Does anyone know why this system was removed from UO?

Because they realized that order is evil and where going to have to rework their whole system! J/K, don't really know at all.

If I'm not mistaken (my memory is a bit shaky in this) I believe it was removed with AOS. Why? Who knows. If I had to guess I'd say it was either "too old" a system (and didn't really work properly with the new system), or not enough players were using it. Something like that.

The technical reason is that, with the creation of AoS, there just too many "conflict systems" in the game. I remember Sunsword or Hanse commenting to that effect. Basically, there were factions, Order/Chaos, and guild warfare, and Order/Chaos got the boot to make life easier for everyone in (at the time) Austin.

It's a shame too, because while factions is little more than a paintball game for the pee-vee-peers at this point, Order & Chaos could have been left with modifications to make it a system for those not wanting to play "modern" pee-vee-pee. They could have made NPC or non-runic GM armor and weapons the only equipment a player could equip in Order/Chaos. Something that could have been, oh well...

In reality, it almost needed to die. How many of the current players sitting in Luna glowing bright neon blue know who Lords British and Blackthorn were. Who were the people behind them. Why there was conflict between these two men yet each had been close friend to the other? Garriott was no longer there anymore. The game was taking different direction which ultimately led to this...game...we have today.

I will give EA credit though, for actually giving those of us who loved the legacy of Ultima and its characters one last chance to log into a world with Lord British present. There was the Reconciliation, in the end, after Blackthorn had been killed (though he had long since been dead after coming under Exodus' power) and before Lord British left for the final time.

There is no longer a struggle between Order and Chaos. Richard Garriot put it best himself:

"Chaos and Order are not enemies, only opposites. Chaos and Order combined equal balance."

And if you look closely, you will still find some of us carrying our respective shields proudly, unhued.

I believe this stopped once factions came into play.

edit: I wasn't playing when AOS started, but before that I do remember it dying out when factions was introduced. I could be wrong though cause that was a long time ago. I do know that when factions came people abandoned that order/chaos system for that instead. Or atleast the people I played with did.

Factions killed it!

you needed to get shields from guards in the castles and when they started factions Lord Brit's castle became the home of one of the factions so you could not get the order shield. also the shields made it possible to pvp in tramm and that went against their no pvp in tramm sales pitch.

Man, I do miss chaos/order. It was a chance for ppl like me who only occasionally pvp to learn and play around while fighting.

If it was active in trammel maybe it would increase the desire for combat amongst stagnant tram players.

who knows...