DoDH lore

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Buster_Shruggs, Nov 25, 2019.

  1. Buster_Shruggs Augur

    Hi folks. I was working on group task arcs in DoDH. I was curious about "The Shadowspine" lore. Is that just an extension/different form of Mayong Mistmore? Also, were Shyra/Bloodeye , Sendai/Emp Draygun working with Mayong or did he just have a hand in manipulating those societies? Just wondering, thanks in advance for any replies.
  2. Fanra https://everquest.fanra.info

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  3. Buster_Shruggs Augur

  4. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    Shadowspine was a trap Mayong let Emperor Draygun take from some of his drachnids. A few decades later Mayong uses a shiliskin skin to disguise himself as an advisor called Bodrak and convinces Draygun to start practicing necromancy in order to have a chance at beating the other races of Darkhollow (Werewolves and Mayong mostly). Draygun proceeds to keep losing the war so finally uses Shadowspine and releases the curse Mayong placed upon it onto the Shiliskins inside of Illsalin and in the process becoming a lich-puppet to Mayong allowing him to feed off his power using Shadowspine.

    The Shadowmane aligned with Mayong to allegedly slay some dragon called Dradune in the Hive pretty early on in Mayong's invasion of darkhollow, they also helped to build Dreadspire along with the drachnids. Later on the ragepaw ally with him because of a mutual dislike of the Shiliskin. Sendaii is just a Mayong flunkie as are pretty much all drachnids on Norrath.
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  5. Rasper Helpdesk The Original Helpdesk

    Shadowspine was used to corrupt Vishmitar as well right? Which is what led to the entire DoN expansion
  6. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    I -believe- it was actually Venril Sathir using a magic stone he stole from Firiona Vie that led to DoN. Venril's hatred of the Ring of Scale led him to use the stone for mind control on Trakanon where he learned of the Broodlands and the Nests' existance and Venril wanted to wipe them out as payback. He hires the Solusek Mining Co. to dig into the walls of Lavastorm and they discover the broodlands and anger Tirranun, adventurers get called to explore the new lands. Venril learns that Yar'Lir and Vishimtar collectively create a barrier that makes them immune to his magics so concocts a special "super-curse" that activates when either dragon dies. We kill Yar'lir and in the process corrupt The Nest along with Vishimtar. Venril wins in the end.

    Beimeth be gentle.

    Edit: Looks like the DoDH mission "Into the Shadows" does suggest Shadowspine was used by Venril in his curse on the dragons.

    Upon killing fragment of Vishimtar
    'Well fought,' the unseen voice continues. 'How eagerly Venril offered to carry the curse of Shadowspine into the nest. How eagerly Draygun unleashed the curse on his own people. Such is the power of Shadowspine, to bring down entire armies without a struggle.'

    No idea how/when Venril got ahold of Shadowspine though since AFAIK Draygun has been in possession of it for the past 30+ years when DoDH releases.
  7. Buster_Shruggs Augur

    Wow, a lot of that lore I was not aware of.(Werewolves killing a dragon!) I recently completed the DoDH task you mentioned and the Vish shade always made me wonder about the power and reach of the Shadowspine.
  8. Boze TLP complaint factory


    Best lore quest in the game, hands down.
  9. Nniki Augur

    It appears to me that the lore isn't entirely consistent. The story of Venril cursing the Nest, which suggests Shissar origins for his spell and makes no reference to Shadowspine, states that he created the curse himself and is the only one with full control over it whereas we are told in the Into the Shadows mission that Venril willingly carried the curse of Shadowspine.

    Excerpts from The Revelation (Story Window in game):
    The Depths of Darkhollow expansion revolves around you gaining power from the pages of Shadowspine in various ways, spells being the most noteworthy. I was initially thinking Venril could have done the same without having had physical possession of the book.
    The Into the Shadows mission begins with you having been swallowed by the book while it is under Draygun's control.
    While you're one of the rare individuals released by "the author", I was thinking that Venril could have possibly been one of those that escaped Shadowspine with its power, but we are later told Venril offered to carry it.
    Ignoring the text of The Revelation, the following excerpt from The Depths of Darkhollow manual (darkhollow_manual.pdf in EverQuest directory) makes me think Venril could have simply read/learned a or "the" curse from Shadowspine and used it without having actually carried Shadowspine itself, but the actual "curse" seems to be the book consuming a part of you, leaving you as undead.

    During the mission, we see fragments of both Vishimtar and Draygun present in Shadowspine, suggesting part of them had been consumed by the spell book. This makes me think Venril would have had the book in his possession to have had it consume part of Vishimtar like Draygun had it do to us.
    Triggering the curse seems to be a result of the Nest's magic, protective veil being interrupted and thus no longer actively providing protection.
    It makes sense that Mayong would help Venril, as he hates the Ring of Scale too, but the text during the Shadowspine mission sounds like it was Mayong's idea with Venril offering to carry it for Mayong rather than Mayong offering to help Venril with his revenge.

    From Mayong Mistmoore - Background Lore:
    In The Serpent's Spine expansion, we saw the book Veeshan's Children where it states the interruption of the veil alone could corrupt the dragon eggs in the Nest even without the curse in play. It also states how Venril went about setting up the curse, again with no mention of Shadowspine. It mentions that Vishimtar leaving his post allowed the curse to grow unchecked, but Venril had stated only he knew how to stop it.
  10. Zamiam Augur

    ^WOW^ now that is a post response
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  11. Buster_Shruggs Augur

    Thanks a lot for the post Nniki. I appreciate the time and effort to collect and post all those exceprts! I enjoyed reading through them while enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers.
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  12. Qbert Gallifreyan

    I seem to recall a few extra (old) entries in the story window in beta that aren't on live, but I can't log in to check; if I'm not totally losing my mind I think they had something to do with LDoN so probably not related . . . but for some reason I thought one related to Naggy's Lair so maybe?
  13. Nniki Augur

    This one, perhaps?
    [IMG]