Strange question perhaps, but where is the lore coming from?

[Levatino]

Is there a book followed? Like LOTR Online following Tolkien. I mean if it all was made up great and thumbs up to the devs but if it was from a book then I would like to know what book so I can read it

[Galithdor]

Nope but there are books based off of EQ1 that are sold at book stores or online...i only know of Everquest:Rogue's Hour and Everquest:The Ocean of Tears. The devs base this off of EQ1 and their made up stuff heh

[Cusashorn]

<p>The novels are good reads (except for Rogue's Hour. AVOID THAT ONE!). Just fictional stories that take place in Norrath.</p><p>Other than atlases and strategy guides (which are usually outdated), there's no other books that are filled with nothing but lore..... Yet..</p><p>(Pssst! Over here!)</p><p>.....Help me break into Vhalen's office and steal his books. I'll split the profits with you 60/40 when we publish them.... :p</p>

[jagermonsta]

Kind of the same type of question I came to this section of the forum to ask so I'll post it in this thread. Are there many Everquest novels? Is there a particular author I should follow up on? If there is a bunch of EQ novels, which should I read first? Thanks!

[Serinde]

I'd been wondering this too. I've been skimming around this forum for a few days and the information some of you know is just overwhelming!  I played EQ1 at release until just after SoV... and don't remember learning half of what you guys know! So I found quite a few EQ books on Amazon...  Do they have much lore in them?  Like the above asked... which one should someone interested in learning more lore start?  I was think Ocean of Tears looks nice... what would you say?

[Controlor]

Feta@Crushbone wrote: <blockquote>I'd been wondering this too. I've been skimming around this forum for a few days and the information some of you know is just overwhelming!  I played EQ1 at release until just after SoV... and don't remember learning half of what you guys know! So I found quite a few EQ books on Amazon...  Do they have much lore in them?  Like the above asked... which one should someone interested in learning more lore start?  I was think Ocean of Tears looks nice... what would you say? </blockquote>The best way to find out about lore is this. QUESTS. In EQ1 you can go to the PoK and you can buy books from merchants and read about EQ1 lore. Quests in EQ1 detail verious things about people. Like the epic quests gives you clues about who your killing or talking to. In EQ2 the better resources are probb the ingame books. There are a LOT of them. Also the quests around. You can actually log all the convos for quests if you dont want to read them right then and there. The thing most people do is ignore the text. Doing so you ignore the lore. As far as i know this game is entirely made up and has no lore other than its own to follow by. That being said it is by far the best game for lore out there. Examples. LOTRO - has books it is based off of cant deviate to much from them w/o backlash. WoW - Until burning crusades its lore was that from the previous 3 RTS's. However from my understanding the lore from BC is laughable. SWG - Has starwars as the lore but dont seem to be heavily steeped in it. Matrix Online - Dont even think this has lore if much at all CoH and CoV - Also dont think this has lore if much at all EQOA/Live/II = best created ongoing lore for MMO imo. EQoA takes place befor EQlive which takes place befor EQII.

[Rast]

<p>Actually, the best game for Lore was Shadowbane, had a beautiful lore that was created for the game...  Was a shame they couldn't support it with mechanics though <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>EQ/EQ2 is good though, don't get me wrong, but without an easy way to get to it and read up on it, I find it lacking as a RP oriented system...</p><p>I have often wondered if the PnP system that was built around EQ would be a good place to find lore for the game though...</p>

[Sartredes]

Petty much all the EQ lore we know comes from text encountered in-game, with the exceptions being posts by the devs like Vhalen or Jindrak and any information given on the game/expansion websites.  There's a whole lot of information that can be gathered by reading the text of conversations, books, notes, or even equipment descriptions in some cases.  Sometimes work is needed to dig into it with more detailed lore being the reward. Such is the case with the book quests or conversations that occur over quest arcs.  I highly recommend reading everything and not just clicking next to proceed. Be advised, that not all NPCs in the game speak the truth or objectively tell you information, but this in itself is a part of the lore. The only source of lore is that found within the tomes of the developers responsible for creating the lore, like Vhalen. Most people that peruse this forum would love to get a look into these as it is my understanding that they contain a lot of history and descriptions of relationships and motivations that are only hinted at in-game.

[Cusashorn]

<p>Most of the lore comes from within the games themselves, which is the best thing.</p><p>As for the books:</p><p>Everquest: Rogue's Hour by Scott Ciencin was the first one. Avoid this book unless you absolutely want to bore yourself.</p><p>I don't know when the books came out, in what order but:</p><p>Everquest: The Blood Red Harp by Elaine Cunningham. It's about a dark elf necromancer from Mistmoore castle named Chanzoon, who is interested in a magical harp that a wood elf bard named Elizerain possessed, and the curse he cast upon her.</p><p>Everquest: Truth and Steel by Thomas M. Reid. About a Freeport human Warrior of the Halls of Steel guild.</p><p>Everquest: Ocean of Tears by Stewart Wieck. Staring actual characters from Everquest Lore, this is the story of Aataltaal, an elf from the long lost Takish Hiz empire, the birthplace of the Elves. This story is by no means canon with EQ lore, but it does reference the in-game lore the most of the 4 books. You'll otherwise recognize Aataltaal from the Tarton's Wheel quest in the game.</p>

[iceriven2]

I read the Ocean of tears one.  Really good read.  Minor lore discrepancies but otherwise good.

[Serinde]

Okay.. this is probably old news for most of you.. but for me and the other couple of people who were wondering... I just stumbled on this link.... <a href="http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php?link=ages_creation" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php...k=ages_creation</a> Looks awesome to me.... what do you lore buffs think?

[Zabjade]

<span style="color: #00cc00">It is a well known and referenced site but Lumina no longer updates it and has quit the game. (She use to be on my server) </span>

[Ama]

<p>Love to look at some EQ lore books if there were any around in a printed format.  For me personally EQOA lore was good, but not really centric to the game itself.  There were minor bits and pieces here and there as far as lore went.  Didn't see anything really concrete and what that did was allowed for players to make their own stores like we do here.  </p><p>Right now there was a contest held where players were selected and brought onto a special server.  The people that reached certain points in a certain time were awarded different prizes.  Best part was the grandprize where your name was added into the game on a certain item.  Love to see something similar like that here where each class (brawler, druid, etc...) has an item for them and a players name is added onto it.  That or a name of the players choosing. </p>

[WarreSammontakoja]

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Everquest: The Blood Red Harp by Elaine Cunningham. It's about a dark elf necromancer from Mistmoore castle named Chanzoon, who is interested in a magical harp that a wood elf bard named <u>Elizerain</u> possessed, and the curse he cast upon her.</p></blockquote><p>Just a familiar name popped up with both having kinda semi-mistmoorian twist =) Guess theese are not related in anymeans =) </p><p> Following is from SoD questline as you many know</p><p>Lucan D'Lere says to you,"I came to Felwithe on a diplomatic mission. I look to rid the world of a great evil, an evil prophecized ages ago by the former <u>Queen Elizerain</u>. That ancient queen's dreams have been recorded and proven in a few cases, but this is one dream that eludes us. I believe the Koada'Dal court has kept it hidden from us all."</p>

[Mirander_1]

I think it says in the book that the character Elizerain was named after the ancient queen

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p>'Official Lore' about Norrath, it's peoples, gods, and history, comes from a variety of sources.  First and formost, it is to be found within the two games, EQ Live and EQ2.  </p><p>This in-game lore is derived from NPC conversations and quest information, expansion paks, and from various in-game books and in-game occurances.  Other sources of official lore come from designer interviews and statements, (a number of which have occured on these forums),  and from officially sanctioned publications such as the Maps of Myrist.</p><p>There are other sources of lore that may be classified as 'Semi-Official Lore'.  This is lore which has not been officially sanctioned, but from which certain bits and pieces have made there way into official lore status.  The implication being that if a small part of this lore has been accepted,  the remainder may, by circumstantial evidence, be considered as valid so long as it does not contradict current official lore.</p><p>Sources of Semi-Official Lore are SOE sanctioned or licensed games and publications such as EQoA, and the EQ table top RPG game, and it's manuals.</p><p>The final category may be termed 'Unofficial Lore'.  This consists of educated guesses, inferences, speculation, and outright fan fiction.  The two EQ adventure novels are an example of Semi-Official Lore and Unofficial Lore.  Most of the dialogue, many of the characters, and the sequence of events are pure fiction.  Some of the events, and some of the places and characters are Semi-Official Lore, amd a few places and events are Official Lore.</p><p>And that's the rub.</p><p>These various sources of lore and the degree that they have validity for the game, are all too often dumped into a big lore pot, stirred around, and poured out as if it were all valid lore--which it is not.</p><p>If that were not bad enough, the Official Lore itself is many times contradictory, leaving the lorist to try to find an explanation, (or more often--a rationalization), for the contradiction.  NPCs may actually lie, (and have on numerous occasions), about what happened or may simply have differing perspectives on the same event.</p><p>The lore from both games is a dynamic process.  As new plot lines emerge, back stories are constructed for those events.  Sometimes this contradicts previous Official Lore, (or clarifys it).  The more extensive the lore becomes, the easier it is for designers to trip themselves up over some small past detail.  This then necessitates a new rationale be forwarded to explain the discrepency.  As the longevity of the two games continues, then this will become more and more problematic.</p><p>However, this is not only to be expected, it is how it should be and mirrors actual real life lore quite well.  One need only research King Arthur or the Knights Templar to find a proliferation of facts myths and contradictions all mixed together.</p><p>Lorists serve as the academics and scholars that it would be nice to play in-game, and like real life scholars have their disagreements and pet interpretations.</p><p>Say, that gives me an idea!</p><p>Vhalen, any chance we can get some experience for this?!!!</p>

[Rast]

I would love to have a good source for lore...  I love reading the lore of a world, but EQ2 makes it soooooo bloody hard to find most of the time, that I wind up ignoring it <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p>This site was linked earlier in the thread.  You may want to start there.</p><p> <a href="http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php?link=ages_creation" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php...k=ages_creation</a></p>

[Wilde_Night]

I also found that the EQ2 Tabletop Players Guide has some good basic and not so basic lore contained within.

[Coccinea_Maga]

During one of the panels at FanFaire, they did say they had some of the information written down, but the majority of it was in Vhalen's head.  Someone also asked if they would ever be publishing an official chronicle of the lore, to which Lyndro answered with a point-blank "No."  <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Also, if you want to a lore site with more updated information try RaphaNissi's site The Athenaeum (<a href="http://lorelibrary.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://lorelibrary.com</a>)

[Saroc_Luclin]

Note that EQ Lore is "Semi-official" in EQII, and EQII lore is "Semi-official" with respect to EQ. Due to the dual timeline explanation, events in one game do not necessarily occur in the other, hence when I or most others bring up tidbits of lore from EQLive we preface it with the "Dual timelines disclaimer". Also at the Fan Faire, one of the talks on the EQLive side was about Lore and getting it out to the players. The EQLive devs (our Lore team regretfully is in flux at the moment since Vahlar has moved on to other projects/companies <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ), write tonnes of lore for the expansions that only the tips ever see the light of day. The dev team is toying with the idea of making much of what they have written available either via EQPlayers or as books in PoK.

[Controlor]

<cite>Saroc_Luclin wrote:</cite><blockquote>Note that EQ Lore is "Semi-official" in EQII, and EQII lore is "Semi-official" with respect to EQ. Due to the dual timeline explanation, events in one game do not necessarily occur in the other, hence when I or most others bring up tidbits of lore from EQLive we preface it with the "Dual timelines disclaimer". Also at the Fan Faire, one of the talks on the EQLive side was about Lore and getting it out to the players. The EQLive devs (our Lore team regretfully is in flux at the moment since Vahlar has moved on to other projects/companies <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ), write tonnes of lore for the expansions that only the tips ever see the light of day. The dev team is toying with the idea of making much of what they have written available either via EQPlayers or as books in PoK.</blockquote>The same question was asked for EQ2 lore side. Whether they would publish lore for EQ2. Their response was basically nope. They have some written down but they arent going to release it. They like how we discuss things on the forums and dont want to discourage that by saying this is fact and pointing to their book as a reference. However not everything from EQlive is semi offecial. Its only things after PoP that is semi official. That is when the time split happened. Things from Luclin, Kunark, Velious can be taken as official canon for EQ2 due to it occuring befor PoP.

[Trepan]

Mary the Prophetess wrote: <blockquote>Vhalen, any chance we can get some experience for this?!!!</blockquote> Or a "Lorewarden" title.  <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Levatino]

thanks for the links

[Arianah]

Yep, other than manuals and atlas', the lore for EQ1 and EQ2 come from the game (books, npc dialogues) and its website (most of which has been removed since... heh). And since there's no central place to find all of it, I made a website where you can find it all (<a href="http://myrist.nsaguild.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Myrist</a> - it's up to date as much as possible, and still being worked on continuously). Currently working on adding an in-game books section to both EQ1 and EQ2.As for the novels, they're fictional stories written by popular Fantasy authors, they're not canon but they're still fun to read. These are all the ones that I know of:Rogue's Hour by Scott CiencinThe Ocean of Tears by Stewart WieckTruth and Steel by Thomas M. ReidThe Blood Red Harp by Elaine Cunningham(came out in that order, bought one each year for my husband for xmas, unfortunately there wasn't a new one this year <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />)There are also Table Top RPG game books you can buy, I'm not sure if they have any lore in them because I don't like playing table tops as much as the actual game itself... so...D'oh! Too slow, everyone else already mentioned all this lol, you snooze you lose. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Pyrrhon]

I read, ages ago, that the origin of the world, all the initial lore, and a lot of the subsequent lore, was actually a pen-and-paper RPG played by a handful of devs -- Brad is the only name I can remember now, but maybe Smed. Anyway, way before the actual EQ PnP RPG came out, these guys were playing it (probably not d20, heh), and adapted it to the PC game they were developing. As I understood it, they had reams of unused lore from this world (maps, backstory, etc) that they never ended up using.This information might be incorrect -- but I remember feeling quite confident in the source, when I initially read it. It was so long ago, though, that I couldn't tell you what the source was, now.

[Levatino]

<cite>Arianah wrote:</cite><blockquote>Yep, other than manuals and atlas', the lore for EQ1 and EQ2 come from the game (books, npc dialogues) and its website (most of which has been removed since... heh). And since there's no central place to find all of it, I made a website where you can find it all (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://myrist.nsaguild.com/" target="_blank">Myrist</a> - it's up to date as much as possible, and still being worked on continuously). Currently working on adding an in-game books section to both EQ1 and EQ2.As for the novels, they're fictional stories written by popular Fantasy authors, they're not canon but they're still fun to read. These are all the ones that I know of:Rogue's Hour by Scott CiencinThe Ocean of Tears by Stewart WieckTruth and Steel by Thomas M. ReidThe Blood Red Harp by Elaine Cunningham(came out in that order, bought one each year for my husband for xmas, unfortunately there wasn't a new one this year <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" />)There are also Table Top RPG game books you can buy, I'm not sure if they have any lore in them because I don't like playing table tops as much as the actual game itself... so...D'oh! Too slow, everyone else already mentioned all this lol, you snooze you lose. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" /></blockquote>wow good site, is a good read on slow times on my work <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[erimus]

<cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>This site was linked earlier in the thread.  You may want to start there.</p><p> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php?link=ages_creation" target="_blank">http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php...k=ages_creation</a></p></blockquote><p>Is this site considered to be Official Lore?  Ive been to this site before, but it wasnt until today that I started really delving into it and really reading several ingame books and such here (spent most of the day)</p><p> What I am specifically wondering about is the books of ages, (Age of Turmoil, Age of Catyclysms, Age of Destiny)  There is a lot of contridiction regarding Naggy and Vox and prismatic dragons.  They seem to insinuate that they were indeed the parents of Kerafyrm, and that wasnt the only prismatic dragon they brought into norrath.    How much of this should we take with a grain of salt, as these were more or less just the chronicles of the sage of ages?PS...sorry if I just derailed the thread</p>

[Cusashorn]

<cite>erimus wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>This site was linked earlier in the thread.  You may want to start there.</p><p> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php?link=ages_creation" target="_blank">http://lorenorrath.free.fr/read.php...k=ages_creation</a></p></blockquote><p>Is this site considered to be Official Lore?  Ive been to this site before, but it wasnt until today that I started really delving into it and really reading several ingame books and such here (spent most of the day)</p><p> What I am specifically wondering about is the books of ages, (Age of Turmoil, Age of Catyclysms, Age of Destiny)  There is a lot of contridiction regarding Naggy and Vox and prismatic dragons.  They seem to insinuate that they were indeed the parents of Kerafyrm, and that wasnt the only prismatic dragon they brought into norrath.    How much of this should we take with a grain of salt, as these were more or less just the chronicles of the sage of ages?PS...sorry if I just derailed the thread</p></blockquote>It's a compilation of all the in-game lore found.

[Vhalen]

<cite>Pyrrhonic wrote:</cite><blockquote>I read, ages ago, that the origin of the world, all the initial lore, and a lot of the subsequent lore, was actually a pen-and-paper RPG played by a handful of devs -- Brad is the only name I can remember now, but maybe Smed. Anyway, way before the actual EQ PnP RPG came out, these guys were playing it (probably not d20, heh), and adapted it to the PC game they were developing. As I understood it, they had reams of unused lore from this world (maps, backstory, etc) that they never ended up using.This information might be incorrect -- but I remember feeling quite confident in the source, when I initially read it. It was so long ago, though, that I couldn't tell you what the source was, now.</blockquote><p>A couple of D&D campaigns helped create a great deal of Norrath's lore. Bill Trost and I crafted a number of adventures, although, he supplied a greater amount since he was often the DM. Many of our campaign personalities and their background were also added to the world and they play a large part in Norrath's ongoing tales. The three main player characters in our primary campaign were Sir Lucan, Mayong Mistmoore and Zazoo.</p><p>There was a great amount of content that we created that never made it into the game, but it did exist in the background. I have always held fast to that lore and when it came time to craft the Age of Destiny I decided to bring to light the untold tales of Norrath. I also created a timeline that merges the lore of numerous EQ projects while primarily keeping focus on EQ and EQII. That was a massive undertaking and the timeline is still growing as I work with Jindrack to craft the future of EQII.</p><p>This year we hope to begin adding additional lore to our website. I know we have not added much since the beginning, but its time to fill you in on some of the more tant locations, items and personalities of the Age of Destiny.</p><p>How much EQ lore resides in my personal tomes and within my noggin? A lot, but it's making its way into Norrath.</p>

[Marillion]

So does this mean we will see more from Zazoo sooner rather than later?

[Rainmare]

Mayong Mistmoore has always fascinated me with his history and what his origin might be. and now to find out he was a major figure in your D&D campaigns makes it worse. I really would love to learn all that there is to learn about Mayong <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Journee]

<cite>Vhalen wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>A couple of D&D campaigns helped create a great deal of Norrath's lore. Bill Trost and I crafted a number of adventures, although, he supplied a greater amount since he was often the DM. Many of our campaign personalities and their background were also added to the world and they play a large part in Norrath's ongoing tales. The three main player characters in our primary campaign were Sir Lucan, Mayong Mistmoore and Zazoo.</p><p>There was a great amount of content that we created that never made it into the game, but it did exist in the background. I have always held fast to that lore and when it came time to craft the Age of Destiny I decided to bring to light the untold tales of Norrath. I also created a timeline that merges the lore of numerous EQ projects while primarily keeping focus on EQ and EQII. That was a massive undertaking and the timeline is still growing as I work with Jindrack to craft the future of EQII.</p><p>This year we hope to begin adding additional lore to our website. I know we have not added much since the beginning, but its time to fill you in on some of the more tant locations, items and personalities of the Age of Destiny.</p><p>How much EQ lore resides in my personal tomes and within my noggin? A lot, but it's making its way into Norrath.</p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ff9900;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">This greatly confuses me as I was playing EQ back when it was under Verant (before Kunark ever came out).  Was Verant a step child of Sony?  I always was under the belief that EQ was purchased from Verant (the first Sony expansion I remember being the Kunark expansion); not originally a Sony game.  </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ff9900;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Can you please help clear this up for me? Are you just refering to EQ2 lore?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ff9900;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Thank you for all you have done and continue to do <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ff9900;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">~Journee~</span>PS Please do not take this as being rude or disrespectful as it is not intended that way but seriously curious.</p>

[Sartredes]

I think this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Online_Entertainment" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wiki entry</a> may explain the relationship between Verant and Sony.

[Espio]

<cite>Journee wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite><p><span style="font-size: x-small;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;color: #ff9900;">This greatly confuses me as I was playing EQ back when it was under Verant (before Kunark ever came out).  Was Verant a step child of Sony?  I always was under the belief that EQ was purchased from Verant (the first Sony expansion I remember being the Kunark expansion); not originally a Sony game.</span></p></blockquote>Sony has always been a part of EQ.  You need to look no further then the name of the oldest (development, not lore-wise) city in the game: Qeynos.

[teddyboy4]

<cite>Espio@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Journee wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite><p><span style="font-size: x-small;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;color: #ff9900;">This greatly confuses me as I was playing EQ back when it was under Verant (before Kunark ever came out).  Was Verant a step child of Sony?  I always was under the belief that EQ was purchased from Verant (the first Sony expansion I remember being the Kunark expansion); not originally a Sony game.</span></p></blockquote>Sony has always been a part of EQ.  You need to look no further then the name of the oldest (development, not lore-wise) city in the game: Qeynos.</blockquote>Indeed, if I remember correctly, EQ was originally put out under the 989 label. I personally, and I'm sure most people, remember 989 as being a core Sony label/development house since the early Playstation days. They were in the computer and online game markets back then, but they eventually went on to focus strictly on console games, and I think they are still around as 989 sports.Verant actually was one of the results of 989 going strictly console, they became a development house that was part of, and eventually would be completely dissolved into, what is now known as Sony Online Entertainment. Check out the linked Wiki page a few posts up, they explain it much better then I can.

[VengeanceX]

<cite>Vhalen wrote:</cite><blockquote>Bill Trost and I crafted a number of adventures, although, he supplied a greater amount since he was often the DM.</blockquote>It is good to see Bill (and Tony of course) get some recognition here.  Far too many players give Brad the credit for everything EQ related.  EQ was not the creation of one man, but of many different people.

[Morticus]

<cite>Vhalen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>There was a great amount of content that we created that never made it into the game, but it did exist in the background. I have always held fast to that lore and when it came time to craft the Age of Destiny I decided to bring to light the untold tales of Norrath. I also created a timeline that merges the lore of numerous EQ projects while primarily keeping focus on EQ and EQII. That was a massive undertaking and the timeline is still growing as I work with Jindrack to craft the future of EQII. <p>How much EQ lore resides in my personal tomes and within my noggin? A lot, but it's making its way into Norrath.</p></blockquote>We constantly have to work with Vhalen and Jindrack to ensure that what finds its way to the live servers makes sense and is congruent with Norrath lore.  It's pretty important to us.<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Ashad]

Mind you this is from like ~15 years ago, but I wrote a nice chunk of the Everquest Lore from shortly before Kunark to just after Luclin. The original lore came from the original game devs and they created a sort of encyclopedia. Later a group of Guides was promoted into what was called the Everquest Quest Troupe. We each were tasked with role playing through the "Persistant Characters" such as Firona Vie, Al'kabor, Mayong Mistmoore, and countless others. I remember I played Cazic Thule once and fought Tunare in Lower Faydark - until the zone crashed from too many players joining <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" /> (However this did kick off the entire zone having blood red skies and some neat new loot for a while). Since the Troupe (led by paid SOE staff members but made up of mostly volunteers) were role playing these characters we were allowed to develop the story points and recorded it all on the Guide forums. As expansions were created, we were tasked with coming up with the stories to fill in the gaps - such as it was Al'kabor and his gnomish assistant who's name eludes me that opened the portals to Luclin. Then the Legends server was announced and the free service we provided turned into a paid service for that server only and many of the Troupe stopped volunteering. After that point I believe Lore was generated entirely internally and mainly through the expansions as there were no longer any Live events. Now with advanced scripting you don't need people to interact as NPCs, and I'm sure its all done entirely in house. I'd *love* to recover some of the great story lines from EQ1 though. Thubr Axebringer was my character I played most often, or Sionarche the bard, both companions of Firona Vie's. We'd wander around Butcherblock helping young adventurers and tasking them with mundane tasks but the players got a lot out of the "game" being dynamic and interactive to that level. The great epic battle that kicked off the Bloody Kithicor scenerio and the opening of the Plane of Hate, the battle in Lower Faydark, and Firona Vie's kidnapping by a Sarnak were all huge and hilariously fun events. I'm trying to remember any other large Live events but aside from the Luclin spires event in the Dreadlands I can't think of any others. Shame too, there were tons.Any other old Quest Troupers out there? I want to believe the leader was named Lydia Pope, but lost track of her after Legends.

[Cusashorn]

<cite>Kelrax@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Mind you this is from like ~15 years ago, but I wrote a nice chunk of the Everquest Lore from shortly before Kunark to just after Luclin. The original lore came from the original game devs and they created a sort of encyclopedia. Later a group of Guides was promoted into what was called the Everquest Quest Troupe. We each were tasked with role playing through the "Persistant Characters" such as Firona Vie, Al'kabor, Mayong Mistmoore, and countless others. I remember I played Cazic Thule once and fought Tunare in Lower Faydark - until the zone crashed from too many players joining <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" width="15" height="15" />" /> (However this did kick off the entire zone having blood red skies and some neat new loot for a while). Since the Troupe (led by paid SOE staff members but made up of mostly volunteers) were role playing these characters we were allowed to develop the story points and recorded it all on the Guide forums. As expansions were created, we were tasked with coming up with the stories to fill in the gaps - such as it was Al'kabor and his gnomish assistant who's name eludes me that opened the portals to Luclin. Then the Legends server was announced and the free service we provided turned into a paid service for that server only and many of the Troupe stopped volunteering. After that point I believe Lore was generated entirely internally and mainly through the expansions as there were no longer any Live events. Now with advanced scripting you don't need people to interact as NPCs, and I'm sure its all done entirely in house. I'd *love* to recover some of the great story lines from EQ1 though. Thubr Axebringer was my character I played most often, or Sionarche the bard, both companions of Firona Vie's. We'd wander around Butcherblock helping young adventurers and tasking them with mundane tasks but the players got a lot out of the "game" being dynamic and interactive to that level. The great epic battle that kicked off the Bloody Kithicor scenerio and the opening of the Plane of Hate, the battle in Lower Faydark, and Firona Vie's kidnapping by a Sarnak were all huge and hilariously fun events. I'm trying to remember any other large Live events but aside from the Luclin spires event in the Dreadlands I can't think of any others. Shame too, there were tons.Any other old Quest Troupers out there? I want to believe the leader was named Lydia Pope, but lost track of her after Legends.</blockquote>Don't forget battle in the Rathe Mountains where the Armies of Neriak finally killed Lanys T'Vyl. I don't know if it was actually portrayed in a GM event, but about a month later, an unfinished temple to Lanys was built by a cult of her followers in the very far southwest part of the zone. They later took over Befallen for a few weeks during the summer of 2001 and revamped the zone into a mid-teens low-20s zone. The Cult stole Lanys' body from Neriak and tried to ressurrect her, but failed. Neriak recovered her body once again and summoned Innoruuk himself to tear the soul out of her body, rip it to shreds, and turn it into nothingness in the Plane of Hate. They burned her corpse and Innoruuk also took the ashes.

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p><span style="color: #ffff00;">"The Cult stole Lanys' body from Neriak and tried to ressurrect her, but failed. Neriak recovered her body once again and summoned Innoruuk himself to tear the soul out of her body, rip it to shreds, and turn it into nothingness in the Plane of Hate. They burned her corpse and Innoruuk also took the ashes."</span></p><p>True enough, but she will be back again;  I feel it.  No logic will stand in the way of a good story.</p>

[Powers]

<cite>Eandiil@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>Indeed, if I remember correctly, EQ was originally put out under the 989 label.</blockquote>The original monthly subscription price for EverQuest was US$9.89.Powers  &8^]

[Cusashorn]

<cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">"The Cult stole Lanys' body from Neriak and tried to ressurrect her, but failed. Neriak recovered her body once again and summoned Innoruuk himself to tear the soul out of her body, rip it to shreds, and turn it into nothingness in the Plane of Hate. They burned her corpse and Innoruuk also took the ashes."</span></p><p>True enough, but she will be back again;  I feel it.  No logic will stand in the way of a good story.</p></blockquote>You're right. They Retconned her in EQlive and brought her back with complete disregard to how she died in the first place after the Dragons of Norrath expansion pack came out for EQlive.

[Jindrack]

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ffff00;">"The Cult stole Lanys' body from Neriak and tried to ressurrect her, but failed. Neriak recovered her body once again and summoned Innoruuk himself to tear the soul out of her body, rip it to shreds, and turn it into nothingness in the Plane of Hate. They burned her corpse and Innoruuk also took the ashes."</span></p><p>True enough, but she will be back again;  I feel it.  No logic will stand in the way of a good story.</p></blockquote>You're right. They Retconned her in EQlive and brought her back with complete disregard to how she died in the first place after the Dragons of Norrath expansion pack came out for EQlive.</blockquote><p>I'd like to know where this information came from because all of my information says that at the end of the Malevolence arc, Innoruuk took Lanys' soul to the Plane of Hate after striking her down in front of Dorvias N'Keth, the archpriest of Innoruuk, and Ashteth T'Dral, the prophet of Hate.  Her body was left on Norrath and eventually entombed in Neriak (after the event with the theft of the corpse by Baron Telyx of the Primordial Malice and his rogues) by Dorvias on the orders of Cristanos Thex.  This was at the same time that Innoruuk struck down Valizrae D'Tora, the new Child of Hate, who was being groomed to fill Lanys' failed role, in preparation to start the process again.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>Well, hey. I know the details can be wrong. I'm only reporting what I remember hearing from newsites that covered it when the event happened.</p><p>All I remembered hearing was that they creamated her body after Innoruuk destroyed her soul.</p><p>It has been 7 years after all...</p>

[Levatino]

lovely guys that gods, good example for all us mortals <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />but a very good read, love to see more

[DrkVsr]

<span style="font-size: medium;color: #993300;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Ok, don't know much about the lore, but can someone tell me what Lanys did that caused her 'dad' to turn so much against her?</span>

[Mary the Prophetess]

She failed.

[Cusashorn]

<cite>DrkVsr wrote:</cite><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;color: #993300;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Ok, don't know much about the lore, but can someone tell me what Lanys did that caused her 'dad' to turn so much against her?</span></blockquote><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite><blockquote>She failed.</blockquote>More than that, she went against the will of Innoruuk himself. She decided by her own hand that she should destroy Norrath. Innoruuk doesn't want to see Norrath pull a Luclin, because that means that his creations and those he hates would all die.

[DrkVsr]

<span style="font-size: medium;color: #993300;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Thank you, that is a big reason for Inny to do what he did to her</span>

[Journee]

<cite>Sartredes wrote:</cite><blockquote>I think this <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Online_Entertainment" target="_blank">Wiki entry</a> may explain the relationship between Verant and Sony.</blockquote><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ff9900;font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Yes, thank you so much for the entry.  It helped me put all the pieces of the puzzle together.  I knew I wasn't crazy remembering Verant however as I was new to online gaming (I had always been a pencil & paper gamer before then) I was not aware of the connection between the two.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ff9900;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Thanks again Satredes <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> **hugs**</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ff9900;font-family: Comic Sans MS;">~Journee~</span></p>