What the Hell's going on? (Short version please.)
An ancient evil, a demon lord named Virtuebane (also called Virtue Bane or VirtueBane) is attempting to take over our realm. The forces of Queen Dawn and its allies take up defensive positions outside of an invaded city, to contain the enemy. If you wish to be a good guy, proceed into the cities and engage the Bane Chosen and the Virtuebane Guards. If you wish to be a bad guy, find the good guys on the outside of the cities and attack them.
Who are these “Bane Chosen?”
Humans who follow Virtuebane. They ride fearsome dragons from the Abyss, which eat a stew made from blackrock. They wear fearsome dragon helms. They first appeared to be a group of racist “human supremacists,” seeking to attack and slay or enslave the “uncivilized races” (everybody but humanity).
Cleverly, the Bane Chosen first attacked a fellow evil: The Ophidians. To get us to attack Ophidians was easy; the Ophidians are a known evil, they invaded our cities just a few short years back; and they have harassed the people of Papua for years. But after that they showed their true colors by camping at the Spirituality Shrine in Ilshenar and encouraging us to attack the Meer, known allies of Britannia and good-aligned creatures. Then, they occupied Magincia Island and have built their foul lord an altar over what used to be the Magincia Moongate. Over that altar there sits a different moongate which, it appears, has been used by Virtuebane to enter our world physically. Now, they are invading the cities, one at a time (one every other day), in an attempt to take us over. Now they are also holding hostage Queen Dawn's husband, the good-hearted, hapless Ors.
Wait, didn't I read Queen Dawn commanded the Bane Chosen?
Few things could be clearer than that Queen Dawn is NOT behind the Bane Chosen.
So who or what is Virtuebane (or VirtueBane or VirtueBane), exactly?
He is an ancient demon lord, whose ambitions are pretty much spelled out in his name. He wishes to undo virtue. Attracted by Pride and encouraged by ruin, he appears to have been behind the long-ago destruction of the great City of Magincia. (The Shadowlords, originally thought to be behind that attack, now appear to have not been behind the attacks, just piggy-backing on them in an attempt to get into our world.)
His more specific and immediate ambitions appear to be three-fold. Firstly, he wishes to prevent Queen Dawn from rebuilding Magincia. Secondly, he wishes to subjugate, slaughter, enslave, and do all the nasty things that demon lords wish to do. Thirdly, he wishes to acquire the Crystal of Duplicity, an ancient artifact of Britannia, which was used to create Trammel, and which Queen Dawn thought could help undo the demonic magic that prevented rebuilding in Magincia. He attacked the City of Britain to get it (remember that “Blackrock Elemental” attack where the reward was the replica of a mysterious crystal display)? But it's pretty clear that he does not have it, and is still looking.
There is a new graphic in the game for Virtuebane, but to my knowledge he's only been seen in-game on the Great Lakes shard.
Why don't the Bane Chosen attack me if they are evil?
They are very clever, and will only attack those who have negative loyalty to them. You get negative loyalty to them by attacking and killing them. By this they appear to be attempting to trick us into believing that they are less evil than they clearly are.
From a game mechanics perspective, this also allows the players to pick a side easier. If the Chosen attacked everyone, most people would fight them regardless.
What are the rewards for participating in this event?
There have been various rewards for participation at the various levels of this event.
The pattern, though, is pretty clear. At the outset, the Bane Chosen offered superior rewards, but as the event has progressed the good side's rewards have finally caught up.
I will not list all of the rewards for past phases here, but for the current phase the rewards are thus.
For fighting on the evil side, there are sashes that have DCI and give you a peculiar effect on spells you cast: Lower damage at first, then an accumulated damage bonus.
For fighting on the good side, there are two rewards. On the Virtuebane Guards, there are Fey Slayer katanas called Defilers of Virtue. On the others of Virtuebane's armies, there are crystals which, when applied to a weapon, makes that weapon Brittle and gives it a new property called Rage Focus. Rage Focus causes a weapon to do lesser damage at first, then an accumulated damage bonus. In my tests, Rage Focus, if you are lucky, will easily cause a non-slayer weapon to do slayer level damage. If you are not lucky, it makes you do LESS damage after all.
All rewards at this stage are found on the corpses of slain creatures.
Why do other evils, such as Minax and Exodus, appear to have played a role in events?
They appear to be red herrings, for the most part. Minax, we know, played a role earlier on, when a low-level underling of hers offered rewards in the Treasures of Ricardo quest. So we know she's still around someplace but she at first blush appears to have no immediate role beyond that. She is Minax, though, and could easily show up for any reason at any time.
Is there a purpose to having loyalty beyond the amount used to acquire various rewards?
Not that's been revealed yet. Anything's possible. Chance and the dev team decide.
Some of the previous phases, though, have had rewards based around loyalty rating.
How do I participate?
Say "news" to town cryers, if a city's being invaded they will tell you. Otherwise they will just cycle through the cities that have already been invaded and give the city by city results of the fighting. Once you hear of a city being invaded, go to it and choose your side by killing stuff on the other side.
On some shards (Great Lakes in particular) the Event Moderators hold events to round out the storyline and fill in the gaps.
Also watch UO.com.
Why do I want to participate?
That's up to you. You might want the rewards, you might feel you or your character have an interest in one side or the other winning. Or you might just be bored and happen to hear of an invasion going on.
Sorry if I got anything wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me if I did. And I'm sure I left stuff out. Frankly this has already taken about 20 minutes to write and I want to move onto something else. So now I'm clicking "submit" without so much as final proofread.
-Galen's player
An ancient evil, a demon lord named Virtuebane (also called Virtue Bane or VirtueBane) is attempting to take over our realm. The forces of Queen Dawn and its allies take up defensive positions outside of an invaded city, to contain the enemy. If you wish to be a good guy, proceed into the cities and engage the Bane Chosen and the Virtuebane Guards. If you wish to be a bad guy, find the good guys on the outside of the cities and attack them.
Who are these “Bane Chosen?”
Humans who follow Virtuebane. They ride fearsome dragons from the Abyss, which eat a stew made from blackrock. They wear fearsome dragon helms. They first appeared to be a group of racist “human supremacists,” seeking to attack and slay or enslave the “uncivilized races” (everybody but humanity).
Cleverly, the Bane Chosen first attacked a fellow evil: The Ophidians. To get us to attack Ophidians was easy; the Ophidians are a known evil, they invaded our cities just a few short years back; and they have harassed the people of Papua for years. But after that they showed their true colors by camping at the Spirituality Shrine in Ilshenar and encouraging us to attack the Meer, known allies of Britannia and good-aligned creatures. Then, they occupied Magincia Island and have built their foul lord an altar over what used to be the Magincia Moongate. Over that altar there sits a different moongate which, it appears, has been used by Virtuebane to enter our world physically. Now, they are invading the cities, one at a time (one every other day), in an attempt to take us over. Now they are also holding hostage Queen Dawn's husband, the good-hearted, hapless Ors.
Wait, didn't I read Queen Dawn commanded the Bane Chosen?
Few things could be clearer than that Queen Dawn is NOT behind the Bane Chosen.
So who or what is Virtuebane (or VirtueBane or VirtueBane), exactly?
He is an ancient demon lord, whose ambitions are pretty much spelled out in his name. He wishes to undo virtue. Attracted by Pride and encouraged by ruin, he appears to have been behind the long-ago destruction of the great City of Magincia. (The Shadowlords, originally thought to be behind that attack, now appear to have not been behind the attacks, just piggy-backing on them in an attempt to get into our world.)
His more specific and immediate ambitions appear to be three-fold. Firstly, he wishes to prevent Queen Dawn from rebuilding Magincia. Secondly, he wishes to subjugate, slaughter, enslave, and do all the nasty things that demon lords wish to do. Thirdly, he wishes to acquire the Crystal of Duplicity, an ancient artifact of Britannia, which was used to create Trammel, and which Queen Dawn thought could help undo the demonic magic that prevented rebuilding in Magincia. He attacked the City of Britain to get it (remember that “Blackrock Elemental” attack where the reward was the replica of a mysterious crystal display)? But it's pretty clear that he does not have it, and is still looking.
There is a new graphic in the game for Virtuebane, but to my knowledge he's only been seen in-game on the Great Lakes shard.
Why don't the Bane Chosen attack me if they are evil?
They are very clever, and will only attack those who have negative loyalty to them. You get negative loyalty to them by attacking and killing them. By this they appear to be attempting to trick us into believing that they are less evil than they clearly are.
From a game mechanics perspective, this also allows the players to pick a side easier. If the Chosen attacked everyone, most people would fight them regardless.
What are the rewards for participating in this event?
There have been various rewards for participation at the various levels of this event.
The pattern, though, is pretty clear. At the outset, the Bane Chosen offered superior rewards, but as the event has progressed the good side's rewards have finally caught up.
I will not list all of the rewards for past phases here, but for the current phase the rewards are thus.
For fighting on the evil side, there are sashes that have DCI and give you a peculiar effect on spells you cast: Lower damage at first, then an accumulated damage bonus.
For fighting on the good side, there are two rewards. On the Virtuebane Guards, there are Fey Slayer katanas called Defilers of Virtue. On the others of Virtuebane's armies, there are crystals which, when applied to a weapon, makes that weapon Brittle and gives it a new property called Rage Focus. Rage Focus causes a weapon to do lesser damage at first, then an accumulated damage bonus. In my tests, Rage Focus, if you are lucky, will easily cause a non-slayer weapon to do slayer level damage. If you are not lucky, it makes you do LESS damage after all.
All rewards at this stage are found on the corpses of slain creatures.
Why do other evils, such as Minax and Exodus, appear to have played a role in events?
They appear to be red herrings, for the most part. Minax, we know, played a role earlier on, when a low-level underling of hers offered rewards in the Treasures of Ricardo quest. So we know she's still around someplace but she at first blush appears to have no immediate role beyond that. She is Minax, though, and could easily show up for any reason at any time.
Is there a purpose to having loyalty beyond the amount used to acquire various rewards?
Not that's been revealed yet. Anything's possible. Chance and the dev team decide.
Some of the previous phases, though, have had rewards based around loyalty rating.
How do I participate?
Say "news" to town cryers, if a city's being invaded they will tell you. Otherwise they will just cycle through the cities that have already been invaded and give the city by city results of the fighting. Once you hear of a city being invaded, go to it and choose your side by killing stuff on the other side.
On some shards (Great Lakes in particular) the Event Moderators hold events to round out the storyline and fill in the gaps.
Also watch UO.com.
Why do I want to participate?
That's up to you. You might want the rewards, you might feel you or your character have an interest in one side or the other winning. Or you might just be bored and happen to hear of an invasion going on.
Sorry if I got anything wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me if I did. And I'm sure I left stuff out. Frankly this has already taken about 20 minutes to write and I want to move onto something else. So now I'm clicking "submit" without so much as final proofread.
-Galen's player
