Obelisk of Lost Soul Anchors?

[Enever]

<p>Now this was brought upon from a dicussion of nostalgia with a friend. I mentioned these anchors to see if my friend can recall things, since he brought up Kuua.</p><p>Now..Since Norrath is one of the anchors, I sorta figured they were planets. These other Anchors I am very curious about.</p><p>Dyrt</p><p>Iza</p><p>Odris</p><p>Hykor</p><p>Lysis</p><p>Cron (This one in the Lore thing said it was off limits due to the medium of Cron's request...?)</p><p>Any ideas of what these anchors are?</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>Your guess is as good as mine. The other anchors haven't been explained and it's doubtful they will be since the void storyline is over and all that.</p>

[Anaogi]

<p>My impression was that they represented other worlds the Shadowed Men had invaded.  (The fact that a name so clearly riffing off 'Earth' is on the list leads to interesting questions...)</p><p>Obviously, they were never more than sideshows...but they may also act as later hooks for dev mischief, once the current batch of plotlines get wrapped up, so you never know...</p>

[Enever]

<p>Darn I was hoping for more lore on them... guess it's a loose end that will go untied, so to speak.</p>

[fishbulb]

<p>The other names you list seem more like "designations" than actual names, but that's just my perspective.</p><p>To use terms familiar to EQ2, they look like <em>Anchor Azia, Anchor Beza, Anchor Caza</em>, etc, or simply, Anchor A, Anchor B, and Anchor C. This may or may not be the case; it's just what the list strikes me as at first blush.  It's definitely possible that they're the names of other worlds, but it just doesn't seem like that to me, having seen the Remembrances books from OLS.</p>

[Jait]

<p><cite>Enever wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Cron (This one in the Lore thing said it was off limits due to the medium of Cron's request...?)</p><p>Any ideas of what these anchors are?</p></blockquote><p>Funny.  This is most definitely a homage to Might and Magic <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  CRON wouldn't allow interference with Cron.</p>

[Eugam]

<p><cite>Enever wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Darn I was hoping for more lore on them... guess it's a loose end that will go untied, so to speak.</p></blockquote><p>Depends on how long people will play EQ2 <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p>The best word is probably continuum. Those are different continuum. It may be a different planet or any place in time and space. </p><p>Since Vanguard shares a lot of EQ2 lore (Keith Parkinson) its possible to get some references from there. Vanguard has time benders (similar to portal erudites) and shadow-like creatures invading through portals and dreams. The cat race, similar to Kerra, states in NPC conversations and diplomacy, that their origin is a distant planet. So, basically its time or space or time and space those invaders or travellers bridge.</p><p>If EQ2 lives long enough we may see diffrent planets. Paineel already is a place on the border or even outside of the norrathian continuum.</p>

[MixxitNDance_Live]

<p>The lore in Vanguard also stated the gods fled another universe in a tower and arrived in that new one to create life on Telon</p><p>The lore in EQ2 states that we will flee this universe in an Alabaster Tower</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>MixxitNDance_Live wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The lore in EQ2 states that we will flee this universe in an Alabaster Tower</p></blockquote><p>It does?</p>

[MixxitNDance_Live]

<p>Zebuxoruk says ‘When the timeline is weak enough, a new assault will come to Norrath. By then your powers will be so great that both past and future will be evacuated, their peoples to make a last stand in the Now. What a magnificent effort that shall be, though it will be utterly futile. At the moment of your greatest despair, look up and see the Alabaster Tower which shall offer your salvation.’</p><p>alabaster comes from elemental plane of air</p><p>old alabaster towers:</p><p>'Constructed of pure alabaster stone and crowned in statues and tower caps of solid gold, Ardathium was a sight to behold. Its white and blue banners rose high toward the heavens and the brilliant glinting of sunlight off of its tower’s golden caps could be seen for miles above the lush, green canopy of the Elddar Forest to the south'</p><p>I think Plane of Knowledge may also be constructed in alabaster</p><p>And sorry yeah these are from eq1 <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>If all of that is from Eqlive, then what does that have to do with Eq2? There is a solid cut-off point in EQlive's timeline in which nothing that happens after it also happens in EQ2. I don't remember Zebuxoruk saying anything about an Alabaster tower anywhere in the Planes of Power expansion pack, or anything like that anywhere in EQ2.</p>

[Rainmare]

<p>actually this sounds like things from EQ1 after PoP...like comments Zeb made during the last  of the 'discord' story where you see him at what we can guess is Age's End. I know he doesn't say anything like that when we release him in PoTime.</p><p>anything past PoP is non-canon here, as that's when the timelines diverge. not to say it can't happen, but the devs are under no condition to allow it to.</p><p>I always infered that the worlds in there were placed they already conquered. the places where they learned/mastered the powers/techiques they use on us. like making the Grathok into servants, or converting Prime's race to nightbloods...or being able to completely manifest into a world, since in EQ1 they weren't able to.</p>

[Eugam]

<p><cite>MixxitNDance_Live wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The lore in Vanguard also stated the gods fled another universe in a tower and arrived in that new one to create life on Telon</p><p>The lore in EQ2 states that we will flee this universe in an Alabaster Tower</p></blockquote><p>Oh... thats like real greek mythology <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>The Tower of Cron(os) is the last station of elysium; The isle of the blessed.</p>

[MixxitNDance_Live]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>If all of that is from Eqlive, then what does that have to do with Eq2? There is a solid cut-off point in EQlive's timeline in which nothing that happens after it also happens in EQ2. I don't remember Zebuxoruk saying anything about an Alabaster tower anywhere in the Planes of Power expansion pack, or anything like that anywhere in EQ2.</p></blockquote><p>The gods are attemping to maintain balance in the pantheon without the use of Theer (eq2). But the whole story in the Planes of Power is that Zebuxoruk is trying to elevate mortals to the status of deities to bring balance back to the Pantheon (eq1).</p><p>He does this by giving the knowledge of the planes to races via various books in history which results in them eventually being able to challenge the gods (eq1 and eq2).</p><p>He tried this with the Shissar and they were beaten by the Greenmist.</p><p>He tried it with the Iksar but Trakanon was so afraid of them he ensured they were put down.</p><p>He tried it with the Combine but due to the (innoruuk) currupted Seru it collapsed.</p><p>Elder Aytael says ‘Mortals have followed Zebuxoruk’s path for some time.  His teachings helped to alter the path of several empires.  The Sebilisians, the Combine, even groups that felt they were working under the divine influence of others gods were following teachings set into the mortal realm by Zebuxoruk.</p><p>And now he's warning from the void in eq1 that a great battle will occur in the future and the past that will bring us all together to fight in the now for basically age's end (and we'll lose).</p><p>It's fairly clear now that snuffing theer as balance keeper is why Brell and co are so concerned with Veeshan. They have basically made a pact with the devil to work together to make sure she doesn't control everything and screw up the balance destroying the universe.</p><p>But then Zeb learned from Druzzil about the balance of power in the universe and felt he had to step in and elevate mortals to deities.</p><p>So now the gods have got mortals to worry about, the now godslaying Kerafyrm AND their original enemy veeshan (Unless of course some of these big names cancel each other out in the end).</p><p>I see age's end as another finale storyline for EQ - something like planes of power was (unofficially) for eq1. All this will be what we get just before the launch of eqnext and maybe even the story will be a tie-in by making use of the timeline/travellers/multiverse story that we've been seeing develop over the last year or so.</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>MixxitNDance_Live wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>If all of that is from Eqlive, then what does that have to do with Eq2? There is a solid cut-off point in EQlive's timeline in which nothing that happens after it also happens in EQ2. I don't remember Zebuxoruk saying anything about an Alabaster tower anywhere in the Planes of Power expansion pack, or anything like that anywhere in EQ2.</p></blockquote><p>The gods are attemping to maintain balance in the pantheon without the use of Theer (eq2). But the whole story in the Planes of Power is that Zebuxoruk is trying to elevate mortals to the status of deities to bring balance back to the Pantheon (eq1).</p><p>He does this by giving the knowledge of the planes to races via various books in history which results in them eventually being able to challenge the gods (eq1 and eq2).</p><p>He tried this with the Shissar and they were beaten by the Greenmist.</p><p>He tried it with the Iksar but Trakanon was so afraid of them he ensured they were put down.</p><p>He tried it with the Combine but due to the (innoruuk) currupted Seru it collapsed.</p><p>Elder Aytael says ‘Mortals have followed Zebuxoruk’s path for some time.  His teachings helped to alter the path of several empires.  The Sebilisians, the Combine, even groups that felt they were working under the divine influence of others gods were following teachings set into the mortal realm by Zebuxoruk.</p><p>And now he's warning from the void in eq1 that a great battle will occur in the future and the past that will bring us all together to fight in the now for basically age's end (and we'll lose).</p><p>It's fairly clear now that snuffing theer as balance keeper is why Brell and co are so concerned with Veeshan. They have basically made a pact with the devil to work together to make sure she doesn't control everything and screw up the balance destroying the universe.</p><p>But then Zeb learned from Druzzil about the balance of power in the universe and felt he had to step in and elevate mortals to deities.</p><p>So now the gods have got mortals to worry about, the now godslaying Kerafyrm AND their original enemy veeshan (Unless of course some of these big names cancel each other out in the end).</p><p>I see age's end as another finale storyline for EQ - something like planes of power was (unofficially) for eq1. All this will be what we get just before the launch of eqnext and maybe even the story will be a tie-in by making use of the timeline/travellers/multiverse story that we've been seeing develop over the last year or so.</p></blockquote><p>You've got some interesting ideas about the storyline of EQ1 and 2. Though, I have a different interpretation.</p><p>First, when Norrath was claimed by Veeshan the other gods didn't act as a ballance. They acted to make a claim on Norrath as well. Honestly, as far as ballance is concerned Veeshan is probably the last god Theer would worry about. Veeshan is the most hands off of any Norrathian diety we've herd of outside of the Nameless himself!</p><p>What the gods were upset by was being excluded from Norrath, and they took care of that with no interferance from Veeshan.</p><p>The whole thing about Zeb back when PoP was new-ish is that he knew how to become a diety by your own actions. A mortal with the knowledge of how to become a diety, and was a diety with no worshipers. Nobody was sure if he was going to release this information in EQ1 at that time, heck most people didn't know why he was locked away on the Plane of Time in the first place.</p><p>The whole big reveal of Zeb trying to bring ballance by making mortals into gods and the comming of age's end (and the actual destruction of Norrath and its subsequent salvation by adventurers) all occured AFTER THE TIME SPLIT. In EQ2, at this moment Zeb has NOT motivated any empire towards challenging the gods. That happened in EQ1 AFTER THE TIME SPLIT. Just because it happened 10,000 years ago in Norrathian history in EQ1 it doesn't mean it happened in EQ2. Lore introduced in EQ1 after PoP is not automatically valid in EQ2. It takes a dev in EQ2 to add it to the universe before it happens here.</p><p>Even similar events don't mean it happened the same was as it did in EQ1. In EQ2 we've got stories of Mayong Mistmoor elevating himself to become a god, but nobody knows how or why he gave it up. Just because there is an entire expansion in EQ1 dedicated to this story doesn't mean it happened that way in EQ2. Until EQ2 has lore written about it, the reasons could be entirely different!</p><p>I think Anashti is a good example of the gods keeping ballance without Theer. If enough gods decide that another god needs to be taken care of it happens. Recently Inny set a trap and killed Erollisi Marr when he was looking to kill Mithanial. As far as we know, he acted alone in this. We don't know what the trap was, but it was obviously perty successful. For a lone diety to slay another diety says that Theer was the easy-mode way of keeping ballance. I'm actually suprised Mithanial and a few of the other gods haven't gotten together and lynched Innoruuk yet. Even if your an evil diety you know you can't trust Innoruuk and it has to make you nervous that he managed to kill someone just like you.</p><p>Though, gods are norotiously difficult to destroy. It is quite possible that Erollisi could reform. The more disrupted Erollisi was, the longer it would take her to reform. She also might have to wait for a certain condition to happen. For instance, it could be that Mithanial absorbed Erollisi's essence and now Erollisi is waiting for Mithanial to fall in love and will be reborn as his child. It is also possible that someone or something else will step into Erollisi's role and assume all of her powers. Probably the most unpopular choice the dev team could make but it wouldn't be the worst decision we've seen them make.</p><p>As for worrying about mortals, that was what the 500 year sebatical was about. The gods have closed off the pathways mortals could use to challenge them directly. Kerafyrm on the other hand...he is probably as powerful as Veeshan and has god slaying powers, mommy issues with Veeshan, and a rage problem. Worse than that, with Veeshan being so inaccessable the gods have to realize that Kerafyrm will find them and shake them down for information trying to find Veeshan. Kerafyrm isn't know for taking bad news, and being told you don't know where Veeshan is won't make Kerafyrm happy. The gods have to be pulling for the mortals to take care of this one before they have to step up and loose a few dieties taking Kerafyrm down.</p><p>FYI: planes of power was not an end for EQ1. It in no way felt like an end at the time. Now going to Luclin after PoP did feel like a step backwards, but its hard to top going to beat down dieties. IMO PoP was a great expansion, but fundamentally flawed. It was too raid centric and not Lore driven. The raiding should of been more like Velious with a complicated web of factions. You as a raid group should of been forced to support a side to be successful. Maybe you chose to support Rallos so there are 2 other dieties you can't attack. Maybe you choose to support Mithanial so you have to do faction work to repair faction with Brell and Terrew if you attack their allies, or a lot of work to repair your own faction if you actually attack one of Mithanial's allies. Having it be a free for all raid every diety with no drawbacks or incentive to avoid attacking your own diety was stupid design from a Lore point of view. Attacking avatars in EQ2 was better designed. At least the avatars gave their own followers a bonus for visiting, and stripped you of faction if you dared to destroy your own.</p><p>No, the end game stuff for EQ1 was written after the time split. Guess you had to be here at the beginning to really know.</p>