Ultima VII: Forge of Virtue

Ultima VII: Forge of Virtue is an add-on expansion for Ultima VII, published by Origin in 1992.

Gameplay
With Forge of Virtue installed, a totally new quest becomes available, which can be played at any time during the game. It will announce itself with an earthquake during the raising of the Isle of Fire (which in the CD-version happens right at the beginning). Solving the quest does give the Avatar great advantages stat-wise and the best weapon in the game. Today, it is included in all of the collections that include Ultima VII, fully integrated into the game.

Included with it is the "A Guide to the Isle of Fire" pamphlet. (in PDF format in later releases)

The Story
The Isle of Fire rises out of the sea during the game and Lord British fears the worst, as it may imply the return of Exodus the Destroyer. Lord British thus sends the Avatar to the Isle of Fire to determine the dangers and prevent a possible disaster. The Avatar has to master the test of the Three Principles, gaining possession of the Black Sword, the most powerful weapon in all of Britannia. In the end, a plan of the mage Erethian to initiate the return of Exodus has to be stopped and the Dark Core sent into the Void to prevent this disaster. With this done, Lord British declares the Avatar to be a real hero and all stats are maximized.

Locations

 * Castle of Fire
 * Isle of Fire

Trivia

 * For the German, French, Spanish and Chinese languages, the documentation was fully translated.
 * Forge of Virtue was also used by the programmers to deliver well-needed patches for the game, repairing serious bugs like disappearing keys. The resulting game is then the same as the CD-Version.
 * The original painting of the cover art showing the Black Sword got found and is shown in the gallery below.
 * Forge of Virtue never got translated into German. With Ultima VII auf Deutsch, a fan-translation exists for German.
 * The expansion did get a Spanish release, but not as a separate product, only included in the Spanish CD-version.