Altar of Malice Zone Preview: Tranquil Sea

By: Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall

Long had the Far Seas Trading Company provided Norrath's displaced citizens a place of refuge, an island where they found respite from the chaos of the Shattered Seas, before being transported to the last great cities of Freeport and Qeynos. But strange tidings came and without another word, the seafaring merchants stopped honoring the Pact of Tserrin. The refugees that should have been arriving at the cities' docks were replaced by rumors and speculation.

For years, the mystery remained.

Meanwhile, the future of Norrath hung in the balance of Age’s End, forcing tenuous alliances to be forged, and inevitably broken between the kingdoms. When all seemed lost, the great heroes of Norrath pushed the squabbling rulers aside, taking matters into their own hands. Kerafyrm the Awakened, the great Prismatic dragon, fell at last!

A cautious optimism replaced fear within the cities, as they were no longer besieged by the Awakened Legion. But even with the great prismatic wyrm trapped within the reformed grip of Luclin, and his army scattered to the winds, all was not well.

Tension between the great nations of Freeport and Qeynos was such that anything might spark the fires of another war. And yet, perhaps thankfully, the long struggle with the Awakened had depleted much of their ability to wage a successful battle.

This was unacceptable! The two states weighed their options knowing they must secure supplies as preparation for the inevitable. They looked to the Far Seas Traders' seemingly unlimited coffers and saw their answer. Unbeknownst to each other, Lucan D'Lere and Antonia Bayle each sent an emissary to seek an audience with their leader, Duke Jaesten Ferrin. Such a harmless thing, such a small thing, and yet will this order prove to be our undoing?

When no word from their representatives returned, the monarchs grew alarmed. They called upon heroes of past battles to venture within the Shattered Seas to find their emissary, and establish a new pact with the trading company before their adversary could do the same.

What awaited the heroes was no longer an isle of refuge within the Tranquil Sea. Something terrible and chaotic had befallen the island, changing its very nature! The few survivors had no words to explain the disaster. But the heroes were not deterred. They began to piece together the clues, and learned that the authority of the Far Seas on the Isle of Refuge, one Captain Greymast, had escaped the calamity and fled the island, leaving a trail of guilt behind him.

The heroes' search for Greymast took them on an odyssey further on the waters, to islands never before visited by those outside the Far Seas Trading Company!

Death Weave Isle - a lush island inhabited by feral beasts; part bear, part spider, the urzarach threaten every soul who dares come ashore, successfully keeping prying eyes from finding Brokenskull Bay - a secret pirate harbor boasting equal parts treasure and curses!

What was once a single volcanic island has since destroyed itself in a cataclysmic eruption leaving two distinct islands, the southern of which lies within Tranquil Sea - South Dshinn. Within the savage lands that remain is a fearsome tribe of pygmies who live in awe of the deinodons, large prehistoric creatures that share the land with them. Unfortunately, the Allu'thoa, a tribe of zealot lizard-men, do not hold any respect for the deinodons or pygmies. They have crawled out from their subterranean home of Zavith'loa, their fervor galvanized by religious prophecy, with the sole purpose of claiming the land as their own.

Knowing that they are hot on Captain Greymast's heels, the determined heroes set sail from South Dshinn and Tranquil Sea, and head for North Dshinn. What awaits them within Phantom Sea may carry great consequences for the great kingdoms of the Shattered Lands.

Altar of Malice launches on November 25, 2014. If you’re an All-Access member, you’ll have the ability to purchase and play this expansion two weeks early, starting on Tuesday, November 11, 2014! Are you ready to explore the Tranquil Sea and the other zones in Altar of Malice?

Urzarach mercenary...

"Watch out ! for I am born of spider and bear!"

So excited! It looks beautiful

xD Damn, this place looks like it's gonna be good design after good design. Haven't been excited to go on random in-game purges since AoD

I've seen a wolf-spider before, but never an urzarach.

Good stuff. Looking forward to November and AoM.

And before anyone asks, this is not repurposed zone artwork. This is an entirely new zone created in the new Terrain Tool.

Awesome! To quote Tom Petty "The waiting is the hardest part". Looking forward to this!

I can tell, actually. The terrain modeling is a bit different, plus the cliffsides and trees seem a lot more smooth when compared to shots of the original IoR from way back when.

This brings my excitement to unnatural levels. I feel like a Super Saiyan, but like with better hair.

Careful. I'm pretty sure that's about 70% of what contributed to Future Trunks' horrible features. Him and Gohan had better hair than the other Saiyans, after all...

Anywho...find that Lizardman tribe and the Uzurachs interesting...too bad the Lizardmen are not a tribe of Alliz though. They've blasphemed against their god, Zilla :/

Don't give them ideas!

Very much looking forward to this. Though I kinda question the idea to tell us what we're going to be doing in past tense? Just feels odd to me.

Now the big question: is the vet reward Isle of Refuge going to be the old or the new one?

Maybe Godzilla could be the big end boss. One big monster infested zone with Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Kumonga, Ghidorah, Mecha Godzilla, and the few I can't think of. Of course all slightly retextured and altered to avoid IP issues. Either that or faithfully recreated (that makes it an homage).

Signature Quest Line: Destroy All Monsters!

My money is on the old one. Vets with the game that long want a bit of nostalgia. Lots of good memories on that island, finding the hidden things before zam and places had everything listed online. Quests that dropped from mobs. Trading feathers and shells with people to complete collections. People forming groups for the last little mini dungeon - Mage and Warrior looking for Priest and Rogue!

They actually left the zone running a long, long time after characters stopped being created there (till a couple of years ago, maybe a bit less). I had one character that lived there I would log on to every now and then to run around the island, throw things in the water, good times.

I did the same! Heck, I've still got pepper I harvested from there. I will definitely prefer if the old one is the one we get, but I'm willing to bet some people are going to want the new version, or a setting that toggles them, like turning rain on and off. Except turning terrain on and off. Which would probably be super-hard to do and might give the devs nightmares from the suggestion alone...

xD would be hilarious, yeah. I could see it happening, too, since they already started the joke with Zilla.

Most lizardmen we've encountered are of the Alliz tribes, even the ones in the Ethernere, keeping a sort of tradition with the 'Alliz Tae Ew' which is literally an anagram for We Eat Zilla. Alliz Raef Ew are clearly the most devout of the Alliz tribes, because flipped around its We Fear Zilla. And then you have the Alliz Diar Ew in the Ethernere, who are probably less devout than even the Tae Ew, who feasted upon Zilla, as flipped backwards they are We Raid Zilla. Maybe we really will get this kinda homage-styled raid zone as some point, seeing as Zilla can already be raided

These new ones though...their names are just weird. Now I have to purge them even moreso than I do to the Alliz tribes.

Hmmm so old Dshinn's Redoubt was blown asunder in two to form 2 isles eh?. One can only speculate what/who were still left there when it happened. Maybe some old ruins from... well sometime previously may be around.

Thinking this makes Rez happy.

I can't wait for this expansion. It looks amazing I have 6 double 95's waiting in the wings. Hopefully there will be lots to do with baby toons too! And I like the new character we can get. Those wings are awesome! Of course I need to buy another slot. I have so many toons now but it will be worthi it!

Looks amazing wouldn't it be great if there was a city of the lost from before the shattering. Wouldn't it be just grand if the veteran's reward refuge had harvestable nodes, now that would really be sweet! Can't wait to tryout the beta.

They've been doing the "backwards" thing ever since they named Qeynos.