Yes, we’ve learned a little bit more about what awaits us in Kunark. But first, for Halloween, we’re getting a new starting area, a new race, and a new dungeon.
The dungeon first: Nektropos Castle. In EverQuest 2, Nektropos Castle was a story zone about (if I remember right) a lord who killed his family and then tried to re-animate them with forbidden magic and machinery. It’s been awhile since I played through this, but it was an iconic milestone for new Freeport-side characters and was just super fun and spooky. Very much looking forward to seeing what Game Jawn does with it.
Also coming: Lake Nerius, which was a zone in EverQuest Online Adventures, the PS2 version of EverQuest. I’ve never been there, didn’t play the game, don’t know much about it, but here it’s almost certainly going to be the starting city for the new race, or perhaps the region where it is located. We’ll know more soon.
The new race: this is mysterious. It’s almost certain the race is already in EverQuest classic, and since we’re on the pre-Luclin models, that really narrows it down to a few possibilities. The internet seems to think it’s going to be vampires, as seen in various places, but I have my doubts. Most of the vampires we see are just dark elves; sometimes they are crouching. But we have dark elves already.
Since we know that Kunark is going to be reviving old empires and showing the Iksar at the height of their powers fighting an old enemy, they perhaps will bring that new race in in the new update. There’s a few old empires around; there’s the Sarnak (who are a playable race in EQ2) and the Shissar, of whom is written in the Project 1999 Wiki:
The Shissar are a race of snake-man hybrids who inhabited Kunark before the timeline of EverQuest. In this time, they enslaved the Iksar race. They were mostly wiped out by the gods, especially Cazic-Thule, for dabbling in magic that rivaled the gods’ power. One of these catastrophic events is referred to by the Iksar as the Greenmist, which destroyed what is now the City of Mist. Some Shissar escaped to Luclin, where they are encountered in the Luclin expansion.
It’s perfect, in a lot of ways. The Shissar is the natural enemy of the Iksar.
Where there were once crumbling remnants of a distant empire you will now find the factions battling for supremacy at the height of their powers.
Of course, there were different Iksar factions as well; Venril Sathir’s faction bears the Cabilis lizards no love. The only other old empire races were the Vah’Shir, who were Kerrans booted to the moon Luclin. That’s not going to happen, as that requires the Luclin character models, and I don’t think that is a can of worms they have any interest in opening. And there’s the Combine, who are just humans who have long lost their empire. Of course, the dragons were a greater power in the past than now, so we might see the Drakkin, though like the Vah’Shir, they are a post-Luclin addition.
No, it’s Sarnak or Shissar, and I’m leaning toward Sarnak. Shissar don’t have legs or feet, and who wants to give up those equipment slots?
Epic weapon quests are not mentioned in the producer’s letter, but they are on every player’s minds. We know they aren’t giving us Kunark all at once; levels are going to just 55, not the full 60. The existing epic weapon 1.0 quests require killing a lot of Kunark — Trakanon in Old Sebilis, Severillious in the Emerald Jungle, Faydedar in Timorous Deep. I think Chardok and Howling Stones are also required for some of them — I don’t know all the quests by heart, but just these zones contain a lot of the existing Kunark high level content.
It’s almost certain the Temple of Veeshan won’t be coming out before 2027. And I expect a lot of the low level dungeons (Kurn’s Tower, Warslik’s Woods, etc) won’t be making the cut, as they really offer nothing in their current form. There are no Iksars leveling from 1-60 in Kunark; everyone will be level 50 on several classes before they step foot in the expansion, so there’s no need for the low level content. The low level dungeons can wait for revamps.
For me, I want to immediately finish the Paladin, Warrior and Monk epic quests, and I’ve already started on all three of them. As much as they can be started, prior to the quests actually being in the game.
The full producer’s letter is right over there —> here it is. Tell me how wrong I am about what’s coming in the comments 😉
Are they wholly beholden to the original races or do they have the capacity to add the animations for new ones? If so, all the humanoid races could be up for grabs – goblins, gnolls, kobolds… In fact, thinking about it, since Kerrans weren’t a playable race before EQL, they clearly can add and animate NPC races so it could be anything. I bet it is Sarnak, though. I found them unplayable in EQ2 due to the stoop. They run looking at their feet.
The most interesting part of the Producer’s Letter is the end, where it talks about “taking the game in entirely new, if familiar directions”. That opens up a whole new world. I might have to take a look at that, when it happens.
Also, did you really not play EQOA? I could have sworn I remembered you writing about it. There was a very good emu for it if that I played for a while – didn’t get far because it was too dark to see where I was going, which was supposedly true to the original. That one seems to be around still but there also seems to be a very flashy new emu project in closed alpha now, with open beta planned for December. Another one I ought to check out, I guess…
I didn’t play it when it came out. I did run through an earlier version of the emulated one, but I haven’t really played it. I’d love to, just — so many games. I do want to explore in it, though. What I saw when I dipped my toes into it looked fun and very, very different than vanilla EQ.
I know it won’t be, but running through Feerrott again made me want those little lizardmen as a playable race. One lizard race isn’t enough! LIZARD LIFE!