A Similar Meditation Could Be Offered About The Virtues

Regular readers will know that I’m not exactly secretive about my Catholicism, but I also don’t usually make a point of putting it out there in every article. Periodically, I meander a post into matters philosophical, especially around Christmas and Easter…but hey, this is a site about groundbreaking RPG games, and that’s mostly what I post about.

But I was reading this article by John Zmirak at Crisis Magazine (formerly Inside Catholic), and a couple of paragraphs in it struck a chord with the Ultima fan I share brainspace with:

The goals the Church lays out in her formulations of social teaching are complexly important and importantly complex. That might sound like a cheap, pseudo-Chestertonian paradox, but it isnít: The issues entailed in Catholic social teaching are essential to Christian life, touching on everything from whether plumbers can afford to have and educate decent-sized families to the political interactions between the U.S. and Mexico. Hence, like the human brain, the teaching is complexly important.

Conversely, the many factors that must be accounted for in exploring how to achieve the Churchís goals are all interlocking, and a grave misunderstanding of any one of them would produce a system thatís grossly defective. Again like the brain, itís importantly complex. The estimable Jeff Mirus does a good job of highlighting this complexity in his essay on the seven principles of Catholic social teaching ó which, as you read them, will seem as hard to align as the colors on a Rubikís Cube. And in our fallen state, we will probably never get them perfect. But that does not excuse us from making our bravest effort.

And it strikes me that the Eight Virtues of Britannia are, in many respects, caught up in similar straits to what Zmirak describes in his second paragraph. The Virtues very explicitly conflict with each other at times, as has been repeatedly illustrated by e.g. the gypsy questions, in which Honor, Justice, Compassion, Valour, Spirituality,  Humility, Sacrifice, and Honesty have been pitted against each other. And yet, the average Britannia is urged to live by the Virtues day in and day out.

Aligning the Virtues is a difficult task indeed, even over something as trite as tarot cards or coloured potions. One can imagine, had Origin had more time to implement such systems, that the Ultima games could have presented the Avatar with quandries of Virtue at many points in the plot, and one could envision situations in which acting in accordance with a particular Virtue meant acting against another Virtue as well. Imagine if they had tracked such things in Ultima 6…or Ultima 7!

And were we all actually Britannians…we would struggle in vain to live in keeping with all the Virtues at all times. It couldn’t be done. Not even the Avatar can do such a thing. But then, I suppose the point of that ideal being held in front of us is not that we should force ourselves to satisfy its impossible demands (that was, partly, what Blackthorn’s regime demanded), but rather that we should strive — must strive — to achieve it to the level that is humanly — and humanely — possible.

2 Responses

  1. Infinitron says:

    One can imagine, had Origin had more time to implement such systems, that the Ultima games could have presented the Avatar with quandries of Virtue at many points in the plot

    The Eight Virtues were actually remarkably underutilized thematically in the Ultima series. Ultima V came closest to doing something interesting with them, but overall they were not, in practice, really that important after their introduction in U4.
    U7 had the writing quality to do something cool with the virtues but chose to portray a “post-Virtueist” Britannia instead. Actually, Serpent Isle probably had more to say about the Eight Virtues, indirectly, than did the original U7.

    Anyway, I doubt we’ll ever see something like that unless somebody gives Chris Avellone two years and permission to make a single player Ultima.

  2. Sergorn says:

    I’ve always felt there was a lot of wasted potential in Ultima in term of moral and virtue dilemas.

    The Virtue Questions used as the basis for character creation should have been the framework for the use of Virtues in game actually – rather that just having to do Virtuous stuff, basically put Virtues one against another and make the player have to do meaningful choice.

    Alas, it was rarely used throughough the series… the few I can actually think of are in Ultima IX even.