Lord Volund passed away on May 23, 2025.

He started Valhalla Lost with Odin and continued to help him on and off for the next 20 years until Odin’s passing. Volund absolutely loved the concept of Ultima Online and this was the game he continually loved playing. His dedication was so much that he played on a Mac running Windows just so he could play UO.

In mythology, Volund was the smith of the gods but he was the soul of Valhalla Lost. He took the role of creation very seriously. Much of the hustle and bustle around the maps is attributed to Volund. He took the tools that were available and started amassing hundreds of quests around the lands. He wanted a shard that was teeming with life and activity, with NPCs filling the towns and buildings looking like they were in use. He loved trying to figure out where paths should lead and what would be in an area, then develop a theme for the area and quests to fill it. Vikings were his favorite which is why you will see viking lore scattered throughout the maps. The little things you may see around the map, such as the henchmen talking to each other or NPCs having a daily life, came about to see what Volund’s reaction would be. Rarely did he not like anything and his response was always the same, “I love it!”

For those that haven’t seen it or know of it, there’s a large empty part of the map called Green Acres that we use to develop new ideas and lay down art tiles to use. Volund spent most of his time there and most of the map is filled with his ideas. He would often spend hours changing something, such as the troll colors then page to have them put in. Once in, he was delighted to see the change and went hunting for them on his player characters.

It was upon his insistence that gargoyles be made part of the lore. Gargoyles were already in but they weren’t developed due to the class-based system. So we gave him Ter Mur to play with and he couldn’t have been any happier developing a lore that fit with Valhalla Lost. It was him that developed the idea that gargoyles were outcast and they would start in a Ter Mur to scavenge for their clothing and work towards returning to Asgard. He spent his time discovering how gargoyles would fly around the map and often as we logged on, would show us his discoveries. He also created all the dinosaurs for the Valley of Eodon, loving the savagery of the land.

Unfortunately, in real life, Volund had suffered a stroke a few years ago. He was a talented artist that did work for comics and movies. But his real passion was horror movies, such as Nosferatu and the Wolfman, and he loved drawing posters for conventions and custom orders. We would often talk about the state of comics today and how Frazetta was an inspiration for his work. The stroke was hard on him as it left him partly paralyzed. His health had been declining but we always had hope that he would one day regain himself again. It was looking promising these last few months that he was moving around and enjoying his meatball subs but sadly, the Norn had spun a different thread and his fate was already decided.

Volund loved going to The Waffle House. He often would tell us whenever he would go and what he got. So when you pass one next time, give a nod towards it and remember our smith to the gods.

We’ll miss you, Volund.

Happy New Year, 2025

With 2024 behind us now, we look forward to interacting with our great players. Whether old or new, casual or hardcore players, they make us happy to keep the shard going in the spirit of Odin and Freya. Make sure you drop a page for Buri and Volund who have been instrumental in keeping things running smooth. Let’s look forward to more big quest lines and deaths in 2025!

It is with a heavy heart that I pass on the news that Odin has started his new journey to Valhalla. For the last two months, he was hospitalized with breathing problems. On May 20th, he decided he wanted to go home and in the early hours with his son beside him, he took his last breath and joined his beloved Freya.

As many of you know, it was Freya who played Ultima Online when it came out. Odin started the server for friends and family but opened it up to the public. It was never a huge server but it had enough people coming and going, and those who stayed became his new friends and family. It was a basic server based on the Sanctuary scripts as Odin preferred the technical side of running the server and relied on scripters to add content although he could do simple fixes for existing scripts. It wasn’t until I joined the staff that I ripped open Valhalla to add more content and the tools for GMs to help players and add their own quests. Odin gave me free reign but I always discussed with staff what something should be or do but nothing was ever straight-forward. Odin enjoyed having a bit of randomness and not just have something do what was needed. We all remember the time Joram, having gotten his new mirror buff, ended up in that 1% category that the buff failed and blew everyone up at the gardens. It was the little things like that that made the shard have a bit of a personality… and Odin loved all of it, even suggesting to add little things here and there, such as blowing up if you failed while making explosion potions. After Freya’s passing, Lady Skadi kept the shard true to what Freya would have wanted it to be then updating new maps when we switched over to Mondain’s Legacy so there were more houses available and the shard had a more personable look. And then Lord Volund showed up and gave the shard life. He took those tools available and scattered questgivers all over the maps along with bringing the towns to life and adding in dozens upon dozens of new monsters to fight. And Buri… we all know he was the soul of the shard, keeping all those pages answered and making sure things got fixed and tested whenever a problem arose. Yes, every time some paged about a problem, he would go test it to determine if it was working as intended or there was a problem.

You may not have seen Odin around as often, but he was a constant presence on the shard. Believe it or not, Odin was constantly on… and active. You may have thought of him as simply owning the server but he kept his avatar logged on. He would come around in the evening and check what was going on, say hello to the GMs who were on then go sit at his favorite spot. So yes, even if you never saw him, he was always around and closer than you think. If you hung out at the gardens, you were probably beside him… he was always sitting on the bench to the left of the gate. He was there for weddings and for special events and for every new year’s eve party. He didn’t just run the shard but also played and enjoyed completing quests or partaking in a garden raid.

On Jan 18th, 2023, Valhalla Lost had been running continuously for 20 years. It went by with little fanfare as many players had moved on with their lives. But then a resurgence came back. The shard was full of life again with old and new players. Before Odin passed, I sent him a screenshot of the online list. Sadly, he didn’t respond but I know he saw it and it would have made him happy. Odin never cared how many people were on but he knew everyone who was on and enjoying the shard that he had worked on for so many years. He would have known the names in the screenshot. During the pandemic when things were slow, he thought it might be time to close the shard. But players kept trickling in and he couldn’t bring himself to close down what he and Freya had built up together.

On behalf of the staff, I would like to thank everyone for playing on the shard and those who helped out. We had amazing game masters over the years and many of them enjoyed interacting with the players, let it be throwing raids at the gardens, setting up map quests to find, being silly or just hanging out and chatting. We had our fun times. We had our quarrels. But in the end, we all came together as family. As for the future of Valhalla Lost, it will stay up until Odin’s family takes it down. That’s not to say it’ll shut down permanently. We’re looking at options for another host to continue on his legacy, even if it’s simply kept up as a home-away-from-home for old players to enjoy from time-to-time. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take over the domain. And Volund needs a home too.

It’s hard to believe that Valhalla Lost has been running (continuously) for 16 years!  The shard started off as a family game in Odin’s basement after he discovered the first emulators and Freya was enjoying playing on OSI.  From there it grew as the family invited their friends and family to play.

So what’s in store for Valhalla Lost?  We are running the POL 099 core and have updated to the High Seas client (the latest client offered straight from OSI) with all the High Seas glory.   New quests, New skills and a revamped combat system and many customs items to find!

On August 21, 2016, Eron the Ugly and Elga the Uruk belched the holy song of their people into each others faces, followed by a sacrificial goat chase and fireworks ceremony under the pews, which left the crowd of attendees with several burns and trips to the healer. We wish them the best for their explosive relationship.