Reading Order of Lore Books [Updated April 8, 2015]

Good question. EQN is lore being re made from the old games, so reading the books and learning the eras and ages, time line in history is the start. I suggest reading posts on the round table blog Moorgard and them give some breif intro to how the world of Norrath is created and some mythical bringings or the so called legion of how Norrath came to be. Some places and people make videos or summaries and if you can find them and it's valid it may help. Many names from EQ and EQ 2 are the same like dragons nagifin or lady vox however not all and some have changed so old lore could get you mixed up if not careful.

Here are the Dev Blogs with information on the religions and gods of EQN. https://www.everquestnext.com/round-table/blogs?page=1

After that, just start reading the ebooks in order and avoid confusing yourself with EQ1 or 2 info, like Ballin mentioned.

Also, a helpful resource is the EQNwiki if you want it all in one place with links to names and places that connect, albeit unfinished as it's purely player driven and it's a bit early in dev. Players update it with all info from the eBooks as well as the different posts from Moorgard here, which are easy to miss. (tip: check Moorgard's forum account posting history for those specifically)

Suggestion: Please put a link to the e-books in the first post. I was looking around for the link for a long time a few days ago. I presume that it's because everyone assumes that you know where to find them. However, if you're just starting to read them, it can be surprisingly hard to figure out where to find them. (I did find them eventually).

Hey Dexella think dreaming shadow will be after last stand of the teir dal.... Right now it's listed before but summary of book says after...right?

May need to double check Morgard old post

The Keldarain Era

1.The Age of Awakening--- The Primarches roam the Universe. Veeshan the Primarch of Order engages into a Cosmic-Scale Conflict with Kerafyrm the Primarch of Chaos and Kerafyrm is defeated. Once this happens, Veeshan Imprisons the Sleeping Kerafyrm into a cosmic size prison she makes which is the Planet Norrath. Then Veeshan creates guards for the Chaos god , what we call "The Four" warders. Veeshan also known as the Sky Mother creates the Dragons and dragon kind to roam upon Norrath. From the primarch Kerafyrm's power arises a birth of a spirit that is like a life force on Norrath, This spirit is known as the Nor'I and from it comes many other races and Sentient beings. Those that do not come from the Nor'I come by ways of portals from other worlds in the future.

2.The Age of Balance
3.The Age of Exploration
4.The Age of Decline

The Lost Era

1.The Age of Ruin
2.The Age of Strife

Information is missing from ages before the Age of Ascension ( Lost to time )

The Dal Era

The elves of Norrath are not exactly like the ones you remember from EverQuest. Rather than being divided into specific races, they are separated as different social subsets or factions--the Koada’Dal, the Feir’Dal, and the Teir’Dal.


1.The Age of Ascension

The Dal Era marks a period of about 2000 years of elven dominance that began with the Age of Ascension. Before this age, Norrathian society was primitive, and struggling to survive. It was a dark time, filled with evil creatures, where no organized society existed. But as the elves rose to prominence, they began discovering technology, creating cities, founding kingdoms, and ultimately . built empires that would last 2,000 years.

2.The Age of Allies

As their society grew, they formed allegiances with the other races of Norrath. It was during this time that Spires were discovered.
The elves eventually befriended even the dragons. Through this allegiance, the elves' magical knowledge and technology grew, and the speed at which their society developed increased by great leaps. It was a time of prosperity--a golden age, where the races generally thrived. The citizens of Norrath were happy, and things seemed to be moving in a positive direction.
Toward the end of this age one race that came through the Spires. It was the Shissar
This age ended with the Shissar War.

3.The Shissar War

But all good things eventually come to an end, and the end of this peaceful period began with the arrival of the snakelike shissar. At first, these creatures appeared cooperative, so the elves trusted and befriended them. But the shissar attacked, betraying the elves. They laid waste to cities, and nearly succeeded in conquering Norrath. The elves were only able to withstand their assault with the support of the many allies they had made. Their combined efforts turned the shissar back and sealed the spires that led to the shissar world.

4.The Takish Age

This age began with the end of the Shissar War. which in turn led to racial tension. It was during this time that the Koada'Dal, the elite class of Elves, formed. The Takish Empire formed during this age, hence the name. This is when the Lore book of "The Razor's Edge" is told, This is when the Takisha Empire is at war with the Ogres. You get to see the Ogres mentality more in this story.


Because of the betrayal and devastation they suffered as a result of befriending the shissar, the elves became increasingly distrustful and paranoid. What if their allies, those who had aided and saved them during the shissar war, were wolves in sheeps’ clothing, merely biding their time waiting for a window of opportunity to open so they could drive the elven society to its knees?

Over time, racial tension began to divide the empire and sparked the Koada’Dal movement. The Koada’Dal were, at first, a positive force. They were the best of society--Kings, dukes and war heroes. But eventually, these highborn elves came to see themselves as superior to other races. This is reflected and shown as well as the change in the kingdom in the story "No Poetry in Death".This would prove to be their downfall. The Koada’Dal were able to develop powerful high magic that even the dragons feared. Their magical supremacy allowed them to form the Takish Empire, which imposed an oppressive regime over the other races. This is when the Story "No Poetry in Death" is told and how the racial tensions is causing threats against the Emperor and family.

Although the elves didn’t have magic powerful enough to truly subjugate the dragons themselves, they were able to oppress other draconic races such as the kobolds, drakes and wyverns. This caused the dragons to flee, and they isolated themselves on Velious for a long period of time. The Takish Empire stood for hundreds of years, and probably would have stood for hundreds more if not for an event called The Sundering. [during the soe live lore panel, jeff butler noted that the name of this event might be subject to change before everquest next launches.] For reasons unknown, one of the teleportation spires exploded, burying the elven capitol of Takish’Hiz under miles of rock. [this is the region currently called ashfang in everquest next.] The elves high magic also, for some reason, stopped working. Civil wars broke out, with various nations vying for power, and society fell into decay.

Eventually, the rebellions were put down and a strained peace existed. But, with the elven empire in ruins, the dragons seized their opportunity to avenge their years of oppression at the hands of the elves. They swept in and wreaked devastation, conquering Faydwer and wiping away the last remnants of the Takish Empire.

5.The Sundering

The book "The Stars of Home" tells this story. The empire faced a major crisis when the Sundering occurred, which left their capital destroyed and the elves bereft of high magic. Without this powerful form of defense, and their empire crumbling, the dragons finally retaliated against the elves in the wake of the Sundering.
is an age in the Dal Era, between the Takish Age and the Dragon War. The Sundering itself was a singular event in which the spire nearest to the Elven city of Takish-Hiz exploded, covering the area with miles of rock and destroying the city. The area surrounding the former city became what is now called Ashfang. It was also during this time that the high magic the Elves used stopped working.

Civil wars broke out among the different Elven cities, ending only with a strained peace in which they were able to rebuild the Takish empire, but on a much lesser scale than the empire that stood previously. After Stars of Home comes the story "Prison of Fire" which is showing what the Empire was doing to dragons and these two events bring in the next book the Rise of the Scale.

6.The Dragon War

This begins with the "Rise of the Scale" book and was a devastating war that broke out when the dragons attacked the elves in the wake of the Sundering, which left the latter vulnerable. That leads to The Enemy of my Enemy is told about the ogres and how they decide to help or not with the dragon issues. The dragons wish to conquered Faydwer during this time and kill off any race not part of the Ring of Scale. The Ring of Scale consist of Kobolds, Phyxians, wyverns, Raptors, Drakes, Dragons, Black Dragon Leader Ithiosar, who deliver a crippling blow to the Takish Empire. To fight back, the Combine Accord was formed. This is a mix band of races. Part of the possibilities of the Combine show up in a story about some Ogres in "the Enemy of my Enemy"

Now the war is going on and mages and others rise and fall. This is when the "The Mage of the Teir'Dal" is told. Next is the "Arche Mage part 1" and "part 2" story.


The Fier’Dal, an elven social subset that was welcoming toward other races, joined with some of the races the Takish had oppressed--including the ogres, dwarves and kerrans--and formed an alliance of equals called the Combine Accord. The Combine struck back against the dragons, ushering in The Dragon War. The battle was long and costly. Unfortunately, no matter how strong their spirits, or how fiercely they fought, the dragon forces proved too powerful. The Combine suffered death and devastation on a massive scale, and were finally forced to flee.

The final days of the Dragon War are told in the short stories "The Last Stand of the Teir`Dal" and "The Fall of Bastion". This is when the Teir' are separated from the rest of the Combine (other races and the elvish king). The Combine has left Faydwer and headed for Kunark to escaped annihilation from the Ring of Scale (dragon armies) who now hold power over all of Faydwer.
As The Combine prepared to make their exodus, the Teir’Dal, an elite force of elves, fought to buy them time by making their last stand at Bastion, led by Keramore Thex. [these events are told in the ebook, the last stand of the teir’dal.] The allies fled to Kunark, an unexplored wilderness, where they could attempt to regroup and reestablish the remnants of their society.

The Combine Era

1.The Age of Exile

the Age of Exile, The Teir'Dal found a mystical portal taking them to a weird land and the Combine left their homeland and head to Kunark to flee the Dragons. Unfortunately, they found the Shissar were already there, and now the Combine races are enslaved alongside the native Iksar. After 500 years of slavery, the Combine and the Iksar joined forces and rose up against the Shissar, driving their taskmasters out. But to the Combine's dismay, the Iksar tried to revert back to a master/slave society, this time using the Combine as the slaves. Some Iksar were sympathetic to the Combine, and the Combine managed to flee back to the homeland they left so long ago. During this time the story of "Dreaming in the Shadow" happensThe Teir' Dal change from elf to dark elves and we learn a few things about Innoruuk history and how the Prince of Shadow or Hate is born. The Teir'Dal eventually for some reason return and help fight the Shissar. They now have horns and dark skin,no longer look like the other Elves. During an interview, Franchise Director Dave Georgeson spoke of how these Elves now had Dragon blood in them. Now we see how that stage was set!). Somewhere in this Period we hear of the story of From Ash Comes Fire and we learn about the monk order.

But the shissar were also on Kunark. And they were not alone. They had subjugated the local iksar, and bred a race of soldiers. Their forces swept in and enslaved the Combine races. Eventually, the iksar longed to be free of the Shissar’s control, so they allied with the Combine to drive the shissar back. But old habits die hard, and a large subset of the iksar society couldn't help but fall back on the ways of their former masters. An iksar named Venril Sathir rose to prominence, and soon certain factions within the iksar became determined to possess the old knowledge of the Combine. They intend to use the Combine for their selfish purposes, but the Combine refuse to yield. Once again, they were forced to flee. Along with some iksar who were sympathetic to the Combine's cause, they made the decision to return and retake their homeland. The Teir'Dal return.

Some where during this age we learn of a new order/class called the Monks. We also get a sneak peak a little about the Kerran founder in the story called "From Ash Comes Fire". All though we are still unsure how far beyond or where this story currently fits with other stories.

2.The Age of Heroes

(when EverQuest Next will start.)
is an age in the Combine Era. It is the era in which EverQuest Next takes place. This is where the fun starts!
We the players will get to effect the world and make decisions.

Words, cannot express how glad I am there's still a loving group of lore enthusiasts. Gah. Thanks for putting up the eBook, I figure it's a good place to start figuring out what's what. I literally just heard of this project tonight, so obviously, I have a bit of catching up to do :-|

Frankly I wish there was more ebook coming out and actually lore seeping out like good old Moorgard use to do with the community. Tease us but keep us massively interested and on the edge of our seat.

Needless to say that is not that case now a days and rumors are starting to fly that EQN is nothing but vapor ware. Which rather sad to hear. Not saying that I agree with the rumors.

Now that they have been internal testing it has come to the point that the vault is sealed and nothing is coming out. There literally has been nothing at all word wise. Frankly it is saddening. The website is not getting updated enough or even in a timely matter now month it wasn't updated at all. Hell workshop #50 has been out for 2 weeks on Youtube and probably another week on Twitch yet the site hasn't had an update in 15 days and that was a landmark thank you video and that wasn't even a video form DBG it was community made. It was also focused on landmark. Get to it the really update has been in 22 days. Last real news we had about EQN was the internal testing and that was months ago.

I am sorry to say this but if DBG continues to not interact with the community and provide updated information such as Producer Letters (last producer's letter was in June 2015), various lore tidbits (last was April 8, 2015), stage of development, or other various way to keep the community interested in their product. They won't have the hype that were expecting for their games, they will loose new and old players alike. Meaning they won't have the funding the need to continue making games. In the end DBG/SOE will just began another page in video history collecting dust.