Rise of Kunark

I felt this deserved its own thread. Thanks to another poster in one of the other threads, we've learned that last week SOE got a trademark for the title "Everquest II - Rise of Kunark," so it seems we've got the location for the next expansion. Obviously, we know absolutly nothing about the expansion, and won't until it's officially announced, but it seemed like we ought to have one thread to fill with our idle speculation until we know more :lol:.

hell yes. unsink that island. I want to revist some of my old stomping grounds!

Back before Beta of EQ2 started, rumor had it that:
-The cataclysms had ignited most of Kunark, turning roughly 60% of it into Burning Woods. the areas formely known as Warsilik Woods, Emerald Jungle, and Trakanon's Teeth are gone and/or burning.
-Cabilis has been engulfed by the Lake of Ill Omen, long abandoned by the Iksar, who are now scattered across the continent trying to survive on thier own, and of course we know about the ships who fled to other continents to try to survive the disasters there. If EoF had stuck to the original beta lore, we would have found an iksar encampment somewhere near Butcherblock.

nothing the gnomes can't fix. we specialize in machines to fix things. water pumps, and fertalizer would have that place up in no time.

Bah, you gnomes only make things worse.

If this is true and Kunark is the next expansion.....MAN AM I PUMPED! . I am sure alot will agree with me. At least the oldschoolers. Kunark was by far one of thier best expansions. Lot's to do. Lot's of interesting lore. Great designed zones and dungeons. With the exceptions of Skyshrine Although that was still a blast. The only zone where GMs were forbidden from ever helping period...lol

On a side note. Old Sebelis would be a great raid zone! Oowomp could be an Epic x4^^^ contested mob Large Wyrms to fight. Those damn dispelling drakes Oo.
Now the quintessential question. Will or will they not be releasing an evil race? And if so what will it be? Let the speculation begin!

Well, found this from another thread. so....
Here's what to do:
1. go to http://www.uspto.gov/
2. click the "How To Search"-link on top of the page
3. click "search Trademarks now"
4. click "New user form search (Basic)"
5. use the search term "rise of kunark".

You should be directly redirected to the entry.

Permastoned wrote:

The GMs were forbidden from helping people out in Skyshrine? I dont know about that, I saw them show up in the zone before.

I think it's a riot we have legal right to search those patent databases (which we should!!). It must spoil SO much, especially in instances like this one.I'm actually quite surprised they haven't announced the existance of a new expansion or at least an adventure pack already!And I bet the evil races are guarenteed a new one to add to their ranks.

Cusashorn wrote:

When the zone was first released and for a time afterwards. They were steadfast about not assisting in anything about Skyhrine. Nothing. I remember many a loooong night. We could not go to bed because we HAD to get our corpses back. Not a choice. We had to...But it was good times.

Like I said in other recent thread expressing how excited I am when I first heard of ROK 2.0 ..
I'll speculate what would happen in ROK 2.0 I call it ROK 2.0 cuz Ruins of Kunark is also ROK so is Rise of Kunark.
1. Level cap stays at 70
2. Guild level cap increases to 70
3. Few new secondary tradeskills
4. New claymore series style like Sword of Destiny for EOF
5. New playable evil city, Cabilis
6. New playable evil race: Sarnak OR Shissar who runs Cabilis that Iksars abandoned.
7. New Diety OR Racial AA with 50 AA cap to increase cap from 100 to 150..
8. New HQS such as Fungi Tunic, Circlet of Shadow, etc
9. New Epic 1.0?
10. 1-70 content just like EOF and same or maybe little bigger size than EOF.
11. More dieties and maybe more quests are added to support existing and new dieties
12. Guild house (WE REALLY NEED THIS). Obtainable at guild lvl 70 at cost of terms of million of SPs and money. It can be built on destinated spots on lands. Unique houses just like cloak design concept does..
I guess That's all off my head..

The zone in Kunark that GM's would not assist with corpse recovery was Veashan's Peak.

Skyshrine is the dragon city in the Velious Expansion.

Seeing all the tensity through the community, I wonder what is the story behind Kunark? Don't really know what exactly Kunark is about - any source for lore? Any links would be greatly appreciated.

Dikatin wrote:

ROK 1.0 was very first expansion of EQ1 with new level cap of 60 from 50. It was the introduction of new epic 1.0 weapons for any classes. Paladin had soulfire before ROK as unique epic that all other classes kept whining that they didn't have epics. Typical heh.
ROK was the WORST expansion for crusaders (SK and Paladins) but it was great expansion for its content and advancement. It was HUGE expansion back then that amazed us.
Remember, EQ1 was one of only 2 graphic MMO in existence. UO was there. So, huge expansion to early generation MMO is something that hit us hard by heart and we remember it very well and rather new "concept" for MMO. I'm not sure if UO expansion arrived first before ROK or after.. Hmm.
I see several links for you to read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruins_of_Kunark
http://pc.ign.com/articles/163/163953p1.html
http://everquest.station.sony.com/kunark.jsp
You can google for more links.

Nocifer Deathblade wrote:

Nocifer Deathblade wrote:

You forgot one of the most important things that will probably get you keel hauled by them, but the expansion also introduced the Iksar, which was also a first of any MMO.

Well of course it was a first. Everquest was the 2nd MMORPG to ever exist, and the MMORPG market in whole wouldn't exist without it.

Cusashorn wrote:

Correction: EQ1 is 2nd GRAPHIC MMORPG to ever exist.
Gemstone and few others are MMORPG but in form of text. I played Gemstone 3 (MUD) for 4 years before EQ1 hits and it was TRULY MMORPG and still is running alive as existing MMORPG today in form of Gemstone 4. EQ1 lost the sense of MMORPG and it was changed into just MMO. Roleplaying in graphic games so far is basically very weak. It's alot better to RP in pen & boards and text games.
I think Island of Kesmai or Meridan 9 or something like that was very first MMORPG ever entered in world history.
UO is very first graphic MMORPG ever entered in world history.
I never forget that it shocked me when I had to pay $3 per hour to play those MUD games when I was a teenager. Then shortly after that, they offered flat $20 for max of 20 hours a month so I signed up but sometimes went over 20 hours and faced horrible bill especially at my very young age back then when I didn't have much money. When it gone to AOL then limited play for flat rate of monthly fee. That led to the truth birth of MMO industry. Flat monthly fee for unlimited play is the only reason for MMO explosion. Believe me as I witnessed the HUGE change right after the concept of flat rate got introduced..
I even heard of some older people paying $12 a hour to play those MUDs! That would be mind-blowing! I even heard of those people paying over $1k a month just to play!!! You can see why it didn't go mass production at all.
During that period without flat monthly fee. PCs were pretty new and were very costly. $5k was normal price for 286 machines and paying MMO by hour was common. Those original MMORPG gamers were very rare and few with access of expensive computer and can afford hourly rate. Those gamers were basically grandfather of MMORPG players. It's realy quite honor to be part of that birth of MMORPG era and live to tell. There is also the birth of arcade/console in 1980's as well along with those MMORPG for computers. 1980s is basically the decade of the electronic game explosion in MMO/stand alone games that forever revolutionized the world.

Cusashorn wrote:

I think that person might have been thinking of Veeshan's Peak...not Skyshrine. Of course...I think it was eventually considered a zone where GMs could provide assistance. I remember the hesitation that some felt toward entering that place under such conditions. *shrug*

[p]OMG! I totally forgot something that I played online game on AOL along with Gemstone 3.. It was NeverWinter Nights. I saw it and tried it out. It was fun and it was ACTUALLY a graphic game. I think that was very first graphic online game. Sorry, UO.. UO would be first MAJOR graphic game yes but NeverWinter Night got it first in terms of graphics and I think UO learned from that example to launch their own..[/p][p]I remembered other cool graphic online from Sierra Network that I also played. I don't really remember the name but it was also D&D style before UO came out.. So.... EQ1 is actually not 2nd one! It's actually 4th, 5th, or something like that heh. But sure, I would say that EQ1 is 2nd MAJOR graphic MMO.. But not 2nd one as any graphic MMO. [/p]