Ultima Online.AI — Britannia, Restored

The Shard Stands Open

— Genesis · Anno Origin MCMXCVIII —

Welcome, traveller, to Ultima Online.AI — a faithful reconstruction of Ultima Online: The Second Age as it stood on the morning of 2 June 1998, the day Origin Systems' production data was extracted and preserved.

The shard runs draxinar/ouo, a clean-room reverse engineering of the 1998 server compiled function-for-function from UoDemo.exe. The world data, NPC scripts, item resources, region map, and weather zones are Origin's production files, unaltered. The Halberd hits for 4d12. Mages drop reagents. Beggars roll 3d2 hit points. Town Guards have 100d1 notoriety — perfectly lawful, mathematically.

This is not a re-imagining. This is a recovery.

What Awaits Thee

— Extracted from the 1998 World Data —

The shard is not a sketch. Every figure below comes from Origin's production directory — counted, not guessed.

15 cities with their NPC dialogue scripts
49 skills with their original stat curves
72 NPC professions from bank/jobs
8 dungeons · Covetous, Deceit, Despise, Destard, Hythloth, Shame, Wrong, Ice
8 virtue shrines + Chaos Shrine
1,606 named regions with X,Y bounds
107 NPC dialogue scripts (.frg) by Origin's writers

1,635 wombat scripts — game logic from June 1998
216 weapon definitions with literal T2A damage dice
25 monster families × 5 size variants ≈ 125 creatures
65 spell + magic scripts · the full magery system
62 housing scripts · placement, decay, deeds
53 teleport scripts · 8 moongates + dungeon network
7 quest scripts · deliver / fetch / murder system

Establishments by their names: Empath Abbey · Bloody Bowman · Bloody Thumb Woodworks · Brothers in Arms · Plenty O' Dough · The Blue Boar Tavern · Sweet Dreams Inn · The Wayfarer's Inn · The Salty Dog · The Unicorn's Horn · The Cat's Lair · Ethral Goods Magic Shop · Bank of Britannia · Britain Public Library · Britain Sewer · Silver Serpent Bows · The Broken Arrow Inn · The Dog and Lion Pub · Fisherman's Brew · Tinker of the Isle · Britannian Herbs.

Economy

— Gold · Trade · The Eight Reagents —

How to make gold. Britannia's economy is built on hunting, crafting, and trade. There is no item shop. Every gold coin in thy purse is something thou hast taken or made.

Hunt monsters — every creature drops gold per their template (small spawns 5–30 gp, dungeon mid-tier 50–200 gp, daemons & dragons 1000+ gp)
Loot corpses — mages drop reagents, paladins drop arms, brigands drop stolen goods. Tracked per-NPC by a cumulative loot counter
Sell to vendors — every shopkeeper buys his guild's goods. Stock counters reset every 200 ticks (~3 minutes)
Treasure maps — dig at the X, kill the guardians, claim the chest. Driven by treasurecomp.m and the trapped-chest scripts
Crafting — fletcher · smith · alchemist · scribe · tinker · carpenter · cook · tailor · grapevine · flourmill
Quests — NPCs ask for delivery, fetch, or murder. 7 quest scripts

Banks & banker NPCs. Every city has a banker. Speak the keyword bank to open thy box; balance to check thy gold; withdraw N to draw funds. When buying from any vendor, gold is auto-deducted from thy bank — thou shalt hear The total of thy purchase is N gold, which has been drawn from your bank account. My thanks for the patronage. If overdrawn: Begging thy pardon, but thy bank account lacks these funds.

Vendor markup. Vendors price by item resource ratio (Vendor_GetMarkupPercent). Buying is dearer than selling — that's the merchant's profit, the same model Origin shipped in 1998. Stock has a max per item type; once depleted thou must wait the restock counter.

The Eight Reagents of Magery

All spell-casting requires reagents. Buy from any alchemist or mage shop. Loot from dead mages. Find on Mandrake Root and Nightshade plants in the wild.

Reagent	Found in spells like
Black Pearl	Magic Arrow · Lightning · Flame Strike · Energy Bolt
Blood Moss	Bless · Curse · Magic Reflection · Recall · Gate Travel
Garlic	Cure · Arch Cure · Heal · Greater Heal · Recall
Ginseng	Heal · Greater Heal · Mass Curse · Wall of Stone
Mandrake Root	Mass Curse · Earthquake · Polymorph · Energy Vortex
Nightshade	Poison · Magic Trap · Mass Curse · Mind Blast
Spider's Silk	Bless · Magic Lock · Wall of Stone · Energy Field
Sulfurous Ash	Magic Arrow · Fireball · Explosion · Flame Strike

Geography

— The Eight Moongates · 1,606 Named Regions —

Eight Justice-virtue moongates connect Britannia. The phase of the moon dictates which gate opens to which destination. Coordinates below are the literal world tiles from uogolddemo/regions.txt.

Gate	Coords (X, Y)	Region
Yew	761, 741	forest west · Empath Abbey nearby
Britain	1330, 1991	capital · Lord British's Castle
Skara Brae	638, 2062	island west · the ranger town
Trinsic	1823, 2943	south · paladin city
Jhelom	1494, 3767	island south · fighter town
Minoc	2694, 685	north mountains · the miners
Magincia	3554, 2132	island east · merchants
Moonglow	4480, 1056	island far east · mages

Per-city density from the region table: Britain 136 · Jhelom 74 · Moonglow 71 · Vesper 60 · Skara Brae 55 · Trinsic 52 · Minoc 47 · Yew 45 · Nujel'm 43 · Wind 42 · Magincia 32 · Serpent's Hold 25 · Buccaneer's Den 22 · Papua 20 (Lost Lands) · Cove 19 · Delucia 13 (Lost Lands).

The Eight Virtues

— The Moral Spine of Britannia —

Each virtue has a shrine in Britannia. The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom binds them all. Thy character's standing in the eight virtues shapes how NPCs respond — the three-attitude system (Wicked · Neutral · Goodhearted) that the dialogue scripts branch on.

Virtue	Companion principle
Compassion	Love
Honesty	Truth
Honor	Truth · Courage
Humility	none — the absence of pride
Justice	Truth · Love
Sacrifice	Love · Courage
Spirituality	Truth · Love · Courage (all three)
Valor	Courage
Chaos	the opposing principle · Chaos Shrine

The Bestiary

— Spawn Density · Creature × Region —

Every creature spawns at the rate Origin Systems calibrated. The numbers below are the literal weights from bank/dungn and bank/near.

Creature	HP	Dungn	Forest	Mtn	Swamp	Cmty
Sewer Rat	2d5+9	20	—	—	—	—
Giant Rat	3d15+19	10	—	—	—	—
Headless	1d25+25	6	10	8	—	—
Mongbat	1d25+55	5	10	—	—	—
Skeleton	1d25+55	6	10	—	—	—
Zombie	—	6	—	—	—	5
Ghost	1d25+75	—	18	—	—	5
Lizardman	1d25+85	3	8	—	1	—
Giant Spider	1d25+75	8	—	—	—	—
Earth Elemental	1d30+125	3	3	—	—	—
Gargoyle	1d30+145	—	9	—	—	—
Daemon	—	5	—	—	—	—

25 monster families, each with 5 size variants from SMALL → LARGE + 2 boss tiers: Corpser · Daemon · Dragon · Ettin · Gargoyle · Gazer · Ghost · Giant Spider · Giant Rat · Giant Scorpion · Harpy · Headless · Lich · Lizardman · Mongbat · Ogre · Orc · Ratman · Reaper · Sea Serpent · Skeleton · Slime · Troll · Wisp · Zombie. Plus Air, Fire, and Earth Elementals.

Voices of Britannia

— Dialogue by Origin · 1996—1998 —

NPCs speak from convo/*.frg scripts authored by Origin's writers. The three-attitude system — Wicked, Neutral, Goodhearted — is in the data: same NPC, same question, three responses depending on thy moral standing.

The Innkeeper

— by Raph · Raph Koster, lead designer of Ultima Online

I am an innkeeper, $milord/milady$. Ah! Thou doth speak of Empath Abbey! I'm fairly sure that it can be found just outside of Yew.

The Mage · On Relvinian

— by Andrew Morris · revised 16 March 1996

Relvinian was a mage driven mad by the Daemons he attempted to control. He became so afraid that others were attempting to steal his research that he fled Britain and drew upon his powers to create a magical maze pulled from all areas of the world to protect himself from watchful eyes.

The Brigand · By Attitude

— by cwm · 34 files attributed

WickedNone of thy business.I do THIS! [Attack]

NeutralI'm sort of like a porter. I lighten the burdens of rich travelers.

GoodheartedI do what I must to get by, just as we all do.

The Pirate

— by cwm

I've sailed with the best captains on the sea! 'Course, they're all dead, now.

ORIGIN'S WRITING ROOM: cwm · Dab · MMT · Raph Koster · Andrew Morris · Kristen Koster · JLS — across ~107 dialogue scripts. The Kosters worked together at Origin Systems on Britannia's NPC voice.

By the Numbers

— The Math Beneath Britannia —

Britannia is, underneath the romance, a system of dice rolls. The values below are the literal templates from Origin's June 1998 production data.

Entity	STR	HP	Note
Common Citizen	1d25+75	1d25+75	Hardy townfolk · 76–100 HP at spawn
Beggar	1d4	3d2	3–6 HP. Frail. Don't fight, run.
Sewer Rat	2d5+9	2d5+9	11–19 HP. Newbie quarry.
Earth Elemental	1d30+125	1d30+125	126–155 HP + mana. Bring company.
Gargoyle	1d30+145	1d30+145	Higher than EE. Real threat.
Town Guard	—	—	Notoriety 100d1 · always 100, mathematically perfect lawful. Why thou cannot fight them.

HP regeneration: hpRegenTimer = 100 + (hungerCapacity − stomach) × 10. Translation: well-fed regenerates faster, hungry slower. Real food matters.

A Dispatch from Origin · 2 June 1998

— Found Within the World Data —

Inside rundir/update.txt — the patch-notes file shipped with Origin's production server data. Reproduced unaltered:

We are ready to continue the implementation of the Reputation System.

Today is the second phase of the process, which is publishing to a single server. We will be updating the Great Lakes Shard at 2:00 CST today. We will be monitoring this server closely throughout the day.

If everything runs normally, we will continue to the third phase of the process on Thursday by updating the remaining public servers. — Origin Systems internal notes, 2 June 1998. The same file is read by ouo at boot in 2026.