What do you suppose the next Expansion will be about?

I like the isle of mara stuff I wouldn't mind that being expanded.

It could be that Kerafyrm is still trying to gain control over the powers of Godslaying and that in his desperation to retain possession of the Tear of Veeshan he risked fighting Yelnik while not in full control over the power. So he is hanging back until he has full control over his power.

Or it could be that he isn't in the Temple of Veehsan because he is leading a force against his true objective: killing off the pathenon of Norrath. The major obstacle to Kerafyrm taking over the entire world isn't the mortals or the other (lesser) dragons, it is the gods that would act to oppose him. Gaining the godslaying powers is the first step. The second step would be to find a way to invade their planes and begin to execute them. Once they are dealt with the rest will fall into place. What the Awakened are up to now could simply be a diversion from Kerafyrm's plans.

Kerafyrm and his most powerful and trusted followers could be attempting to breach one of the less protected planes. One that doesn't have a diety to protect it, and use that plane to empower Kerafyrm and invade the rest. Maybe twist that plane into a reflection of his own desire? The Plane of Innovation comes instantly to mind. An entire plane with no deity associated with it. It is also logical that Kerafyrm could have invaded the Plane of War. The shifting of Drunder to Norrath probably left gaps that could be exploited to travel to the Plane of War. Also with Rallos dead and his forces badly damaged the new Triumvirate of War might be vulnerable. They might fail before they even had a chance to take Rallos' place. There is also the chance that Kerafyrm has invaded the Ethernere and is using the Ethernere equivalent of one of the major dragon homes as his base of operations. Destroying the Western Wastes might not only have been a tactical decision to eliminate enemies, but also an opportunity to give Kerafyrm a huge number of potential recruits if he could travel to the Ethernere linked zone. Both from the fallen Claws of Veeshan and the Awakened Cultists that died in the assault.

This could also be what the Harrowing Horde has been building up to take care of. Dragons are just too powerful individually for the normal horde to be able to beat. The Horde could be desperately funneling together forces from all over the Ethernere to overpower a vast horde of dead and living dragons in the Western Wastes. Or should we call it the "Eternal Nesting Grounds"?

I still don't want to rule out a prolonged visit to what is left of Luclin. Considering what the Tears of Veeshan were used for in the Ethernere, it is possible that what destroyed Luclin was Kerafyrm stealing the first Tear from the Nexus. If that was the case...maybe the Shissar have another Tear that they used to move their pyramid to Luclin in the first place? What if the planar runes they stole to make the Calendar were all Tears of Veeshan? Also if Kerafyrm wanted a god to test his power of godslaying on...a weakened and isolated goddess Luclin would make a tempting target.

actually yes, it is.
the managed a mass teleport of thier temple, and yes, they managed to from the Grey...which also meant they had to start liching themselves to keep the place going. they became insanely Xenophobic...they had no contact with Shadowhaven or the Nexus to know about it being invaded. the moon exploded AFTER teleportation was cut off. whcih means no sudden chance of leaving via teleporting the temple. you can't tell me they had the ability to stop a planetary explosion under thier feet, with no warning, no indications, on sheer luck.

the Grey was the ONLY magical defense they had around the Shissar temple, and all the grey did was create a vaccum becuase they were terrified of the Greenmist. anyone or anything coudl walk right into the Grey with no trouble...outside of not being able to breathe. so I wouldn't call the Grey a 'powerful magical shielding' to begin with.

where did it ever state that the Nexus had a Tear in it? or that the Shissar had one?

the Nexus was a gigantic black oily stone. nothing about it says 'tear of veeshan'. The Shissar to my knowledge also never had anything that I would call a 'tear of Veeshan' either.

we don't know where the three that were in the Nexus are from. we only know that there was one in the Temple of Veeshan, and that when Kera sacked it a Dragon of the CoV took it and tried to get away. he was hit with a necromantic spell which the Tear amplified on him and fell into the Cobalt Scar, where his bones still retained that spell that cause the problems with undeath in the Othmir/Ulthork...and he is STILL afflicted with the pain of it in death in Ethernere, where he succumbed to the Horde in exchange for peace from the pain.

that is how the Tear ended up in Siren's Grotto where the Fear worshipping Talvan used it to corrupt the Sirens and we eventually recovered it...only to have Kerafyrm steal it back when we attempted to use it. and Kera seems to have used it to shove the Temple into Ethernere.

We don't know where any of the Tears of Veeshan came from. We don't know what they are at all. What we do know is the dragons were aware of them before we had any knowledge of them. The few dragons that know call them Tears of Veeshan. The CoV dragon that stole the one in the Cobalt Scar didn't know what it did, otherwise he might of been prepared to deal with the magic amplifying effect or at least understand what was happening to him.

There was this place called "a Nexus" in the Ethernere. It was a nexus for time and space, and it was powered by 3 Tears of Veeshan. Someone in the Awakened used a single Tear of Veeshan to transport the Temple to the Ethernere. Is it really all that surprising that I would surmise that the first Tear that Kerafyrm came into possession of might of been from the Nexus in Luclin? The Nexus was/is an amplifier for teleportation. The Tears of Veeshan amplify magic. Coincidence?

And if Kerafyrm fought his way to the Nexus and was still under attack when he got to the Tear...he might of used it to amplify his attacks. That could explain the rumor of him destroying Luclin.

I sacked the Temple of Veeshan back in the EQ1 days. Just like I sacked Luclin later. Sure the Shissar didn't have a Tear of Veeshan back then, but then neither did the Claws of Veeshan. I guess Tears are an EQ2 thing and I bet that we're not done dealing with them.

Hum... We're talking about Shissar here. A race obsessed by prophecies...
If they were able to make at least one prophecy relevant to our times before the 1st Greenmist (the Chelsith Stone) it's not that far fetched to think they might have known the fate of Luclin in advance and took actions to escape it.

I honestly would like to see parts of Luclin its full glory and I don't care the lore you have to make up to do it - none of this "the blown up remains of Luclin." We've already had Antonica, Velious, and Odus drastically altered. I think the graphics and art style.. the color palette.. of EQ2 would give immense justice to the dark zones of EQ1 Luclin. For example, Neriak is a seamless visual evolution from EQ1. I feel like Luclin would build off of the darkness and intrigue of EQ2 Neriak. (if this makes any artistic sense at all..)

But anyway, going from here won't be hard. A lot of people in EQ1 said "Where do you go after slaying the Gods in POP?" and here they still are, 15 expansions after POP - with the latest few (HOT/VOA/ROF) having a decent storyline.

This does bring up a good point. The Shissar did have a warning that the moon was going to blow up. The same exact warning they had the Greenmist was coming: the Chelsith Calendar. If the Emperor's servants were able to correctly divine the Calender to teleport the Ssra Temple to the moon and erect a barrier against the Greenmist who is to say that they didn't correctly interpret the Calendar to warn them of the Shattering which is also on the Calendar? Either they could have moved the Temple again (assuming they didn't need the Combine Network to teleport. The Quellthulians in the Kingdom of Sky didn't so it is possible), or they could of reinforced it to survive the Shattering. I find the second to better fit an expansion than the second teleport.

Also the Shattering offered Luclin (the goddess) something that she couldn't of obtained without it: The assumption that her moon is devoid of life. Even without access to the moon people would assume that the various cities would continue to exist and that they could be contacted someday. After the Shattering everybody would assume nothing could of survived that. Without some easy method to travel there, nobody would attempt to do so. Why would you undertake an expensive project to visit the exploded moon? The goddess could of protected small pockets and used her influence to hold the largest chunks of Luclin in a stable orbit. You could use that as an explanation of why the moon hasn't turned into a ring around Norrath like it should. Or you could call it lazy nostalgia on the part of the devs leaving a shattering and burning moon in Norrath's orbit.

The big point is that there are lots of exploitable opportunities to have a moon adventure. The big question is does the story of EQ2 point in that direction? I happen to say yes. Maybe not the next expansion, but probably before the Ages End prophecy is finished.

We also have no idea what happened to Taelosia. As far as I know it has never even been mentioned in EQ2.

While Gates of Discord was not a popular expansion in EQ, this is EQ2, and we know that at the very least there is a completely blank canvas of land out there.

Shissar? Doubt it.
Dinosaurs? Tons.
Level? 100.
Release? 3rd Tuesday in November

Let the speculation resume...

yes the Shissar had thier massive calendar. but they DIDN'T divine the coming of the Greenmist. that's how it destoryed all of them but the ones in the Temple, who fled in desperation. using the Calendar to say the Greenmist was a known event to them and that's why out of thier entire empire, that spread pretty much across all of Kunark, was killed off save three or four major figures and a thimblefull of thie speices is the same as people looking as Nostrodomus' predictions and making them fit in modern events.

and once they got to the Moon, they didn't have access to their calendar to predict anything. especially something several thousand years into the future. the Calander was in Chelsith, the stone was in possession of Trakanon, the Monoliths are spread all over the place. So unless they a) planned to have thier entire species go near extinct, b) read into the calendar accurately several thousand years in advance, then no, I don't see them coming back.

If they knew the Greenmist was coming, you'd think they'd have taken steps to do things like you know, make sure their prophecy calendar would be taken with them. you'd think when they say the Greenmist approach, they'd known what it was and gotten out of dodge.

I think thier massive calenfar had the same flaw it has now. it predicts events, yes. but the symbols it uses can have a huge amount of meanings. the symbol we associate now with the Greenmist maybe the Shissar thought was a sign of the Death of the gods they were fighting, that they'd conquer them. maybe they though it would mean the death of a major figure like the 'Godslaying' Emperor.

They obviously didn't seem to think it meant that they were about to be hit with an extinction level event of divine retribution. They probably realized that's what it meant as the Greenmist was rolling over thier cities and people..and then took steps to get the hell away from it via teleporting to the moon ASAP and not worry about things like the Calendar.

but with this coming expansion, there are some stories I would like to see them pickup and run with:

Nagafen and his eggs. Now the both of major factions of dragons are mostly out of commission, I don't think there's anyone to keep Nagafen in check enough to keep him trapped in Sol Eye. we know he's been secretly gathering allies and forces in the droag ranks and the like. and we know he needs an Ice dragon still to help him with his eggs.

Tserrina and Mayong. Tserrina seems to still hold a torch for Mistmoore, and it would be interesting to see them get back together either as opposition to one another or as a couple again...Lenya Thex coupld be an issue in either scenario, which could be used to bring in FV, who if the Duality's comment in CS is an indication, may be the new Queen of New Tunaria.

Kyle Bayle. We know he failed to try and take the throne through swaying the people, we know he failed his attempts at rebirth to be 'flesh and blood' and thus the rightful living heir. But I don't think he's done trying for the throne, and after the events in Qeynos, brute force seems like the next viable option.

Opal, Talvus, adn the girl who's name eludes me that got lucan thrown into Ultera. these three figures seem like right now...they have a common enemy in both Lucan or Cristanos. these three have either royally pissed off Lucan, or been thrown to the wolves by him. It would not surprise me to see them gather together. Opal and her former student/possible daughter both of who are on lucan's bad side...and talvus, who lucan tossed aside to cristanos' inquisition...could seriously provided some force to Talvus' plans to bring his mother down and take the throne rightfully his.
Combined with the unrest between Cristanos and the clergy, add in the chance to gather like minded Thexians with all the troop movement and collaberations of being in the Combine...Talvus could possibly boost his forces enough to make a viable try for the throne.

Rile and Venril. Rile know has access to Venrils most prized magics, he has the Crusaders of the Greenmist at his command, he believes he had his own phylactery and four new powerful personal guard as well as the location and access to the original laboratory of Atrebe, and thus access to the ability to produce or try and improve upon things like the Sokokar. and we know he wants Venril out of the way again to claim leadership of the Sathirian Empire. I for one would love to see him try for the throne, and due to the fact he had a treaty of sorts withteh Rime, becuase the Rime in Kunark will add to his forces with the death of Kraytoc Killingfrost.

I think Nagafen is going to be a footnote in the Ages End prophecy. His clutch of prismatic eggs probably isn't old enough to worry about it hatching. I don't think he'll be willing to use them to make droag (prismatic droag, no that wouldn't piss of Kerafyrm... ). While he might have some loyal supporters I think the prismatic clutch actually makes him more of a target for the Awakened. After all, wouldn't they want control over those eggs?

I'd like to see the whole Mayong/Tserrina/Ages End prophecy make some progress. We know Mayong is going to pop up and ask us to do things that sound like they need to be done but will set Mayong up for whatever his plan is. He'll force us to choose the lesser of two evils like he always does. How Tserrina changes things could be interesting. As for Lenya...I think the devs will probably forget all about her. Which they shouldn't but...

Kyle Bayle threatened us with his massive power from the Ethernere. He said that he is a god-like being there. That could be the truth. It could be the Harrowing Horde is actually under his control and he is gathering the components to create a rift from the Ethernere to our Norrath so he can invade Qeynos. This is actually more likely than a visit to the Dead Hills.

I honestly think the devs have a serious love affair with Lucan. I don't think anything will seriously challenge him (or any other city ruler including Cristanos). It is much more likely that minor figures around the city leaders will die. Just like Vishra (yes, he is a minor figure).

The whole Kunark thing is kind of a mystery. Is the Sebilis Empire playing on the world stage or not? They aren't participating in the Combine Army as far as I can tell. They should be aware of the Ages End prophecy. This is the sort of thing that Venril would pay attention to. It could be that Venril and Rile are currently dancing around each other, neither feeling they have enough of an advantage to confront the other. Considering that several major pieces to the Ages End prophecy are in Kunark you'd think there would be more local involvement. Like Satherian forces pushing their way into these areas just to show that they have authority everywhere in Kunark even if it is just for show.

I was hoping for more EQ1 cross over tbh, since the same ethernere is common to both. Something like EQ1 and EQ2 get a ethernere zone at the same time.

Or maybe we can use some dead god juice to take down the veil of alaris on our side and start poking around.

This might be plausible, but as it stands, the Shissar were the ones that created the Calendar. They knew their race was going to go extinct. They knew Luclin would shatter. Perhaps they didn't know -when-, exactly, but they expected it. Moreover, they are certainly competent enough in their magics that they could shield themselves on one of the larger halves of Luclin. And even if they didn't, I mean, they were all probably undead by the time Luclin exploded. A lich can survive in any enviroment, a Shissar lich perhaps even moreso if just for the fact of their natural talent in magic. I think, provided the Shissar city was not above one of the fractures in the moon, that it would take more than Luclin's explosion to destroy the Shissar phylacteries.

I'm not sure we've heard mention of his eggs outside of the original Prismatic questline, so very interested in an update.

I would love to see a revamped Neriak with a King Talvus on the throne. I legitimately hate Cristanos.

I would also love to see this, a sort revisit to Kunark, maybe resulting in Venril's destruction lore-wise, and an Emperor Rile perhaps turning the Sathirians back to their Thulian roots.

Because, of course, it would have been completely impossible for them to record the symbols upon the Calendar, and bring the information with them to Luclin.

Do you, as a person, consider the fate of the entire species when making contingency plans, or do you mainly stay concerned with a considerably smaller subset of the species? If the latter, it isn't unreasonable to surmise that - regardless of their level of technology - might have similar concerns or dispositions. It is quite possible that a member of the Temple faction (having studied rubbings of the entire Chelsith stone - or possibly even made a physical duplicate of it), correctly identified that something similar to the Greenmist was going to happen soon, thus allowing the Temple faction to escape (and basically said, "Meh. Who needs them" about the remaining Shissar that weren't part of the Temple faction).

Imagine, if you could get rid of those that frequently oppose you just by not keeping them informed, would it not make sense (logically, not ethically) to do so?

T-Rex Mount! Finally!

hmm.
that would be very strange if the next expac boosted us up to level 100, considering this expac is all about getting and leveling these green gems so that we can be level 99 in the wing3 raid zone

I heard that the first quest in the Signature line for the next expansion was going to be called..."Marshall, Will, and Holly - - On a routine expedition"

hmm.
that would be very strange if the next expac boosted us up to level 100, considering this expac is all about getting and leveling these green gems so that we can be level 99 in the wing3 raid zone

MMB quest item gave you level 83 and the next expac level cap went to 90 so it can happen

Mayong Mayong Mayong Mayong