Faction System

The good relations between Minax's supporters and Lord British's followers broke down when Minax seized Lord British's kingdom. In time, both sides split into two separate groups because of their differing ideals, and war broke out among all four.

The rebellion began in Moonglow, when the council of mages decided that Lord British was no longer fit to rule the lands of Britannia. Not only had he failed to protect his own lands from the rebels, but many of his own followers had abandoned him, chosen the dark side and joined the evil groups.

Those who stayed loyal to British tried to silence the rumours in Moonglow quickly, but everyone who died in those events, or was imprisoned and tortured, became one more person serving the mages' cause.

The result of all this was the emergence of 4 different groups.

The Faction system on the Felucca map represents these hostile groups, and it is a system built around capturing, running and defending cities.



Minax : The faction stone is behind the entrance to Destard dungeon. The stone keep inside the mountain is this group's base.







Council of Mages : The faction stone is southeast of the city of Magincia. The Magincia Parliament Building is this group's base.







Shadow Lords : The faction stone is east of the Yew moongate. The graveyard in Yew forest is this group's base.







True Britannians : The faction stone is in Lord British's castle in the city of Britain. Lord British's castle is this group's base.





Joining a Faction

You can join a group using the faction stone found at its base. Players who join a group can take part in the system's wars, get involved in political matters and trade.

Players join by double-clicking the group stone and choosing the Join option. A player must not be a member of another group with a different character on the same account.

Players who belong to a Guild:

• For a guild, only the guild master can click the group stones and bring that guild into a group. Other guild members cannot join on their own unless they leave their guild.

• The guild joining must be a standard guild; Chaos or Order guilds cannot join a group.

• When a guild master brings the guild into a group, every guild member joins the group as well, whether or not they are online at the time.

• When a guild master attempts to join, every guild member is checked.

• If a player in the guild has another character on the same account who is also a member of that guild, that member is automatically removed from the guild.

• If a player has more than one character on the same account in the same guild and that guild joins a group, only one of those characters stays in the guild and the others are removed.

Leaving a Faction

Before you can leave a group, at least 3 days must have passed since you joined.

The rules for leaving a group are as follows;

• To leave a group, players go to the group stone; after declaring that they are leaving, they are out of the group the first time they log in 3 days later.

• If a player's guild is a member of a group and the player is not the guild master, the player cannot leave the group. If the player wants to leave the group, they first leave their guild and then go to the group stone to complete the departure. (The 3-day rule applies in every case.)

• If the guild master pulls the guild out of the group, players who are guild members leave the group as well. As with the other rules, the 3-day period applies here too.

• During the 3-day departure period the player can attack other group members and be attacked by them, but cannot see group statistics at the group stone and cannot vote.

To see how long you have left before leaving the Faction, just type "What is my faction term status".


Combat Rules

Players in the group system can freely attack players in other groups. Players in your own group appear as innocent unless a special condition applies to you. Although most of the group system's rules are the same as the normal Ultima Online rules, there are some situations specific to the group system. They are as follows:

• Players cannot form a party with players from other groups.

• A player's personal status (criminal, murderer, thief and so on) overrides their group status. For example, while members of the same group normally cannot attack one another, you can freely attack someone in your own group who is a criminal or a murderer.

• Your guild war status overrides your group status. For example, you can attack a member of an enemy guild even if you are in the same group.

Group Scoring, Ranking and Kill Points

Group players earn kill points as they kill enemy group members. These points determine the player's rank within the group. There are two important terms in the group scoring system. The first is kill points and the second is the account.

Group members earn kill points as they successfully kill enemy group members. The kill points credited to you are 10% of the enemy's total kill points. You can see your points by typing "showscore" or "punkte". A player can also transfer their kill points to another player by typing "I honor your leadership".

Once a day the group scores are recalculated and the in-group ranking is redetermined. The titles are ranked as follows.

Score: 49% and below
Minax - Defiler
True Britannians - Defender
Shadow Lords - Servent
Council of Mages - Mystic

Score: between 50% and 79%
Minax - Executioner
True Britannians - Sentinel
Shadow Lords - Keeper of Lies
Council of Mages - Diviner

Score: between 80% and 94%
Minax - Warlord
True Britannians - Crusader
Shadow Lords - Bringer of Sorrow
Council of Mages - Luminary

Score: between 95% and 99%
Minax - Dread Knight
True Britannians - Knight of Virtue
Shadow Lords - Agent of Evil
Council of Mages - Archon of Principle


Score: between 99.1% and 100%
Minax - Avenger of Mondain
True Britannians - Knight of the Codex
Shadow Lords - Purveyor of Darkness
Council of Mages - Inquisitor of the Council


Dying at an Enemy's Hands:

To make death in group wars more meaningful, the following rule was introduced;

A player killed by enemy group members suffers a 33% skill loss for 10 minutes.

Note: This skill loss does not apply to being killed by members of your own group, by players who are not in a group, or by players who are not enemies of your group.

What the Group System Offers:

• You can spend the silver you earn on group-related needs or on luxuries.

• Silver can be earned by players and groups in a variety of ways, and likewise spent in many ways.

Uses of silver:

• Silver can be used by the group's craftsmen to make various items.

• Group-specific items can only be crafted in the cities the group controls.

• Buying a War Horse costs you 500 silver.

• Buying faction items for the faction (traps and so on).

• Hiring vendors and guards for the cities you control.

Faction Scrolls:

These scrolls contain the heal, greater heal, harm, fireball and lightning spells. They require 90 inscribing skill and a faction-crafted gnarled staff (this staff is what holds the spell charges). The number of charges equals 40 divided by the circle the spell belongs to. For example: the lightning spell gets 10 charges, fireball 13 charges, and so on. The staves themselves cannot be recharged. A new staff must be created for a new enchantment.

Silver From Faction Traps:

• If a trap you set successfully kills or harms an enemy group member, the person who set the trap earns silver.

• The silver earned passes from the enemy's treasury into the treasury of the person who set the trap.

• A trap earns the person who set it 20 silver if the enemy is harmed, and 40 silver if the enemy dies.

How Can I Earn Silver?

• By killing enemy group players (you earn no silver even for killing someone who has no kill points).

• By killing the opposing faction's creatures. The faction creatures are listed below:

Part of the silver earned goes to the faction's treasury; the Faction Commander sets what percentage goes to the faction using the faction control stone.

Cities That Can Be Controlled:

A group can control up to eight cities at once. Each of these cities has a city sigil within its borders. These city sigils give various benefits to the group controlling the city. In addition, each city has a sigil pedestal in a certain corner where the sigil rests. The cities with a city sigil and a city statue, along with their particular features, are listed below:

Britain : South of the mage shop in East Britain.
Skara Brae: North of the provisioners shop.
Magincia : Southwest of the tavern.
Vesper : West of the docks.
Minoc : South of the tavern.
Moonglow : East of the provisioners shop.
Trinsic : East of the Meeting Hall.
Yew : West of the healer.

Capturing Cities:

One of the main reasons the groups exist is their ability to capture cities. There are 8 cities the groups can capture and control. Capturing a city unlocks many extra features of the group system, and it works as described below.

Each of the cities above has a city statue.

• Each city has its own city sigil. (It appears on the city statue.)

• Group members with at least 80 stealing skill can steal the city sigil. The sigil must be brought inside the keep within 1 hour (otherwise it returns to its old place).

• The sigil can be corrupted and captured by dropping it inside a group keep. The sigil must stay in the keep for at least 24 hours. If the sigil is picked up before the capture is complete, the timer keeps running for up to 15 minutes without resetting the capture time.

• Once the sigil is captured, it has to be carried back to its pedestal in its own city in order to take the city. The group has one hour to bring the sigil to the city, otherwise the sigil returns to the previous keep area (still under the group's control). The sigil waits there until the next stealing or moving attempt.

• A city under a group's control belongs to that group for a minimum of 3 days. Once the city can be captured again, other groups can steal the sigil and attempt a capture. If the sigil is stolen by an opposing group, they can take it to their own area and start the capture period again. If they fail to deliver it within an hour, the sigil is teleported back to the keep it was stolen from. The sigil's home is always taken to be the last keep or city it was in.

Group Administration :


Groups have to elect a commander. They do this with a voting system. Voting is done at the group stone. An election can be held once every 9 days. The Group Commander can appoint a sheriff and a finance minister for each city. These appointments are made at each city's stone. These people are players who help the commander. The sheriff and the finance minister each have their own abilities and powers.

The Finance Minister is the officer who can place vendors in the city. With the command "I wish to access the city treasury" they reach the city treasury menu.
From this menu they can place vendors and change prices, as well as buy vendors. Just like guards, vendors charge a daily fee and an initial fee. You can rent Potion, Wooden Board, Iron Ore, Reagent and Horse Breeder vendors.

The Sheriff reaches their menu by saying "I am sheriff", and from this menu they can hire guards for that city. The sheriff can also command the guards: "Orders Follow" to make them follow, "Orders Patrol" to make them patrol, and "You are fired" to dismiss them.

The guards they can hire:

- Minax, Henchman, Mercenary, Berserker, Dragoon
- Council of Mages, Henchman, Mercenary, Sorcerer, Wizard
- True Britannians, Henchman, Mercenary, Knight, Paladin
- Shadowlords, Henchman, Mercenary, Death Knight, Shadow Mage

To resign as sheriff, they must type "I wish to resign as sheriff".


Faction War Horses

Animal breeders working for a group only sell war horses belonging to that group. A faction member can buy this mount from the Horse Breeder vendor for 3000 gold and 500 silver. The features of war horses are explained below.

• War horses are in the colour of their own group

• Members of an opposing group cannot ride war horses

• War horses cannot be friended or transferred to someone in an opposing group

• War horses can only be re-tamed by people who belong to the same group.

• War horses have high strength, high speed and a strong attack

• To ride a war horse, the group member must have reached rank 2