The Freeblood: More Information and Images

I think the "race" looks pretty good so far but I would like to know what their plans are for implementation of the "race". From the screen shots and the name they have given them it seems they are simply another individual of the Elf race (High Elf?) that has become afflicted with Vampirism and chosen to go their own way.
I dont think there is really any argument that can be made to suggest Vampires ARE a "race" in and of themselves in the EverQuest series, and there is already plenty of Lore in game that suggests it is in fact an affliction/disease or a curse that results in "undeath" and the craving and need to drink blood to prevent wasting away, as presented in traditional "real world" Lore on the subject elsewhere in history and literature.
High Elf, Dark Elf, and even Sarnak vampires have been represented in the game over the years (Xalgoz of Kaesora, in EQ1 or his EQ2 version in Karnor's Castle), depicting the fact that any number of completely different sentient races can become afflicted with Vampirism. The afformentioned indviduals are always effected by "Undead Specific" banishing spells as the Lore suggests. In the case of Xalgoz, Teren Rysis of Teren's Grasp in EverQuest 2 actually indicated his fear of the idea that Xalgoz working with other Vampire factions might be capable of spreading Vampirism to many in the area.
As for the somewhat gaunt look, I think it is representory of the fact they are technically (un)dead, one of the side effects of the condition, and although they may not literally be rotting away as a zombie would be they are simply "pretty corpses", as pretty as a corpse can be anyways. The powers also granted by the affliction is the only thing keeping them from actually decaying away entirely, but they no longer have a heart beat, blood no longer courses through their veins and they dont even need to Breathe, Eat, and Drink (aside from Blood) anymore. They can even pass for "normal" at a glance by most people, but upon closer inspection it should be easy to see that something is off about them.
That said I would expect from a Lore standpoint as it is presented in the EverQuest series that Player Characters afflicted with Vampirism in this game could be expected to have a weakness to Fire, some form of weakness in the Sunlight, the need to "Drink Blood" to regenerate health and power (basically replacing the need for Food/Drink), no need to breathe, enhanced regeneration, the ability to assume Mist and Bat forms, and the benefit of an unholy strength and speed, and immortality (which has no actual game effect). It would be a nice touch too if player's had no reflection in mirrors.
The only real question is again how will they technically implement them, will it only be free-willed High Elves, afflicted with Vampirism or will they allow you to take a character of any current Race and then have them afflicted with Vampirism? The Lore suggests any character Race can become a Vampire, but from a technical standpoint the easy route would be to only setup a single race (High Elf) as Vampires and allow player's to make them.
If Vampirism were presented as an option to any existing race, the benefits it granted would likely be counterbalanced by the conditions inherent penalties. This mechanic also sets up the possibility for other similier effects that would have a permanent effect on a character, like Lycanthropy and would be an exciting possiblity for a game to go with. I would love to see this be the case, but my experiance with MMOs over the years and the cynic in me tells me they will go with the easy route, in other words we will simply have High Elf Vampires.

Deneir_Allaston wrote:

Condensed for those that don't have an hour..

Mychel@Lucan DLere wrote:

Heh, an hour...? Really? Thats flexing some impressive literary skill. The rest of the post is pretty relevent to the dicussion that has gone on in this thread thus far...

Deneir_Allaston wrote:

Say's the person who posted it.

Mychel@Lucan DLere wrote:

Lmao you kind of had that one coming Mychel

Deneir_Allaston wrote:

Lets go over it this way.
Gods create New Races.
Undeath on norrath was the result of the goddess of life (Anashti Sul) creating an item to prevent death(The Ewer).
This was used on the Ydal(Elddar Elves) to create the first vampire clans.
It was used by innoruk in some pact with mayong to create mayong's form of vampirism(this might be related to the Ydal).
It was used by D'morte to create his form of vampirism.
Anashti Sul was freed by the players in Seninals Fate and has now become the new Goddess of Undeath in velious.
Since these Vampires are a new form of vampires based on new lore suggesting they are FREEBLOODS and do not report to any known vampiric bloodline.
Therefore it is highly concievable Anashti who is now free to create her own race in her image has created the freeblood race.

Gungo wrote:

This does seem like a conceivable possibility, however unlikely given the current lore they recently presented for "The Freebloods" indicated they were in fact former adventurers turned Vampires by infection sometime during the Nights of the Dead as a result of some kind of dubious plot. And indeed one can still assume the name Freeblood is a representation of these newly infected vampires allegiance (or lack there of) to any of the existing vampiric bloodlines, they are basically rogue vampires.
I also think if Anashti Sul were to create her own race, they would likely be something completely different then anything else we have seen so far. Possibly something hideously monsterous even, like a "Nosferatu" style innately vampiric creature, rather then another form of Elf. And while Anasthi Sul may not have been responsible for the direct creation of any new race/species as other dieties have thus far, Im sure she would take credit for alot of the various forms of undead that have arisen as a result of her actions, and might even view many of these as "her own creations" anyways, including other dieties creations that have turned vampirism.

Deneir_Allaston wrote:

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't Anashti look kinda Elfish in her "Beatuty" form? and has the ablity to change into a more monstrous form...sounds to me they very well could be in her own image.

kela wrote:

Her followers were also sul'dae ELVES.
Furthermore NOTD was a direct reaction to Anashti. It appears she had her minions searching Majdul for the Ewer when it was stolen. Also Vampires are a direct result of Anashti creation of the Ewer. The freeblood race eludes to free will but since this is not a conversion race but a purely Elven race. It is a seperate race. If not we would see freeblood ogres/trolls/fae/gnomes/sarnak/etc.
But I no longer think Freebloods are a direct result of anashti but something to do with velious and velium taint.

EQII Lore: D’Ryil's Letters, Part 1

Any boy vampire pictures coming soon?

Yes.

Any actual ETA on when the Freeblood race will be available for purchase in marketplace?, and for how much sc will they be? If we are only allowed to have one freeblood character and we buy one in marketplace, does that mean those that meet the requirements will NOT be getting one at the time of release of Velious?

I would rather not have to make a whole brand new toon to have a vampire, that is ok for those who want to but I have a toon or 2 that I would like to convert to a vampire.
I have a High Elf and who knows even my Dark Elf I might like to make into a vampire. Aside from making my High Elf into a vampire I sure wish I could make her shorter. That has always been my gripe with High Elf toons they are so dang tall. Add that to making changes to all the races, make it so we can make shorter High Elves.
I hope also this will not require some raid mob to do as somebody though possible when they read the latest stroy line about Tserrina Sly'Tor.
I am looking forward to the new race and 1 set of fangs works good for me. Me I like the sexy looking vampires although a dwarf vampire might be kind of funny.

Odds are this is going to be a start from scratch race. maybe later if you get the race unlocked AND buy a potion you might do that, but I think in general it's going to be a new race to start with. plus who knows, you may not want to be a vampire, since they have 'reactions' to sunlight and such it may not be a race for you...though we don't know what th ereaction is. probably some kinda debuff or something while in the daylight.

Lafiell@Guk wrote:

1) if you have an Active account, that hasn't been suspended(in good standing), on the dates in Dec, and Jan listed and buy the expainsion prior to Dec 31st 2011, your going to get access to the Freeblood race, and it appears that it will be a race like any other.
2) you can't convert "in charactor" to a Freeblood, but you can get a race change potion from the station store to turn your High Elf into a Freeblood, then RP that they have been 'changed', just be aware that if your not a "human/elf type" then it also caused you to go all wearwolf and totally changed your form as well.
3) Buying access to a new race, would likly be just like it is in EQ2x where you can now create that specific race of charactor.

Keirie wrote:

+1

Lafiell@Guk wrote:

If you made High Elves short, they wouldn't be High Elves, they would be Half Elves That would be like making tanned (or even albino) Erudites because you don't like their grey skin

Keirie wrote:

My guess is today, at about the same time they turn on the double station cash. Makes sense that those two events are supposed to coincide.
Latest date though would be next Thursday, as nobody works the rest of December. Would probably be a bad idea to wait until the day before vaction to release something like this though, if something goes wrong nobody will be around to fix it.

Hm, come back after a 6 month hiatus ... wooo them fugly!!