There are rumors about that EQ3 is in secret development since a few years. Well I have a crazy thought: What if "Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen" will be EQ3 ?! Its does get developed under our eyes but in disguise of another game/name (Pantheon) and another company (Visionary Realms). Just like the original EQ which got developed by SOE in disguise at 989 Studios to compete with Ultima Online and some other games. The official story is that project leader John Smedley and his boss kept everything secret to the bigger Sony boss and that they had a secret budget for a long time but this story might be a hoax. Signs that Pantheon will be EverQuest III: Project leader was Brad McQuaid (R.I.P.) who was also the creative mastermind behind EQ. There is a video about a new ice dungeon just like a mix of Velketor's Labyrinth and the Crystal Caverns. This dungeon does use ice shaders and EQ received an ice shader (for ToV) just a few months ago ! Chat lines are about identical with EQ (like: You hit a Snowclaw Wolf for 14 damage; PlayerX begins to cast a spell.). The UI is very similar (compass, group window, chat windows, buff window, etc.). Some or even most sound effects are identical ! (Level Up = DING!, spell cast sounds). Races are very similar and I think that most of them are just a disguise for the original EQ classes to keep the project "secret". Skar = Name is very similar to Iksar but they look like humanoid (not lizard) demons. Archai = Barbarians with blue skin. Dwarves = Coldain dwarves Dark Myr = Dark Elves who morph into sirens/mermaids when being in water. Ogres Humans Halflings Elves = Combination of high elves and wood elves. Gnomes = Gnome cyborgs All in all to many similarities
I don't mean to burst your bubble, but most of your evidence really isn't. All fantasy games have similar races, it's all basically right out of Tolkien (with some R.A. Salvatore Dark Elves). A lot of the sound effects are generic "stock" sound effects used in bad movies and other games. The UI and chat being similar is likely the result of the same person making it. There is nothing unique or special about ice shaders in modern games. It's a big deal for EQ because of its super old graphics engine, but that's about it. Brad being behind Pantheon makes it less likely it would be a Darkpaw Games product.
If Pantheon, which is being crowd funded heavily, is actually owned by the owners of the current EverQuest, would probably be sued so hard that Daybreak would probably go bankrupt. Even if they won in court, it would be such a scandal it would absolutely destroy all credibility of the studio and drive away the potential player base. It is logical to call it Brad's envisioning of of EQ3, but not Daybreak, no. The only way this could happen is if Daybreak bought out Pantheon. The level of corruption or lack of values for that to have been planned would be insane. So I have to hope that if it occurs, it was not a plan.
If we were counting all the times they've tried (including internal attempts) that would be EQ7 by my count.
