While the moon was destroyed, I've never read anything about the Plane of Shadows or Luclin herself being destroyed.
Luclin only concerned herself with her little moon, even in EQ1. she wasn't concerned with Norrath, or the issues and deals of the Pantheon at large. so I imagine that with Luclin the moon going boom, she has probably washed her hands of norrath completely...unless she's planning to get revenge on those that caused the moon to go boom. But she really wasn't an 'active' goddess in the first place, and there's been no indication that the Plane of Shadow or the Goddess herself has perished.
Well, Luclin the moon blowing up is a good indication that the goddess isn't doing well. Either she was forced to withdraw with the other gods and since she has no followers outside of the moon hasn't been able to reform. Or she blew up the moon to spite whoever was in control when she appeared. If she were at her full power, there is a chance that the moon has been repaired (at least to some extent) and that we continue to see a shattered moon since illusions are one of her main abilities. We know Luclin is powerful and worshiped by an "immortal" race. We don't know what her limits are though.
She didn't create the moon of Luclin, she just claimed it as her own so that she could stay out of the affairs of Norrath and watch from afar. In the "Shadows of Fear" content release in the "Rain of Fear" expansion in EQ1 (as well as the final raid in the Heart of Fear to finish the expansion), Luclin is present as a deity of balance. The shadows she rules are created by a balance of light and dark, but literally (actual light) and figuratively (good and evil).
And there's even balance in the light and dark too - The dark Shissar and Inquisitor Seru's cities are in the areas of light where as the Combine Loyalists are deep in the areas of darkness albeit with a vampire problem
I'd agree that Luclin isn't good or evil. She isn't neutral though, she is self-serving. Neutrality or balance actually has some moral grounding behind the philosophy. Luclin very much seems like she is serving her own whims. She creates an entire race of immortal beings and makes them extremely xenophobic. She allows other beings to inhabit the moon. This creates a rift in her race and she does nothing to prevent the entire collapse of her chosen race. While it isn't explicitly stated in the Va'shir lore there is heavy implications that Luclin is responsible for saving the race. Given her powers its even possible that she caused the creation of The Hole in order to create the explosion that brought the Va'shir to her realm. Also the Combine Teleportation system was able to reach the moon...and then suddenly wasn't able to. And then it was again. You can use the sudo-scientific explanation of the researchers at the big super Combine Spire...or you can read between the lines and look at what happen to Greig. Greig was the geomancer that created the bridge between Norrath and Luclin. He was perplexed when it stopped working. Very conveniently after both the Loyalists and Rebel combine factions entered Luclin but before the Loyalists could use the teleporter to escape back to Norrath. Greig even started construction on a second independent teleportation system to return to Norrath...before Luclin drove him mad to prevent it from being perfected. She didn't take up residence on the moon to watch Norrath. She claimed it as her own realm to prevent the other gods from messing with her. Solusek and Rallos sending an army to the Nexus was a direct challenge to her power. Nobody has ever seen Luclin approach anything directly. She's always working from the shadows, cloaked in mystery. A mistress of secrets. Anyways that was the pre-split Luclin.
In RoF, she attains a Fear Shard (the pieces of Cazic Thule's essence created after his power was cast out of the Alaran Triunity). Unlike most of the others who get shards and are corrupted by them, she is able to contain and control it. You go and fight her to retrieve the shard and complete reconstruction of the Heart of Fear (the main piece of Cazic's essence). You beat her, but she doesn't give you the shard. She explains that Xaric (an alaran entity) is attempting to become the new god of Fear She doesn't want this to happen, since he wouldn't care about the balance of the Pantheon, and would use the power of Fear to become more powerful than the other deities. After you beat Xaric within the heart of fear, and Cazic (who had temporarily reformed) gets absorbed back into the crystal, she grants Harbinger Glask some of her minions to help protect the shard until Cazic is strong enough to reform permanently.
I think Innania's point was to illustrate that in EQ1, Luclin is basically Rohen Theer without godslaying power. her entire powerbase (shadows) relies on a balance of light and darkness. too much light...no shadows. too much dark, no shadows. So she's concerned abut the Balance. which for them mostly manifested in things after the timesplit. As to her in EQ2...I imagine she might be there. She just hasn't seen a reason to get involved.
I have to wonder if she is in a coma from the shattering of Luclin Either that or being run ragged trying to keep the largest 3 shards quasi-inhabitable
Or dead before the moon blew up. How far were Fennin and Rallos willing to go to prevent Luclin from interfering with Norrath in their absence?
I don't think they did it to prevent Luclin from doing diddly. they did it to disable the Nexus, which seemed to be the major powersource to the entire spire network. it was to cut off teleportation entirely, not to stop Luclin from getting involved. She has only involved herself in any living things affairs twice. when she created her own race on Luclin, and when she drove Grieg insane. the Veil she used on Luclin only holds becuase of the distance. they talk about it in the idea they got. it was every so often, the viel parts. if Luclin wanted to keep her moon hidden, she's a god, she can do that. but they make it sound like the veil basically 'drops' when Luclin's orbit brings it close enough to Norrath. she didn't help the Vah Shir when the got blasted there in the creation of the Hole. She didn't even help her own created race deal with the fact the Vah Shir/Combine/Shissar showing up. she didn't prevent the Shissar Temple from getting there, she didn't prevent the Combine from getting there. the big thing with Luclin really was Grieg and his super spire he was trying to construct to get back. for all we know, he was driven mad to stop what El'Arad did when he tried to build his own 'nexus'. Maybe a super spire that close would have shorted out/blown up the nexus. But I think she's still around. I just think as per her M.O. she just don't give a damn with what we do on norrath. and yeah maybe she's using her power to keep her moon semi-stable, and maybe her Ahkevean's are still alive up there and that's all she needs or cares about.
We've got a major point of dissention here. All of those events your saying Luclin didn't have a hand in...I say she did. It all comes down to reading between the lines. Looking at what happened to the Combine. Greig was able to get a teleporter to work going to Luclin in this place called the Nexus. He told a select few in the upper echelons of the Empire about it. Shortly there after Seru who is a paladin, the Emperor's right hand, most trusted advisor, and his best friend who helped him build the Combine decides that the Empire is accepting too many evil types. His solution? Poison all of the major figures in the Empire and stage a full bloody revolution. Tell me, is Seru dealing with a full deck here is he perhaps...insane? The Katta family evacuates to the super-secret Luclin portal with the remnants of the loyalist forces. Instead of consolidating the Empire and declaring victory...Seru and his entire rebel army follow to the moon. Once the Loyalists figure out that Seru is on the moon they attempt to return to Norrath...only to find out that transport to Norrath has suddenly ceased. Isn't that a little too convenient? Then Greig gets a non-nexus teleporter half finished before he is driven insane by Luclin. The Vah Shir have this story about the Wind Spirits carrying Shar Val to Luclin. Is that what really happened? How did the Hole explosion trigger? A gnomish assistant. Who is to say that Luclin didn't influence the gnome? Who is to say that Luclin didn't influence the construction of the Hole to blow Shar Val out of Norrath so she could grab it? Who is to say she didn't motivate the Wind Spirit into carrying it to Luclin...where there just happened to be a landing spot already prepared for the city. Why does the veil drop one night per month? If it didn't nobody would think of Luclin, the moon or goddess. I think it drops to make people curious. That curiosity gives her power over people. Influence without revealing what her true motives are. She is a goddess of secrets. When are secrets at their most powerful? When you know they exist and your looking for the answer. The whole Shissar thing on the moon is whacky. They steal planar runes and make a calendar that predicts their fall as a civilization. Their solution? The Emperor teleports a major temple to Luclin to avoid the Greenmist. Then the whole bunch of them go all paranoid. Just a touch crazy, don't you think? Wouldn't it be awful if the entire Shissar Calendar was just an elaborate scheme of Luclin's? The first stage was to get her possession of the Shissar, who at the time were the most magically developed race on Norrath. The final stage...may have the remnants of the Dragon race seeking shelter on Luclin. Serious question: where exactly did these planar runes come from? "The Realm of the Gods." Which gods? I don't think the Shissar Calendar and the Ages End prophecy are Luclin's work, but its possible that it is. Just because the Mistress of Secrets doesn't make her self known doesn't mean she isn't influential or powerful.
Seru brought his army BECAUSE he was a Paladin and well...not insane per say, but fanatical. in fact I'd say if he was insane, his insanity was more of an obessive personality. He could not stand the idea that Katta's 'vision' would survive and thrive anywhere. his Civil war against the loyalist was less an actual war and more an extermination. they even say that. the Loyalists that went to Luclin were all that was left. basically the trip to luclin was thier last ditch effort to escape destruction. and Yes, Seru followed right after them...but not right away. the Loyalists had enough time between getting there and seru's army showing up to build Shadowhaven basically around the nexus. the Loyalists there still loyal to Katta's ideals and felt threatened enough went to make Katta Castellum, the Inquisition that still followed Seru blindly built Santcus Seru..those that simply were more concerned with trying to find a way to get back to Norrath stayed at ShadowHaven. the explosion that created the Hole was NOT Al'kabor's assistant. the gnome explosion was not the creation of the Hole, but cracking the Vault of Living Stone that was revealed by the Hole's creation itself. and that let Yael and his elemental minions into the Hole. the Hole itself was created during the Erudite war between Paineel and Erudin. it blasted the Vah Shir to the moon...who were gathered by the wind spirits to unite the tribes. the wind spirits gather the leaders/highest ranking castes to a single place where the idea was to unite against the Erudites encroaching on thier lands and bringing thier diseases and I bet the Paineel ones were probably using them for thier experiments. they all got blasted to Luclin for their trouble. Greig tried to make his own new super spire away from the nexus itself, and Luclin drove him mad to prevent it's completion. you notice she didn't stop the ones that were using the nexus itself and simply trying to figure out how to reverse it's pull basically it almost sounds like if the Nexus works like a sattelite...Greig was trying to add another dish to it while those in shadowhaven were just trying to realign/redirect what was there. and that extra 'dish' might have had the same effect being so close to the nexus as the 'Quellthulian Nexus' had when it was activated. The Shissar..if Luclin wanted to prevent them from arriving, she very well could have. she could have thrown the Combine out, driven them all mad, she could have done the same to the Vah shir. hell she could have told her Akhevean's to eradicate them. (rather then let them fall into a destructive civil war over what to do about the newcomers) and once the Shissar arrived and created the Grey...and started liching themselves. while I can concede the the lowering of the Veil during the time that Luclin is closest to norrath may have been just a reminder that she was there and thus draw on the recognition and such for a powerbase from norrath, I can't in good faith say she had any hand in anything that happened other then the creation of the Akheva and driving Grieg mad before the time split. the Shissar paranoia was well justified, so I don't see that as luclin causing madness. they had no idea what the Greenmist was, other then that it was a green mist that dissolved and liquidated any Shissar it came in contact with, and nothing they could do stopped it. which is why the created a vaccum that they were sure meant it couldn't get them cause there was no air. we know that some or at least one of the Runes was from Fear. it's where the Emperor supposedly killed a sub-deity/demi-god to Cazic and why he's called a god slayer. the runes were form various planar realms I imagine. but they make it quite clear that Luclin owns her moon. it doesn't rotate, keeping one side in shadow and one in light. it supports life because Luclin wills it to, to support her own created race. if she wanted to intervene, she would have. She chooses not to save for two documented instances for sure. and the attack on the Nexus..we we know now the Nexus was basically the central hub for teleportation. which means the Council's plan required it to be disrupted/taken from mortal hands. So I would say that no, Rallos/Sol Ro didn't kill or assault her...she let them in to do what the Council agreed to. the Dresolisk stone probably acted like a super buffer that blocked/neutralized the Nexus. and I still contend that it was the Great Feedback that detonated it, which made luclin go boom.
Three points I want to emphasize. First, Seru used evil methods to betray his best friend and emperor. A paladin using poison, deception and dishonorable methods to prevent evil races from joining the empire to prevent it from becoming corrupted. And you want to just say he is fanatical? I think he went well beyond that. Greig's teleporter was dangerous to Luclin because it specifically wasn't going to tie into the Nexus like the others. Greig realized that if he did, it would be just like all of the others that couldn't reach Norrath. That is why Luclin needed to stop him, because she wouldn't be able to control that teleporter. Just like how all of the teleporters on Norrath ceased working when Sol and Rallos sent men to take the Nexus. Exactly how did that work? Because they took the Nexus, or because they wrestled control of teleportation from Luclin? Somehow, the Druid rings stopped working at the same time. It has never been discussed just how or why the druid rings work at all, but why are they connected to the Nexus? Third point is that Luclin doesn't listen to the council of other gods. She is a loner. She has no allies. She doesn't want contact with the rest, and isolated herself on the moon to avoid other gods tampering in her affairs. Exactly why would she listen when the other gods say "pull out of Norrath for 500 years"? Maybe, just maybe some of the gods took it upon themselves to make sure she would obey. This shouldn't have anything to do with the Shattering. This should be some 400 years before that happens.
yeah but there's literally probably at least 20 gods that you don't hear about or see in that counsel either. like Xev. I didn't see Druzzil there, or Ayonae, or any of Rallos's kids, or ant of Brells borthers or any of Bristlebane's siblings either. just because Luclin wasn't at the council doesn't mean that she wasn't informed of the plan. and she claimed luclin as her own to not get involved with the affairs of the other gods of 'influence'. I bet she'd listen to the Elemental Gods. Seru attempted to assassinate Katta with a poison on his glove. without Katta, the Combine fell apart.he obviously rationalized it as Katta being 'corrupted' by his desire to bring in the evil races. hell by that point I wouldn't have been surprised if Seru thought Katta was a Tier'dal puppet. but the only one there he tried to kill at the dinner was Katta. and when Katta 'died' he assumed command and set out with his Inquisition, that lead to a civil war becuase Katta's daughter also tried to take command and she had her father's ideals. that the 'Loyalists' lost. and lost badly. Everything we know says that the Great Feedback is what threw Odus into Ultera. we also know that Luclin hadn't shattered at that point. we know the Dresolisk Stone is on Luclin, in the Nexus chamber, and if you played EQ1, you know that it was meant as a basic nuclear bomb to be used on norrath. it was supposed to cover the entire planet in fire. Kerafyrm never went and blew up the moon. if I remember right the devs basically said that Naggy was lying about that. and we know from DoV the first thing he did when he woke up was assault Skyshrine. so he didn't go flying to the moon. and even if he did, then it make no sense that skyshrine is still standing. if Kera's breaht weapon could puncture through to the center oof a planet, then skyshrine should have take one blast of that and been vaporized. the only device that has the power to blow up the planet is the Dresolisk stone. it was obviously the bomb that did it. . the only thing we know that DID connect to the nexus is the Farsian nexus, that created the feedback. which on our end, released enough energy to physically alter the entire erudite race left on norrath, mentally alter the ones that weren't physically changed on Odus, and shove that continent into another plane of existance. you really think a release of energy like that wouldn't detonate the Dresolisk stone on the other end? Griegs device probably had the exact same flaw that El'Arad's did. lets give it a new power source, but try to hook it into the network we have so I can get back to norrath. and we saw what there did. Luclin driving Grieg mad was probably to prevent a similar feedback. remember the feedback was caused by the 'new' nexus trying to hook into the combine network which instantly linked it to the old nexus and then boom, Feedback. the only thing we have that might give any doubt to the idea of the Feedback being the thing that blew up the moon is the comment of a few erudites, particualrly the ones in the El'arad zone, that talk about being there hundreds of years. I would contend that those are obvious allusions that time flows differently in Ultera. Erudites don't live hundreds of years in the 'natural' timeflow of norrath. hell they aren't even one of the longer living races. they are lucky if they live to be 80. but this is supposed to make us think that they now suddenly in Ultera live hundreds of years?
Seru attempted to poison Katta with a very potent poison, but the other guests were served wine poisoned by Seru as well. Seru didn't just try to kill Katta, he tried to kill everyone at the party that wasn't loyal to him. He ended up killing a lot of dignitaries with the wine. Emperor Katta himself was put in suspended animation by druids loyal to him and hidden away. Which assault on Skyshrine are you talking about? The first time when Kerafyrm awakens and go on a rampage killing knocking unconscious every major dragon on Norrath (yay Retcon) which happened before the time split (and during EQ1), or was it after Kerafyrm disappeared for 500 years and reappeared with an entire dragon cult waiting to do his bidding? The Skyshrine we encounter was only attacked days before we arrive. The last remnants of the defenders are still clinging to the center of the city, but they have lost Skyshrine when we enter the city. We witness the final betrayal of the Crusaders. You seriously want to say that Skyshrine wasn't attacked on at least 2 separate occasions by 2 very different Kerafyrms. While the Feedback is the most likely event to trigger the Shattering, it isn't the only conclusion you can come to. And as you've pointed out, the Eruadites in Ulteria think its been 200 years (cycles) since the Feedback. If that is true, they couldn't of triggered the Shattering. As for the longer life span of the non-transformed Euradites I think that has to do with the Shadowmen influence. Those untransformed Euradites are tainted with void energy. It is very possible that they didn't transform because they have already undergone a less obvious transformation when exposed to the void energy. As for age...there have been a lot of cases where NPCs live for unrealisticly long periods of time because the devs don't really plot it out. They have a group of refugees that escaped the fall of Euradin hanging out in the theater. Would people really camp out there for 50-200 years with no visable means to support them? As for what caused the Feedback...El'Arad did it on purpose. He linked the Fraxian Network to the original Nexus, not the new one they created. Because he wanted Odus to be flung into Ulteria to give his master Rohen Theer a steping stone back to Norrath. Greig was trying to escape the moon and Luclin's control over the Nexus. He wasn't going to link into a system he knew wouldn't work. Also there isn't any evidence to say if Greig was trying to link into the Combine system that he would of caused an explosion. After all, the combine created new spires in lots of locations. They knew how to add more to the system. I'm also very sure that Greig wouldn't think putting a teleporter on the surface would be any more successful than putting on at the center of the moon. Greig was trying to get a no-nexus teleporter built, which is what Luclin wanted to stop.
see that's the difference. there was a SOE endorsed book I believe, or perhaps it was after the timesplit that retconned it/talked about it. but the official in game lore was that Seru ONLY attempted to kill Katta. he didn't poison the wine or let loose snakes or anything like that. he gave Katta a handshake with a glove covered with a toxic powder that cause him to have hallucinations nad seizures and collapse during the banquet. an action he used to point fingers at the 'evil' races like the Tier'dal, for doing, and spark of his grand Inquisition. the actually line was 'came with a smile on his face and poison on his hand' adn that Katta 'reacted to the poison much quicker then usual' and collasped at the banquet. there was nothing about poisoning anyone else, or any panic or the like. the EQ2 retcon is that Kera NEVER woke up during Eq1. no adventurers ever got him loose. no one freed him and let him go rampaging. Yelniak even said so that Kera was 'weak from his long slumber' which implies to me that there wasn't 2 assualts. there was 1. Kerafyrm woke up, went straight for Yelniak, beat him down, but then made a tactical retreat when the Crusader's showed up before killing him...the Crusaders hit Skyshrine, to help fight the good fight as many of the dragon defenders Kera had already taken out (yelniak says only the strongest could stand against him and hope to hold thier own, like himself) I would then say that he assaulted ToV, sacked it, and collapsed the western wastes/frees Dozekar to finish off Skyshrine. during this time is when he recruited the Cult we see in KoS...before leaving to Ultera, where we encountered him much later. and yes, there are times of NPCs living huge amount. but your implying that either a) the great feedback was 200 years ago and thus the only verifiable thing we know hit the Nexus didn't cause the shattering, or that every single erudite in Odus is void touched/living an insanely long time. I don't think the Deepwater Knights are void touched. or the scholars at the little memorial, or the ones at Quel'ule or the ones in Paineel, are all void touched. the erudite the gives out the daily faction quest says that the Feedback affected all Erudites in 2 ways. the first one was the physical change of the Erudite race that we know about. the second was a mental change that made them obsess over knowledge the way a dragons do over their hoards. I would simply claim that time works differently in Ultera. they think it's been 200 years, we think it's only been like 50. It seems a much more likely thing since the only event we know for sure that had anything to do with Luclin is the Great Feedback. it's the most logical reason to have caused the Shattering. I compare El'Arad's design with Greig because of the general ideas behind it. yes, El'Arad knew trying to link his 'new' nexus into the combine network would cause the Feedback. but you have to remember Grieg needed a point to get to as well...which I would only assume meant a spire on Norrath he was planning to head for, which could have had the same effect..say Greig Spire link to North Karana spire, that jumps it into the Nexus 'network' causing Feedback.
