SOE Live is coming up real fast. My first time in Vegas, and first time at the convention. I'm hoping to ask a few questions when I get the chance, and maybe provide some direction from the lore community in general. So, I'd like people to post some things they want asked, questions in general, your favorite parts of unearthing Norrath's history, recent developments you've really liked, or old stuff you really miss. Worst case scenario, it's a thread where people can get some questions answered or ideas discussed. Best case scenario, I can forward some of this to Mr. Cronyn, should the opportunity arise. SOELive is Over! Other than specifics, there was apparently a change in methodology over the years. Since the lore was considered kind of abstract and unreachable, they made it more accessible. There is also a heavier focus on current events due to the story being fairly important right now. Making history instead of learning history, etc. Other than that, there are some behind the scenes things I learned that really don't need talking about. Just know that it's an active effort being made to keep the story and lore of Norrath as high quality as ever, including expanding delivery methods. Things to mention: POST FANFAIRE UPDATES Old world lore faucets: Keeper of secrets, Drafling, Peacock Club. Places where little hints to norraths' secrets used to flow, and have since dried up. No clue on this one. I wouldn't be surprised if they used some of them as a springboard in the future. How much of the story is pre-written? Either in Vhalen's secret library, or by the team in general in the past. Erm. Yeah. Major event aftermaths (What's going on in Kunark now, for example?) No major news, but there is an intended time capsule effect. They want people to experience things as they go along. That darned OoLS ethernauts crap Erm.. yeah. More secret, translatable messages! Lack of resources, hopefully it will change soon. More active lore stuff opposed to spoon fed quest dialog Seed of Growth? More to come! Where are they now? (Christanos Thex? Tserrina? Zebuxoruk? Lenya / Marcus Thex?) Didn't ask. Other planets (Origin of dragons, Xulous/Berrox confusion) Didn't ask.. sort of. That sealed off area in the "new" nexus Soonâ„¢ Sage's Prophecies Didn't ask. Mayong Origins (STILL!) Didn't ask, but yeah.. who knows. Luclin / Dresolisk Crystal / Rune of Sunder? Soonâ„¢ Far Seas Trading Company / Highkeep / Kithicor Didn't ask. What the heck did the Jal`Raeth do that got them banished? What's the deal with their different factions? Details? Origins? I think it's overdue :/ Well.. who knows. Planar Inhabitants.. The timeline says we still ventured into the planes. What happened to people like Maelin Starpyre? No idea. Please contribute, so I can return with some gems to share! Will update the OP with topics I'll try to mention.
Is Anashti Sul still going to attempt her takeover of Health, now that she has claimed the title of Goddess of Undeath? Where did Tserrina go after she left the Tower? to Mayong? if she did, what's the status of thier relationship? Who is the 'leader' of the Hounds of War? and how does the new Triumverate affect the good/evil balance in the Pantheon? (as Rallos was more a chaotic evil type...but I see Sullon/Tallon/Vallon as having a more neutral lean) will we see more from Fironia Vie...particular if we bring her back from Ethernere...concerning the seed to the Bloom of Growth? (possibly a new shard/plane of Growth being accessed) Even though we foiled Kyle Bayle's present plans...are we going to see anything more from him soon since we're going to the place he claims he's so powerful in? or was that last attempt all he had left to try for the Qeynosian throne anytime soon? Will we ever find out why Cristanos has a dual/possessed sounding voice? Are there any plans to reveal the whereabouts or fate of the one who betrayed Lucan to Theer and had him abducted? (her name eludes me at the moment) will we see Rallos in the Ethernere? during the Eday lines, talking to the Steward, he mentioned having not seen E.Marr pass on. Could it be possible that we might run into Rallos Zek's 'ghost'?
I'm going to try to avoid asking current event type questions, because at most, we'll get a "You'll see!". The Tserrina thing is pretty important. We defeated her, but I don't think we killed her. The Hounds of War thing is still playing out.. hence the avatars on Norrath. I doubt we'd get an answer. Same with the Kyle Bayle thing. He's kind of back in the picture with the whole Qeynos update. I will bring up the seed of growth, however. That's been one of the elephants in the room since EoF. Same with Christanos. It seemed like she would step into the spotlight, given the serious approach Freeport took to the unearthing of Neriak. Nothing yet though. I don't want to ask too much about the Ethernere, because that's expansion content that will definitely not be revealed.
here's something that I kinda wanna know. at the end of the Freeport storyline, Opal Darkbriar reveals herself, and has a conversation with Lucan about her trying to find out where the one that got him abducted is/deliver her to him. He says she'll only get back in his good graces if she does so. Why is Opal still hiding in guises after that? it seems like Lucan gave her the go ahead to actively hunt...seems like hiding in all her illusions all the time might be detrimental considering none of her guises are 'in charge'...she has to report to others for menial duties for someone of her power and stature. (the Foci sends her to Qeynos as part of a deal/information exchange with Bellengere, and obviously has no idea the person she's sending is Opal)
Re: Opal Darkbriar, I'd think there would be several reasons for Opal to stay among her illusions for the time being. 1) Until she's back in Lucan's good graces, she's a target for anyone else who wants in Lucan's good graces. Lucan didn't pardon her, just gave her a stay of execution. Yes, she's probably strong enough to take all comers, but it'd be a hassle that would distract from her main pursuit. 2) Everyone, including her target, believes her dead. So her target does not know she has to protect herself from Opal. This makes it easier for Opal to find and catch her. 3) Being an underling can be very useful. People tend to ignore you as unimportant, or assume your loyalty is guaranteed due to your awe/fear/fawning over your betters. I would not be surprised to learn either that Opal intends to keep her underling personas after she regains favor, or that she had underling personas she used even while she was the Foci. Looking forward to seeing you at Live, Maergoth! Odds are your shot at asking most of these questions will be at the Anything Goes panel Saturday afternoon. Maybe at the xpac panels on Friday, if you're asking about lore leading into the xpac. Unless you're going to the Dev Brunch on Sunday too. If you do then I'll help you pin Cronyn down there.
I'm definitely skipping the dev brunch, heh. Fanfaire was expensive enough minus the add-ons. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity to talk about some stuff at least. I just want to go into this next expansion confident that I'll be doing more than crunching numbers and logging in twice a week for raids. It just feels like at some point, the decision was made that the lore should be spoon fed along side the primary quest lines of the expansion. That there is simply no reason to make you go out of your way to find it. While I DO believe lore should be accessable to everyone, I also believe in rewarding those that seek it out. Right now, there is simply nothing like that lately.
I think you'll get dodged on a lot of these questions. Call it a gut feeling. One question I think they might answer is "How many more expansions until the End of Ages prophacy is played out?". If they answer that one I expect a little hem and haw room but it is solid enough of a question without spoiling anything that it might get answered. Also asking if they have any future plans for the Ethernaughts might be good. I'd guess the aswer is no, but who knows? Oh, and do they have any plans yet for something beyond the End of Ages. Also, any plans for the "other" continent?
Not to make this about me, but I really hope they bury the Ethernaut stories deep under the mud of EQ2's ground and my tears. If they never returned, I'd be absolutely delighted. If they will return, I'd rather not know about it :/
well if I recall correctly, if you do the TS timeline in Odus, you get to speak with an Ethernaught and you all but confirm to them that they died in the near future (you aparently speak to them shortly before they confront Anashti) and they kinda give a 'if we die, then it's worth it' comment. So I assume that while Anashti, being a god survived the encounter with the Ethernaughts...the group itself other then Miragul the time traveling lich dies in that last encounter in the Palace.
Rainmare@Oasis wrote: I'm going to apply soap opra logic here: if you haven't seen the dead bodies the devs are free to have them appear again. NPCs that are raid targets appear in lore afterward and don't mention anything about us trying to kill them. There are a lot of things that could happen where at least some of the Ethernaughts survive and Anashti escapes them (or leaves them to their fate). If the answer from dev comes back that the Ethernaughts are dead then that perty much is the end of the story. Personally I'm just currious why so much time was spent on throw-away characters. Especially since we don't interact with them very much. Heck, most of the Ethernaughts got more lore loving than Mur Shar and we've delt with him directly through several quests (which all amounts to more face time, but less lore content). We know where each and every Ethernaught was born and how they got involved. We don't even know that much about Mur Shar and he's Antonia's right hand man! I mean, other than being Antonia's friend what accomplishments convinced Antonia he was the right guy to head up the guard? Not to mention that half of the councle of 10 we really know nothing about. Shouldn't they all have reputations instead of being faceless advisors?
Would like to know if they ever plan on removing the anti-afk code for ringwar or fixing the bug assoicated with it.
well we know that half the Council was purposefully kept out of the public eye until the icident with Murrar shar's possession by Kyle. the idea was that if something happened to the 5 that everyone knew about, the entire beuracracy wouldn't collapse overnight until their replacements where found...and it also let the other 5 get to know the people better, get eyes and ears on the pulse of things without people being lock lipped or otherwise suspicious of the 'hidden' 5. As to the Ethernaughts and thier face time...that I think was all about the idea that thier histories, adn thier lives, were almost entirely spent tied up in the contest againsnt the first Void invasion. Bayle finding the staff, the events around it, and traveling to other peoples to try adn unite them against a new common foe. the Scyrae and how it came into the ethernaught possession, the visions of Eiylee, the building of the Cloudskipper. had we not known or learned all this about them, we never would have been able to get to the Moors, we wouldn't have known what that staff was we got, or how to seek out the runes. without knowing thier story, and how they fought back, we wouldn't have known how to fight back the second time they pushed a hardcore invasion effort. True, we only really interact with the ethernaughts themselves one time, in the Palace of Ferzuhl. and all we really do is tell them that all that they did, all the sacrifices they made weren't in vain. We give them the courage to face Anashti herself while we deal with Varsoon. As to Murrar Shar....he's a character that is one of those you don't need to know anything more about him then he and antonia go way back, and he's the captain of the royal guard. just like we'll probably never know if Vishra is a Bayle or if the woman he knocked up was a bayle, if they were married, or even if she's still alive. it's information that would be interesting to have, but not something of any real importance since we know that Antonia IS a Bayle, and she's on the throne already.
i'm wondering if there is any lore surronding the other possible rewards for the final claymore quest (qeynos guard, qeynos cutlass, qeynos kilij etc)
Rainmare@Oasis wrote: The 5 secret members of the privy councle arn't publically declared, but they are all still suppose to be important, influential and well connected members of Qeynos society. Unfortunately the only members I can name off the top of my head are the (current) Barron Ironforge, PT Ironforge and Murr Shar. I can't even name the 5 public members! Though, there has been a disturbingly high turnover rate with each set of quests involving them...
the 'public' five were I think Bellengere, Murrar Shar, Lord Ironforge, the priest of the celestial watch (baylinor?) , and the Heartwood Master/Matron. the hidden 5 were Vishra, Daylia, PT Irontoe, the Qeynos guard General, and the other dwarf that during the dwarven Qeynos racial is replaced by the newly appointed Queen Stormhammer at his request so she can get 'tutoring' in politics by Antonia. So yeah, while they had influence, they weren't huge overwhelming members of society. They were people you respected perhaps, or had important positions, but no one knew exactly how important a figure they really were. Like I'm sure PT Irontoe was a much better imformer on how the people felt, and what thier concerns were, then say, Ironforge was. and I'm sure the General had a much better grasp on the moral of the military men then Murrar did. hmm. I musta got someone wrong. cause that barbarian hothead was a member of the Ten, wasn't he. mybe it's him rather then PT irontoe. Or Vishra. are we sure Vishra was on the Council of Ten or was he just a 'close advisor/bodyguard' type? bah now I wanna go back and try to find out who they all are again.
Rainmare@Oasis wrote: I'm sure the following are the hidden members (i'm not sure about irontoe, he's not present during the trial of baron ironforge i counted 9 total there aside from the queen) Daylia the vigil General golias sydwn Marik McPherson III Bellengere the three The others present at ironforge's trial are Te'alla woodspire <the heartwood matron> Harkam nubbytoe <circle of ten> Kwipp stalwart <circle of ten> Harkold ironshale <circle of ten> Prophet bainyn fairwind <prophet of rodcet nife>
given that list is everyone but Ironforge. I'll make a guess that the 'public' five were: Bellengere, Bainyn, Golias, Te'Alla, and Ironforge. the hidden 5 were Harkam, Kwipp, Daylia, Marik, and Harkold (who is the one that steps down in the Dwarf racial to the the new Queen Stormhammer take his place)
