Mana directly affects your ability to cast spells. Every time you cast a spell your mana goes down, unless you cast linear spells. Casting powerfull spells will make your mana go down more. So a circle 1 or 2 spell doesn't use much mana, but a circle 8 or 9 spell uses alot of mana.

    When you begin Ultima 9 your mana isn't that high, but there are ways to increase it. If you want to use magic effectively then it's important to get your mana as high as possible. Your mana is affected by the way you behave in Brittania. Sticking to the virtues, and doing good things for people often makes your mana increase. If you do certain bad things, such as killing innocent people, your mana goes down. Other times you can do bad things such as stealing, and your mana will be unaffected.

    If you start the game as a mage, you will get the Arms of the Magi. They're in the chest at Stonegate. Wear the Arms of the Magi and it will cost you less mana to cast spells. If you start as anything other than a Mage, you will get the Arms of the Magi after you have been to Moonglow, they're near a sunken ship there.

    If you use a magic scroll then your mana doesn't go down. Some spell scrolls are very rare though, so it's often a good idea to only use them when you have more than one. Otherwise you may find you've used the only scroll for that spell in the entire game. Thus rendering that spell unavailable.

    You can restore your mana by:

    Sleeping, just stand on the right side of any bed, and click on it. When you hear a happy bell sound all your stats will have been restored.

    Orange Potions, drink an orange potion and it restores your mana. If you have the right reagents you can make your own potions.

    Restoring Shrines, when you restore a shrine your mana is restored, along with all your other stats.

    Mana is gradually restored anyway, though it can take quite a while.

    This is a list of the good deeds that can increase your mana, so far I have not discovered many, more will be put here as I discover them.

     Save the man in Despise from being squashed by the moving floor, Mana +3

    Don't kill Iolo, show mercy let him live, Mana +1

    Give gold to man on road to Paws, who asks you for gold to pay his taxes, Mana +1

    Give Serpentwyne to woman by Abbey in Britain, Mana +1

    Be polite to the blind woman, Altara, you meet on road to Paws, thank her nicely. Mana +1

    Save boy from burning house on road to Paws, use bucket of water on the fire, Mana +1

    Save mayor's daughter, Mana +5

    Serpentwyne to healer at Paws, Mana +1 for each bottle

    Cleanse a Shrine, Mana +10

    Rescue the Mother of the boy you saved from burning house, on road to Paws, Save her from the bandits, Mana +3

    Repair the broken water valve in Paws, Mana +1

    Give Serpentwyne to healer in Paws, for each bottle Mana +1

STEALING STUFF

    In many cases it's possible to steal from peoples houses etc without it affecting your mana at all. Though in some cases it will. Personally I don't steal things from the citizens of Brittania, because after all I am the avatar.;) If you want to steal then most of the time you should be able to.

    You can also use the fly cheat to fly through glass display cases in shops, and steal all those unattainable goodies. If you want you can then sell them back to the shopkeeper for lots of lovely gold.

RESTORING HITPOINTS

    You can restore hitpoints by:

    Using yellow potions, there's lots of them throughout the game, sometimes you have alomost too many. It's also possible to make more potions.

    Eating, unlike previous Ultimas, the avatar doesn't need food. It's possible to play the entire game without eating at all. Food will restore your hitpoints though.

    Sleeping, To sleep stand on the right side of any bed, click on the bed. Wait untill you hear a happy bell sound, and you wiil find all your stats have been restored.

    Spells, You can of course cast various healing spells on yourself. Though doing this will reduce your mana.

    Restoring a shrine, when you restore a shrine, all your stats will be restored.

BEING POLITE

    It's a good idea to be nice to most of the people of Brittania. If you antagonise them by being rude to them they're likely to be far less informative, or even refuse to talk to you anymore. So remember manners maketh the man, or in this case the avatar;)

RESTORING THE SHRINES

    To restore a shrine you need the Glyph and Sigil for the virtue of the Shrine to be restored. You also need to know the correct mantra. Just put the Glyph and Sigil on the altar and recite the mantra.

    When you restore a shrine all your hit points and mana are fully restored, you are also able to improve your stats in either Dexterity, Intelligence, or Strength. If you choose strength your hit points will increase, normally +40. Increasing strength can be a usefull option early in the game, espeicially if you started as one of the weaker classes, like a mage. Choosing Intelligence improves your ability to cast spells, and your mana will also increase. Choosing Dexterity means you can attack quicker.

    With each shrine that you restore a new circle of magic becomes available for use, so after restoring one shrine you're able to bind and cast circle one spells. Restore a second shrine and circle two spells become available, etc.

    Restoring shrines also opens up new levels of training in the art of combat. Trainers will refuse to train you untill you've restored the correct number of shrines. You can beg them or bribe them all you like it won't make any difference, damm stubborn these trainers;)