The Seraphs (or The Eight)

Quoted for emphasis.

Awesome as always. Being able to spread the influence of religions in EQN instead of having them just be some static piece of lore really interests me and makes me wish I could go on a religious crusade in the game right now. The dragons can keep Veeshan. All hail Anashti, Seraph of winter, winter, chicken dinner (winter is listed twice for him/her/it).

Tunare reference.

I guess something I am really not getting is why you guys are willing to give us this list of Gods and so much information about them, but yet you aren't willing to tell us anything about all these other Gods that you keep hinting exist.

On one hand, you tell us all about Mithanial, but at the same time you refuse to confirm or deny that Cazic Thule exists or how much he may have been redesigned for EQN.

On one hand you will not tell us anything about Inorruuk who may exist in the world today, but you have told us all about Veeshan who by all rights, we mortals in modern norrath probably shouldn't know or care anything about.

You have told us many times that most of the modern races follow these eight Seraphs. Okay, I get that. It makes sense that we would all know about the most popular religion of our time. But then why would I know about or have an understanding of the Four, Nor'I or Veeshan? They are old school and ancient history as far as our characters are concerned. And if we DO know about those older religions, then why wouldn't we be aware of other religions that have come and gone, or could maybe still exist in the world today?

From my perspective it seems like you Lore guys have drawn a rather silly line down the middle, shining a spotlight on just 1/2 of the gods in EQN, but completely hiding the other half. I am not feeling like you guys have some big surprises hidden up your sleeves, when I am fully expecting that Gods like Cazic, Rallos Zek, Inorruuk, Tunare, Rodcet Nife and others to have a place in this new Norrath.

The can't tell you the entirety of the lore. What would be the point. I don't play games just to play them. I play to hear the story/lore. If they told all i would quickly get bored. Why ruin the surprise. You might expect to see them, but that does not negate the surprise you'll feel in how the will introduced them. Those god will have their stories separate from their stories in other EQ games. The back stories of the gods of EQN is only half the story. There is how the gods will interact with each other and the actions of the players.The gods are not all knowing. They won't know what each other are doing. I can see the gods thinking other gods are gone. They can be just as surprise to see the emergence of gods long past as our characters. When players raise the influence of their gods how will other gods respond.

If they give to much information they will influence what players are doing. There by destroying a life of consequence.

We don't hide things just for the sake of hiding them, or because we like frustrating people. We are holding some deities back because they are important to the story of the game, or in some cases because there will be reveals in upcoming fiction.

The least effective way for us to reveal lore is to give you a giant exposition dump. While that would satisfy a certain desire to know what's the same and what's different in EQN, it neither serves the story nor, in the long term, the audience.

Now certainly, giving some amount of exposition, as in these blogs, is helpful to frame expectations. But this information on the Seraphs, for example, is generally based on what the average person in Norrath would know. Then what we're trying to get the audience to do is to take a step back and think about the implications of what they've read, and perhaps extrapolate what it could mean for gods which aren't named.

We're releasing story in a variety of ways; big chunks via novellas and short stories, focused pieces like this blog series, and tidbits through livestreams and forum posts. As you keep putting them all together, hopefully the big picture becomes more and more clear.

Did you ever consider the possibility that they originally intended to go only with what they have already announced, but after consideration of the obvious passion that the long-time fans have for all the others, they are considering including them? So for now they are being mysterious....for whatever reason, and I for one can totally live with that.

Thanks to the Lore Team for sharing what they can! =) I'm loving it so far!

The blog says the gods wont be like EQ (standing mobs that you raid them), they will be what I think is correct and better, they'll be like a presence and a belief. My question is can these gods give us powers/skills? Can we for example explore the maximum and find a monument that you can speak with them and they give you a skill or at least you can hear him, can we interact with them?

Well, I think this is already semi/pseudo-confirmed...
I mean, they did mention the Tempest class, and how it would need to be unlocked by joining a certain order. Now, I by no means have inside knowledge, but I would *guess* that this order of lightning wielding tempests may have a very strong connection to Karana, god of storms. So, there is that... Though it would be interesting if you took too much negative action towards the faction that you lost your "Lightning" abilities until you rebuild that faction....

CHEESE! CHEESE FOR EVERYBODY! (Somebody is totally not going to get that.)

....So, we are making this movie, called "The Sixth Sense"... about a kid who sees dead people and Bruce Willis is his councelor.... but anyway, here's what you are gonna love about it. He's been dead the whole time! Really, its a twist you'll never see coming, you should totally come and see it.

/sarcasm

Yep. I want to experience most of the lore for the first time in-game and to a lesser extent via the ebooks. Information like that provided in the OP is awesome, but if that is how we got all lore information, it would be detrimental to the game IMO.

I am a big fan of the Pantheon of the Eight. This kind of religious system allows for great diversity and drama. I hope it plays out in the grand tradition of the greek pantheon, with epic adventure and intrigue.

As always, please make sure that religious belief plays a dynamic interesting role in Next providing faith based quests and rewards.

Not like that, EQN is exploration, this monument would be extremely hard to find and when you use it, it would go away to another place.

I don't expect them to tell us the entirety of the lore. That's pretty extreme conclusion to jump to. BUT...

1. For figures so major as the gods of the world, I do kind of expect some basic info. That's just foundational stuff for the setting. And like I said above, I find it odd that they choose to be so forthcoming with some Gods, but super secretive of others.

2. We now have a whole section of the EQN forums, for the express purpose of talking about and asking questions about the Lore. I take this to mean that we are welcome to question the lore, and that's what I am doing here.

3. We now have these Round Table blogs talking about the Gods of Norrath, and a discussion thread for it.

So please, don't talk down to me for asking what I feel is a legitimate question. "Why shine such a spotlight on some of the Gods, but not all?" I am not asking for story spoilers, just if it is really necessary to keep Gods secret from the community. Is it really going to hurt anything to just provide us with a more complete list of the Gods?

I get that. I completely understand everything you are telling me here. But FYI, I am feeling a bit frustrated by it these days. I have been eagerly following your lore reveals since the big reveal at SOE Live 2013. I have been trying to maintain a decent understanding of this new world and what it is and isn't. I really am very open minded about this. But lately you have been hitting us with some things that really come out of left field, and I don't mean 'good' surprises. More like confusing, what the heck are they thinking kind of surprises IMO.

So yes, I am going to point a finger at things like this and ask why. I am going to ask why you are giving us all this info on these Gods, but what about Bertoxxulous? As I understand it there was at one point a big war against this God and he was eventually "defeated". I do not expect you to tell us that story right now, but how about clarifying a little about the god himself? In EQN is he still the god of disease and sickness? Why is Anashti listed here as the God of disease? Was Bertox killed and his power transferred to Anashti, like what happened with Tunare?

Absolutely. In fact, that thought has been at the top of my mind in recent months.

Back in the big reveal in 2013, I thought they made it very clear that those Gods were not going to be a part of EQN. If I recall correctly, I think they even said that they did not want to include the particularly good or evil gods from the new Lore. I myself am one of many people who have been asking them to NOT do that, and include those classic iconic gods anyway in the new game. Because they are well loved pieces of the EQ franchise. But SOE has said nothing about it for a full year.

Suddenly at SOE Live 2014... we are told "Tunare was killed". Our first hint of one of the 'lost' EQ gods making it into the new game, and she is dead. I just... ugh. It's what I feel is a rather cheap and too convenient death. They killed her for the sake of explaining why Kithicore is cursed (which doesn't really make sense), and to introduce some new monsters called Raveners that apparently eat gods for breakfast.

Since then, they have been suggesting that there might be a lot more gods out there. Hint hint, wink wink.

So I am wondering exactly what you suggested above. Is this the product of community feedback? Did they listen and make a new effort to include those strongly good and evil gods in the new game? Or would Moorgard claim that this was their plan all along, and we just misunderstood their intentions back in 2013?

That's a bit more than sarcasm, it's a little insulting actually. And you are one of the posters I highly respect around here. So let's stay cool okay?

Sixth Sense was a singular story, and the twist at the end was probably the biggest highlight of what would have otherwise been a blah movie. But I am not talking about a single story here. Lore is something different. It's far more massive, and it includes countless individual stories, with their own little surprise twists at the end. Just look at how Fall of Bastion ended. Did not see that coming.

But not only is Lore more than just a single story, it's also more than just a collection of stories. Lore is also who and where. It's the setting. There must be a lot of things that they could be telling us without spoiling a story plot or twist. The original EverQuest had no issue with providing us with a complete list of gods, with brief descriptions of them, before the game launched. I remember it being one of the few bits of info I could find on the game before I actually started playing.

I recall that the text even 'suggested' that it might be possible for players to visit the planes of the gods. But I didn't know anything more specific than that. Eventually while playing, I began to hear rumors of players accidentally finding and entering the portal to the Plane of Fear. It was sometime later that I found out where it actually was, and later still before I actually entered it myself.

I wouldn't trade that kind of experience for anything. I am not asking Moorgard to tell us all exactly where to find the portal to the Plane of Fear in EQN (I hope there isn't one). But it would be nice to get a simple confirmation that the God of Fear exists in the new Norrath.

Well, if you're going to have hidden cults dedicated to secret, dark gods, you probably don't want to do the big reveal on said gods too early.

They've already name-dropped Bertoxx and Cazic, so it's not like we don't know that evil gods exist, we just need to wait to see how exactly they fit in to this new lore.

Many of your conserns have already been addressed.

I highly doubt the killed her off just to introduce Ravener. It probably not chronologically the first mention of Raveners.

I highly doubt the killed her off just to introduce Ravener. It probably not chronologically the first mention of Raveners.

Sorry about the double post the page crash on my computer and i reloaded a old version of the thread.

I'm very interested to see the lore for Necromancy since Anashti governs both Death and Undead.
This allows for quite a bit of grey.
A Necromancer focused on Death, Winter, Decay, Judgment and Harvesting is still in harmony with Nature and could easily be seen as good or neutral morally.
A Necromancer focused on Undead, Cruelty, and Plague would likely be seen as evil.

Seems like Necromancers aren't inherently wielding "Unholy" magic.
Which means they aren't inherently in diametric opposition with Clerics.

Tunare is dead!