The Ultima Online Spellweaving quest

For official shards · two chains, five quests each · every figure sourced to uo.com

Spellweaving is the one skill you cannot simply start with. uo.com puts it plainly: “You must first prove yourself worthy to be taught by the elves of Heartwood or Sanctuary.” Until you have, the skill does not appear on your skill list at all — there is nothing to set, nothing to train and no book to carry.

The short version. There are two chains of five quests and they give the same reward, so you only do one. Pick whichever place is easier for you to reach:

Heartwood — Aeluva the Arcanist. Three of the five steps are shopping.
Sanctuary — Koole the Arcanist. Same three shopping steps, different first and last.

Finish either one and you are handed a Spellweaving spellbook, an Arcane Circle scroll and a Gift of Renewal scroll.

Why do it even if you never train the skill

Four Spellweaving spells have a published skill requirement of 0, and two of them are the scrolls the quest hands you. The book works the moment you are given it:

Spell	Mana	What uo.com says it does
Arcane Circle	24	Creates an arcane focus for the caster and up to four other arcanists standing in the circle
Gift of Renewal	24	“Increases the recipient’s natural health regeneration for the duration of the spell regardless of the target’s condition”
Attunement	24	“Creates a magical barrier absorbing Melee Damage”
Nature’s Fury	24	“Summons a swarm of insects that inflict poison damage upon its victim”

They are weaker at 0 than at 120, and uo.com says why: most Spellweaving spells scale on your real skill, and the arcane focus from Arcane Circle “increases duration, spell damage, healing spell effectiveness, and area of effect” on top of that. Castable at 0 does not mean identical at 0. It does mean a character with no Spellweaving at all can carry the book for the buffs.

Before you set out

Three of the five steps are the same in both chains, and all three are things you can buy or craft ahead of time. Doing that first turns a long chain into one trip:

10 bales of cotton — picked from the cotton fields. uo.com names Skara Farms and South Moonglow.
250 boards — any wood. A carpenter or a lumberjack friend saves an hour here.
1 sack of flour, 10 jars of honey, 20 fish steaks — flour and honey from a baker or a tavern keeper, fish steaks cooked from raw fish.

Each chain then has its own first and last step, and those are the only two that ask you to go somewhere in particular.

Chain one: Heartwood

Where. uo.com: Heartwood is “hidden below Yew in both Felucca and Trammel”, and the way in is “a sparkle portal in the center of Yew (55.27’N 55.20’W 536, 993)”. Find Aeluva the Arcanist inside.

#	Quest	What it asks for	Where
1	Patience	20 miniature mushrooms	On the ground in Heartwood. Free to pick up — one hour to bring them back
2	Needs of the Many	10 bales of cotton	Skara Farms or South Moonglow
3	Needs of the Many (continued)	250 boards	Anywhere
4	Making a Contribution	1 sack of flour, 10 jars of honey, 20 fish steaks	Anywhere
5	Unnatural Creations	Slay 5 Exodus Overseers and 2 Exodus Minions	Exodus dungeon, “the Eastern half of Central Ilshenar (74.21’N 34’48’W 828, 778)”

The last step is the one to plan for. Everything before it is errands; Exodus is a dungeon, and the overseers and minions are inside the main level rather than on the approach. uo.com: you reach it by stepping on the star field at the centre of the ground level.

Chain two: Sanctuary

Where. uo.com: Sanctuary is “found in the mountains just off the Britain to Yew road a little north of the Brigand Camp (1.50’S 38.57’W 769, 1645)”, and the elven quest givers stand “in the garden at the far end”. Koole the Arcanist is the one you want — he stands in the southernmost part [!].

#	Quest	What it asks for	Where
1	Discipline	Slay 50 rats	Inside Sanctuary. One hour — uo.com gives the limit as 3,600 seconds
2	Needs of the Many	10 bales of cotton	Skara Farms or South Moonglow
3	Making a Contribution	250 boards	Anywhere
4	Supplies for Sanctuary	1 sack of flour, 10 jars of honey, 20 fish steaks	Anywhere
5	The Human Blight	30 severed human ears	Butchered from human brigands throughout Britannia [!]

Which chain is easier depends on what you can already kill. Sanctuary's first step is fifty rats against the clock and its last is a long grind on brigands; Heartwood's first step is picking mushrooms off the floor and its last is a dungeon. Neither is gated behind the other — finishing one is enough.

What you are given

A Spellweaving spellbook, one Arcane Circle scroll and one Gift of Renewal scroll. Spellweaving appears on your skill list from that point and can be trained like anything else.

Every Spellweaving spell, and the skill it needs

Spell	Skill	Mana
Arcane Circle	0	24
Gift of Renewal	0	24
Attunement	0	24
Nature’s Fury	0	24
Immolating Weapon	10	32
Thunderstorm	10	32
Reaper Form	24	34
Ethereal Voyage	24	32
Arcane Empowerment	24	50
Summon Fey	38	10
Summon Fiend	38	10
Gift of Life	38	70
Essence of Wind	52	40
Dryad Allure	52	40
Wildfire	66	50
Word of Death	83	50

[!] A note on the mana column, because uo.com prints two numbers. Its table gives Arcane Circle as “14(24)” and Reaper Form as “19(34)”, and it does not say which figure is which. This page uses the second — the one in brackets — as the base cost, which is what the rest of this toolkit already uses; that the bracketed figure is the base cost is unpublished. The first is lower on every spell, but not by a constant fraction, so no formula is offered for it here.

The arcane focus from Arcane Circle is stronger when the circle is cast at certain places — uo.com names West Britain Bank and the Prism of Light — and stronger again with more arcanists standing in it, up to five.

Where these come from

uo.com’s Spellweaving skill page for the spell table, the arcane focus and the fact that the skill must be earned; its Arcanist’s Way page for both chains and every requirement in them; its Heartwood, Sanctuary and Exodus pages for the three locations. Two details are unpublished — uo.com does not print them — and carry a [!]: where Koole stands inside Sanctuary, and that severed human ears are butchered from human brigands. Everything here is from uo.com or the game itself; anything uo.com does not publish is marked [!] as unpublished.

One naming note, because it costs people time: uo.com’s skill page calls this “Learning the Ways of the Arcanist” and its quest page calls the same thing “Arcanist’s Way”. They are one chain under two names.

The spell books

Magery · Necromancy · Chivalry · Bushido · Ninjitsu · Spellweaving · Mysticism