The Gates of Discord... did exist in EQ2

[Llogwey]

<p>While doing some lore digging this evening I found out something that I thought totally impossible until today...</p><p>Gates of Discord which has always been considered not canon for EQ2 because post-PoP timeline seem to actually be quite well canon indeed!</p><p>and here is the source :  "The Tome of Destiny - Chapter 5 - A Moment of Reflection"<em>(Avatar of Tranquility talking to Askr, Avatar of Storms, on the Plains of Karana)</em></p><p>[...]The monk was silent for a moment, then spoke softly yet certainly. "I wish there was another answer, but there is not. <strong>Though the gateway to the Realm of Discord was closed, its influence still holds Norrath in its grasp</strong>. Balance must be restored to the lands and this Age of War must finally be ended. But there is a terrible price to be paid. Our duty is to see that these two cities survive, for in the dark times ahead, the strength of both will be needed."[...]</p><p>this text is canon in EQ2 lore and no matter what happened in EQ2 timeline in regards to events related to the Gates of Discord indeed in EQ1... those Gates (and the plane of Discord then...) did exist in EQ2 timeline and that opens a lot of possibilities!</p><p>Feel free to share your ideas about this <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[DukeOccam]

<p>Interesting. So GoD or something similar did happen. I don't mind that at all (in a perfect world there wouldn't be any alternate universe and both timelines would link up flawlessly...yeah right), but GoD wasn't really my favorite expansion. I wouldn't be upset if they didn't go into it. Any kinds of alternate realms or dimensions, including outer space, aren't my cup o' tea. The Void stuff, the Discord stuff, the Luclin stuff...I won't cry if none of it comes back.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>One vague line in a story does not mean it existed and happened.</p>

[Mirander_1]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>One vague line in a story does not mean it existed and happened.</p></blockquote><p>True, technically.  However, it seems far more likely that the gate to Discord mentioned is indeed the same one from EQlive, compared to the alternative that EQ2's devs came up with an entirely separate story involving a gate to Discord, just for one little throwaway line in the Tome of Destiny.</p><p>Eh, I generally think that a lot of people take that whole timeline-split thing too strictly.  It wasn't intended to be a hard and fast delineation between the content that does and doesn't count in EQ2; it's just there to give the devs some wiggle room, letting them freely pick and choose what bits of post-PoP EQlive lore they use.  Some post-PoP stuff has been used, some of it hasn't; that's just the way it is.</p>

[BleemTeam]

<p>gates of discord and omens of war were abysmal. they killed the game for me.</p><p>then eq2 came along and saved me from CS 1.6</p>

[glowsintheda]

<p>I dunno, GoD and OoW were pretty good in my opinion.  Gates had some really fantasticily done raid content.  Some of the very first times where the raids weren't just hp/dps checks.  The only real problem with gates was that it felt like it should have been a level raise expansion, most of the mobs just seemed a little bit too tough for the standard grouper.  This was probably because most of them were woefully undergeared because PoP basically required raiding to access anything besides the few basic zone.</p><p>OoW was great also, I espically liked MPG and the trials.  Lore wise... well yeah, was kind of weak, but the content was actually very well done.</p><p>I wouldn't mind Taelosia making a reapperance, wouldn't require portals or anything as if I remember correctly, the island was just surronded in impeneterable mist, not really on another world or anything.  The muramites (the bad guys from both GoD and OOW) would require the discord portal though.</p>

[Rainmare]

<p>The way it sounded to me is that Taelosia was there, we did go to it, we fought back/decimated the Muramite invasion force, and then sealed off the portal rather then going through it sword drawn like they did in Eq1.discord though still 'holding a grip on norrrath' might also explain the Rending tearing through the world after the gods left adn even tearing into their own planes...with thier withdraw the energy from Discord ripped thing up</p>

[Wilde_Night]

<p>And now - Priests of Discord exist on the PvP servers as PvP tutorial NPCs.  <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Aeviel@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>And now - Priests of Discord exist on the PvP servers as PvP tutorial NPCs.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>They were all over the place in EQlive. You could turn yourself PVP on a PVE server by giving them a tome of discord your character started with.</p><p>Also: Gates of Discord. Sony had to appologize to it's playerbase for releasing that expansion. They COMPLETELY ignored everything the playerbase actually wanted, and the content itself was admittedly designed for a level increase.</p>

[glowsintheda]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Aeviel@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>And now - Priests of Discord exist on the PvP servers as PvP tutorial NPCs.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>They were all over the place in EQlive. You could turn yourself PVP on a PVE server by giving them a tome of discord your character started with.</p><p>Also: Gates of Discord. Sony had to appologize to it's playerbase for releasing that expansion. They COMPLETELY ignored everything the playerbase actually wanted, and the content itself was admittedly designed for a level increase.</p></blockquote><p>yeah, when it first launched it was pretty suck, i didn't really come to appreciate it till I went back later after 70 was the cap, things were much more reasonable then, and I actually enjoyed working through the content doing the Breakdown in Communications questline.  And the raids there really were amazingly well done, but after the raid heavy PoP expansion it just wasn't what the player base was looking for.</p>

[DukeOccam]

<p>BiC was amazing...I actually finished it on my main.I would love to see something like that in EQ2. I mean there are plenty of massive quests, but this was really something you could work on every day. It wasn't so linear. You could work on pretty much any zone you wanted at any time, so you didn't get stuck waiting to get a raid done. Plus you got the incremental rewards. And by the end you had seen every zone in the expansion. Quester heaven.</p>

[Vaedaer]

<p>GoD had the most insane scripts on EQ at the time, some of them were messed up yes (need a zerker to actually kill the mob for one) Most of the people where [Removed for Content] mainly because they couldn't handle the content but those that did showed they had skill xp</p><p>I like GoD, because of the way the raids are, Lore-wise not so much. I was a berserker main for the longest of time (using a paladin now like on eq2) But meh, it was fun, it was hard /shrug I like challenges xp</p><p>But back to the point, not because it happened before PoP or after means they can't be included/mentioned or excluded. But the muramites are dead as far as I know so it would be silly to be like "zomg taelosia and Muramites! Zombies yes ... Overlord Mata Muram the Fallen /ae DTs everyone.</p><p>Back to bed for me! -passes out-</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>Vaedaer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>GoD had the most insane scripts on EQ at the time, some of them were messed up yes (need a zerker to actually kill the mob for one) Most of the people where [Removed for Content] mainly because they couldn't handle the content but those that did showed they had skill xp</p><p>I like GoD, because of the way the raids are, Lore-wise not so much. I was a berserker main for the longest of time (using a paladin now like on eq2) But meh, it was fun, it was hard /shrug I like challenges xp</p><p>But back to the point, not because it happened before PoP or after means they can't be included/mentioned or excluded. But the muramites are dead as far as I know so it would be silly to be like "zomg taelosia and Muramites! Zombies yes ... Overlord Mata Muram the Fallen /ae DTs everyone.</p><p>Back to bed for me! -passes out-</p></blockquote><p>Funny, I had a pal that was still raiding EQ1 during GoD. He was complaining that a few of the raids if the players executed the strategy perfectly they had a 25% chance of winning. With perfect execution. The boss had about a 3 in 4 chance of double casting one of his big AoEs before you could take him down. If that happened, it was a wipe. Even after they had taken this guy down dozens of times it was still the same 25% chance of winning.</p><p>He had other complaints about certain raids bottle necking content, especially raids that were changed to be harder because the players found ways to get around certain scripts. We've seen our share of that in EQ2, but nothing as bad as the GoD mid-game changes. He just thought he was lucky because his guild was flagged past that content before it was "fixed".</p>

[Vaedaer]

<p><cite>Meirril wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Vaedaer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>GoD had the most insane scripts on EQ at the time, some of them were messed up yes (need a zerker to actually kill the mob for one) Most of the people where [Removed for Content] mainly because they couldn't handle the content but those that did showed they had skill xp</p><p>I like GoD, because of the way the raids are, Lore-wise not so much. I was a berserker main for the longest of time (using a paladin now like on eq2) But meh, it was fun, it was hard /shrug I like challenges xp</p><p>But back to the point, not because it happened before PoP or after means they can't be included/mentioned or excluded. But the muramites are dead as far as I know so it would be silly to be like "zomg taelosia and Muramites! Zombies yes ... Overlord Mata Muram the Fallen /ae DTs everyone.</p><p>Back to bed for me! -passes out-</p></blockquote><p>Funny, I had a pal that was still raiding EQ1 during GoD. He was complaining that a few of the raids if the players executed the strategy perfectly they had a 25% chance of winning. With perfect execution. The boss had about a 3 in 4 chance of double casting one of his big AoEs before you could take him down. If that happened, it was a wipe. Even after they had taken this guy down dozens of times it was still the same 25% chance of winning.</p><p>He had other complaints about certain raids bottle necking content, especially raids that were changed to be harder because the players found ways to get around certain scripts. We've seen our share of that in EQ2, but nothing as bad as the GoD mid-game changes. He just thought he was lucky because his guild was flagged past that content before it was "fixed".</p></blockquote><p>Then your buddy showed he had skills /shrug, Tacvi is luck and skill, even on lvl 85 you can get killed quite fast if you mess up. But like I said, it had some insane and messed up scripts and after they fixed Tacvi, it's still insane.</p>

[Anestacia]

<p>It toatlly makes sense that <em>sometihng</em> involving Discord did happen after the time split.  Druzzil Ro simply took one timeline backwards just slightly to prevent the gods defeat (in EQ1) while in the process, one timeline was created where they had been beaten (EQ2).  Our history in both timelines is the same.  It isnt untill THAT very moment that the two lines begin thier different paths which means plans hatched and in motion BEFORE the spilt are very likely to have still happened in EQ2. The events that lead to the invasion from Discord was a long involved plan that had already started on Taelosia before we ever entered the planes.    Because there is no mention of Discord besides that line in the tome, its hard to say what happened.  Maybe by the gods leaving, it caused the gates to Discord to be closed before the Discordians could launch an all out attack.  It is something that interests me since I was one of the few that actually liked the gameplay and lore of GoD and OoW and I hope that we get to learn about that sometime in the future.  Just not before Velious!! <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Tehom]

<p>It would be interesting if Taelosia did make a reappearance. GoD and OoW were among my favorite expansions for raiding. Tacvi, the MPG trials, Inktu'ta, and Mata Muram were some of the best raiding experiences I've ever had. PoP and LDoN had some primitive scripting, but the first truly interesting EQ1 encounters started in GoD around Inktu'ta.</p><p>Aside from the incredible difficulty of GoD (even aside from the encounters, it was logistically difficult - you could have to set up Call of the Hero chains something like 5 zones deep to get players to a raid, for example), it suffered a bit from them switching to some new art system, which meant they created a misguided policy of using -only- new npc models/textures to prevent old ones from looking out of place when side-by-side new ones. The bad part of this is that it made the expansion completely self-contained and totally out of place with the rest of Norrath, and art resources were stretched mighty thin - there was a single model that was used uniquely in GoD, for the boss of Tacvi. Visually, it was perhaps the most boring expansion ever, even if the zones and individual models looked okay - you just saw the same 20 things or so repeated over and over and over again.</p>

[BleemTeam]

<p>the whole muramite crap can just stay in eq1...</p>

[Coniaric]

<p>This subject had been touched on time and again. Taelosia exists - for now - until there is further update on its fate over the 500 years. The Discord army probably came and got repelled by Norrathians. I would prefer them staying over in the Discord realm and not making any reappearance here.</p><p>Personally I would like Taelosia be restored to its original condition before the Discord invasion wrecked the land. Which if I recall correctly, was a place of lush gardens and beautiful forests, or something as such.</p><p>_______________________________</p><p>Among other problems of those two expansions, I believe, the level cap was designed to be 5 levels or so higher. But GoD came out first without the level cap increase. *shrug* It was the beginning of the end of EQ for me (until EQ2) either way.</p>

[Vanisher123]

<p><cite>Brailyn@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>the whole muramite crap can just stay in eq1...</p></blockquote><p>Agree, I never played it, but just by how much it appeared in eq1, we've got enough with the void guys</p><p><cite>Coniaric wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This subject had been touched on time and again. Taelosia exists - for now - until there is further update on its fate over the 500 years. The Discord army probably came and got repelled by Norrathians. I would prefer them staying over in the Discord realm and not making any reappearance here.</p><p>Personally I would like Taelosia be restored to its original condition before the Discord invasion wrecked the land. Which if I recall correctly, was a place of lush gardens and beautiful forests, or something as such.</p></blockquote><p>Could be interesting, but a problem is theres no way to bring it back without something related to discord, which would thus bring eq2 into the discord saga.</p><p>The mention of the gate being sealed will probably not lead to anything, just a mention to tie the loose end of "the discord portal was there before the time split, we just found it afterward" As the devs probably don't want discord in eq2 as much as we do.</p><p>But still a very interesting clue to what other things might be in eq2 lore (as the whole "exsisted before, but not discovered until after timesplit" applies to many things)</p>

[Chulanowa]

<p><cite>Brailyn@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>gates of discord and omens of war were abysmal. they killed the game for me.</p><p>then eq2 came along and saved me from CS 1.6</p></blockquote><p>Omens of War was pretty good, actually. It reminded me of Kunark a lot, which was a good thing. Gates of Discord was just... Pure awful, from the Berserker class, to an entire expansion full of linear raid content and nothing else, to the hideous flat graphics that made it look like a free Korean game from 1997...</p>

[Mythanote]

<p>Both GoD and OoW can stay in EQ1 and I pray they never raise thier ugly heads in EQ2 in lore or actual expac's.</p><p>Cheers.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Coniaric wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This subject had been touched on time and again. Taelosia exists - for now - until there is further update on its fate over the 500 years. The Discord army probably came and got repelled by Norrathians. I would prefer them staying over in the Discord realm and not making any reappearance here.</p><p>Personally I would like Taelosia be restored to its original condition before the Discord invasion wrecked the land. Which if I recall correctly, was a place of lush gardens and beautiful forests, or something as such.</p></blockquote><p>Taelosia exists... oh, it exists alright. Only in NAME alone. The developers in EQ2 can completely decide to actually make it into something... i don't know... GOOD this time around. Whatever next continent they decide to make and introduce, they can easily call it Taelosia and not follow any artistic, lore, or geometrical designs from EQlive. Instead of a ruined Mayan civilization like we saw, it could be based off Mongolian culture and be full of vast roaming plains with nomadic peoples. The name exists. The continent does not.... yet.</p>

[Rezikai]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Coniaric wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This subject had been touched on time and again. Taelosia exists - for now - until there is further update on its fate over the 500 years. The Discord army probably came and got repelled by Norrathians. I would prefer them staying over in the Discord realm and not making any reappearance here.</p><p>Personally I would like Taelosia be restored to its original condition before the Discord invasion wrecked the land. Which if I recall correctly, was a place of lush gardens and beautiful forests, or something as such.</p></blockquote><p>Taelosia exists... oh, it exists alright. Only in NAME alone. The developers in EQ2 can completely decide to actually make it into something... i don't know... GOOD this time around. Whatever next continent they decide to make and introduce, they can easily call it Taelosia and not follow any artistic, lore, or geometrical designs from EQlive. Instead of a ruined Mayan civilization like we saw, it could be based off Mongolian culture and be full of vast roaming plains with nomadic peoples. The name exists. The continent does not.... yet.</p></blockquote><p>exactly.</p><p>Also the plane of Discord has always existed in the EQ universe long before the time split event, go back to the old EQ lore notes from some of the old guilds back in 1999 they talked about things like Nektropos castle and Keynos, and the Gates of Discord, that held ... iirc planes of Mud, plane of rot and such in it.. so the Discord lore has always been in the Everquest universe, .. even in the begining of EQ1... heh.. even Nek castle.</p>

[The_Cheeseman]

<p>Just because there is a Realm of Discord doesn't mean it's the same one from EQ1. Discord is a pretty generic term meaning chaos or anarchy, it doesn't have to describe the same zones or entities that invaded Norrath in EQ1. That said, EQ1 referred to the "Planes of Order and Discord" as the source of a wizard's power since the beginning of the game, it just never specified any further until GoD/OoW came out.</p><p>In other words, this could very easily refer to some generic chaos plane that has nothing at all to do with EQ1's post-PoP expansions. Personally, I think that is the more likely solution, considering how poorly received those expansions generally were.</p>

[Eriol]

<p><cite>Anestacia wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>It toatlly makes sense that <em>sometihng</em> involving Discord did happen after the time split.  Druzzil Ro simply took one timeline backwards just slightly to prevent the gods defeat (in EQ1) while in the process, one timeline was created where they had been beaten (EQ2).  Our history in both timelines is the same.  It isnt untill THAT very moment that the two lines begin thier different paths which means plans hatched and in motion BEFORE the spilt are very likely to have still happened in EQ2. The events that lead to the invasion from Discord was a long involved plan that had already started on Taelosia before we ever entered the planes.    Because there is no mention of Discord besides that line in the tome, its hard to say what happened.  Maybe by the gods leaving, it caused the gates to Discord to be closed before the Discordians could launch an all out attack.  It is something that interests me since I was one of the few that actually liked the gameplay and lore of GoD and OoW and I hope that we get to learn about that sometime in the future.  Just not before Velious!! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Watch out for timeline splits, as you can then have something <a href="http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Chrono_Cross_Condensed_Plot_Summary.html" target="_blank">like this</a> result (do not read the follow-up the <a href="http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Principles_of_Time_and_Dimensional_Travel.html" target="_blank">Principles of Time and Dimension Travel</a> document unless you want a headache).  The "hardcore" Chrono fans are way beyond even <em>anybody</em> here in terms of research.  Chrono Cross is just an exercise in brain hurting trying to understand it.</p><p>That being said, I agree with the OP.  The whole idea has been to pick & choose which things can possibly be in eq2 and what didn't need to be.  By including mention of Discord, it's stating that <em>something</em> happened, just not what.</p><p>As for expansion material, Taelosia OK, but please put in the north-west part of Kunark first please!  We don't even have all the landmass!  Even if it's an open empty field with few features and no monsters (a true desert) then fine, but hey, it's there!  Let us go there!</p>

[Vanisher123]

<p><cite>Eriol wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>As for expansion material, Taelosia OK, but please put in the north-west part of Kunark first please!  We don't even have all the landmass!  Even if it's an open empty field with few features and no monsters (a true desert) then fine, but hey, it's there!  Let us go there!</p></blockquote><p>Could always be said it broke apart and "sunk" in the rending and or other cataclysms. Which is the other problem between the two games, who knows what broke/sunk and what didn't when its obscure lore like this!<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/0320a00cb4bb5629ab9fc2bc1fcc4e9e.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Eriol wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>As for expansion material, Taelosia OK, but please put in the north-west part of Kunark first please!  We don't even have all the landmass!  Even if it's an open empty field with few features and no monsters (a true desert) then fine, but hey, it's there!  Let us go there!</p></blockquote><p>The devs didn't have any intention of putting something up there to begin with.</p>

[Kamimura]

<p><cite>Coniaric wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This subject had been touched on time and again. Taelosia exists - for now - until there is further update on its fate over the 500 years. The Discord army probably came and got repelled by Norrathians. I would prefer them staying over in the Discord realm and not making any reappearance here.</p><p>Personally I would like Taelosia be restored to its original condition before the Discord invasion wrecked the land. Which if I recall correctly, was a place of lush gardens and beautiful forests, or something as such.</p></blockquote><p>I didn't care for these expansions, at all, but I do think that would make for an interesting EQ2 expansion sometime down the road. Discord has been closed off, they've had 500 years to 'repair', so what's going on over there now? Wouldn't have to have any real plane stuff, no discord aside from maybe a few mentions in NPC dialogue, no void, not a new planet or anything.. just a "new" land on Norrath to explore.</p>

[Eriol]

<p><cite>Vanisher123 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Eriol wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>As for expansion material, Taelosia OK, but please put in the north-west part of Kunark first please!  We don't even have all the landmass!  Even if it's an open empty field with few features and no monsters (a true desert) then fine, but hey, it's there!  Let us go there!</p></blockquote><p>Could always be said it broke apart and "sunk" in the rending and or other cataclysms. Which is the other problem between the two games, who knows what broke/sunk and what didn't when its obscure lore like this!<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/0320a00cb4bb5629ab9fc2bc1fcc4e9e.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>You could, except that if you go to the "Kunark" map, it's clearly there on the NW side of the LOIO.  I'm basing this on maps in-game in EQ2, nothing related to EQ1.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>Taelosia would be a fine expansion, if it had an interesting story to tell.  That's the devs responsibility.  I feel no need to see the remainder of Kunark, unless it in turn has some interesting story to tell.</p><p>It's all about "what" is there, as opposed to "just put something there".</p><p>I think that was one of the problems that both GoD and TSO both had.  They didn't necessarily tell an interesting story.  Yes, GoD had other issues, well documented and beaten until dead.  But in both cases, you have expansions that didn't really capture the imagination of the user base.</p><p>Interestingly, both had the exact same complaint at that level:  "OMG Space aliens!  What the (@*@#"</p><p>Hopefully Sentinel's Fate will do that.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Eriol wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Vanisher123 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Eriol wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>As for expansion material, Taelosia OK, but please put in the north-west part of Kunark first please!  We don't even have all the landmass!  Even if it's an open empty field with few features and no monsters (a true desert) then fine, but hey, it's there!  Let us go there!</p></blockquote><p>Could always be said it broke apart and "sunk" in the rending and or other cataclysms. Which is the other problem between the two games, who knows what broke/sunk and what didn't when its obscure lore like this!<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/0320a00cb4bb5629ab9fc2bc1fcc4e9e.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>You could, except that if you go to the "Kunark" map, it's clearly there on the NW side of the LOIO.  I'm basing this on maps in-game in EQ2, nothing related to EQ1.</p></blockquote><p>The overland maps of the continents are detailed enough to see individual landmarks of the zone maps themselves, actually giving you a better grasp of how "large" the continents are. You can see Rilis and Kurn's Tower, The twists and turns of the highways, Terren's Grasp, etc. With that in mind, there really isn't anything on the north side of Kunark. If you could scale up the northern wall where the ruins of Cabilis still exist, the rest of Kunark in front of you would be about the same distance from the docks to the undead ruins in Kylong Plains before you hit water again.</p>

[ZexisStryfe]

<p>I find it quite telling that after the two Discord expacs EQ1 went back to a more traditional fantasy setting with Dragon of Norrath and then again with Darkhollow.</p><p>If you look at Sentinel's Fate, although there is lingering Void stuff, you now see much more classic fantasy stuff as well (Medusas, Pegasi, Chimeras, Displacer Beasts, etc).</p><p>Deja vu, much?</p>

[ke'la]

<p>Also don't forget in the hole timeline split story, at the point that the timeline split in PoP, both "stories" ran in parralle and mirrored each other for a time, then they started to become differant. That is the Lore wiggle room the devs game themselfs to be able to put anything that happens in EQ1 into EQ2, though the farther from PoP they get the more differant the two storylines become, that was to give EQ1 devs the room they needed to do whatever they wanted in game.</p>