File:Gargish virtues symbols.png

Summary[edit]

The Gargish Virtues and Principles of Ultima VI (and later) represented in a Venn Diagram by me, Martin Davis, with relevant symbols either used explitly from Ultima or were inspired by the Gargoyle culture for appropriate representations of each virtue. I used Mondain for the Principle of Control as well as the Virtue of Direction. Minax served as the representation of the Principle of Passion and the Virtue of Feeling. Exodus symbolizes the Principle of Diligence and the Virtue of Persistence. The Virtue of Balance is represented by a pair of scales at an even height. The Virtue of Precision is represented by a pair of compasses, a technical device used in mathematics, engineering, drawing, architecture, cartography, and the sciences across time and cultures. The Virtue of Achievement is symbolized by a pair of arms bent over and clasping each other's fists, as may be either done while one assists another one in a challenging physical endeavor, or perhaps more appropriately, as two people do as a show of victory - a halo of light surrounding the fists emphasizes that it's a symbol of accomplishment. The Virtue of Singularity is said to be represented by a circle, but because a circle by itself is kind of unsymbolic and plain, I decided on a special kind of circle, a Double Ouroboros composed of a light and a dark serpent forming a single circle (sort of like the Auryn in the book version of the Neverending Story, though the movie's version looked way cooler but that's way more than just a circle) emphasizing the nature of Gargoyle society and the nature of the source of the Virtue of Singularity coming from the interdependence of those of different types (Winged and Wingless, Fliers and land-dwellers, Capable of speech and mute, and so on) working together as one combined society acting as a single organism. And lastly, but definitely not least, for the Virtue of Order, that which is without Control, Passion, or Diligence, and arises in opposition to Chaos, I used a Golden Spiral as its representation, because it's a sort of representation of how powerful Order is and how potentially infinite and limitless it can grow out of seemingly nothing when it arises; golden spirals are seen in nature and of course they have all kinds of interesting mathematical properties - most importantly, they are a visible representation of the irrational number that's found at the fundamentals of so many different parts of geometry - Pi might be more famous, but it's the ratio of the circumference of the circle to its diameter and only that, the golden ratio is found to be fundamentally important to nearly every shape in some way or another and while it looks like nothing profound or complicated when its basic formula is written down, it's been the fascination of mathematicians, architects, biologists, philosophers, financial analysts, and more because it keeps cropping up everywhere, humanity has a written history of certain knowledge about it since at least 300 BC, though it may have been known about even earlier and used in ancient architecture.