Cusashorn wrote: You have to admit, her death in the Assassin Epic quest line wasn't all that convincing or epic. More or less anti-climatic if I remember correctly.
I'd just like to point out that Lucan is chump change compared to Lord Inquisitor Seru. Lucan's power is granted to him by a manipulative group of priests worshipping Innoruuk. Lord Inquisitor Seru's power was granted to him BY Innoruuk, and originally Mithaniel Marr. Lucan might have had Soulfire, a respectable weapon especially given it's recently developed origins. However, the Sword of Truth would out perform it in combat. It belonged to Mithaniel Marr himself, and Seru basically conned it out of Marr's hands. Plus, Seru is also immortal in within his realm, which basically grants him the power of godhood. With that said, he could still be alive and kicking, waiting to play a part in this game. "Seru, realizing that given his life expectancy, he would not live to see the defeat of the Loyalists nor possibly ever be able to return to Norrath, had a chamber built that slowed the passage of time for the occupant. It is said that months outside are equal to seconds inside this chamber, allowing Seru to greatly extend his life without resorting to the vile arts of necromancy" So yeah. Independance, immortality, the backing of a god, and one of the most powerful weapons in the EQ universe. Oh, and Lucan, Imma letchu finish but Lord Inquisitor Seru committed one of the greatest acts of betrayal of all time. Sorry Lucan, but you're no Lord Inquisitor Seru. Also, this is a good time to post one of my favorite threads on any SOE forum anywhere. http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/p...;topic_id=50031 A flavored coalescence of the lore catastrophe that was Shadows of Luclin. It's a good read, even if a few gaps were filled with slightly less than canon sources. By now, it's all better than what anyone remembers, so take the time to read it if you're interested.
I was under the impression that Seru was not under the influence of Innorruuk, nor granted his powers from him. his 'Sword of Truth' drop was I beleive, not supposed to be Marr's weapon, but an 'easter egg' refering to the sword of truth series. Seru yes, was a powerful Paladin. if I remember right, he may still be a paladin when you fight him in Luclin. but Lucan is far more dangerous the Seru. because Seru acts very subtle. he poisoned Katta, he hid his persecution of the dark races under his 'Inquisition' he tried to take power indirectly...planning to take control after Katta's death, since he and Katta were beleived at the time to be close friends. It's easy to see the gist of his plan was to have katta poisoned, blame it on one of the 'dark' dignitaries, to prove himself right..and take the Combine as the new emperor being a strong righteous military leader. then you have his Statis chamber...which again we're lead to believe that while it does make him virtually immortal...he can't leave it. he's ripped from the flow of time inside it, but outside it the flow of time would quickly catch up to him and kill him. which is why he has his various sects acting in his name and why no one has actually seen Seru in the city for who knows how long. Lucan is truly free to do whatever he wants. however he gained his immortal status (I still think he's the original Wraithguard, and probably preformed that ceremony on the paladin he murdered some 500+ years ago) he can leave his city. he does appear to his people, and he doesn't care about being subtle. Lucan would ram that new sword of his in Antonia's back the second she turns around once this threat with Kerafyrm is over. and he's obviously been building his forces. every ship in Freeport is now part of his navy. he's constucting seigeweapons and storing them where the Bloodhaze used to be. He's upped the creation of those darn near impossible to kill Wraithguards. He's getting ready to either defend himself from someone (Cristanos probably) or start a major war (against Qeynos). he even says it in his speeches during the executions. that freeport has become complacant, and he's not having that anymore. Lucan won't waste time with plots and schemes like Seru. He's going to go right for the jugular with fangs bared the second he knows that Kera is out of commision/no longer a threat.
Rainmare@Oasis wrote: As far as I remember the Innoruuk information comes from the ocean of tears book rather than EQ1 lore (the poisoning goes quite differently with lots of snakes being summoned to attack during the banquet) - doesn't make much sense that he'd be allied to innoruuk anyway since he didn't want the dark elves to join the combine
The Ocean of Tears stuff was considered canonical unless directly conflicting with specifics from in-game sources. Since most of Luclin lore was a mess, they rolled with a lot of stuff like that, and even some loose speculation and prophecy of trakanon type stuff. They just didn't have anything better.
the whole build up of Seru in Luclin was a 'good guy extremist'. he is/was a Paladin, who is so obessesed with rooting out 'evil' and 'corruption' that he runs Sanctus Seru like a Soviet russia. he has a secret police (the Eye of Seru faction) that under any pretense can incarcerate and interrogate/torture you...apparently by using enchanters to forcibly extract information from you. he has a militia (the Hand of Seru I think) that generally acts as guards and does a good job given the extreme rules they have to enforce. the third one, the mage faction, are responsible for keeping Seru's 'time chamber' functioning, and in general also seemed to be rather well run/mannered. it's the extreme laws of Seru and his Eye that makes the place 'corrupt'. no dark races allowed, no questioning Seru or anyone working under the three factions, minor infractions even so much as lying can get you on the wrong side of the Inquisition. Everything they do is inspected and searched for traces of corrupt practices or disloyalty. and in Sanctuc Seru you were guilty until proven innocent.
Maergoth@Antonia Bayle wrote: I have no idea why you believe this. I've seen it said that anything outside of EQ1 pre-Pop and everything in EQ2 is cannon. All other sources are questionable.
'In an uncanny display of will - or madness - General Seru clamped tight his jaws. His teeth bit into the serpent, which shocked to wakefulness and thrashed madly, its eyes almost turning inside out as the general bit through the snake, but Seru seemed not to notice. He just stared viciously at the likewise shuddering body of Emperor Katta. With hate in his eyes-with Hate in his eyes-Seru swallowed the wriggling reptile that lined his throat. Blood sprayed from the serpent's gnawed neck and out the general's mouth to run in rivulets down his chin and neck. The man persisted, unwilling to let loose of his Hate, swallowing it so he might feed on it yet some more. Suddenly it was clear to Aataltaal. General Seru had given himself up to Innoruuk.' Ocean of Tears - Page 111 Sounds non-canonical to me!
except every ingame source we have on the subject says that Seru used poison in the form of a powerful drug. I think the version from the ingame talk from Luclin says he coated his glove with it and shook Katta's had to give it to him, I think a version from EQ1 when they 'discovered' thier combine version of atlantis comments that it was poisoned wine. but the idea again is that there were no snakes or strange assault..just that things were going well until Katta had his freak out/violent reaction to the poison. and even if you take both stories into account. if Seru had a poison coated glove, he very well may have used it to shake more the Katta's hand, which might lead to people assuming wine was poisoned, as more then one person might have shown the effects of the poison on the glove. so we got 2 in game sources. once from before the novel, one from after the novel came out, that say it was a simple old fashioned poisoning, and then you have the novel version of snakes being unleashed to attack katte/dignitaries. And that the devout paladin who's so devoted to the paladin's cause of fighting 'evil' that he poisoned Katta for allowing 'evil' races that worship 'dark gods' into the Combine...somehow struck a bargain, turned himself over to the God of Hate. the very god that created one of the races he was opposed to have join the empire becuase they were Innorruuk worshipping necromancers/shadowknight/evil people. sound to me oike the novel writers took some liberties there to make the poisoning 'more exciting'.
I totally agree! Seru seems to me to be the kind of moral absolutist than a worshiper of innoruuk in my eyes
The Ocean Of Tears book isn't canon to EQ lore. It's the most accurate to USE EQ's lore, but itself is not part of the game's canonical storyline.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/p...topic_id=162129 Thread on the EQ1 forums about the whole thing. The books are as canon as the EQ Atlas they released. Embellished storytelling or not. As for his sword, it's supposedly one of the few stories officially adopted from the Prophecy of Trakanon stuff. Not enough was made clear about it, but from what we do know, there are no contradictions in Seru's lore. Also, Mithaniel Marr is the god of Valor and Truth. It's not valorous to poison someone, nor was he honest about doing it. I doubt under any circumstances Marr would shrug off such an underhanded tactic. Furthermore, Seru's problems were much deeper seated than racism. Or even good versus evil for that matter. After all, the reason for the undead in Katta Kastellum were his necromancers infiltrating and raising their dead.
I'm not seeing anything in that thread that proves that the books are canon. One post mentions that they're "Assumed to be canon unless directly contradicted by in-game lore." Assumed... That is one word I've learned not to use too often over the years on these boards... The EQAtlas, on the other hand, is canon to the game, since it was directly written, published, and released by SoE for the sole intention of adding more detail about the game's various zones. It wasn't released by a 3rd party author or publisher.
Interesting tidbit about the New Combine. If you check the banners in the tent with Vishra you'll notice there are 6 of them. Each one has a different color. While every one of them has a Combine symbol on it, the banner has a symbol that corrisponds to the 6 great cities (if you can consider New Halas one of them). You could argue that the light blue banner symbolizes Thurgadin and the Coldain, but I feel it probably symbolizes New Halas even if it is little more than a fortified village with slightly more industry than Windstalker Village, and less amenities than Somborn. So apparently Nerriak is part of the New Combine.
Meirril wrote: This is also easily observed when you ride one of the horses in the Withered Lands. The horse bears a banner that changes based on what city the character riding it hails from.
