Dear Sony,

[Felshades]

<p>Dear Sony,</p><p>Please publish a book, or a few books perhaps, detailing the geography, history, lore and beastiary of Norrath.</p><p>That is all.</p><p>No, seriously. I'm a lore nut, and information sponge, and I have difficulty finding everything. I tried that one archive site that has all the in game books in it but I found it obnoxious to navigate and horrendous to try reading. I want all of it in one place on my bookshelf or ebook reader that isn't going to eat my eyes for lunch, like reading a computer screen tends to do.</p><p>Encyclopedia of Norrath.  Do want.</p><p>Thanks.</p>

[circusgirl]

<p>As far as fauna goes, I would reccomend doing the "Lore and Legend" quests, each one rewards a book about a particular species on Norrath.  Also, if you look around in the mage towers you'll find some books about the way time, the seasons, dates, etc. work on Norrath.</p>

[Zehl_Ice-Fire]

<p>Yeah I would love a Prima guide type book of the lore. There is a teeny bit in the original EQII Prima guide, I would definitly buy a book like that for EQII & I lore. I didn't play EQI but obviously... it ties into this game as history. I do have every book I can possibly obtain in game, and there are a few good websites but, I would love to have an actual book.</p>

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p>There have been so many cooks in the kitchen (lore-wise) over the years and between the two games, that I seriously doubt that there even IS a consistent single definitive book that could be written!</p><p>Throw in the whole time-split (fly-in the ointment thing), and ret-cons from developers in both games, and it's a real mess anymore.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There have been so many cooks in the kitchen (lore-wise) over the years and between the two games, that I seriously doubt that there even IS a consistent single definitive book that could be written!</p><p>Throw in the whole time-split (fly-in the ointment thing), and ret-cons from developers in both games, and it's a real mess anymore.</p></blockquote><p> Not to mention the sheer amount of time and work that the developers would have to take away from the game in order to dedicate to creating such books anyway.</p><p>I certainly would enjoy more lore books such as the EQ Atlas but where would the fun be in just reading about it? Experiencing it in the game firsthand is what makes it fun.</p>

[Anaogi]

<p>Indeed.  Probably not doable for I/II now, but it should be a core part of the planning for III...</p><p>...if only to prevent some of the current lore wrinkles from remanifesting...</p>

[Felshades]

<p><cite>Vinka@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>As far as fauna goes, I would reccomend doing the "Lore and Legend" quests, each one rewards a book about a particular species on Norrath.  Also, if you look around in the mage towers you'll find some books about the way time, the seasons, dates, etc. work on Norrath.</p></blockquote><p>Done all of them on my old main, sans the ones for SF and DoV, as I don't have those two expansions.</p><p>The devs wouldn't even really *have* to do it, they could license someone else to.  Current example that comes to mind, the comics and novels for World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo by Knaak and Golden are considered canon lore. Which annoys me partially because there's no real collection for everything and I have no desire(which is why I request it here) to search 20 different sources for a game's full lore.</p><p>I like to read beyond what is found in the game itself. Same way I look at life. Factual books such as encyclopedias and magazines like National Geographic are an insterest. Unfortunately, for even the most detailed game worlds, there's never really book sets like that.</p><p>And with a game franchise like EverQuest, the sheer amount of Norrathian lore would be awesome to have at hand in a set of books that I could sit on my shelves to read irl. Yes, it'd label me as a nerd, but the collection of D&D books there have already really done that.</p><p>Come to think of it, the D&D guides are an excellent example. There's a bestiary, and the character creation guide lists a bunch of history and lore on the different races. This is the kind of thing I'm looking for. The campaign books detail the history and geography of the lands used in that campaign as well.</p>

[Felshades]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There have been so many cooks in the kitchen (lore-wise) over the years and between the two games, that I seriously doubt that there even IS a consistent single definitive book that could be written!</p><p>Throw in the whole time-split (fly-in the ointment thing), and ret-cons from developers in both games, and it's a real mess anymore.</p></blockquote><p> Not to mention the sheer amount of time and work that the developers would have to take away from the game in order to dedicate to creating such books anyway.</p><p>I certainly would enjoy more lore books such as the EQ Atlas but where would the fun be in just reading about it? Experiencing it in the game firsthand is what makes it fun.</p></blockquote><p>I honestly tend to get more enjoyment out of reading about it, considering the sheer amount of content I do not get to experience, such as raid content, or older content that I missed because I joined late that no one does. Example, I'm about 100% certain I'll never see any of the dungeons for SF or the second "half" of Kunark because I never got the SF expansion when it was relevant content. I don't know what happened to Odus. The Kerra Isles. I don't know Stonebrunt Highlands from the Hole.  And I likely won't see half of Velious before it too becomes dated.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Anaogi@Permafrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Indeed.  Probably not doable for I/II now, but it should be a core part of the planning for III...</p><p>...if only to prevent some of the current lore wrinkles from remanifesting...</p></blockquote><p>This will not be a problem. They've already said that EQnext is a reimagining of the original Everquest and Norrath from 500 years ago. The word "Reimagining" means EVERYTHING IN BOTH THESE GAMES ARE NULL AND VOID. It's own lore timeline and stories fundamentally cannot be connected to either of these games, so we have no worries of having timeline splits and retcons for that game.</p>

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p>I suppose it is not beyond the realm of imagination for SOE to sanction a panel of lore seekers to sit down and try to establish some sembalance of order out of the chaos that the lore has increasingly become.</p><p>It would have to be a volunteer effort.  It would have to be encompassing of all the aspects of Norrath that are flaoting around, and it's findings would need to be sanctioned as 'official'</p><p>However, given the discussions which have developed on these boards over the years on the minutiae of lore details, I doubt seriously that SOE would ever sanction such a panel. </p><p>I am certain that they are quite satisfied with allowing we players argue about it amongst ourselves while they tend to the production of even more updates and exapnsions.  All with lore which may or may not be in anyway connected to what has already been produced.</p><p>/sighs</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I suppose it is not beyond the realm of imagination for SOE to sanction a panel of lore seekers to sit down and try to establish some sembalance of order out of the chaos that the lore has increasingly become.</p><p>It would have to be a volunteer effort.  It would have to be encompassing of all the aspects of Norrath that are flaoting around, and it's findings would need to be sanctioned as 'official'</p><p>However, given the discussions which have developed on these boards over the years on the minutiae of lore details, I doubt seriously that SOE would ever sanction such a panel. </p><p>I am certain that they are quite satisfied with allowing we players argue about it amongst ourselves while they tend to the production of even more updates and exapnsions.  All with lore which may or may not be in anyway connected to what has already been produced.</p><p>/sighs</p></blockquote><p>Actually the most reasonable approach would be to write a treatment for the book and ask SoE for terms on publishing it. They would probably demand final edit rights, right of cancelation, rights of exclusion, and a heafty percentage of the profits. Also they wouldn't sanction it as official if anyone with half a brain is thinking of future development.</p><p>Lets face it, if any "official" source material appears people want to force the development team to stick to it. Nothing ruins creativity more than being told "your doing it wrong". The easiest way to make sure your free to do what you want to is to not have a credible source of information to prove you wrong. A lot of book burining movements were started for this purpose. Any developer would feel constrained if an official source appeared.</p><p>The easiest way to write such a guide would be from the perspective of a character in the world. This way the character can simply be wrong. It explains why the guide and the actual game differ. Something along the lines of the Bogstrutter's Guide to Norrath would be appropriate, or another character's journal. An even more interesting guidebook might be "The Freethinker's Handbook" or "Notes Collected from the Agents of Mistmoor". Similar to many in-game sources of Lore that could include old and origional stories, maps, and artwork.</p>

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p>Maybe we should just start threads here and make them sticky:</p><p>Everything Bayle</p><p>Everything Mayong</p><p>Everything Void</p><p>Everything Lucan</p><p>Everything Thex</p><p>Everything Marr</p><p>Everything Dragon</p><p>Everything 'Dal</p><p>Everything Ages</p><p>Everything Vampires</p><p>etc.</p><p>Then we merely place comments in the appropriate thread rather than starting a new one each time a new thought or insight is made.</p><p>Maybe start with a search through past threads here on the forum and sort them into topic areas.  Might help people trying to find info on a particualr topic.  Just a thought.</p>

[Rezikai]

<p><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Maybe we should just start threads here and make them sticky:</p><p>Everything Bayle</p><p>Everything Mayong</p><p>Everything Void</p><p>Everything Lucan</p><p>Everything Thex</p><p>Everything Marr</p><p>Everything Dragon</p><p>Everything 'Dal</p><p>Everything Ages</p><p>Everything Vampires</p><p>etc.</p><p>Then we merely place comments in the appropriate thread rather than starting a new one each time a new thought or insight is made.</p><p>Maybe start with a search through past threads here on the forum and sort them into topic areas.  Might help people trying to find info on a particualr topic.  Just a thought.</p></blockquote><p>Hmmm not a terrible idea.. I player made panel of lore enthusiats(sp) to decifer and catagorize lore of the Eversquest Universe in a more orderly manner.</p><p>I'll volunteer to if needed.</p>

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p>Pick an 'everything' topic, and we'll get started.</p><p>May need some posting guidelines drawn up, like keep the discussion on that particular topic, and rather than re-posting past posts over again, just post a link to them, etc.</p>

[Seidhkona]

<p>Why not just go to <a href="http://www.lorelibrary.com/" target="_blank">The Athenaeum</a>, which already has huge swathes of lore sorted by subject?</p>

[Cusashorn]

Because that site hasnt' been updated in 6 months and only has in-game book lore, not background and quest lore.

[Mary the Prophetess]

<p>Rapha hasn't been seen in a long time, and it does not include NPC dialogues etc.</p>

[Mixxit]

<p>I had to take down the npc dialogue search on lore of norrath but here is the SQL file so far:</p><p><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25535993/npcdialogue.sql" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25535993/npcdialogue.sql</a></p>

[Banedon_Toran]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Because that site hasnt' been updated in 6 months and only has in-game book lore, not background and quest lore.</blockquote><p>So find out who owns it and get their buy in on the idea.</p><p>A lot of these player run sites would bite the hand off somebody who wanted to help.</p>

[Mixxit]

<p>Mine is the easiest site to update! It has a back end for editors to paste in data and they can tag categories etc! Just let me know <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p><img src="http://loreofnorrath.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/edit.png" width="982" height="652" /></p>

[Zabjade]

<p><span style="color: #00cc00;">What about publishing the Vhalen Tomes? (sans spoilers)</span></p>

[Mixxit]

<p>I've created a topic for smoke jumper on this</p>

[Rezikai]

<p><cite>Mary the Prophetess wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Rapha hasn't been seen in a long time, and it does not include NPC dialogues etc.</p></blockquote><p>Shes had it rough the last 6 months. She was expecting and had her new baby. Then all the tornados and storms that hit the south put their ISP out of commision for a month or more is what her husband told me.</p><p>She had actually been updating <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lorelibrary.com" target="_blank">www.lorelibrary.com</a> on the internal stuff like tomes and such before the storms, but she hasnt updated the frontpage news in 1/2 a year even though I keep nagging at her to do it. I'll try and get her to, she'll be glad people are wanting to make a collected effort to help with lore to. She's been running Athenaeum by herself for so long i'd bet she'd love the help.</p>

[Felshades]

<p>I think the thing that saddens me the most is that there's not a collective place for this all.</p><p>You have to go between a million different websites, do quest lines that require raids that no one does anymore and dig through the bowels of the games' libraries in order to find everything.</p><p>I've been a bit spoiled. wowpedia.org is a redo of a wiki site that went downhill after wikia changed their formatting and the owners didnt like it.</p><p>The setup is great. Quests, merchants, trainers for whatever you could have ever needed, boss mobs have their own lore and tactics page. Zones, cities, continents have their own lore pages. Creatures and creature types have their lore listed.</p><p>And all we get over at the EQ2 wiki is quest walkthroughs and basic boss tactics.</p><p>Personally, if I had the information, I'd be updating it to do what the wow fanbase has done with their wiki. Unfortunately, I don't have the access to the lore so I can't. Instead, I'd like to go to the stinking site and actually find answers to what I'm looking for.</p><p>Not defining lore just so they can change it isn't a good enough excuse. There are retcons for a reason. I've come to accept them in the course of my gameworld following history(coughs Eredar) and they should not be an excuse for opening plot holes and never finishing them, or never giving us definitive answers to something that we've been told 20 times has been this way. There's ALWAYS a way to make a change fit. Always.</p><p>Urg.</p>