As this second season of Byte-Sized Virtue moves from the Lenten season into the Easter season, we will be switching the focus of episodes back to topics that relate, in some way, to the Eight Virtues (and Three Principles) of Ultima lore. Specifically, we’ll be talking about the Virtue of Compassion and the Principle of Love, joined this time by Chlorthos Dragon.

Listen to the Episode

In this episode, we discuss the real-world concepts of mercy and compassion, and how these are exalted as the prime examples of love. We also discuss the corporal works of mercy, actions of charity and care for others that the Catholic Church puts forth as being…well, essentially obligatory for those who profess that particular faith.

The discussion also touches on how charity and works of mercy are depicted in games, including the Ultima series (e.g. the old woman in Ultima 4, Ybarra in Ultima 6) and Divinity: Original Sin. We talk about poverty, and about how the Ultima series doesn’t do a very thorough job of depicting anti-virtues. Not that it does a bad job with the anti-virtues it does depict…but it doesn’t depict enough of them. Which gets us back to Aristotelian philosophy, and the concept of virtue as a golden mean between equal, but opposite, vices.

Finally, we ask: how do we pass our values on to others, especially our children?