Former Origin Systems concept artist Denis Loubet released a piece of old concept art from his archives recently, which he claims is related to an Ultima game:

This is a previously unseen concept sketch for an Ultima. I’m not sure which one! It could be a numbered Ultima, or Ultima Online, or even UO2. Whatever Ultima it’s associated with, it’s a tile-based Ultima, because this particular sketch shows how you can increase the immersion of a tile-based system by having small forground objects that can eclipse the player, yet not hide dropped items.

There’s actually a bunch of other sketches in this trove of unseen Ultima Concepts, and my Patrons are already examining those. So far they seem to think the drawings are from Ultima 9, but if they are, then it’s a tile-based version that never got off the ground. So this is a mystery for fans to solve!

If you want to see all the sketches you can become a Patron, bribe a Patron, or wait until I post them for all to see at some later date.

However, a comment from one Jeff Wand — I assume this to be Jefferson Wand, another former Origin artist — offers a different possibility:

It might very well be from Ultima 9. I vaguely remember a higher resolution version of the Crusader engine was in consideration for a time.

I’m inclined to think that this is a piece of early Ultima 9 concept art as well; it reminds me of nothing so much as this image:

Anyhow, let’s hope that someone convinces — or Patreonizes — Mr. Loubet to release more of the concept sketches in the near future.