The only badass from the Shadows of Luclin storyline that whose death was not required to advance the plot. I know the population of this game is pretty much split on Luclin, but let's run with it. Let's assume for a moment that the side of Luclin we see from Norrath is the light side. Per the PnP RPG maps {Dark Side, Light Side}, that would mean that much of Marus Seru, about half of Dawnshroud Peaks and the immediately nearby areas of Umbral Plains would have been blown out. The rest of the moon is largely intact, using our sky as a point of reference. The original Luclin storyline had us killing off every major player on the moon, with the exception of Grieg, and possibly Seru, but he's gone anyway if the now extricated chunk of Luclin is what I think it is. This leaves Vex Thal and Akheva Ruins (I forget if it ever had a proper name) very empty. Emperor Ssraeshza is long dead. The absence of the gods could well have freed Grieg from his madness -or at least removed Luclin's direct influence- allowing him to finally reactivate his spires in Mons Letalis, and without the Maiden of Shadows' interference, other teleportation systems may now work as well. Who knows what the Shissar cooked up that we didn't take an interest in during our race to Vex Thal? So say now we have the means to get back to the moon. We have an obvious candidate for end boss in Grieg, but sorely lack any other real powers. Tsaph Katta could finally be revealed as a vampyre -or even the leader of the Coterie- and having taken over Katta Castellum. Mr. Veneficus could have relocated to Vex Thal or Akheva to look for sources of power, providing us with more open access to his spires, but that seems unlikely since he'd spent so many years trying to get back. Shar Vahl could still be populated, or it could be gone, depending on the actual blast radius of the Shattering. Anyone have ideas for major players or story arcs? Edit: Added map links.
I always thought his story was pretty cool. He was one of the last Geomancers of Norrath. The art of Geomancy seems to have died with the empire. The Akheva Ruins used to be the great fortress-city Ka Vethan before it was destroyed in the Akhevan Civil War. Being the extremely xenophobic race that they are, I find it impossible that Greig would ever be able to ally himselfs with them. I mean, the reason they had a civil war in the first place was to decide on if the Akhevans should be allowed to learn the Common tongue or not. The purists who felt that the idea was heresy ended up winning.
Ka'Vethan. Thanks Cusa. I knew I knew it. As for the inhabitants, I'd say they're pretty much dead since we went in for Itraer and Va'Dyn, Akelha'Ra seemed pretty eager to work with us to take out Aten. The Vex Thal Akhevans seem to be the more xenophobic ones, to me at least. I've been working through ideas with a lore nut guildmate and this is the story we're running with right now: Grieg's failure to open a portal back to Norrath was actually Luclin's interference. Grieg, not knowing this, thinks it's his own failing and slowly loses his mind. Meanwhile, a merry band of intrepid adventurers take out every other major player on the face of Luclin (and some under it). When the gods leave Norrath, the insanity imposed upon Grieg starts to lift, at least enough for him to get somewhat of a grip on himself. He can very easily be a Jekyll/Hyde character like this, suffering from the ebb and flow of his sanity. "Free" from Luclin's grip, he learns of Ssraeshza's death, and strikes out for the temple, seeking new sources of power to open his portals. He fails experiments with Shissar technology, and is ultimately run out by a new throng of Shissar that managed to avoid destruction during our heroic march to Vex Thal. From here, he heads back across Dawnshroud toward Akheva, finds little there but mentions of Vex Thal, and makes his way there. Meanwhile, on the dark side of the moon (cue Pink Floyd), Katta Castellum is cut off from Shadowhaven and sympathetic reinforcements, and finally falls to the Coterie (who could even be lead by Tsaph Katta, if we're in the mood to tie up loose ends). Shar Vahl is, as ever, beset by Grimlings, and the looming threat of the Coterie. Now, for how to implement this... You intially port up to Grieg's spires. Given the proximity to his former residence, this could be the entry level dungeon. His notes and failed experiments can easily be used to show us his story arc. The Shar Vahl storyline could be introduced via a run-in with Vah Shir explorers trying to find out what is going on across the moon. And no, I don't necessarily want them playable. Their population would be much too small, and too otherwise indisposed to support this. The stories can twist around, ultimately leading to us happening upon Grieg as he's testing some new idea of his in the depths of Vex Thal, with sexy results... Er, climactic, epic consquences.
Could work, but there are two major problems. For one, an explosion of the type that shattered Luclin would have ruptured the moon's atmosphere, rendering it uninhabitable. Even if the explosion didn't cover the entire moon and some parts of it somehow maintained an atmosphere, the shockwave and tectonic upheaval would've been strong enough to end the vast majority of life remaining. The other one's kinda nitpicky, but the loose end of Tsaph Katta's already been tied up. He never went to Luclin at all. This was stated in an EQ1 expansion, which means it might not apply to EQ2, but still.
Also, was it really Greig's idea for the spires in Mons Letalis? I never found out the backstory on that. I thought it was the Seru empire's attempt to get back to Norrath or something, but after it failed, the place collapsed and was taken over by spire spirits.
Looks good. But as someone had mentioned prevously, I'm not sure if there is any life left at all after the Shattering. The explosion is clearly strong enough to crack the moon into pieces with the shockware blasting the planetary rings nearly into nothingness and likely igniting the atmosphere until there is nothing left to burn. Plus it appeared to have happened in the center of Luclin (the Nexus) and expanded outward. Pretty much an Extinction Level Event. Also ... after the Shattering ... the orbit and/or rotation probably had been shifted or whatever. We can see all sides now, not just the light side. Maybe a geomancer as powerful as Grieg can sense the incoming explosion and did something to perserve himself, but will his sanity stays intact at all after seeing everything being wiped out of existence? Maybe, if Grieg ever will be reintroduced, it'll be Norrath instead of Luclin. You know ... there is huge piece of Luclin, largest ever seen since on Norrath, sitting right across Gorowyn in Timborous Deep. Right now it's inaccessible, but when it does ... why not introduce it as remains of the sanctuary of Grieg?
I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the Letalis spires were Grieg's... The presence of a somewhat powerful shadow creature there is circumstantial proof that Luclin was screwing with him, no hard evidence, but it's enough for reasonable doubt. And honestly, Mons Letalis seems like a geomancer's playground... Not so much for Seru. As for the moon being uninhabitable... I'd say a case could be made either way, given how much of it looks to be intact, though obviously a great deal of it would be gone. We thought Kunark was entirely destroyed by a chunk of Luclin falling, but we've still got a lot of it. /shrug Stranger things have happened before in the world of Norrath. And as for Katta, I never knew his story was tied up. Which expansion was that, Gukkor?
Luclin. they tell you in the lore they tell you the druids basically put Katta in suspended animation. I think the Burning Sea expansion (after PoP) did more with Katta still being on Norrath. I think it's in teh same segment when they talk about his assassination attempt, describing the assassin as someone with a smile on his face and poison on his hand
Rainmare@Oasis wrote: I knew the bit about stasis and blah blah blah, but the story goes cold after that. I stopped playing EQlive long before TBS (right around the time of GoD, actually), so there's a lot of story that I'm not familiar with. I recall a lot of speculation that Nathyn Illuminous in Katta Castellum was Katta, though. That's the last I really heard his name mentioned during my time back then. I can hope, I guess... It'd be really cool to see Grieg come back with a vengeance. His story was too awesome to peter out the way it has. He was positioned to be a much bigger player than he ended up being.
After the assassination attempt, Katta was taken by the druids who were sustaining him to Katta Castrum, a city that was (at the time) floating out in the Buried Sea, hidden from the rest of Norrath. The vast majority of the Combine Loyalists went to Luclin, but this was mainly a diversion. Seru took the bait and followed them to Luclin, not knowing of Katta Castrum and believing that Katta was among the Luclin party. He was subsequently trapped there, and Prexus pulled Katta Castrum to the ocean floor via whirlpool soon afterward for performing magical experiments on unwilling Kedge subjects; the Loyalists continued to reside within waterproof domes for hundreds of years, all the while attempting to bring Katta back from the brink of death.
Okay ... here is what I am able to find on Grieg and his place of residence: Grieg's End, it is told, is the home of the great, insane Combine geomancer Grieg. Originally a wizard in service to the Tsaph Katta, Grieg activated the ancient wizard spires on Norrath for his liege and was thus responsible for bringing the Combine people to Luclin, He did not stay longafter the Loyalists' arrival, for it was discovered that his calculations had been in error, and that the refugees could not return to Norrath. When the Loyalists departed, Grieg remained behind in Shadow Haven to study the forces contained in the Nexus, but he was driven out after his failed attempts at geomancy caused several costly disasters. Needless to say, the Loyalists who now lived in Katta Castellum did not want Grieg back, so the geomancer wandered the moon of Luclin, finally settling in the mountains north of the Scarlet Desert. Here, anxious to find a way back to Norrath, he built a great fortress he called Grieg's End, where he settled in to continue his studies. Years passed, and Grieg's research began to show promise, drawing the attention of the goddess Luclin. Luclin wanted no more travel between her domain and Norrath. She saw Grieg drawing closer to a solution, and decided to take steps. She sent him visions and dreams, even granting him a glimpse of the stones of wisdom in Vex Thal, where her own words were carved. Thus, Grieg gained the knowledge he desired, but in the end it was all for naught -even a brief glimpse at the mind of a goddess was enough to drive an ordinary mortal mad, and Grieg was no exception. To this day he dwells in his castle, unnaturally preserved by the goddess's whim, surrounded by demons and specters sent by Luclin to contain him. It is said his madness is so all-encompassing and his power so raw that together they affect the world around him. Strange apparitions and monsters from the tormented geomancer's imagination are found throughout Grieg's End, and adventurers are warned not to believe everything they see. The fortress, like its prisoner, remains untouched by time, almost as it was when Grieg's servants first fled in the face of his madness. Some of those servants remained behind, though, and were transformed into undying servants. The rest of the complex is inhabited by spirit creatures that resemble beings from the outside world. ___________________________________ So, the goddess Luclin was responsible for the insanity of Grieg and Grieg apparently was quite close on discovering the way back to Norrath. Another thing ... I didn't think Kunark was entirely destroyed by shards of Luclin while back, and I only know of Lake of Ill Omen overflowing and that something happened to Cabilis. But nothing on Kunark being destroyed. *edited due to some typos*
So the Letalis spires very likely were Grieg's creation. Seems kinda obvious, since there are partial spires in his keep, and the spires in Mons Letalis are very clearly of Combine design. It's also plausible, given the visions granted to him by Luclin, that he would head for Vex Thal if he ever found himself able to leave his prison-home. Surely he'd remember a vision that powerful if he started to regain his grip on himself. Now, assuming the moon has somehow substantially survived the disaster -which I maintain could have happened- that story could play out the way I outlined it, save for the Katta bit. Thank you for the info, Gukkor, even if it does screw me out of my other villain. Looks like the major roadblock is the state of the moon itself. A magical event such as the destruction of the Dresolik crystal, or the release of the energies contained by the Nexus, could provide the jolt Grieg's spires need, or it could have destroyed the entire barrel of monkeys. I'm hoping for the former, personally. Also, thanks for digging up that bit about Grieg, Con. And I didn't specifically mean you thought Kunark was sunk... Just that there were plenty of people that thought it was likely gone. Edit: Added another idea in green.
Coniaric wrote: I'm personally thinking it could be that unused portal-looking area in the north end of Shadeweaver's Thicket (it's similar to what the Guardian of the Seal is standing in front of in the Ruins of Old Paineel). But that's me, I've been trying to figure out what that place is for since I first saw it.
Xariama@Lucan DLere wrote: That was rumored at some point to be a doorway to Umbral Plains, but unless it's more portal than doorway, that seems unlikely. Umbral would be south and west, if anything, not north. It could be any number of things though... Could go toward the Nexus, could go toward the other side of the moon... But it almost certainly goes under the Dawnshroud Peaks, if it is, in fact, a physical doorway/tunnel. Anyone happen to have a screenshot of the actual object?
Best I could get after playing around with gamma, lighting, etc . There is an invisible wall that stop anyone from getting any closer than this. There are a wall-like structure at the base, which I presume is built after the crash. Also by comparing the size of the shipwreck, the shard is quite large and can fit practically anything inside if it happens to be. I can't recognize any part, so I'll just leave that up for anyone who may or may not.
Actually I meant the doorway in Shadeweaver's, but that's a nice shot of the shard from Luclin. If that's the biggest piece missing from the moon, we may yet have things to find there.
All good man. I'm just glad the discussion is staying productive. Something else that dawned on me today is... Luclin has got to be pissed at Rallos and Solusek. I mean really, if she took such strong exception to the first attempts to reach the moon, and the subsequent attempts to leave, she had to have been seeing red when her pet project came under attack.
This all sounds amazingly interesting but to someone who's only ever played the current EQ2, it's kind of confusing. Any way I could get a summary/clarification of what happened, or a linky to pertinent information? Thanks a ton
