In the previous post I introduced Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar made by Richard Garriott, and the first four of the eight virtues in that game. I also talked about how those virtues shaped my view on morality.
Now, let’s dive into the last four virtues and a couple of other interesting things about the game!
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is Courage to give oneself in the name of Love
“To give thy last gold piece unto the needy shows good measure of self-sacrifice!”
“For thee to flee and leave thy companions is a self-serving action to be avoided!”
“To give of thy life’s blood so that others may live is a virtue of great praise!”
(Note that the actual virtue is about self-sacrifice, and not about something like ceremonial sacrifices.)
Sacrifice appears to be the most hardcore of the eight virtues. It’s not just about giving something – it’s about putting your life on the line or giving the very last of what you have.
There are three ways to increase your sacrifice in the game:
- Getting killed in combat
- Donating your last bit of money to beggars
- Donating blood (100 health points) at a Healer’s
The first choice (getting killed) is more of a nice addition, rather than something you should be actively doing. (Also, it gives you very little sacrifice.)
Donating blood in the game means visiting a healer and then giving up 100 health points (not permanently, though). The healer will ask for you to donate blood even if you don’t ask about it yourself, as long as you have over 400 health points at the moment. Refusing means losing a bit of sacrifice.
You also lose sacrifice by running away from combat with a character that has full health.
Sacrifice in real life
It takes courage to show compassion. However, it takes a lot more courage to show self-sacrifice.
Blood donation has always been a tough thing for me. I don’t know why, but my body thinks it’s a great idea to start passing out when blood is being drained from me. This has been a constant problem whenever I need to go and get my blood checked (which is usually once a year).
And so, thus far I’ve failed to muster the courage to even try donating blood…
My way of showing sacrifice has mostly been through work. Over the past 15 years there have been multiple times when my superior has required that somebody in the team switches to fill a new, specific role. Something that is usually quite different from what any of us were hired to do.
To make sure that my other teammates are able to continue doing their work, I’ve usually been the one to step up and fill those roles. And until just a few weeks ago, I was still filling such a role.
Honor
Honor is Courage to seek and uphold the Truth
“Take not the gold of others for this shall bring dishonor upon thee!”
“To strike first a non-evil being is by no means an honorable deed!”
“Seek ye to solve the many Quests before thee, and honor shall be a reward!”
Many texts in the game mention that honor is about holding your vow. For example, if you’re serving a local Lord and you’ve promised to protect him at all costs, then you must be prepared to even lie to the authorities about any misdeeds he may have done.
Thou art sworn to protect thy Lord at any cost, yet thou knowest he hast committed a crime. Authorities ask thee of the affair, dost thou:
- Silently keep thine oath (honor)
- Break thine oath by speaking (honesty)
In the above example, you’re made to consider whether to keep your oath (honor) or be truthful (honesty).
This is somewhat confusing, since honor is supposed to be about “Courage to uphold and seek the Truth.” But many of the examples make it seem like it’s more about the “Courage to stand behind your beliefs and promises, even when faced with evidence that those might be wrong.” Which one is it?!
Richard Garriott has also mentioned that the honor in Ultima series specifically represents “chivalric honor“: questing, following your lord’s orders, saving damsels in distress, upholding the peace etc.
In the game, honor is increased by the same methods as honesty and compassion (giving money to beggars, being honest to reagents sellers), and also lost the same way (stealing chests, attacking non-evil creatures, and lying to reagents sellers).
But the unique thing about honor is that you gain it by doing quests! (However, since the game was made in 1985, “doing quests” simply meant “finding an item related to becoming the Avatar.”)
Honor in real life
The concept of “honor” I’ve picked from Ultima IV is somewhat complicated, but I’ll try to explain how I’ve tried to implement it for myself.
There’s two main points that you have to combine.
First: Don’t be afraid to find out that something you thought was right is actually wrong. (Courage to seek and uphold the Truth.)
But also: Don’t let rumors and hearsay ruin your trust on something you have experience with. (Hold onto your vow, even if you haven’t specifically made one out loud.)
For example, let’s say you have someone that you’ve known for a long time. And you know from experience that this person is a good person. Now someone comes and reveals that the person in question has done something absolutely horrible in the past!
(Whether it’s posting slurs on the internet or actually beating somebody to death, I’ll let you decide what you consider as “absolutely horrible”.)
Honor shows me what I should do in these kinds of situations:
Don’t be afraid to mentally acknowledge that this may indeed be the case. This person might have done something unwise. In fact, they may even continue doing it to this day.
But at the same time:
Do not forget your personal experiences. You have proof that this person is capable of doing good. Don’t immediately just abandon them.
From thereon, you have a choice of trying to understand why this person did (or is doing) what they did. But don’t rush to “setting them straight”, because despite your current beliefs, you may actually learn that what they’re doing is logically sound. Approach the world and its problems with an open mind.
And the same goes, not just for people, but for information in general. Don’t just swallow new information you hear without scrutiny. But also, don’t completely write it off just because it doesn’t fit into your current worldview.
As for the “chivalric questing” side of honor, I view that mostly as “keep doing things” and “don’t take credit for what you didn’t do.”
Spirituality
Spirituality is to seek Truth, Love and Courage from one’s own self and the world around
“Seek ye to know thyself. Visit the seer often for he can see into thy inner being!”
“Meditation leads to enlightenment. Seek ye all Wisdom and Knowledge!”
You increase spirituality by meditating at shrines and visiting seer Hawkwind to check on how you’re progressing with the virtues.
The spirituality in Ultima IV isn’t tied to religion or gods, but the immaterial, inner growth and appreciation of life and the world around us.
You can only gain spirituality by meditating at shrines or talking to seer Hawkwind, and only lose it by using a wrong mantra at a shrine.
Spirituality in real life
There’s a simple but brilliant idea behind spirituality in the game: when you’re stuck, go meditate!
By visiting shrines and meditating at them you learn hints on how to increase your virtues.
But that’s how real life works as well! You need to pause and look within every now and then in order to make sure you’re going to the right direction.
It’s not an all-encompassing answer to every problem – more often than not you also need external knowledge to get past a problem.
(And that’s the other brilliant teaching in the game: when you’re stuck, talk to people! Even if that one isn’t exactly related to spirituality…)
So, meditation is often a great place to start when you’re stuck. If for nothing else, it can always help you mentally prepare for what you need to do:
- Who is it exactly that should you ask for advice?
- How do you approach them? (digital vs physical communication, through speech or text?)
- How should you frame your problem/questions?
- What should you do with that information?
- Mentally coaching yourself to take that first step.
Additionally, I have three ways I’ve tried to incorporate spirituality in my life:
Self-reflection/meditation. As I’ve opened up in an article about morning routines, I have a habit of doing some self-reflecting in the mornings. In addition to that, I also tend to take breaks and lie down when I get stuck, so that my brain gets to process the problems I need to solve.
Self-forgiveness is something I had to learn after two burnouts. Sometimes you just can’t, and that will have to do.
Self-understanding is something I was blessed with from childhood. So while I haven’t had to learn it for myself, I’ve tried to help others with it. Throughout my life I’ve seen people struggle with coming to terms with themselves – beating themselves over who they are or what they like. When I first saw LGBT pamphlets being spread around almost 25 years ago, I was confused. I already knew that it was natural for me to just… be me. I like the things I like, and didn’t feel like I had to come up with new terminology to describe myself or my preferences.
Humility
Humility is the opposite of Pride – the absence of Truth, Love or Courage
“Claim not to be that which thou art not. Humble actions speak well of thee!”
“Strive not to wield the Great Force of Evil for its power will overcome thee!”
Humility is an interesting virtue. How it’s described in the game, it doesn’t directly connect with any of the three principles (Truth, Love or Courage). If you remember the Symbol of Codex from the previous article, humility is the big black circle surrounding everything else:
So unlike all the other virtues (lines and the white circle in the middle in the symbol) the black ring of humility doesn’t touch any of the three principles (blue, yellow and red circles in the middle).
Instead of showing how humility connects to the three principles, the game teaches about it through its anti-virtue: pride (and the proud city of Magincia which was destroyed due to its lack of humility).
- Pride is a vice that is considered the antithesis of Truth, Love and Courage.
- The opposite of pride is humility.
- Unlike pride, humility is a virtue.
Even though humility is independent of the three principles, it is still essential to every virtue. Because without humility:
- Honesty turns to self-righteousness and arrogance.
- Compassion turns to saviour complex and condescension.
- Valor turns to recklessness, boasting and showing off.
- etc.
And so, while humility is not directly related to any of the principles, it lays a foundation upon which all other virtues rest on.
In Ultima IV, humility is only attained by speaking humbly to NPCs. And only lost when you speak boastfully.
Humility in real life
A problem I’ve personally had with humility, is that despite never considering much of myself, other people appear to see me as arrogant and self-centered.
And once people start thinking you’re arrogant, they stop trying to find the good in you.
All your actions from thereon will always seem like they’re made with self-centered intentions.
Without (outward) humility, anything you do will not seem virtuous.
Due to being persecuted like this myself, over time, I’ve learned to forgive lack of humility in others. Especially when a person has the skills or knowledge to match their words and claims.
But despite that, I agree with Ultima IV in that humility is the foundation of all virtues: if you are too proud or arrogant about your own skills and accomplishments, you will always undermine and restrict other people.
Some amount of humility is always required for a virtue to be a virtue.
And on the other end of the spectrum: if you’re too humble, people may never find out about your skills and abilities. That is not bad from a moral standpoint, but it will make you miss opportunities, not just selfish ones, but also ones where you could have been a great help to others.
The Virtue Questions
One last thing I want to mention, is how Ultima IV handles character creation.
Back in the eighties, your usual RPGs were based on Dungeons and Dragons and had you carefully crafting your character: coming up with a backstory, an outlook for your character, then rolling dice for a whole bunch of stats, choosing starting spells and skills, and so forth.
Richard Garriott decided to massively simplify all that for the Ultima games.
In Ultima IV you start by choosing your name and gender. Nothing else.
From there, you’re thrust into the intro sequence.
You stumble upon a medieval-themed carnival. And from there, into a mysterious gypsy wagon, where you get asked a bunch of questions.
Each question gives you an option as to which way you prefer to go:
A great thing about these questions from a teaching standpoint, is that they help you to understand that there are no right or wrong answers. There are only options, preferences, choices… do you prefer to handle this situation by means of compassion or honesty? Show honor by keeping your word or valor by speaking your mind?
Each question pits one virtue against another. And as you go through the questions, the choices you leave unchosen are put aside.
And in the end, only one virtue remains.
That virtue determines your character’s class. (Including character’s stats, the gear they can use, and starting position in the world.)
Troublesome questions
These “Virtue questions” are an interesting and immersive way to decide your character. But they’re not without flaws.
The questions themselves have some potential issues, as seen from the above example (delivering an uncounted purse and then meeting a beggar).
- Why would you give money to the beggar from the purse that was entrusted to you and not from your own pocket? (I guess we need to assume that we don’t have any money on us?)
- Who is it exactly that owns the purse? Somebody rich? Somebody poor?
- Who is it you’re taking the money to in the first place? Will they suffer if they don’t receive every single coin?
Also, I mentioned that there are no right or wrong answers. But you may easily look at the questions and think that some of them are plainly wrong: wouldn’t giving another person’s money to the beggar be undeniably theft?
Yes! …But only if you’re someone who considers that following current law is strictly just and true.
Over the centuries that humans have existed, there have been millions of variations of “laws” and “rules” – many of them contradicting each other from era to era and from culture to another. Which ones are correct? The world is a complex place.
These questions make you think.
The Quest of the Avatar is a quest of a lifetime
The biggest teaching of Ultima IV is reminded to you at the very end of the game:
Proving your virtue is not a one-time task.
The Quest of the Avatar is an endless quest of a lifetime.
Even if you’ve done bad things, you can always redeem yourself.
But also, you can always be corrupted and fall from grace. And if you do, be careful that you don’t stay that way.
And I love that Ultima IV does not just say that. It also shows it in its gameplay: when it comes to the virtues, you can never permanently fail. You can always pick yourself up and turn things around.
It takes work.
Lessons learned
Despite mastering the virtues in the game and becoming the Avatar, you shouldn’t expect me or any other player (or even Richard Garriott himself) to be an actual champion of virtues in the real life.
However, there are plenty of lessons I learned from the game and its sequels. Lessons that I’ve implemented in my beliefs in real life, as you can see from these two articles.
And I hope that by reading this, you’ve also gained some insight on how to improve as a person. And if not, at least had some thoughts.
Feel free to share them here. And thank you for reading.
