wasn’t chatting with Paul Barnett or Kate Flack, or taking pictures of Ultima Online and Ultima Forever development history. I also helped name a few items in the game, and stayed up […]

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