Who is Kurista?

[Cusashorn]

<p>Where did she come from? What gives her the power to rebuild the druid rings?</p><p>My biggest gripe with the ring rebuilding event is the lack of explanation or motivation.</p><p>Who is this little Fae woman? How did she become a Servant of Growth? Is she really so concentrated on rebuilding the spires that she can't even say hello or... ANYTHING for that matter when you hail her?</p><p>Why are the drakota supposedly attacking the rings? There's no rhyme or reason for them to be doing this. There's no dragons controlling them or anything that comes to attack the rings when they finish. The dragons didn't want us to gain access to the Overrealm back in KOS, so it's understandable that they would attack when we built the original spires. How does killing hidden drakota actually contribute to building the rings? Considering that they don't actually attack the spires, does not doing the quests to kill them actually slow down the progression or something?</p><p>At least with the Quellithulian spires, we were told that the Erudites are rebuilding them to help reestablish a teleportation network across Norrath, as well as to reconnect themselves to the Ulteran dimension where Odus is found.</p><p>This girl though.. It's obvious to us as players that she's reestablishing the druid network, as all of the locations are former teleport spots that druids could access in EQlive... but there's just no story behind it. We as Norrathians are just told "We're rebuilding the rings, wanna help?"</p><p>There really should be an actual explanation and background lore behind the events.</p><p>There also needs to be a progress meter and a guard that actually does send you to the next location instead of being bugged, but that's for another thread...</p>

[Terrius]

Aside from them being rebuild for the travel revamp stuff I don't really see any lore behind it at all. I am assuming though that they will have something to do with the next expansion, kinda like the spires were for TSF perhaps. If so I assume the Drakota are being sent by Kerafyrm to stop us from completing it. Though that doesn't make sense cause with the Qeynos claymore and soul-fire absorbed he could probably just snap his fingers and destroy all of us. :/ But yeah aside from a gameplay P.O.V. I dont see anything explaining this fae or why she's rebuilding the spires.

[Morghus]

<p>Or he could send some of these against us.</p><p><img src="http://www.mmoz.com/photopost/data/537/medium/wyvern_3-01.jpg" width="600" height="533" /></p>

[Rainmare]

<p>the quest giver when you first get it says something like the Drakota are basically using scare tactics to keep people away from the mega-magaliths. they stay invis and use the smell of thier breath and flapping wings to spook people away. so your sent to lure them out and take care of them.</p><p>the magaliths themselves are from Tunare, but apparently she's still respecting/bound to the no direct interferance pact, so she made a deal with Karana to bsically have them 'washes away' from PoG to norrath for her. I think the questgivers  for the kill and harvest quests mention the first time you hail them in Nek that Tunare granted them 'visions' of the rebuilt rings or knowledge on how to rebuild them and that's just what they set out to do.</p><p>in fact it's similar to what the Spire event was: We can do it, and we feel like doing it. Won't you help us?</p><p>the spire event had the x2 mobs becuase when you look back on it, the Gods obviously had knowledge of/presence in Ultera. if they did, they knew very well what was going on there, adn did not want people going there, especially in the off chance we helped bring Theer though. we we built the spires anyway, they pulled thier Avatars from norrath and began fortifications against Theer's coming.</p><p>This event seems more like Tunare/Karana fully endorse this, and they only beings really against it are the drakota, adn probably whomever has the Harness now.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>the quest giver when you first get it says something like the Drakota are basically using scare tactics to keep people away from the mega-magaliths. they stay invis and use the smell of thier breath and flapping wings to spook people away. so your sent to lure them out and take care of them.</p><p>the magaliths themselves are from Tunare, but apparently she's still respecting/bound to the no direct interferance pact, so she made a deal with Karana to bsically have them 'washes away' from PoG to norrath for her. I think the questgivers  for the kill and harvest quests mention the first time you hail them in Nek that Tunare granted them 'visions' of the rebuilt rings or knowledge on how to rebuild them and that's just what they set out to do.</p><p>in fact it's similar to what the Spire event was: We can do it, and we feel like doing it. Won't you help us?</p><p>the spire event had the x2 mobs becuase when you look back on it, the Gods obviously had knowledge of/presence in Ultera. if they did, they knew very well what was going on there, adn did not want people going there, especially in the off chance we helped bring Theer though. we we built the spires anyway, they pulled thier Avatars from norrath and began fortifications against Theer's coming.</p><p>This event seems more like Tunare/Karana fully endorse this, and they only beings really against it are the drakota, adn probably whomever has the Harness now.</p></blockquote><p>The spire X2 mobs were before Kingdom of Sky came out, before the gods returned. They had nothing to do with that. There really is no lore behind the rebuilding of the rings. More importantly, behind Kurista herself. SAY SOMETHING, DARNIT!</p>

[Macross_JR]

<p>Cusa, the x2 was from the latest spire event, not the one from before KoS.  The one before KoS was an x4.</p>

[Aneova]

<p>So perhaps there may or may not be lore behind the druid ring... i did find out their was purpose for starting in Nektolus Forest.... The Keeper of secrest message i believe is changed....</p><p><img src="http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee308/Aneova/Keeperofsecrets.jpg" /></p>

[shadowscale]

<p>its said that ever since fallen dynasty. hasent changed in some time now.</p>

[Iskandar]

<p>The Droag are involved too -- when you summon the drakes with a group of 4 or more, you get a bonus Droag in the mix as well (not sure if there's something extra added with a full six-player group beyond that tho). Has AB finished the last ring yet? I was wondering if some big-bad shows up at the very end too.</p><p>I always thought the Seekers quote was a reference to Kunark or the Shissar... in the For a Few Coins More quest, the tablets you get from the chests tell the story of a young Iksar who is lost at sea while fighting a shark, then comes from the sea to become a powerful wizard, and then becomes ruler of the Iksar and changes into what sounds like a Shissar.</p>

[teddyboy4]

<p><cite>Iskandar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I always thought the Seekers quote was a reference to Kunark or the Shissar... in the For a Few Coins More quest, the tablets you get from the chests tell the story of a young Iksar who is lost at sea while fighting a shark, then comes from the sea to become a powerful wizard, and then becomes ruler of the Iksar and changes into what sounds like a Shissar.</p></blockquote><p>I'm pretty sure the story on those tablets is telling the story of Venril Sathir in his younger days and rise to power, I'm not 100%, but if I remember that's who that story is about.</p>

[Rezikai]

<p><cite>Eandiil@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Iskandar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I always thought the Seekers quote was a reference to Kunark or the Shissar... in the For a Few Coins More quest, the tablets you get from the chests tell the story of a young Iksar who is lost at sea while fighting a shark, then comes from the sea to become a powerful wizard, and then becomes ruler of the Iksar and changes into what sounds like a Shissar.</p></blockquote><p>I'm pretty sure the story on those tablets is telling the story of Venril Sathir in his younger days and rise to power, I'm not 100%, but if I remember that's who that story is about.</p></blockquote><p>eh good guess. It's cheiftan Thugga, his rise to power over the Kylong tribe. For a few coins more is in the questlines for the Thugga fabled items.</p>

[Clowd]

<p>I wonder if this has anything to do with the Dartain quest line?  I won't spoil it here, but I think it might be related to the druid ring reconstruction.</p>

[Putyo]

<p>At the end of dartain signature quest you hand a note from Alkabor/Dartain to the prophet of tunare in gfay. Dartain/Alkabor talk about ages end and how it is very important and he doesnt think the void has much to do with it, the events in SF are not ages end but it is leading to something even bigger.</p><p>Kind of odd isnt it? she doesnt say much to you besides give you the reward.</p><p>Druid ring reconstruction is someone who is also related to tunare and drakes are attacking it.</p><p>IMO the puzzle is vague but is there, druid rings are going to be a way to travel to velious, wakening lands and plane of growth are there, both big parts of tunare. Drakes and dragons also reside in velious, they are a pretty huge part of velious and they dont want us showing up.</p><p>open and shut!</p>

[Coniaric]

<p><cite>Putyo@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>IMO the puzzle is vague but is there, druid rings are going to be a way to travel to velious, wakening lands and plane of growth are there, both big parts of tunare. Drakes and dragons also reside in velious, they are a pretty huge part of velious and they dont want us showing up.</p></blockquote><p>Well, Plane of Growth probably isn't there anymore ... or at least the entrance to it. Tunare had moved the Bloom of Growth to Faydwer to a place called the Emerald Halls a long time ago. Woushi also had moved over from Velious to be Tunare's primary guardian of the Bloom.</p><p>As far, the Bloom is still there in the Emerald Halls (at least until next expansion is released if it's Velious). So as for the reason of the druid rings, Tunare may had something in mind and she's not telling anyone yet.</p><p>________________________________________________</p><p>Oh, by the way, the pact? It'd ended a few years ago. The gods can now involve themselves in the events around Norrath. Mithaniel is one of the biggest players of this. Popping up at a island of snow and ice? Then asking the Coldain dwarves to expand their village into a city called "New Halas" and placing the statue of his currently deceased sister?</p><p>Those are very direct actions.</p>

[Larkverdin]

<p>I think more than anything, the druid ring reconstruction is a segway from the travel revamp, leading into an much larger pre-expansion quest to get us to Velious. This just seems like the tip of the iceburg (forgive my pun) in regards to this pre-expansion quest, I'm sure there'll be many many more, and we'll recieve at least a few answers along the way. I'm pretty sure it's designed to be vague to make you want to find out what the next "quest" is going to be.</p><p>Maybe the speculation about druid rings being the only way to get to Velious will prove correct. Perhaps the coasts of Velious were all damaged to the point that there is no way to build a dock there at all, and since I don't see a flying ship maintaining itself very well in the freezing cold climate, it seems magic is our last resort.</p>

[Bionickai001]

<p>How many druid rings or spires were in Velious?</p>

[Morghus]

<p>Pretty sure the only druid ring was in Wakening land, which was guarded by Wuoshi.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Morghus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Pretty sure the only druid ring was in Wakening land, which was guarded by Wuoshi.</p></blockquote><p>Iceclad Ocean, Cobalt Scar, Great Divide.. Not technically rings, but druid portals nontheless.</p>

[Nevao]

<p><cite>Putyo@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>At the end of dartain signature quest you hand a note from Alkabor/Dartain to the prophet of tunare in gfay. Dartain/Alkabor talk about ages end and how it is very important and he doesnt think the void has much to do with it, the events in SF are not ages end but it is leading to something even bigger.</p><p>Kind of odd isnt it? she doesnt say much to you besides give you the reward.</p><p>Druid ring reconstruction is someone who is also related to tunare and drakes are attacking it.</p><p>IMO the puzzle is vague but is there, druid rings are going to be a way to travel to velious, wakening lands and plane of growth are there, both big parts of tunare. Drakes and dragons also reside in velious, they are a pretty huge part of velious and they dont want us showing up.</p><p>open and shut!</p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">A</span><span style="color: #ff9900;">ctually I think the more likely tie-in is "the Awakened". The events in SF lead more to him being the issue at hand for Ages End than the Void. If he now controls the drakes then it could be an attempt to minimize the lesser races from being able to cooperate against him.</span></p>

[Terrius]

<p>Well since the druid ring rebuild is the first prelude event to the 7th expansion according to the Eq2players page, it's probably safe to assume the drakota/droags are from Kerafyrm or one of his worshippers in KoS. That assuming of course Kerafyrm is the next big bad guy and the boss of velious. Since he just absorbed theer's powers it seems likely. Course now the most powerful being is even more powerful and can slay any god he chooses...</p>

[Pyra Shineflame]

<p>That is one thing I am no sure about. Did Enoxus and Aetok *give* Theer the power to slay gods or is that power a part of who he *was*, namely, an Avatar of the Nameless created to keep the gods in check. If its the former, then heck, wonder who is going to bite it in the coming events. If its the latter, then it is slightly less cataclysmic.</p>

[Terrius]

<p><cite>Zulaika@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>That is one thing I am no sure about. Did Enoxus and Aetok *give* Theer the power to slay gods or is that power a part of who he *was*, namely, an Avatar of the Nameless created to keep the gods in check. If its the former, then heck, wonder who is going to bite it in the coming events. If its the latter, then it is slightly less cataclysmic.</p></blockquote><p>I assume it's the power of both swords channeled through theer that allows him to kill gods, otherwise he wouldnt have been able to get thrown into the void, would he? and if he had the power without the swords you'd think it wouldnt have been so hard for him to get out of the void, or important for him to get his swords back.</p>

[Quicksilver74]

<p>I heard that as soon as you port to Wakening Lands, you will be attacked not by Wuoshi, but rather by Venekor, and at 50% Venekor summons Mayong Mistmoore to join the fight.  </p>

[Nevao]

<p><cite>Crabbok@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I heard that as soon as you port to Wakening Lands, you will be attacked not by Wuoshi, but rather by Venekor, and at 50% Venekor summons Mayong Mistmoore to join the fight.  </p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">They revamped it, Venekor calls Mayong who responds with "but I'm le tired" and send Venril in instead.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">Eventually Alaska comes too.</span></p>

[Gungo]

<p><cite>Putyo@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>At the end of dartain signature quest you hand a note from Alkabor/Dartain to the prophet of tunare in gfay. Dartain/Alkabor talk about ages end and how it is very important and he doesnt think the void has much to do with it, the events in SF are not ages end but it is leading to something even bigger.</p><p>Kind of odd isnt it? she doesnt say much to you besides give you the reward.</p><p>Druid ring reconstruction is someone who is also related to tunare and drakes are attacking it.</p><p>IMO the puzzle is vague but is there, druid rings are going to be a way to travel to velious, wakening lands and plane of growth are there, both big parts of tunare. Drakes and dragons also reside in velious, they are a pretty huge part of velious and they dont want us showing up.</p><p>open and shut!</p></blockquote><p>Dartain (well his personality) was worried about norrath getting pulled into the void or norrath getting pulled into the underfoot. Either plane would of completely destroyed norrath.</p><p>Alkabor (well his personality) was attempting to decipher the Age's end prophecy. He was not finished yet. My guess is Kerafyrm is the main plot line of this. He kills veeshan (which is his true intention) and it is Age's End (or more correctly stated the end of the dragon age). He has the power to kill a god now. He now needs to lure Veeshan out.</p>

[The_Cheeseman]

<p><cite>Nevao wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">They revamped it, Venekor calls Mayong who responds with "but I'm le tired" and send Venril in instead.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">Eventually Alaska comes too.</span></p></blockquote><p>My name is The_Cheeseman, and I approve of this internet meme reference.</p>

[Larkverdin]

<p><cite>Nevao wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Crabbok@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I heard that as soon as you port to Wakening Lands, you will be attacked not by Wuoshi, but rather by Venekor, and at 50% Venekor summons Mayong Mistmoore to join the fight.  </p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">They revamped it, Venekor calls Mayong who responds with "but I'm le tired" and send Venril in instead.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">Eventually Alaska comes too.</span></p></blockquote><p>I lol'd, hard</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>Now that I think of it, why are we rebuilding the spires in Loping Plains? They were never destroyed. They were corrupted. We shouldn't be rebuilding, we should be purifying.</p>

[Maergoth]

<p>Well here's a question, maybe derailing a bit.</p><p>The Sleeper was released in EQ1 pre-PoP and rampaged across the countryside. He killed Lord Yelinak in Skyshrine and pretty much bounced around until disappearing.</p><p>Does that mean that Yelinak was killed, NPC to NPC, and I won't be able to stake his head come expansion? <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Larkverdin]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Now that I think of it, why are we rebuilding the spires in Loping Plains? They were never destroyed. They were corrupted. We shouldn't be rebuilding, we should be purifying.</p></blockquote><p>Maybe it was so corrupted that they decided to just rebuild? Considering the zone it's in, it doesn't seem like too far a strech to me</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>But we don't go through the process of destroying the old one to make room for the new....</p>

[KniteShayd]

<p>I guess we shall find out now, about Kurista...</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=481880" target="_blank">Update Notes for 6-29-2010</a></p>

[Windslasher]

<p><cite>Euri@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I guess we shall find out now, about Kurista...</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=481880" target="_blank">Update Notes for 6-29-2010</a></p></blockquote><p>Yes, all has been revealed.</p><p><span ><ul><li>The mysterious Kurista now responds to players who have assisted in her ritual. Hail her to learn her background.</li><li>When all the rings are restored, Kurista will offer an exciting new quest, revealing long-forgotten secrets of Norrathian lore.</li><li>This quest will be offered to anyone who has completed more than 10 reconstruction tasks.</li></ul></span></p><p>I didn't mean for it to take this long to get the lore part working, but a lot's been going on. So get out there and do the quest! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Powers]

<p><cite>Windslasher wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I didn't mean for it to take this long to get the lore part working, but a lot's been going on. So get out there and do the quest! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Would love to, but Kurista's in Stonebrunt Highlands and I don't have the expansion.</p><p>Powers  &8^]</p>

[Barx]

<p><cite>Powers wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Windslasher wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I didn't mean for it to take this long to get the lore part working, but a lot's been going on. So get out there and do the quest! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Would love to, but Kurista's in Stonebrunt Highlands and I don't have the expansion.</p><p>Powers  &8^]</p></blockquote><p>That's just the normal way of things unfortunately; world events often involve expansion zones, and this event ties in with the Age's End storyline that was picked back up in SF.</p>

[Powers]

<p><cite>Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>That's just the normal way of things unfortunately; world events often involve expansion zones, and this event ties in with the Age's End storyline that was picked back up in SF.</p></blockquote><p>Yeah but I don't have any characters who can do high-level storylines.  World-event-related quests ought not to require the latest expansion, especially one that ties into a world event that occurred mostly in non-expansion zones.</p><p>And, apparently, Kurista has information to say even before the quest, which I cannot access either because said text didn't go in until Kurista had moved on to Stonebrunt on my server.</p><p>Powers  &8^]</p>

[Barx]

<p><cite>Powers wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>That's just the normal way of things unfortunately; world events often involve expansion zones, and this event ties in with the Age's End storyline that was picked back up in SF.</p></blockquote><p>Yeah but I don't have any characters who can do high-level storylines.  World-event-related quests ought not to require the latest expansion, especially one that ties into a world event that occurred mostly in non-expansion zones.</p><p>And, apparently, Kurista has information to say even before the quest, which I cannot access either because said text didn't go in until Kurista had moved on to Stonebrunt on my server.</p><p>Powers  &8^]</p></blockquote><p>The druid ring / Kurista storyline isn't high end, it can be done at pretty much any level. As for world-events not requiring the latest expansion... they invariably do because the latest expansion is where the action is.</p><p>Yes, a good bit of Age's End storyline happened elsewhere, but the latest chapter of it was all in SF.</p><p>(Plus there's the usual thing where there has to be some incentive for having the expansion beyond just getting levels <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )</p>

[Powers]

<p><cite>Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>The druid ring / Kurista storyline isn't high end, it can be done at pretty much any level.</blockquote><p>Yeah, but that's sorta my point.  You said that this event ties in with the Age's End storyline, which is presumably high level since it was picked up in SF.  I don't have any knowledge of that storyline, because my highest-level character is 48.  So from my perspective, this storyline ties in with the <em>druid ring event</em>, which is <em>not</em> a high-level event.</p><p>So from my perspective, I'm being gated from experiencing the dénouement of the druid ring event because I'm not high-level, even though the rest of the event was perfectly doable.  Or, more accurately, because I don't have the expansion, even though the rest of the event didn't require the expansion.</p><p>And I hardly think I'm out of line for resenting the monetary motivation.  I'm not about to spend $30 on an expansion that holds precisely zero value for me beyond a single quest series, especially when I wasn't told when I started that it would end in an expansion-only zone.  I realize that's my choice to make, but it's not a very fair choice.</p><p>Powers  &8^]</p>

[Ambrin]

<p><cite>Powers wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>The druid ring / Kurista storyline isn't high end, it can be done at pretty much any level.</blockquote><p>Yeah, but that's sorta my point.  You said that this event ties in with the Age's End storyline, which is presumably high level since it was picked up in SF.  I don't have any knowledge of that storyline, because my highest-level character is 48.  So from my perspective, this storyline ties in with the <em>druid ring event</em>, which is <em>not</em> a high-level event.</p><p>So from my perspective, I'm being gated from experiencing the dénouement of the druid ring event because I'm not high-level, even though the rest of the event was perfectly doable.  Or, more accurately, because I don't have the expansion, even though the rest of the event didn't require the expansion.</p><p>And I hardly think I'm out of line for resenting the monetary motivation.  I'm not about to spend $30 on an expansion that holds precisely zero value for me beyond a single quest series, especially when I wasn't told when I started that it would end in an expansion-only zone.  I realize that's my choice to make, but it's not a very fair choice.</p><p>Powers  &8^]</p></blockquote><p>The quest is not high level, you can zone into SF at level one. The only thing preventing you from finishing the quest is that you have not purchased the expansion.</p><p>It is also perfectly fair for SOE to put quests in expansion zones, especially when it is making it easier to get to a zone that until recently had very little travel options.</p>