Hey guys I wanted to start a thread about the many changes that have occur'd in Norrath over the centuries since the time of Everquest Online Adventures. I played EQOA for many, many years, it is hands down my favorite game of all time, while gameplay wise, it was a very basic and simple game. I believe that it was the best example of how to do an mmorpg the right way. The exploration and sense of accomplishment that game provided has yet to have been matched, even after all these years. At least in my humble opinion. Now, with all of that said, I am also a huge fan of EQ and EQ2. I would like this to be a thread for all of us Norrathian lore nerds to post about nostalgia, as well as the changes that have occur'd. This "universe" is by far my favorite and in my opinion the best around. The Top Obvious Changes 1) In Everquest 2 it has been around 600 years(correct me if that number is wrong) since the events in the original Everquest and another 400 years added to that since the time of Everquest Online Adventures. 2) The landscape has changed dramatically since the time of Everquest Online Adventures, to the point where many of the most well known and loved spots of EQOA players, are no longer around. 3) Many of the places have different names since the days of Everquest Online Adventures. ex:Klick-Anon the city of the gnomes is now known as Klack-Anon and is actually a dungeon! Highpass Hold as well as Halas, two of my favorite cities, have been destroyed! Plus much, much more. I would like to invite all of you, EQOA vets and even those who never played EQOA, but play either EQ or EQ2 to help by posting about a lot of the changes, the lore and just the general overview of the setting. I know this thread has the potential to be great! Let's make it EPIC! = ) Dalchemist level 60 Alchemist(Hodstock server EQOA) Dalnec level 60 Necromancer(Hodstock server EQOA) Dalumah level 60 Warrior(Hodstock server EQOA) Wowthatsfast level 60 Rogue(Castle Lightwolf server EQOA) Bloodtap level 60 Shadowknight(Castle Lightwolf server EQOA) Kairendan level 61 Sarnak Shadowknight(Freeport server EQ2)
Well, honestly its hard to discuss the "changes" since EQOA exists in a different dimension than EQ or EQ2. EQOA is set 500 years prior to EQ's start, but doesn't share a common history with EQ and isn't full acknowledged in any of the other SoE games. EQ2 actually uses more EQOA lore than EQ does. EQ2 has a common history with EQ1 up to the Planes of Power expansion where the final fight in the Plane of Time causes an event to happen which results in a space/time paradox where in one reality Zebuxoruk remains in his prison (which is EQ1), and the other reality where Zebuxoruk is released (EQ2). Events that follow begin to diverge between the two realities. (Actually the best interpretation is that after November 2004 any lore added to EQ1 isn't valid for EQ2 because EQ1 still adds content that is in their past which isn't EQ2's past anymore.) What would probably interest people more here is talking about what made it from EQOA in to EQ2's lore. I'm sure you'll discover a few small gems here and there that us former EQ1 players wouldn't recognize.
Very cool, thanks for the reply, I didn't know that it was a different universe, I knew that EQ1 and EQ2 were different realms after the final fight in Plane of Time, however I did not know EQOA was a seperate universe from the other two universes. I see a lot of very familiar things from EQOA in EQ2, but they are set differently, like Lady Vox and Permafrost for example. I also have not been able to locate IoD(Isle of Dread), Arcadin, Darvar Manor or The Haunted Maze in EQ2. I have also noticed that the "Conjuror" formerly known as the Magician, does not have the choice to be Hydromancer, Pyromancer, Geomancer or Aeromancer. The models for the pets are also much different, the low level ones are quite similar, however the end game pets I am used to were Djinni Vitzer(Aeromancer), Efreeti Lord(Pyromancer), Badi Elder(Geomancer) and Ghilan Noble(Hydromancer). From what I have read on the forums the only pet worth using is the fire pet and it's a caster(was previously a melee dps) this saddened me. When you say that EQOA was it's own universe, do you mean a part of a "multiverse" or just it's own entity? I ask because a lot of the lore from EQOA at least location and creature wise is identical to EQ2. Cazic Thule, The Avatar of Hate, ect. I look forward to your reply. = )
Hmm off the top of my head: Arcadin eventually became Erudin and a civil war broke out between them that catapulted some of the kitties to the moon - then through trying to fix a broken nexus transport system Odus got completely pulled into another plane of existence called Ultera where some of them made an alliance with the shadowed men. Highbourne is probably still somewhere on an island but we've heard little of it since. Highpass was eventually under the control of the McCabe family and became an important central hub linking freeport and qeynos - when the land began to split apart and the seas rose it became completely cut off from the rest of the world by land and instead highpass began to focus on the seas since it was now an island - forming the Far Seas Trading Company with a vast shipping fleet that rescued us players and took us to freeport/qeynos not so long ago Mayong Mistmoore ascended to godhood and then gave up his role and is now searching for the secret to Age's End Rivervale and the Misty thicket became seperated on it's own island we call the Enchanted Lands after the changes to the geography. They have been struggling with the shadowed men and goblins for many years - the residents of Rivervale are not quite what they seem Neriak was pretty much stable until they launched their attacks on Faydwer leaving them open to attacks from the halflings and co - they were forced to seal the city from the surface for a very long time until eventually they reopened it through an entrance in the dark light woods in nektulos - a sort of civil war had broken out between the lodge of the dead/Queen Christnos Thex and the previous King - she still hunts his loyalists to this day as she sits on her throne in Neriak thinking herself something of a God now that she has created the fairy like Arasai Freeport grew and grew and when Mithaniel Marr and Erollisi descended on us they formed a holy crusade to faydwer to cleanse the land of Undead - this led to Freeport being given a new temporary ruler to watch over the land till they would return. His name was Lucan D'lere and he became a bit of a megolomaniac. For many years he fought with the Northern Freeport Priests and Paladins over control but in the long run he won and turned Freeport into the darker orientated city it is today. The Deadhills have been long since lost but some trinklets have made their way out of the area as well as some cousins of the Jal'Raeth (shadowed men) Much of the areas of Karanas sank into the ocean saving the places you find in the Thundering Steppes, places like Darvar manor etc are either long gone or part of small island outposts that can't be visited in game but have been mentioned by some devs Lady Vox was assassinated and her ghost still haunts the halls of Permafrost, Lord Nagafen still mourns her loss and has some of Lady Vox's eggs that he is lying on which would give him an army of sleepers when or if they hatch - the gnomes mining guild of Lavastorm/Solusek managed to bore a giant hole into Nagafen's Lair so nagafen could possibly come and go if he wanted to now The Elves of Fayspire fled Tunaria and settled on Faydwer creating Kelethin and Felwithe - and were eventually attacked by the Dark Elves but managed to survive - the high elves in Felwithe renamed their city New Tunaria and have become very racist Most areas of the Unkempt forest have been seperated by seas, parts of it may still be part of the orc devestated island we call Zek and another island that was mentioned by vhalen contains a lot of the missing unkempt forest Many of the thugs and bandits that roamed the deserts of Ro surrounding the ruins of Takish'Hiz found themselves trapped from the rest of the world and formed a new city they named Maj'Dul - some areas of the Plane of Sky crashed on the deserts and you can visit them and meet with some Djinn and find out their story Oggok has been destroyed and many ruins of it can be found in the Feerott, the Ogres managed to mobilise a massive army and attack many places including Freeport but due to betrayal of a pact they made they were wiped out by the greenmist - the remaining ogres can be found in freeport Qeynos continued to grow and grow - it suffered a great deal recently but despite the devestation and wars that have rocked the world it has survived under the leadership of the bayle line The Gnomes of Klik'Anon and Dwarves left tunaria and settled over in Faydwer and created the dwarven capital of Kaladim and gnomish city of Ak'Anon but both have since been abandoned with new residents in their place. Most dwarves and gnomes now find their life either in qeynos or freeport Kunark and Velious were discovered by various seafarers and this led to the awakening of sleeper which leads us into todays current events where the Awakened (sleeper) leads his war on velious and beyond. In EQ1 we breached the planes of the gods and entered the planes of power releasing Zebuxorok - this forced Druzil Ro the god of magic to reverse events by creating two universes one that would continue on from before we invaded (EQ1) and one that would continue on after we invaded (EQ2) - in our universe the gods abandoned us for a long time after the Planes of Power events but eventually returned All of the 4 archtypes exist still fire water earth and wind - I believe at level 50 your mage will get more traditional EQ style pets including the djini pet but you quickly lose it - you also get a water pet through AA. The aeromancer is the lesser used scout pet. The Isle of Dread might still be out there somewhere - you probably would find the Shard of Fear very similar if you get time to visit it
You're welcome Rezekiel is the guy you want to talk to really he played EQOA a lot so he knows the connections better than anyone
If it's the same Rezekiel that I am thinking of from Hodstock server....I knew him! Thanks for all the info man, sooo much nostalgia!
There are some major lore discrepancies between EQOA and EQ1. In EQ1 there is no mention of Arcadin, just the formation of Euradin and the eventual split of the evil euradites to create Paineel and that whole civil war that resulted in the launching of the Va'shir and the creation of The Hole. The Dead Hills isn't a location visited in EQ1 (pre-PoP), so there isn't really any EQ1 lore for it other than a map location. It gets more mention in EQ2's Desert of Flames lore but still no visit. A lot of people link the Dead Hills to Shadowmen lore from the Obelisk of Lost Souls. Darvar Manor didn't exist in EQ1's Plains of Karana. What is Fayspire? Never herd of it in EQ1. The Feir'Dal and Ary'Dal fled from Tak'ish in Tunaria to the newly discovered continent of Faydwyr. The Dwarves were created in Kaladim by Brell, and the Everhot Ore is some of the slag left over from when the Plane of Underfoot use to link to those caverns and is considered Brell's gift to the dwarven race. In EQ1, the Dwarves have no outposts in Antonica/Tunaria (though some frequent human cities). The Gnomes sole outpost was the mines in Solusek's Eye. The Gnomes in EQ1 were created in Ak'anon and between EQ1 and EQ2 driven from its halls by the Dark Reflection which succeeded in "liberating" the clockworks by reprogramming them to join the Dark Reflection faction. As for the mage pets...they are based on artwork from the latest expansion and only vaguely related to any other game's mechanics. Kind of like how the EQ2 paladin is almost nothing like the EQ1 paladin. Actually, all of the melee classes are vastly different than EQ1 variants.
And it's actually worse than that, given the issues vis-a-vis Anashti Sul, undeath, Ydal, Mayong Mistmoore...oh hi, my old friend the Mayong Migraine...(reaches for headache remedy) All of which is to say that the differences apparently also propagate backwards, as well...
Don't forget Deema Mertshak at the lujien camp in Obol Plains. She's related to the were-hunter from EQOA, Djivan Mertshak.
The name was Rezikai from Hodstock... lol glad people did remember me As for Mixxit/Bolly's info most of it is correct except maybe 1 correction iirc was that Moradhim and Klik'Anon were dwarven and gnome outposts but the race were already residents of Faydwer when EQoA's timeframe came, the cities of Moradhim and Klik'Anon were basically large "outpost" starting cities. Klik'Anon eventually dwindles to the gnomes that burrow into Sol Eye, which in EQoA they are a start up mining operating post there. Tethlin and Fayspire crumble away but Teth is mentioned by an NPC in EQ2's original Qeynos as a lost city thats ruins may be able to be found again for archaeological reasons, as for Fayspire... well Vhalen posted what happened to Fayspire.
This issue gives me a little hope and trepidation. The lore differences of the Everquest universes could signal EQNext will be a mess, or it could mean SOE learns from past. Since Vhalen is gone IMO they need to pick a lore architect to see it thru. Needs coherent perfect master lore that is only partially revealed to players, along with some lies and 'false voice' additions. IMO the biggest problem with previous universes is that there was no chief lore architect to veto 'true voice' mistakes (Myong and Age of Scale kinda stuff), and that the master lore was(or seemed to be) a work in progress, instead of a known truth that was revealed piecemeal to gamers. The problem with a known truth is that a disgruntled employee or hacker could release it and ruin the fun. Best to only let 1 chief architect know everything. Optimistically i like to think eqnext's decision to be a 'reimagined' means they want a perfected lore without retcon mess. I have no problem with buying into a new reimagined as long as its superior to old. let eq1, eqoa, and eq2 lores fade into myths compared to eqnext lore legitimacy. I really hope LORE becomes a new playstyle within EQNext with its own community. Discovering things is an amazing 'fix' for online addiction. IMO the saddest game design within questing is that lore is revealed to all players doing the basic questlines. Its like casting pearl before swine when someone who is questing for access/quest rewards who does quest for its utility is bombarded by walls of lore text. that stuff should be revealed to lore seekers only after searching. they are the ones who actually appreciate it and would spend time running all over norrath to figure it out. Complete with its own 'endgame' per expansion where some core truth is discovered after much effort and discovery development. There is a market for this as proven by games like "myst". My lore wishlist mostly revolves around Dead Hills and Xulous, an lore area that was heavily developed in eqoa. I love that lore to the bone, pun intended. Glad to see some creepy dragon bones in gu66. The lore game should have its own abilities, stats, objectives. I'd love to see a Master of Lore be able to hide his/her online identity, pierce others veils, impersonate npcs, pcs, etc. As well as submit fanfiction/dungeonmaker/quests for cannonization with enough other player signatures of support. The teaming with Storybricks sounds very promising for player driven quest production. IMO the 2 dimensional adv/other gameplay system is primitive. Other is crafting, decorating, lore all in one. There are only 2 main communities within eq2, which is living far below possibilities. There are many subcommunities which could be rounded out into fully fledged standalones such as pvp/city defense, and decorating, and of course lore. The expansion cycle with each community having an endgame seems like a great model. Obviously the communities should feed off each other, hopefully with lore game revealing strats for raid bosses. Maybe make all lore masters of highest achievement pvp flagged to make impersonation fun and give pvpers something fun to do. PVP ought to be a 'negative' starting each expac powerful and trying to maintain power against others as it slips away. For my imagination the gameplay design of eq has been too cardboard (needs more player driven and dynamic) and too linear. Post endgame especially. Dynamic is what drives postendgame till new content. then you dont start losing subs just cause PoW gets cleared or lore game is figured out. I would love to see world changes released by players websites instead of SOE. Let SOE do most lore press releases as links to fan sites. This means players will discover changes themselves, thru lore game. The less cards SOE is holding the better. Players will better be able to sink their teeth into the game. The 2 dimensional community system of eq2 is living way below what it deserves.
From what I have herd Lore in EQNext is going to be easy. It is a re-imagining of Everquest lore. Same gods, similar personalities, different deeds, a different Norrath with a totally different history.
Tethelin and Fayspire are twin cities on a lake in northeast Tunaria, between Lavastorm and Halas. The elves have not yet split into the Wood and High sub-races, but you can see it coming. Tethelin on the western shore is built in the trees, and was the starting place for Rogues, Rangers, Druids and Bards. Fayspire on the eastern side is stone and built on the water like Firiona Vie. Paladins, Clerics, Alchemists, and casters start here.
Moradhim, Klick'Anon, etc. never existed in EverQuest 1 or 2. They are unique to EQOA, and thus have no mention anywhere in EQ1/EQ2 lore. Dwarves attempted a voyage to establish an outpost on Odus, once, but after a storm laid them off course, they found themselves in Velious, drank velium-infused water, and became the Coldain of Froststone, and then the Coldain of Thurgadin, with their Dain ruling (the Dain title, as I recall, supposedly implies some kind of fealty that Thurgadin feels it still owes to Kaladim, but this is probably wrong and it's more likely a reference to a dwarf lineage in Middle-Earth or a reference to their race name, Coldain, which they took from the name of the expedition leader, Cold Dain). TL;DR: The only dwarven cities in history are Froststone (Crystal Caverns), Thurgadin, and Kaladim, though it would be neat to see a fourth dwarven city in the future, perhaps once we find out the fate of the dwarves who left on the Great March to found a new city in the Vaults of Serilis.
the Dark Reflection isn't responsible for Ak'anon becoming Klak'anon. that's explained as the Gnomes left during the Shattering/Rending finding the place unsafe and left the clockworks to do it's repairs/upkeep with a Skynet like master clockwork. (the one from the instance) they/it become self aware, and when the gnomes come back, the Clockworks refuse to let them back in because they feel the city is now theirs, and consider the gnomes trying to reclaim it as a threat/invaders.
The clockworks have always been self-aware. The King back in EQ1 was a clockwork made specifically to rule Ak'anon! The Dark Reflection was a group of clockworks that believed they were superior to their creators and that they should "replace" them. The Dark Reflection was a growing theat back in the EQ1 days held back by an army of newbie gnomes who had quests to reprogram the clockwork's from the Dark Reflection back to being loyal servants of Ak'anon. The affected units were mostly the spider cleaners and minor laborers. We don't really know if the Dark Reflection had prepared the MCP before or after the Gnomes left. It is possible that the gnomes were saved by the evacuation or that it allowed the Dark Reflection to go from a minor nuisance to running Ak'anon.
Either you're thinking of another faction or I'll be interested to know your sources. AFAIK Dark Reflection was the faction of the Ak'Anon's followers of Bertoxxulous.
Ok, did some research on ZAM. When your working on the quests that have you going after Defective Clockwork (faction) the quest rewards have you take a hit with the Dark Reflection (faction). I've always assumed that Dark Reflection was the clockwork faction, but as you said it is the faction for Bert followers in Ak'anon. Other than getting the faction's name wrong, I'm confident about the rest.
Thanks, I wasn't sure if I missed something. After all, that would have been a brilliant plan for a clockwork revolution. Organise and bolster Bertoxx's followers until they launch a plague or some other diseases that won't affect clockworks
