What year is it?

[Kateraria65]

<p>Hello, can you please tell me if there is a numeric date in EQ2. Thanks. I hope I posted in the right place.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>There is no official date. Technically, every server has a completley random different time of day, month, and year. I've heard it even varies as much as individual players.</p><p>For lore reasons, they never give an official calendar of when events happened in the past. This allows them to go back and fill in other spaces along the way.</p><p>We started EQ2 in the official callender of 500 After Kerafyrm. You could say we're still in the year 500 AK, even though there is NPC dialogue that confirms the passing of events from previous expansions. When ROK came out, we had some people in the cities talking about how it's been 1 year since the dieties returned. Neriak confirms the rebuilding of the Ewer of Sul'Dae that we destroyed in DoF. Otherwise, time hasn't really passed.</p>

[Kateraria65]

<p>Thanks so much for the info. This was my first posting. I appreciate it. I am working on a few player-written books and the info will really help.<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There is no official date. Technically, every server has a completley random different time of day, month, and year. I've heard it even varies as much as individual players.</p><p>For lore reasons, they never give an official calendar of when events happened in the past. This allows them to go back and fill in other spaces along the way.</p><p>We started EQ2 in the official callender of 500 After Kerafyrm. You could say we're still in the year 500 AK, even though there is NPC dialogue that confirms the passing of events from previous expansions. When ROK came out, we had some people in the cities talking about how it's been 1 year since the dieties returned. Neriak confirms the rebuilding of the Ewer of Sul'Dae that we destroyed in DoF. Otherwise, time hasn't really passed.</p></blockquote><p>Actually, we just had a live event tell us its been 5 years since the Far Seas Trading Company started taking refugees in and dropping them off in Qeynos and Freeport. I believe that in-game time moves foward in real time from a Lore perspective.</p><p>In other words, each expansion since KoS has been about a Lore year after the last in the Dev's mind. Not that what happens in one expansion usually links directly into what happens in the next. Sentinel's Fate may be an exception to the rule in this. </p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>*facepalm* why didn't I remember that when I made my post? Still, the point is that we've had NPC's announce how many years have passed since certain events have transpired in Norrath, but we never get any dates on a universal calendar as to when things happened in the past 500 years. We just get a general ballpark figure so that they can work around it if they go back to focus and add new things later on.</p><p>We did have a developer tell us that Luclin blew up 50 years ago... or I guess, 55 years ago now.</p>

[Kateraria65]

<p>Thank you for taking the time to reply. It has given me a lot of food for thought.</p>

[PinChaser]

<p>in game time (day/night cycle) according to my calculations moves 20x faster than normal time (3 real seconds to 60 Norrath seconds), but that apparently doesn't matter as NPCs have said how long it's been since event X (Gods, FSTC picking up people, etc)</p>

[The_Cheeseman]

<p><cite>Meirril wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Actually, we just had a live event tell us its been 5 years since the Far Seas Trading Company started taking refugees in and dropping them off in Qeynos and Freeport. I believe that in-game time moves foward in real time from a Lore perspective.</p><p>In other words, each expansion since KoS has been about a Lore year after the last in the Dev's mind. Not that what happens in one expansion usually links directly into what happens in the next. Sentinel's Fate may be an exception to the rule in this. </p></blockquote><p>Actually, most of the expansions have built off existing lore, especially the more recent ones.</p><p>We destroyed Darathar and the prismatic egg in the original release, and later in Kingdom of Sky, we return to Nagafen for help accessing Deathtoll to search for the Qeynos Claymore. Nagafen greets us as his former collaborators and even has some dialogue that relates back to the Prismatic Timeline.</p><p>In Deserts of Flame, during the Peacock Club timeline, we destroy the Ewer of Sul'Dae which is held by Godking Anuk. Later, we learn that the Ewer has been rebuilt in Neriak and has caused a new breed of vampires to arise within the city. Once the prophet of Anashti'Sul returned, he gives you a quest to recover the Ewer from Neriak and return it to the Fountain of Life.</p><p>Also during Deserts of Flame, you can meet Malkonis D'Morte, who is searching for something (The Ankh of Y'Dal probably) within the Gates of Akhet'Aken. Later, you meet him again within the Freethinker's Hideout, where he discovered the Ankh was hidden. You also meet agents of Mayong during the Peacock Club timeline, who hint at the adversarial relationship between Mayong and Malkonis.</p><p>In Echoes of Faydwer, the entire Swords of Destiny timelines revolves around Soulfire being stolen from Lucan and how it eventually finds it's way into the hands of Mayong. Later, at the end of the Primary raiding timeline for Rise of Kunark (the Fate of Norrath line) we meet Mayong again who claims that he let you take the Soulfire from him because he was finished studying it.</p><p>TSO tied a LOT of old lore together, including both the Peacock, Claymore, and Swords of Destiny Timelines (specifically the history of Anashti'Sul, her banishment, and the connection between the two swords and Theer.)</p><p>As you can see, there is most definitely a connection between the expansions, including both references to past events and foreshadowing of future events. The Dev team assuredly has the main plotlines of EQ2 at least sketched-out FAR in advance, even if the details are left open for change as they are implemented.</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>The_Cheeseman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Meirril wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Actually, we just had a live event tell us its been 5 years since the Far Seas Trading Company started taking refugees in and dropping them off in Qeynos and Freeport. I believe that in-game time moves foward in real time from a Lore perspective.</p><p>In other words, each expansion since KoS has been about a Lore year after the last in the Dev's mind. Not that what happens in one expansion usually links directly into what happens in the next. Sentinel's Fate may be an exception to the rule in this. </p></blockquote><p>Actually, most of the expansions have built off existing lore, especially the more recent ones.</p><p>We destroyed Darathar and the prismatic egg in the original release, and later in Kingdom of Sky, we return to Nagafen for help accessing Deathtoll to search for the Qeynos Claymore. Nagafen greets us as his former collaborators and even has some dialogue that relates back to the Prismatic Timeline.</p><p>In Deserts of Flame, during the Peacock Club timeline, we destroy the Ewer of Sul'Dae which is held by Godking Anuk. Later, we learn that the Ewer has been rebuilt in Neriak and has caused a new breed of vampires to arise within the city. Once the prophet of Anashti'Sul returned, he gives you a quest to recover the Ewer from Neriak and return it to the Fountain of Life.</p><p>Also during Deserts of Flame, you can meet Malkonis D'Morte, who is searching for something (The Ankh of Y'Dal probably) within the Gates of Akhet'Aken. Later, you meet him again within the Freethinker's Hideout, where he discovered the Ankh was hidden. You also meet agents of Mayong during the Peacock Club timeline, who hint at the adversarial relationship between Mayong and Malkonis.</p><p>In Echoes of Faydwer, the entire Swords of Destiny timelines revolves around Soulfire being stolen from Lucan and how it eventually finds it's way into the hands of Mayong. Later, at the end of the Primary raiding timeline for Rise of Kunark (the Fate of Norrath line) we meet Mayong again who claims that he let you take the Soulfire from him because he was finished studying it.</p><p>TSO tied a LOT of old lore together, including both the Peacock, Claymore, and Swords of Destiny Timelines (specifically the history of Anashti'Sul, her banishment, and the connection between the two swords and Theer.)</p><p>As you can see, there is most definitely a connection between the expansions, including both references to past events and foreshadowing of future events. The Dev team assuredly has the main plotlines of EQ2 at least sketched-out FAR in advance, even if the details are left open for change as they are implemented.</p></blockquote><p>Ok, yes the expansions do refer back to previous expansions, major plot points, and occasionally even minor quests and bits of trivia. What I was trying to get at is the new expansions all assume a certain amount of time has passed since your last encounter. You don't get a sense that you walked out of the final raid encounter in the previous expansion and rushed to the first one in the next expansion as part of the progress of a story-arc. This upcomming expansion could be different in that it is a very direct tie-in with the TSO story line. In this one we defeat Anashti-Sul and we know about Theer. I don't expect the next story line will aim us directly at defeating Theer, but its possible. Its also possible that a raid line could require that you kill Anashti-Sul as an entrance requirement to fight Theer. Not likely, but possible.</p>

[Juravael]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There is no official date. Technically, every server has a completley random different time of day, month, and year. I've heard it even varies as much as individual players.</p></blockquote><p>I have a second account that I sometimes play to duo box city writs for our guild and the time of day does in fact vary for each character. It can be the middle of the day for one account and the middle of the night for the second one even though they are both running along side by side slaying the same creatures together.</p><p>This is a small, yet annoying pet-peeve of mine.</p>