I love, love EQ2 for its lore. It's the main reason I've stuck around since the beginning. But as we get more into the game, I get lost sometimes. I don't have a high-end character equipped enough for CoE (I don't even have CoE), so I miss out on some important lore. I wanted to ask about the Shissar Calendar and the Age's End Prophecy. What are they? How do the events of the past expansions lead up and progress to where we are now? How do the events of now correspond to the Prophecy? What is the Chlesith Stone and what are these runes that apparently outline the prophecy? I understand a bit, but it is so spread out and broken that I can't easily put it together. You guys are so smart when it comes to this stuff, I thought I'd ask you. Thanks ahead of time for any help you may give!
basically the Shissar Calender was a MASSIVE circular calendar marked with various planar runes and such. the Chelsith stone was the 'center' peices, and the 13 Monoliths of Theer were placed in other locations. put the whole thing together, and it was supposed to foretell major events...like the Greenmist assaulting the Shissar, the explosion of Luclin, the Erudites being shifted to Ultera/Theer's return and the 2nd Void invasion/Anashti's return. So far only 2 beings seem to have a grasp on how the Calender is read, and those are Mayong Mistmoore and the Duality. and even the Duality tells us that he's mostly giving research backed educated guesses. I believe his comment is that Mayong has a better grasp on how the symbols should be ordered, while he thinks he has a better grasp on the symbol's actual meanings. the actual past events that I beleive are supposed to be 'ticks' on this giant doomsday-clock like calendar are the Destruction of Luclin/the Shattering, then it moves to Anashti's return/the Void invasion, then the Return of Theer/Odus' discovery in Ultera, then forming of the New Combine/aiding Skyshrine, then the Invasion from War/slaying of Rallos Zek. I belive CoE is more of a side event/repercussion from Rallos' death then an actual Age's End calendar event. I may have missed some or put some in the wrong spots or the like but that's the general idea. the end of the Calendar is probably going to be the showdown with Kerafyrm. if he loses, we save norrath for mortal races...if he wins, norrath enters a new, unending, Age of Scale with Kerafyrm as practically God.
Or Kerafyrm blows up while attempting to use the god-slaying powers and causes the End of Norrath. That is what the calendar predicts, the end of Norrath. We're close enough to that event happening that we can see a possible cause for the actual destructive event. It is a kind of "of course the adventurers will prevent this from happening" kind of event, though it would be greatly amusing for Norrath to be "destroyed" much like it was in EQ1. i.e. The adventurers get into a sort of limbo where they get an opportunity to restore Norrath through a series of quests.
Thanks guys. Are there any exact runes we know about? Like do we know their names and what they mean in the grand scheme of things? I know there was an event not too far back that had quests related to such (Wasn't it DoV prelude?), but my memory of lore is always second-guessable.
there was the Rune of Sunder...that was the one that predicted Luclin going boom. there is the Rune of Oblivion, that was the one that predicted the second Void invasion/Anashti's return. there is the symbol that was used by the Combine..the circle with the sylized feathers on top. but I thnk Oblivion and Sunder are the only runes we know the actual names of
Time to resurrect the old calendar pictures! I've never had the chance to kill Trakkanon, so no image of the actual Chelsith Stone in-game, but I do have these screenshots from the Sentinel's Fate prelude events: First one is from the Qeynos-side event, the image found in the Claymore chamber. If I remember right, only the symbols outside the circle show up on the Chelsith Stone. The inner symbols were only revealed later - I *think* after facing Anashti Sul with both Soulfire and the Qeynos Claymore in your possession. (Don't they show up if you put the weapons in the hands of the Maidens of Theer statues there? Or am I hopelessly muddled?) Second and third pics are both from the Freeport-side event - in this one, both the blue and the red symbols are shown, and the blue fades out once Soulfire is correctly identified. I've put the image with just the red symbols first, so they're easier to see. All of the red symbols are on the Chelsith Stone if I remember correctly. Third pic shows the two symbol sets together, which as near as we know is the 'complete' Ages End calendar. Just for reference, and if I ever get my scanner to cooperate I'll try to post an image of it, but in the book published for EQs 10th anniversary, there is a picture of the whole Shissar Calendar. It doesn't show much detail of course, but it does show 4 slabs with inserts, and the Chelsith Stone is the insert from the 4th slab. From here on, almost everything is memory of discussions on the old forums and conversations with npcs. There's a bowl of salt on the table, feel free to use it liberally when digesting all further information. Starting from the one o'clock position outside the circle and going clockwise, I believe we have the Rune of Sunder (spiral, predicted explosion of Luclin), the Rune of i've-forgotten-but-was-first-misnamed-rune-of-Ether (two intersecting triangles, it represents the Void and was heavily studied by both Varsoon and Everling), another rune who's name I've forgotten but was considered the symbol of Paineel (it was found somewhere else and called the appropriated rune of... something, but I'm having a bear of a time finding the reference now). I don't recall the bottommost symbol - possibly the Combine? -, and after that is a Rallosian symbol if I remember right. There were some theories that the nine o'clock symbol might be the ratonga or roekilik - there's a carving on a table in Windstalker Village that's description is very similar, and if you play a ratonga, the description includes a reference to a similar mark or tattoo you have. I'm lost on the last two, though we dissected and debated them intensely on the old forums. For the inner symbols I can offer very little. I do know when Tayil (I think it was Tayil) picked Soulfire from among the replicas, she chose the one in the upper right because it relates to Lucan somehow. From this, I think we can assume the gap in the ring of claymores from the Qeynos picture, at the upper left, is because the real Qeynos Claymore was there, so that symbol probably has something to do with Qeynos or the House of Bayle or Antonia. The inner red symbols have been theorized to be gods - I think Brell, Tunare, and Karana? And of course the big head in the middle is Kerafyrm. The double-arrow blue symbol in the center remains unknown to the best of my recollection, though I think someone mentioned it may relate to the League of Freethinkers - something about one of them having left a mark who's description matches the symbol on Mayong's face. Beyond that, in the Velious prelude I remember the Duality saying he believed the outer symbols were events which would lead to Ages End, and the inner symbols were beings who might prevent it. But as I said at the beginning of this ramble, almost all of this is memory. Anyone else have more to contribute, whether it confirms or denies any of this? edit: Here we go! The thread where the symbols were revealed in Anashti Sul's chamber, where we debated again what it all means! Some of it's been disproved of course, but still some good stuff. And there's other threads too, of course, but that seems to be a good start for hunting.
Thanks Mixxit! Yeah, my memory's not what it should be. Chelsith stone is from the third, not the fourth. Which is kind of odd since that means the full calendar has stuff beyond Ages End? I was also wrong on what symbols are on the chelsith stone. None of the blue symbols are there, only the red. I wonder if the blue symbols come from one of the other quadrants? Or, since the writeup says "Seven iconic symbols can still be seen on it," were they all on it at some point and faded out?
The top 4 vertical line symbol was heavily used by the Awakened. The crossed bones symbol is theorized to be related to Innoruuk but...I can't remember why. If you follow the outer ring from the spiral (Rune of Shattering) counter clockwise you can link them to events that have already happened. Luclin is destroyed (Shattering). Cult of the Awakened starts to gather/take action (Awakened). Not complete sure about this one but Void Army revealed and Anashti Sul released from the void (crossed bones). We breach Ulteria, find Odus and aid Kerafyrm in draining Rohen Theer of his godslaying powers (oops) (circles, related to a Roeklik deity). We travel to Velious and aid in killing Rallos Zek (Rune of Zek). Combine Army is reformed to deal with the Awakened Cult to stop Kerafyrm (Combine Empire symbol). This leaves a symbol that is associated with the Euradites. This might allude to the current events in CoE (doubtful), or possibly to coming events that involve us returning to Odus. Maybe trying to solve a problem involving the Hole? (Misappropriated Rune of Phenomenon). If this does deal with events in CoE this must mean the rune is associated with Cazic Thule and refers to us beating EQ1's Cazic Thule and preventing the absorption/destruction of our CT. The last rune refers to the actual destruction of Norrath (Rune of Oblivion, first referred to as the Rune of Ethernere by Rikantus Everling until he used it to travel to the Void.).
Actually, I think it's more likely the runes read clockwise than counterclockwise. It could either start from the spiral (shattering) or from the four marks - if that signifies the Awakened, it could be the waking of Kerafyrm, 500-odd years ago by our timeline. Going clockwise from there would be the Shattering (~50 years before start of game), then Oblivion (the Void and us facing off against the Shadowmen lead by Anashti Sul), Odus (and thank you for finding the name of that rune!). That does have the Combine (or the New Combine?) happening before Zek, but given that I don't think any server had actually killed Rallos at the time the New Combine was revealed, it's entirely possible that order is correct - the new combine forms, then Rallos Zek is killed. This would leave us with the Roekilik/Ratonga (who's primary diety is Caertax, for whom the Caertax in the Hole is named - more information available from a lore book in Kaladim), the crossed bones, and maybe the Cult of the Awakened. On page 4 in the thread I linked previously, Coniaric said the crossed bones refer to the Greenmist, which would relate them to Cazic rather than Inny I think. If this has anything to do with what's currently happening in Ethermere, then we've either skipped or misunderstood the double-broken-rings symbol. I think the Cult of the Awakened could just as easily be the last symbol on the wheel - if Ages End means fighting Kerafyrm, then apparently he and his followers are still due to pull some kind of nasty trick. But, reading through that old thread, that middle symbol red symbol may not be Kerafyrm at all. Apparently Mayong's been using it for a while. Then again, he also uses other symbols off the calendar too. But having the Freethinker's symbol (Ankh of Ydal) overlap it, if that IS Mayong... well, the Freethinkers did scar him with that symbol, and it's theorized that Mayong may actually be a Ydal, so both ways it fits.
Misappropriated Rune of Phenomenon seems to indicate that isn't the true name of the Rune. That however is the only name we have for it currently that I am aware of. Even that name is suspect since it comes from a collection in Unrest. As for the Combine forming before Rallos was killed, I don't think that is possible. When you first arrive in the Withering Lands you learn from a Combine officer that they were hastily formed and still working out who was actually in charge. You also learn that Rallos Zek was recently killed by his 3 children who have taken his place. While Rallos wasn't actually killed before Age of Discovery was released, lore-wise he was. Yes, the crossed bones do refer to the Greenmist. My mistake on that. And I can never remember Caertax's name. As for Mayong, the Ydal Ankh is related to him and one of the few objects that can damage him. Much like crucifix to a vampire (non-norrath), Mayong was burned and repelled when the Ankh is pressed against his skin. Considering how much Mayong doesn't have the weakness of the vampire's he creates this points more towards his origin. As for the "dragon head" symbol...could be Mayong. Could be Kerafyrm. Could be Veeshan. Lots of possible contenders there.
I'd forgotten that event summary in the withered lands, thank you. Which leads us back to things happening in the wrong order. Or the Rallos, Ratonga, and Greenmist (Cazic?) runes are all part of Ethermere, which seems a little cheap to me. But I think it was mentioned at Live that the Ethermere happenings were outside the calendar, something that could affect Ages End (since one of our main allies in preventing it died) but wasn't part of the progression. I suppose other possibilities would be that the Rallos-related event hasn't actually happened yet? Or we helped to actually prevent it by getting Rallos replaced by the Triumvirate of War? Oh, and seems the name of that Paineel rune was off - the collection item is the Appropriated Sigil of Phenomenon. As you said, this could be a case of graphic being reused without actually being related, or misuse of the sigil by whoever used it (text on the item seems to indicate the latter). On the other hand, the Quellborns were Erudites - from Erudin rather than Paineel, but the spiky variant of the sigil could still be related to them. Given the other items in the collection, and that the collection itself is cursed objects, it could be the sigil's original form was the smoother one used by Erudin, and was twisted into the Paineel version by either the curse on the property or the priest of Fear outside the gates.
Considering the link between the Euradites, Quellius and Cazic Thule the symbol might actually refer to the combined religion. It could also be a refrence to the union of Quellious and Cazic that resulted in Terris Thule and Morel Thule being born. Also considering how much Morel and Terris have been a growing backstory in the Hero's Day events I'm thinking that could be a bit of foreshadowing of them becoming more important to the greater EQ2 story. Then again, the same could be said for Ullurrokk, though there isn't any supporting lore to say the symbol belongs to her.
the Combine Empire was formed before Rallos fell. it's actually part of the Fallen Swords events....I believe it goes: we free Rallos' children, Yelniak forces the New Combine to form by bullying Lucan into it, Rallos is slain by his own children/adventurer's wielding Theer's swords. basically we finish up dealing with Rallos while the New Combine starts moving to aid Skyshrine...that's how they are already there(and been there for awhile) after we deal with Rallos' threat and turn our attention to Skyshrine. you have to witness that section in the fallen swords timeline I beleive before you kill rallos.
Thank you guys SO, SO, SO very much! This is much more than I expected. I wonder if there are really big events after Age's End. I hope SoE reveals all the bits of the Calendar we've experienced when Age's End is all over with. They have to get there sometime, right?
One question for you guys (I need it for a story I'm writing): Where is the Calendar located? Or where is the part in Lodrelhai's and Mixxit's pictures above? My friend told me one monolith was in the new Chelsith zone, where the Chelsith stone came from. Are all those symbols on the Chesith stone or...?
The Monoliths, we now know, are smaller pieces that have been scattered around Norrath and Ethernere. The calendar itself was once located in the Ancient Vault of Chelsith; how exactly the fragment we know as the "Chelsith Stone" came to be in the Leviathan's belly isn't entirely clear, nor is how the Monoliths got distributed literally from here to Kingdom Come...
