The Virtue System


Justice is part of a philosophy within Ultima Online known as the Virtues, and is one of eight pursuits within the Ultima Online Virtue System.

The Virtue of Justice has been described thusly:

�Justice is the truth of what is right and wrong in human action and the love of what is right.�


The Virtue of Justice
in Ultima Online

[Information obtained from official UO.com Website]

Justice is the devotion to truth, tempered by love.

Players will be able to pursue the Virtue of Justice by killing murderers (red-hued player-characters).

Virtuous Ability:

The reward for following the path of this Virtue is the ability to protect the innocent, and through such protection comes a greater benefit.

Whenever a character that you�re protecting receives a "scroll of power" as a reward for killing a Champion of Evil (the "boss monster" from a dynamic spawn area), you, as their protector, will also have a chance to receive an exact copy of that same scroll of power.

Each step gained in Justice will increase your chance of receiving a scroll in this manner.

  • First step: 60% chance
  • Second step: 80% chance
  • Third step: 100% chance
The benefits of Justice-based protection are only in effect while both characters are within the same non-consensual PvP ruleset area (like Felucca). You also must be on the same server as the character you are protecting in order to have the possibility of receiving a scroll of power. For example, no benefits are in effect if you�re in a dungeon server while the character you�re protecting is in the Lost Lands.

If you receive a scroll of power for protecting another character, you will see the following message:

"You have been rewarded for your dedication to Justice!"


Using the Special Ability:

You must have achieved at least the first step in Justice in order to be able to offer protection to another character. The character you wish to protect cannot be a criminal or murderer.

You can activate the Justice Virtue ability by double-clicking the Justice icon on the Virtue window, then targeting an innocent character.

You�ll only be able to offer your protection while the target innocent character is within a non-consensual Player-versus-player (PvP) ruleset area (i.e. the Felucca facet). However, moving into a consensual PvP ruleset area (i.e. the Trammel or Ilshenar facets) will not break the protection relationship.

Players that are offered protection will be given a special request notice:

"{Player-one} is offering you protection. Do you accept the offer from this pursuer of Justice?"

The innocent may decline protection by selecting "no" on the request window. If the innocent declines your offer of protection, then you may not request to protect any innocent again for at least 15 minutes.

If the target character is already protected or in a consensual PvP ruleset area, you will receive a system message stating:

"You cannot protect that innocent right now."

The target of the protection offer will not be disturbed in any way (they will not receive any message or window). This condition will not count against the player's 1 offer per 15-minute limit.

If you are inside your 1 offer per 15-minute limit, you will receive a message stating:

"You must wait a while before offering your protection again."

Although a character may protect any number of innocents, an innocent may only have one protector at any given time.


Ending the Protection Relationship:

At any time, a protected player may break the protection relationship by selecting a context menu option on their own character labeled "Cancel Protective Relationship."

Upon cancellation, both players that were in the protective relationship will receive the message:

"The protective relationship between {Player-one} and {Player-two} has been ended."

The protective relationship will also be broken should either character log out.


Gaining Justice:

In order to gain points in the Justice Virtue, you must seek out and defeat murderer characters (red-hued players). Whenever you kill such a character, you may receive the message: �You have gained in Justice.�

There is a limit on how often you can gain points in Justice. The more points you gain from killing a murderer, the longer you will have to wait until you can acquire more points in the virtue. The amount of Justice points you can gain is dependent on the skill of the murderer you kill. The higher in skill the murderer is (in comparison with your own skills), the more points you will be able to gain.


Virtuous Title:

Once you�ve achieved any number of Justice points, you are considered to have achieved a certain step on the path of Justice. By achieving each step, you are able to acquire a special virtue title that is displayed whenever you hover your cursor over the Justice symbol (the scales) in the virtue menu. The steps and titles available are as follows:
  • First step: Seeker of Justice
  • Second step: Follower of Justice
  • Third step: Knight of Justice
Justice points will wear off over time, which means you can lose your virtue title. In order to keep your title, you�ll need to continue to gain Justice points.