The Circle of Ten

Discussion in 'History and Lore 2' started by Pixiewrath, Nov 12, 2012.

  1. Pixiewrath Active Member

    Just a question... Before the Qeynos Revamp, did the Circle of Ten even exist?

    I can't remember ever hearing about it so did SoE just decide to completely change the lore and add this faction from out of nowhere, or did I miss something in the lore before that?
  2. Lucus Well-Known Member

    Looking it up on the wikia the first mention of it in the revision history is on nov 2 2006 on the page "circle of five" it may be a case of ether an obscure reference (once or twice in dialog) or it might be a carry over from EQ.
  3. Pixiewrath Active Member

    It just seems so weird. Because I can swear that in EQ2 it's always been talk about "Antonia ruling the city with the qeynos guard" and with the revamp, suddenly NPCs started to talk about the circle like if it had always been there. It's kind of confusing.

    It's like they just decided to revamp history, which is definitely not a good thing to do in a lore based game.

    Would have been so much better if they wrote some NPCs saying that the circle of ten was formed with/after the combine alliance or something like that if it wasn't there from before. I could be wrong but I just don't recall hearing about them before.
  4. Lucus Well-Known Member

    i dont think it's a new addition i think it's jsut a case of the lore being there without any valid reason to put it ingame in the past. no different then say loinheart castle.
  5. Souca New Member

    circle of ten has been around for awhile. The TSO launch quests gave you a bit of lore on them in the form that 5 are known and the other 5 remain behind the scenes.
  6. Pixiewrath Active Member

    Ok. That's probably why then cause I haven't done any TSO quests yet. Hardly, anyway.

    An npc do mention them as the circle of five. But I still don't remember reading anything about them in old Qeynos and that is weird considering they reside there.

    Is it just me or are the ceiling bars in the Qeynos Catacombs very similiar to their insignia?
  7. Rainmare Well-Known Member

    you got to see the Circle of Ten during Odus. first. you find out about then when you get accused of murdering one due to a possessed Murrar Shar. you learn that there were 5 that we're visible, like Lord IronForge, and 5 that were 'hidden' like the leader of the Eye of Bayle. the idea being that even if someone managed to assassinate any/all of the 'five' the council wouldn't collapse. they ruled before Antonia took the throne, and once she took the throne they work as like a council of advisers to her. It wasn't until after Murrar Shar's possession though that the Council of Ten decided to drop the secrecy about who they are.
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  8. Pixiewrath Active Member

    Okay. So it's not something that just popped out of nowhere.
  9. Bellacouste Active Member

    The symbols in the Qeynos Catacombs are of the Gods. The one that looks like the Circle's crest is actually the symbol of Bristlebane, which can be seen here: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Bristlebane.
  10. Lucus Well-Known Member

    I've only ever seen this one in the catacombs as for the odus quests if you can remeber the name of the quest i'd be very interested in running it.
  11. Meirril Well-Known Member

    The 5 color wheel with a sword in the middle is the symbol for Qeynos. Always has been the royal crest of the Bayle line. The Councle of Five were the five public advisors Antonia Bayle has, plus five more "secret" advisors. During the Kingdom of Sky signature questline you first learn about them as Antonia sends you to recover the Qeynos Claymoor. (At least that is the Qeynos version, never did the evil side of it.)
    Later during the SF pre-launch a few temorary quests were added that had you working for one of the hidden five investingating Murr Shar's strange behavior when you get framed for your benifactor's murder. It turns out that Murr Shar was possessed by Kyle Bayle and he was attempting to steal the Qeynos Claymoor for Theer. When you thwart his first attempt he kidnaps Antonia Bayle and is going to perform a ritual on her which you interrupt and drive Kyle from Murr Shar's body. Before you can return to Qeynos with the good news Antonia beats you back to the secret hideout and you get to eavesdrop on her conversation with the Circle of Ten about how the recovered Qeynos Claymoor was stolen (again!). About this same time Freeport gets invaided, with Lucan and Soulfire kidnapped by the forces of Theer (and your help...).
    You can do the Qeynos Timeline to see what the Councle of Ten has been up to recently, those whacky do-gooders.

    At some point the existance of the secret five advisors gets revealed and the public starts calling them the Councle of Ten. Membership seems to change quite rapidly as every questline a few of them tend to die.
  12. Lodrelhai Well-Known Member

    I wish I still had the logs of this, but all I have is my memory, so take with a grain (or a bag) of salt:

    References to the Circle of Five were, if I remember right, also in the original Qeynos-to-Freeport betrayal quest at launch. The guy who gets you started on it was complaining about the various factions ruling the city (on the Queen's council? I miss my logs!), and how you had to align to one to get anywhere, whether you want to or not. At that time I thought the 5 factions related to the 5 faction groups in the city you could do writs for - Ironforge Exchange, Qeynos Guard, Celestial Watch, Tunarian Alliance, and the Concordium.

    Reference to the Ten came much later, as noted above. I particularly remember in the SF prelude quests, when the Qeynos Claymore was stolen, watching a cut scene of Antonia in conference with the Circle of Ten. Also, when additional classes were made Neutral, the Eye of Bayle would explain that she and her assassins had always been the Queen's instrument, but it was only recently that Antonia decided to make their presence public knowledge.

    It is possible that hints of the Ten were in the game from launch, or at least that things from Launch were used to build the lore. I'm thinking of the original class progression - 2-9 as your archetype (scout), 10-19 as subclass (predator), and 20+ as class (ranger). Either the predator or the ranger confirmation quest for Qeynos required the would-be ranger to assassinate someone; rather an odd task for a city that supposedly didn't have assassins at the time...
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