About Us

The Sanctuary community has been together since 2002 under the same owners and almost the same admin team since inception. We have changed our shard fiction at various times in the last nearly two decades. We were Comraich for a few years, and Grimmwold for many many years. We are a friendly, easy going group who just keeps getting more mellow as the years come and go and our children get older and older. We do not appreciate OOC drama and expect real world good manners in our community.

"This is our living room, and you are invited. We will seek to be wonderful hosts and you to be lovely guests."

This was the very basis of our community from the beginning and continues today as the foundational guideline that we expect everyone to function under. All of our rules, stated or unstated, are based on this core beleif which was summed up so neatly by Wil Wheaton.

Basic Game Stuff

1. Account in Question. We assume that you are not cheating or trying to get around any of our rules. If we receive a report of cheating or meta gaming that involves cheating, then we will ban all relevant accounts until its sorted. This is not to be a jerk, but rather to handle problems when they arise rather then deal with it all before hand.
2. One Account. You, yourself, are allowed only one account on our shard and in RPCSS. If you have more then one account and we find out that its not your spouse, roommate or house elf we will ban your accounts until we sort it out. We reserve the right to request voice verification. As per the one account rule, we expect you to maintain only one discord chat name in our community.
3. AFK Macroing. As long as you are in private home, owned or otherwise, you may idle or macro AFK to train skills. If you are in public and not responding after 30 mins, you will be moved to an appropriate private location. If you want staff to contact you directly in discord, please put your discord name in the OOC section of your .look and we'll poke you there.
4. AFK Crafting. AFK Crafting is disallowed, you are expected to be away and reasonably attentive. AFK crafting can have a significantly negative impact on the player economy and for this reason we feel obligated to enforce it. Considering all crafting stations are in public locations this should not be a surprise to our community.

Player vs Player

We consider ourselves to be a role-play shard with PvP, we are not a "PvP Shard". PvP is intended to be part of the shard storyline progression. Players are expected to role-play before PvP conflict and followed the documented rules of engagement. For an overview of PvP on Sanctuary please read more ..

1. PvP Rules. These PvP Rules apply to 1-on-1 PvP Combat on Cuiviénen (the mainland) that does not include Alliance (Guild) War Combat. Read More ..
2. Rules of Engagement. The shard Rules of Engagement are created in combination with staff and players and are reviewed on a regular basis. The RoE applies to combat between warring guilds on the World Map. Failure to adhere to the rules may result in players being "banished" to Summer Isle for a period of time. Read More ..

Basic Behavior Stuff

1. Transparency. Our community has always been a place of transparency. Even from day one we have expected players to use their real names, to have only one account, and to be upfront and honest about which characters they are playing or which nicknames they are using. This has not changed, and we expect honest and upfront transparency. If you are known to our community, we expect you to be clear about that with us. If you have a valid reason to hide your identity then you are welcome to speak to an admin privately.
2. Adult Age Behavior Required. We do not require players to be 18 or older, however we expect adult behavior from all players regardless of age. The World Map is ESRB's "Adults Only" content, players are advised.
3. Chat Etiquette. The discord channels and forums are not the places to vent your frustration, not at the game, not at the staff, not even at life in general. Outbursts, no matter how justified they may feel to you are not welcome. If you are in crisis and need help, please DM an Admin.
4. Don't Cheat. Private shards have custom scripts but rarely do they have enough good testers, consequently, players are expected to report any possible cheats immediately and then not use them!
5. Harassment. We have a strict rule against any type of political, racial, religious, sexual or gender harassment. This includes but is not limited to provocative meme's and jokes.
6. Rage Quitting. If you rage quit, expect us to consider that your final exit and ban your accounts right then and there.
7. Private Chats. There is one official Sanctuary Shard discord chat, and one official forum. We have no control over privately created chat rooms, group discussions or other private means of ooc communication, but we do not officially support them, nor do we allow them to be posted or advertised on our official formats.

Role-Play, Required?

1. The World Map is always in character. Summer Isle are is RP Requested but Relaxed. Under Hill is RP Optional.
2. Summer Isle and Under Hill are rated PG and the World Map is ESRB's "Adults Only" content material.

Sanctuary Shard is an Ultima Online Private Server dedicated to role-play, however, we do not require everyone to be role-playing at all times everywhere. You may speak OOC in any location where you can reasonably expect privacy such as in your own home when out hunting with friends, or anywhere on the Under Hill (Ilshenar) Map.

If you simply want to play our game we ask that you do not disrupt on going role-play, do not speak OOC in public spaces, don't use emoticons and please avoid running over other players on your horse -- role-players hate that.

Role players please be advised that if there are characters who are not role-playing, but are not disrupting anything, leave them alone to play. If you want to make friends, message them privately.

Code of Conduct

We expect all players to abide by our Code of Conduct. Failure to do so may result in restrictions and bans.

1. Wheatons Rule: Don't be a Dick
2. Practice good role-play etiquette as outlined below.
3. Disability Respect: If you suffer from any form of mental, physical or emotional disability you have both our understanding and our sympathy. If that disability may effect how you interact with the community and you need allowances made please let an admin know privately so that we can advise the staff team as to how best to support you.

Role-Play Etiquette

Disruptive Roleplay

Disruptive Roleplay has little to do with conflict perse but has more to do with one or two people telling a completely different story than the scene is called or planned for. Just as one might watch a play, there is a general understanding that the actors on the stage are engaged in a single scene where the audience can follow along with the unfolding storyline. Role-play is deemed disruptive when the focus is forced to constantly shift back and forth between what the primary actors are doing, and what is going on in the sidelines. When it becomes impossible to follow the main plot, the other plot is considered disruptive.

Metagaming

Metagaming is defined as using out of character information in character. Metagaming can not be circumvented by the use of backstories or "all knowing" deities. Metagaming is further classified as a role-play etiquette and is thus managed along with other breaks of our Code of Conduct. Read More ...

Forceful Roleplay or Godmodding

Do not force actions on another player. This is referred to as GodModding. For example, in an RP scene do not grab someone and throw them against a wall, if you would like to do something like that, emote "grabs and attempts to slam them against a wall". Leave the decision as to whether or not the player will allow you to do this up to them.

Turn-based posting

Ultima Online does not support paragraph role-play, therefore, turn based posting is only needed in role-play combat situations. However, giving others in the scene a fair chance to post is just polite.

Multi-line Posting

Players are allowed to post more than one consecutive line of role-play as part of their scene, however, other players are not required to wait on additional posts. It is helpful to let others know you are continuing onto a second line using something like -C at the end of the line.

Role-play Punctuation

It is considered good manners to differentiate between dialog, emotes and ooc comments. Please use quotes around dialog, asterisks around emotes, or parentheses around ooc comments when necessary to indicate a change of format within a single post. Obviously, UO has a built in speech and emote formats that are also usable.

Negative Thought Emotes without representation

The use of negative thought emotes is considered questionable, but when they are done in such a way that the target doesn't have a valid way of responding, its down right rude. All players have permission to respond to negative thought emotes as if they were spoken outloud.

Role-Playing a Dialect or Language

Please be understanding of our international community and keep your use of alternate language words and typed dialects to flavor only that allows others to understand you via context. There is no need to develop complete language dictionaries; words such as hello/goodbye, yes/no, brother/sister, and titles should be more than enough to be getting on with.

Offline is Offline

It is considered bad manners to accuse a character of failing to do something or failing to be somewhere when the player is off line. This is especially true when the accusation has a serious impact on the character's storyline or reputation. It is advisable to set realistic expectations and deadlines for characters who's players have jobs, families and a need for sleep.

ICC = OCC

Similar to OOC Consent but not the same ... Previous shards have required OOC consent between two players for any storylines that involved death, torture/rape, kidnapping or anything else listed in a players OOC section of the .look as a personal limit. However, with this new conflict driven shard, this could be abused to avoid in character consequences for in character actions. And that is not okay. Players should be prepared to stand for the consequences of their actions. Staff are available to help players negotiate if extreme actions are warranted by the characters actions, but all players should understand that some in character actions have personal emotional triggers and stop immediately or fade to black if requested.

Personal Limits

Players are allowed to put personal limits in their .look under OOC information. We are a community of shared storytellers and our goal is to tell stories everyone will enjoy. To that mind we encourage everyone to be respectful of real life challenges that may present as hard personal limits in role-play. On the other hand, participating in the main shard storyline will be fraught with medieval-theme conflict and consequences, players need to be prepared for the fact extreme storylines can and will happen. Admin are available to negotiate solutions.

Role-Play Conflict Resolution

Players are expected to respect role-play limits and agree to dice rules or staff moderation when requested to resolve role-play conflict. A general series of guidelines are available. Read More ...