Spoilers: Ancient Vetrovian History

Discussion in 'History and Lore 2' started by Bramdar, Jan 23, 2022.

  1. Bramdar Active Member

    So, after going through the Visions of Vetrovia signature questline, we know that the Muramite invasion of Norrath did happen (although it ended quite differently compared to EQ1.)

    Does anyone know of a good summary of the events of the Muramite invasion in EQ1, and/or the history of the events of Gates of Discord and Omens of War? I know that it won't end the same way, but I'm curious as to how much was known about these lands pre-invasion and during the invasion. I never got into GoD or OoW, so I really don't know anything about how they played out or the history leading to them.

    I have a feeling that at least some of this will come up again.
  2. Cusashorn Well-Known Member

    The Muramite invasion started with Gates of Discord. It was introduced to Norrath in that expansion. Most of that expansion's story was gated behind raid progress, and the expansion itself was seriously hard because it was intended to come with a level increase and it didn't. Many players never actually got far.

    From what I can tell, I guess the Discord invasion started ages before adventurers could finally reach Taelosia, so I don't know how long they could've been there.
  3. Bramdar Active Member

    Yeah, I was one of those players that never got far - I bounced off of it before making any progress in the first zone, left the game, and went to EQ2 when it came out later in the year. I haven't played EQ1 since.

    The VoV signature quest (and a few of the side quests) hint at something of a timeline. I started putting some of it together, and I should post it here. But there's mention of the Muramite portal being closed "violently" (although no mention of when or how,) and Tavian Faust mentions that Mistmoore and his various forces/allies arrived on Vetrovia roughly 200 years ago to wipe out the remnants of the invading forces. But there's very little mention of the invasion, let alone info about the race that populated these lands prior to it. Are they the Nihil? There's a hint that the thrallocs are actually former Nihil who were experimented on, but it seemed to be ambiguous to me as to whether they were former Nihil or former elves from Faydwer.

    I have some thoughts about how the Muramite portal could've been closed "violently" and why there's no Taelosia in EQ2 (at least, not yet,) and how the Muramite invasion might factor into the larger story going forward. But I'm not even sure if there's any info out there on the invasion itself, let alone what the place was like before the invasion began.
  4. Cusashorn Well-Known Member

    Yes, the Nihil were the race that inhabited the continent. There's a small questline that goes into the Truusik faction of Nihil who basically welcomed the Muramite invasion, but there's literally no mention of the name "Nihil" anywhere in the script of the expansion. Everything indicates that they're now extinct due to the prolonged invasion, because the Pygmies showed up sometime after Mistmoore drove back and ended the invasion.

    This *IS* Taelosia. The starting area is still Natimbi, The Broken Shores. For whatever reason, the land is just called Vetruvia now, with no explanation why or mention of Taelosia.
  5. Aethos Well-Known Member

    Omens of War lore I am not super familiar with other than the over-arching story of it - that is, Norrathians basically get revenge on Mata Muram for his invasion of Taelosia (Vetrovia) and designs on invading Norrath. Similar to how he sent his armies through a portal, we go through a portal and basically invade and destroy the rest of his army that wasn't "trapped" in Taelosia. Further detail than that for OoW I don't know.

    As for GoD lore (where Taelosia is introduced and GoD takes place, and is synonymous with Vetrovia), pre-GoD (quite some time before the events of GoD, unclear how long - but I would wager at minimum around 10 years, at maximum a hundred) the muramites invaded and basically sacked the continent. Although it is not (as far as I know) explicitly stated, I get the impression that the sacking of the continent as well as the nihil fascination with geomancy is related to why it's relatively barren.

    The story of GoD is that you join up with a mini rebel faction of I believe Trusik (a sub-faction of the natives - muramites are NOT native) and kill some key target and basically take down the presumably 'provisional' hierarchy of muramites, as the muramites are trapped and separated from the bulk of their army on this side of their portal.

    Within the EQ2 timeline, it seems that not long after the muramites invaded, Mayong's forces invaded and wiped the muramites out, obviously before players ever had the ability to.

    I'm trying to figure out of the karuupa are supposed to be a form of the natives. I think they are, but I feel really weird about assigning a reused model for a race that should be a 'new' discovery, as this is the first time we would have seen them in EQ2's timeline.
  6. Cusashorn Well-Known Member


    Mayong's forces wiped out the Muramites 200 years after the time split, the Nihil have been driven extinct (judging from their complete lack of literal mention or acknowledgement in the story), and the Pygmies and Centaurs moved in sometime after that. The chief of the Karuupa tribe mentions that they migrated to the continent.
    Aethos likes this.
  7. Bramdar Active Member


    Do you have a citation that the muramites on Taelosia in GoD were trapped there or otherwise separated somehow from the main force? I keep going back to the Dreadfell Coven NPC Asphyxiana mentioning the "violent" closure of the Muramite portal at some point in Vetrovia's past - maybe the same thing happened in both EQ1 and in EQ2?

    As for the "natives," Lore of Norrath did have an old reference to them from the EQ1 GoD storyline: https://loreofnorrath.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/abysmal-words/ (I think this was one of the out-of-game updates from after the GoD release, and while Morden Rasp and his party don't factor in to EQ2, in this update they learn the history of the Taelosians and that potentially applies here - some of it is even confirmed in VoV quests.)

    - The "native" people of Taelosia were referred to collectively as Taelosians
    - The Taelosians came to Taelosia/Vetrovia from the sea (from under the sea, specifically?)
    - A sect of Taelosians started to worship a being called Trushar, who they referred to as an ocean god (Trushar is named in the Wrott Havenmore quests in Mahngavi Wastes)
    - The Trusik priests began sacrificing Taelosians (including their own followers) to Trushar (sacrifice is mentioned in the Wrott Havenmore quests, but no specifics)
    - The Taelosian elders split the race into two - the Nihil, and the Trushar worshippers, now known as Trusik (it seems the Nihil aren't mentioned specifically in VoV, but the Trusik definitely are and we find evidence of their existence in Mahngavi Wastes)

    As for the pygmies, they definitely did migrate to Vetrovia. But they arrived while the "ocean worshippers" (presumably the Taelosians) were still there. This is mentioned by Chief Zubbluggib during the signature questline. But I haven't seen any mention from the pygmies about trade or other relations with the "ocean worshippers" - just that the invaders came and wiped them out, and the pygmies split into multiple tribes during this time as well.