Does anyone RP anymore? I'm looking for some who do. Where can I find the most detailed information about game lore, especially the starting cities? I once recall an entire section devoted to Paineel, but for the life of me, I can't find it now.
In answer to your question I went to the guild recruitment forum and searched for 'roleplay.' Only one thread came up in 2019 and within ~10 it was back to 2015. Probably should have tried roleplaying or role playing as search terms, but there you have it. I have been mostly running characters on TLP and FV lately. Everyone on FV speaks Elvish and about as close as you will come to RP is someone will issue an admonition if you don't speak it, to the user it is transparent of course. At this stage, purely IMO, I think the best you can hope for it to find a group of people that get lost in the moment and call you by your RP name. Most of the 'RU relly a gurl' types seem to have got gone<sic> by now. I used to have some fan fiction, mainly Pyzjn, Varsoon, et al and their history in the Qeynos Hills. I seem to have lost it and I am not sure if it was for EQ or EQII. I've been charming Pyzjn for decades and handing in various hearts I collected off MOBs, still no luck. Fan fiction Everquest would probably be the way to search and keep a low threshold since EQII has a similar cast of characters.
The best place to get lore is to go around in game and talk to the NPCs. Plus read the old in-game books. Also looking up older quests gets you a lot of lore. You might also want to try looking up the old manuals that came with the physical copies of expansions back in the day. The Story window in game is another place. Another option would be the wayback machine and trying old sites that don't exist today. Something to remember regarding all 3rd party sites and some out of game 1st party resources is that they are not always accurate lore. Some are stories that were made up on the fly and have no real basis in the actual game. If you have more specific questions asking here can usually get you at least pointed to the in game place to find the info.
I'm not sure how far you're willing to go for this lore, but the old strategy guides that were produced for classic and the early expansions included a lot of lore and backstory. I am sure you could snag copies of those for very cheap on eBay.
I've been completing the 1.0/1.5/2.0 epics for every class. Some them have really cool lore if you take the time and read them.
