Ultima Online: Age of Shadows Concept Posters

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 in-game mockups) of things added to Ultima Online in the Age of Shadows expansion:

Paladin and Necromancer

The Necromancer (Detail)

The Paladin (Detail)

Player Housing

New Enemies

As noted on the Codex of Ultima Wisdom, Age of Shadows was “the fifth expansion for the popular MMORPG Ultima Online. It was released on February 28, 2003 and was the last title by developer Origin Systems.

“Age of Shadows introduced a new landmass to the game called Malas. Malas was designed to appear as a broken continent, with various islands and pieces of land separated from each other and connected only with bridges. The pieces of land were surrounded by stars, suggesting that Malas floats somewhere in space above the rest of the Ultima Online worlds.

The main purpose of Malas was to provide more land for player housing. Players had complained that limited open land was causing an unreasonable amount of price inflation in the community, and restricting younger players from owning houses until they had played for many months. The greatly increased land that Malas provided helped to lower the cost of housing, and gave more players the opportunity to own a home.”

The Age of Shadows expansion also added two new character classes to the game, the virtuous Paladin and the malevolent Necromancer.