Is there any lore for this raid zone that is canon? I assume that there is but I guess I've missed it...
I'm not sure theres anything in game about it but I do believe it is a former Shissar Temple of some kind but that's just a guess by the architecture in the zone
Well, what do we know? From the non-raid instance I can say that its populated by Nyads. The Nyads come from another dimension and are responsible for the destruction of the city of Taan (aka the City of Knowledge), This is the city that New Taan was named after in the Plane of Knowledge and the home of Zeb, probably before he became a deity? Apparently the Nyads think of the Shissar as near godlike beings. Apparently some of the Shissar's spirits are trapped in the temple inside of various golems. (A way to avoid the Greenmist?) Or it could be the golems were made to mimic Shissar. I find that equally likely. The Nyads present have acted like the Shissar on Luclin: they became undead through a similar process that leaves them looking like starved versions of their former living selves. Maybe it involves starving to death? Either way they share the same approximate description as the Shissar in Ssra temple in EQ1. One thing important to note here is that this temple we visit doesn't exist in EQ2's Norrath, but belongs to a different thread. Yes, that's right. A zone that exists in EQ2 doesn't actually exist on EQ2's Norrath. Well, maybe it does exist but we aren't visiting the one on our Norrath but the one through a tear. That also explains the very strange appearance of the bixies in the Shattered Hive (and their presence in Guk!), and the reason that High Keep looks more like a throwback to EQ1 than the port city that we'd expect in our Norrath. Or our High Keep could look exactly the same on the inside. The whole Ethernere and traveling through tears to other threads is a real tease because we can't be sure if any of this exists on our Norrath or not.
Except for the Nexus Core and the Temple of Veeshan instances, the others don't really 'fit' in dragon afterlife and no real explanation (lore/story-wise) was given in game as to why we're accessing these zones that have nothing to do with dragons or the ethermere are accessed via Vesspyr Island. There was a small reference to goblins being where they shouldn't be from the Steward during the sig line for the two High Keep zones.. but even that doesn't explain what those two zones are doing attached to the dragon afterlife
The Temple of Veeshan isn't suppose to be in the Vesspyr isles either. There is an explanation, that Kerafyrm forced the Temple there with the Tear of Veeshan, so this is probably our ToV (which begs the question: what happens to our ToV after we destroy the Tear?). The conversation with the Steward actually provides some insight. The Ethernere has been damaged by a series of events. The build up of souls, the death of 2 deities, the rampaging and independent action of The Harrowing Horde and lets not forget us defeating Drinal and severing his connection to the Ethernere. All of this damage has caused tears to appear that lead to different threads. Some souls escaped through these tears. Other creatures came through the tears into the Ethernere. Even Drinal himself is making use of this with his recently acquired ability to banish souls to The Void.
This could be entirely incorrect but the way I interpreted it is that when we tried to access the nexus at the beginning the of the questline and damaged it, it tore holes to different threads (realities) in the nearby area. Hence why all of the portals face out from the nexus in the middle of the zone and appear to be impact sites from some kind of magic. Really the only reason we go to these places is to recover the damaged nexus core so we can repair the damage we did in the first place. There really isn't an explanation for why we go to the raid zone since we already got what we needed in the solo/heroic version. ToV, I don't believe, is actually inside of the Ethernere, it's just on the other side of a portal to it made from the tear. They made a point of saying that only we could actually go there because we're still alive. It's possible that even though the tear is destroyed, the portal is still active, or it's possible that Kerafyrm has other tears that we're not aware of yet. It's also possible that the devs are just winging it and letting us fill in the gaps for them though.
My take have been like this : In EQ1's Norrath, adventurers go to places like Dead hills, Neriak 4th gate, Bixie warfront to find several items/ways to return Lady Lendiniara to it's original, former reality or loc. In EQ2's Norrath, we're looking for some powerful items thought to be located in places like High keep, Hive, ToV, shissar sanctum BEFORE our Kerafyrm gets his hands on these himself (with the aid of chronomagic empowered by tears) But ya, I personally don't know that much hehe
The Highkeep and Hive we visit are not part of the Norrath of EQ1 or EQ2. Highkeep has "Borgin Serillis" as a god, and he doesn't exist in our threads. The Fractured Hive is actually an invaded version of Guk.
Bolgin Serillis IS a god. and we HAVE met his kids already in our version of Norrath. the Boarfiends are children of Bolgin. the story (if you picked up the lootable item in the solo instance) is that a drunken dwarf and the the dark elf named were locked in the same cell you get put it. 'Bolgin' is the one that made that hole that was boarded up. the crawled through the tunnel, fell down the hole that we get warned not to go down. the goblins see him, see the candle crown, and assume he's thier patron god, Bolgin Serillis. the dwarf enjoys the fame, and goblins doing his bidding, and then the DE convinces him that with the goblins acting as an army, they coudl sack highkeep. so 'Bolgin' does just that. So while that Bolgin we face is indeed not an actual God....Bolgin Serillis IS a god of the pantheon. his a sibling to Brell.
I'd say that the dwarf we fight in High Keep: Pickclaw Depths may or may no be the actual Bolgin Serillis. Blogin is known as Brell's lesser brother. He created the Goblins, Boarfiends and a few other races. There is a question if the Kobolts are a creation of Brell or Bolgin. At best Bolgin is a minor deity. As such... it is possible that this crazy dwarf is the real deal. Or that dwarf is just crazy and delusional. Or even that the dwarf is actually really crafty and playing the part of Bolgin so he can gain control of the Pickclaw goblins who do make decent followers. All in all, the power that Bolgin displays... umm... it isn't actually all that far below what other deities have displayed in other encounters. He at least matches Mithanial Marr from the Shard of Love.
the book we get does state that even locked up, he somehow is able to get alcohol. the DE tells us as much in his memoirs. he fashions the candle crown, makes the tunnel, falls down the one hole and ends up among the goblins. the DE at first thought the Goblins were going to kill him, but then they start calling him Bolgin and worshipping him. he was quite content with the diea of basically just being fed/worshipped...until the DE convinces him to use the goblins as an army to sack high keep. while his 'magic' flask might be a sign of him being the real deal...I don't think it would take a DE to convince a deity to do something. and in his monologue he even tries to take credit for the plan by saying 'I have rallied the goblins of the deep, they have sacked highkeep in me honor! what hope do have against me, mortals.. Ye of less faith, and less cunning then I, let it be known that this is where you lives end' paraphrasing a bit. then of course he calls the goblins to fight. now I wouldn't be surprised if the flask has a connection to Bolgin, which is why drinking from it gives him powers..and why he can actually overdose on it (when he falls down competely stone drunk for a bit during the fight) but I don't think the dwarf himself if the real Bolgin.
