Privacy Policy

Immortal Realm is a fan-run, non-commercial Ultima Online shard. We operate the Shard and this website on a privacy-respecting basis: we collect the minimum information needed to run the service, we don't sell or trade information to third parties, and we don't run third-party advertising trackers.

This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and how to exercise the rights you have over it. If a section is unclear or you want to make a request, the Contact section at the bottom tells you how to reach us.

Account information: your chosen account name, an email address (only if you opt to provide one for password recovery), and a salted, hashed representation of your password. We never store passwords in plaintext.

Gameplay information: your in-game character names, character state (skills, items, location, gold balance, achievements), and your account-level standing (patron entitlement, civic rank, daily ledger progress, seasonal ledger progress). This information is required to operate the Shard.

Server logs: connection timestamps, IP addresses associated with logins, and gameplay event logs (combat, trades, server-side errors, anti-cheat events). These are used for service operation, abuse prevention, and debugging. IP addresses are kept in rolling logs and are not associated with public profiles.

Website analytics: we use Plausible Analytics, a privacy-respecting alternative to Google Analytics. Plausible does not set cookies, does not collect personally identifiable information, and does not track users across sites. We see aggregate page views, referrer counts, and rough geographic regions; we do not see individual visitor identities.

Patron payments: when you subscribe to the optional Patron Pass, payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe, Inc. We do not store or directly handle payment-card numbers, expiration dates, CVV codes, or billing addresses. Stripe shares with us only the minimum information needed to verify your subscription state (a customer reference and the active/cancelled/grace status). Stripe's own privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy governs the payment data they hold.

Discord and other community platforms: when you participate in our Discord server or other community spaces, those platforms collect their own data under their own privacy policies. We have no special access to that data beyond what any server admin would normally see.

We do not collect: your real-world name, your physical address, your phone number, your government ID, your demographic profile, your social-media identities, your browsing history outside this website, your contacts, or your microphone/camera input. None of this is requested, transmitted, or stored.

We do not run third-party advertising networks. There are no Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, TikTok pixel, or similar trackers on the website or in any communication we send.

We do not use the YouTube embed cookies. The companion-video embeds on guide pages use the youtube-nocookie.com host, which delays cookie creation until you actually press play.

Account information lets you log in, lets us recover your account if you lose access, and lets us scope rule violations to specific accounts when needed.

Gameplay information IS the game state — your characters, your items, and your standing within the Shard's systems would not exist without persistent storage.

Server logs let us detect cheating, debug bugs, investigate incidents, and recover from outages. They are an operational requirement for running a multi-user game service.

Website analytics tell us which guides are useful, which pages need work, and which referral sources are bringing players in. The data is aggregate; it doesn't identify you individually.

Patron payment data (held by Stripe, not us) lets us verify your patron entitlement state and apply the corresponding in-game benefits.

Account and gameplay data: kept for the lifetime of your account. If you ask us to delete your account, we delete it within 30 days. Database backups may retain a copy for up to 90 days as part of our standard backup-rotation cycle, after which the data is permanently overwritten.

Server logs: rolling retention of approximately 30 days for general gameplay logs, longer for security-relevant logs (anti-cheat events, ban-related evidence). Logs older than the retention window are deleted automatically.

Website analytics: Plausible aggregates data on a 24-month rolling window by default. Individual visitor sessions are not stored.

Patron payment records (held by Stripe): retained according to Stripe's policies and to applicable financial-records law. We see only the patron status flag, which we mirror to the Shard's account-level state.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your information. Period.

We share data only with the third-party services strictly required to operate the Shard, and only the minimum each service needs:

(a) Hosting providers — the servers that run the Shard and this website hold the data we collect; the providers are bound by their own data-processing agreements. (b) Stripe, Inc. — for patron payment processing only; Stripe is a PCI-DSS compliant payment processor. (c) Plausible Analytics — for aggregate, non-personal website analytics. (d) Email delivery (only when you opt to provide an email for password recovery) — a transactional email service handles the delivery of recovery messages.

We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so by valid legal process in the operator's jurisdiction, or when necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Shard, our players, or the public. We will resist overbroad requests where reasonably possible.

Access: you can request a copy of the information we hold about your account. We provide it in machine-readable form within a reasonable time after verifying your identity.

Correction: you can request that we correct inaccurate information about your account. Most account information is editable directly through normal Shard interfaces; for anything that isn't, contact us.

Deletion: you can request that we delete your account and all associated information. Deletion is irreversible — your characters, items, achievements, and standing are gone for good. Patron subscriptions must be cancelled separately through Stripe before deletion to stop billing. Backups will retain a deletable copy for the standard backup window before automatic overwrite.

Withdrawal of consent: you can stop providing optional information (such as a recovery email) at any time. Disabling optional information may limit your ability to recover lost access.

Portability: you can request your data in a portable JSON-format export. Note that game-state data is meaningful only within the Shard's systems and may not be useful outside that context.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us through the path in the Contact section below.

This website uses a small number of strictly-necessary cookies to keep you logged in and to remember your session-level preferences. These are first-party cookies set on the immortalrealm.online domain. They are not used for advertising and are not shared with any third party.

We do not set third-party advertising cookies. We do not participate in cross-site tracking. We do not honor any "Do Not Track" header explicitly because we don't engage in the behaviors that header is designed to opt out of.

If you embed video content (YouTube companion videos on guide pages), the embed uses the youtube-nocookie.com host, which delays YouTube cookie creation until you press play. If you do press play, YouTube's own privacy policy governs the cookies they then set.

Immortal Realm is intended for players aged 13 and older. Some Ultima Online content (combat, mild fantasy themes, player-vs-player conflict in Felucca) is unsuitable for younger children regardless of platform.

We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has registered an account, please contact us — we will delete the account and any associated information promptly.

We take reasonable, industry-standard steps to protect the information we hold: passwords are stored as salted hashes (never plaintext), data in transit between you and the website is protected by TLS (HTTPS), and the database is access-restricted to the Shard's own service processes.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach occurs that could affect your account, we will notify affected players promptly through the in-game Town Cryer system, the website, and registered recovery email addresses (if provided), and we will publish what happened, what was affected, and what remediation we are taking.

Our hosting infrastructure may be located outside your country of residence. By using the Shard you understand that your information may be processed in jurisdictions whose data-protection laws differ from those of your home country.

Where the GDPR (European Union) or similar regulations apply, we rely on the legitimate-interest legal basis for operational data (running the game, preventing abuse) and on contract performance for account-related data. EU/UK residents retain all the rights described in the Your Rights section above and may also lodge a complaint with their national data-protection authority.

We may update this policy as the Shard evolves, as the third-party services we depend on change, or as legal requirements shift. Material changes will be announced through the in-game Town Cryer system and through a dated update on this page.

Continued use of the Shard or this website after a material change goes live constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. If you disagree with a change, you can request account deletion at any time as described in the Your Rights section.

For privacy questions, data-access requests, deletion requests, or any other matter related to this policy, reach us through the contact path published on the Shard's official Discord server. We aim to respond within a reasonable time and will not penalize legitimate privacy requests in any way.

Last updated: May 4, 2026.