Ran an alt through the BoL timeline last night. I have to look all this stuff up as I go because I didn't get the chance to play the original EQ. I came across some old lore posts that were archived on him, and man, its really interesting! I never knew about this guy - even after hearing about a lot of lore from a friend. Question though, at the end of the solo zone when he is about to fight you, Seru says something to the effect of, "Just like that fool Katta..." Who is Katta and what happened there? Anyone?
He'll be referring to Tsaph Katta. Tsaph was the Emperor of the Combine Empire when Seru led his rebellion/coup. Google is failing me at the moment so going from memory, Seru didn't like that the Combine Empire was inclusive of all races. He wanted a more racially pure human-only Empire. He quietly gathered his forces and at a banquet celebrating... something... I can't remember but I think it was a big deal, he poisoned the Emperor and then tried to take over. The loyalist forces fought him and eventually forced him to flee to Luclin where he founded Sanctus Seru. The loyalists followed and I think became trapped. I forget why they were trapped, something about the spires stopped working. They then founded Katta Castellum but didn't have the strength to carry on the fight so ended in a stalemate with Seru. Tsaph Katta was presumed dead from the poison, but Everquest's 13th expansion, The Buried Sea, revealed the Combine Empire had a secret city, Katta Castrum, that had been sunk under the ocean and had survived all the thousands of years under a great shield. Inside Katta Castrum the body of Tsaph Katta was held in stasis while they searched for a cure.
Tsaph Katta was the leader of the Combine Empire. He was a brilliant and charismatic ruler whos policies and ideas actually persuaded the Dark Elves to join the empire, and from there was going to convince the Ogres and Trolls that all of Norrath could live in peace by putting cultural and religious differences aside. However, Lord High Inquisitor Seru was having none of it and attempted his life by trying to poison him at a banquet. The plan failed to kill him, because healers at the ceremony were able to put him into a stasis before the poison could actually take his life. His daughter Lcea Katta made the official decision that the Combine Empire would migrate to Luclin before any further actions could be taken by detractors. Many migrants decided to form the city of Fordel Midst AKA Shadowhaven right around the Nexus where they teleported into, and decided to be completely neutral for the sake of commerce. The Combine loyalists went up to the surface, traveling across the dark side of Luclin to found the city of Katta Castellum in the Tenebrous Mountains overlooking the Twilight Sea. This city and that region of the dark side of Luclin still hasn't been introduced to us in EQ2. Inquisitor Seru and his armies would chase up some time afterward, and found themselves trapped on the moon like everyone else. They decided to found the city of Sanctus Seru on the lightside of the moon by Dawnshroud Peaks. Seru himself is quite an interesting concept. It's never quite fully explained how, but he's using time-reversing magic golems to keep him eternally young. The solo zones and BoL sig line don't go into detail about who he is, but the raid zone has you fighting against him, destroying his golems one by one, and watching him rapidly age across the course of the fight from a young man, to an elderly man, to a walking skeleton still moving by sheer willpower, until you finally kill him.
Aaah, that's right. The Combine went to Luclin first and it was Seru that followed. Got that part mixed up.
