The History of EverQuest

1.1998 - The EverQuest beta

1. 1.EverQuest arrives, the world’s first 3D MMORPG, offering a significant upgrade from 2D MMORPG games like Ultima Online & text-based MUD (multi-user dungeons) games
2. 2.The beta is relatively smooth although players do not get to see much of the game due to the length of time needed to acquire levels & gear
3. 3.EverQuest quickly surpasses Ultima Online in pre-committed subscriptions as the March 16th, 1999 launch date approaches
4. 4.Initial developer: Verant Interactive (later Sony then Daybreak Games)

2.1999 - EverQuest launches

1. 1.Initial gameplay
   1. 1.Leveling
      1. 1.“Purposeful grindy social experience”
      2. 2.Leveling is very slow & progress is inherently unknowable: unlike today, you were not shown a percentage towards the next level
      3. 3.A “bub” (1 orange bubble) is used to refer to 20% of a level
      4. 4.“Hell levels” exist, every 5 levels beginning at level 30, where 200% of the previous level’s experience is needed
      5. 5.It takes most players several months to reach level 50
   2. 2.Gear
      1. 1.Almost all meaningful gear is NO DROP, which means loot is rare & contested
   3. 3.Travel
      1. 1.Only druids & wizards can teleport, with Spirit of Wolf and later the Journeyman’s Boots being necessary to travel across the world in any sort of tolerable timeframe
      2. 2.No Daybreak store potions, teleport items, or Origin for melee classes (ENC/MAG/NEC/WIZ and CLR/DRU/SHM have gate)
      3. 3.Due to long travel times, most people follow a set leveling route in the game & don’t see the majority of the world
      4. 4.There are no maps at launch! Many players keep hand-drawn zone maps in a binder to reference
   4. 4.Death
      1. 1.It was possible to die & lose levels, sometimes several levels, early on
      2. 2.In addition, when you died, you left all of your gear & money on your corpse
      3. 3.Finally, death could be permanent. It was possible for your corpse to decay (no graveyards, clicky rezz, or Shadowrest) & lose all your gear
   5. 5.Social
      1. 1.The game is almost completely impossible to play solo, especially early on, emphasizing a need to group up to level & explore
      2. 2.Kill stealing, camp stealing, training, and even corpse stealing quickly become common ways for players to fight over loot & XP camps
   6. 6.Raiding
      1. 1.No instancing! All raid bosses (Lady Vox, Lord Nagafen, Phinigel, Planes of Fear/Hate/Sky, etc.) are open world on a 7 day ± 6-12 hours
      2. 2.Verant quickly bows out of any conflict by announcing that they do not recognize “camps” for grouping/raiding or rotations set-up by guilds to share raid bosses; players are on their own to settle disputes
   7. 7.Resources
      1. 1.In 1999, there was no social media or cell phones or content aggregation websites like Allakhazam
      2. 2.Players rotate watching key spawns 24/7, calling guildmates to get home & log-in to raid or grab a key piece of loot
      3. 3.There were no global chat channels! You could only communicate across zones with /tell
2. 2.Classic EQ progression
   1. 1.EverQuest struggles with server load at launch, with the game being largely unplayable for the first few days due to lag
   2. 2.Throughout Classic & even later expansions, EverQuest struggles with server crashes, with some servers even being physically destroyed & needing to revert to back-ups
      1. 1.Imagine logging in & reverting your character back six months!
   3. 3.Due to the extreme grind needing to level, most players never see endgame content
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Not much early on: just building off established lore of players entering the world in an era where the gods have finished directly intervening in mortal affairs by creating new races & directly leading them against other gods
   2. 2.Lady Vox & Lord Nagafen are rumored to have had a child against dragon law that forbids dragons of different scales from mating
   3. 3.Phinigel is the last Kedge, a race of aquatic beings that serve Prexus, the ocean lord
   4. 4.Not much lore is available about the planes other than that Cazic-Thule & Innoruuk are physically present (and killable) in their planes

3.April 2000 - Ruins of Kunark releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increases to 60
      1. 1.Double “hell levels” at 51/54/59 where 400% of the previous level’s experience is needed
   2. 2.New race: the Iksar
   3. 3.New raids: Venril Sathir, Trakanon, open world dragons, Veeshan’s Peak
   4. 4.Epic weapon quests added
   5. 5.New spells & abilities added, but cannot be store-bought for the most part
   6. 6.Kunark changes rare monster loot. In classic, rare monsters had 1 common drop & 1 rare drop. Kunark adds 1 “very” common, 1 common, 1 rare, and 1 “ultra” rare, meaning higher quality gear becomes even harder to obtain
2. 2.Kunark progression
   1. 1.Much like classic, most players struggle to reach max level & clear the expansion before Velious releases 6 months after Kunark’s launch
   2. 2.Epic quests require several raids per person, with no guarantees of drops, in an open-world contested environment against thousands of other players
      1. 1.Obtaining your epic weapon in era was a serious accomplishment
   3. 3.Where Classic offered direct entry raiding (travel to the zone & kill the boss), Kunark required a group effort to get keyed for zones like Howling Stones & Sebilis while almost no players saw Veeshan’s Peak due to all the sub-raiding required for the key
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.The Iksar Empire is re-emerging to the world, after a long time in hiding after losing a war to the dragons (The Ring of Scale) & their previous slave races like the Frogloks & Sarnak. Ganak, a previous emperor of the Iksar, went to war with the Ring of Scale, killing Jaled’Dar (leader of the dragons on Kunark) and Trakanon
   2. 2.Venril Sathir, the undead lich & previous Iksar emperor, is up to no good in the basement of Karnor’s Castle
   3. 3.Venril’s wife, Drusella, is also up to no good in the basement of Charasis (The Howling Stones)
   4. 4.Trakanon, now an undead dragon, is up to no good in the basement of Sebilis
   5. 5.Three mighty dragons, Gorenaire, Severilous, and Talendor, patrol Kunark to keep mortals away from Venril, Drusella, and Trakanon
   6. 6.Good-aligned players land on Kunark at Outpost of Firionia Vie, and help the elven princess while Evil-aligned players land at The Overthere, and help the dark elves make a foothold

4.December 2000 - Scars of Velious releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Velious added new zones, but no new player leveling experience like it did in Kunark with the Iksar
   2. 2.Velious introduced faction relevance, having players choose between the Coldain, Frost Giants, and Dragons
2. 2.Velious progression
   1. 1.Travel was initially slow, as you had to physically travel to a wizard spire or druid ring to obtain a ground spawn to be able to take a teleport to that zone
      1. 1.Cobalt Scar item “backflagged” players for all lower level items, but was difficult to reach as you either needed high dragon faction or a deep trust in your invisibility spell to reach Cobalt Scar through Skyshrine
   2. 2.Raiding was a blend between more open world access to bosses like Dain, King Tormax, Avatar of War, and Yelinak early on but involved much more trash than previous expansions, and detailed keying like Sleeper’s Tomb
   3. 3.Temple of Veeshan is the large end-game raid zone of the expansion, existing at the far end of Western Wastes & offering a brutal travel experience for raiders. Most players never see this zone or the final boss, Vulak’Aerr
   4. 4.Plane of Growth offers a good-aligned plane for players to trash, including the ability to kill Tunare, one of the game’s deities
   5. 5.Plane of Mischief offers a neutral-aligned plane for players to experience, with many helpful “clicky” items available through drops in the zone. As these clicky items become relevant & powerful, Verant moves the PoM zone-in from Great Divide to inside Temple of Veeshan, ensuring almost no one experiences it
   6. 6.Sleeper’s Tomb offered a unique one-time raid where once all 4 Warders were slain, Kerafym escaped & rampaged across Norrath, never to spawn again
   7. 7.Guilds tried to rotate the warders for their weapons (casted Avatar), but on most servers guilds eventually kill all 4 out of greed/spite, releasing Kerafym
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Velious is the original home of the dragons, and also of a race of frost giants who escaped the initial wrath of the Rathe which stole the intelligence of the giants, ogres, orcs, goblins, kobolds, and other Rallosians
   2. 2.The Coldain of the Great Divide fight off the frost giants, mortal enemies, led by King Tormax as do the Claws of Veeshan, the dragons of the continent led by Lord Yelinak

5.December 2001 - Shadows of Luclin releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Luclin added the Vah Shir as a playable race, and a new class, the Beast Lord
   2. 2.The level cap still remains 60, but the alternate advancement system is introduced
   3. 3.Players can now edit their user interface & mounts were introduced
   4. 4.The Bazaar is introduced, where players can set themselves up to buy or sell items with a searchable interface added. Prior to this, players still generally sat in the Eastern Commonlands tunnel & traded items via the /auction channel
2. 2.Luclin progression
   1. 1.A new leveling experience is added, with zones like Paludal Caverns offering experience bonuses, speeding up the leveling process
   2. 2.Bane mechanics are added
   3. 3.Sony’s obsession with keying reaches a peak, with a significant grind required to be able to teleport to Lord Inquisitor Seru’s sanctum, Emperor Ssraeshza’s sanctum, and to enter Vex Thal. The Key to Vex Thal requires rare drops from 10 zones across Luclin, as well as a piece from Emperor Ssraeshza and any other Luclin raid boss. A few guilds clear Vex Thal due to the year gap between Luclin & Planes of Power, but again, most players do not see the endgame or clear the expansion
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.For such a big expansion, the lore here really lacks. We know that long ago, Tsaph Katta united the Combine Empire, before even Qeynos or Freeport were founded. As he aligned all the good & neutral races into one government, he began to consider including evil races like Dark Elves. This upset his Grand Inquistor, a man named Seru, who poisoned Tsaph
   2. 2.Tsaph’s wife, Lcea, transported the remnants of the Combine to one of Norrath’s moons, Luclin. They arrived deep underground, with one group led by Lcea moving to the dark side of the moon to found Katta Castellum, while the other group remains near the “Nexus” to found Shadowhaven
   3. 3.Inquisitor Seru eventually arrives & founds Sanctus Seru on the light side of the moon
   4. 4.The Shissar are here, long thought extinct after Cazic-Thule intervened many years ago to help his creation, the Iksar, throw off their shackles. They are hiding inside Ssraeshza Temple in The Gray, where they have removed the atmosphere to prevent other mortal races from traveling to their temple
   5. 5.The Akheva are on Luclin, servants of the goddess of the same name, and we go into their home, Vex Thal, because…loot?

6.October 2002 - Planes of Power releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increases to 65, new AAs, and new item drops to obtain spells vs. direct drops which creates a “chance” element to getting your spells
   2. 2.Hell levels finally removed
   3. 3.Emphasis of expansion almost exclusively on 60+ raiding
   4. 4.Plane of Knowledge & book system castrates druids & wizards while also effectively ensuring everyone spends most of their time in PoK, making the rest of the world feel very empty
2. 2.Planes of Power progression
   1. 1.The flagging system emerges, an “easier” approach to the keying system found in previous expansions that allows players to “simply” raid, hailing an NPC that appears after the death of a raid boss to obtain a flag to progress through the expansion. 28 flags are needed between launch of PoP & being able to see the Plane of Time
   2. 2.This creates a nightmare for players & guild leaders, as missing a raid will prevent you from being able to attend future raids. Initially, you could not “piggy in” (a raid of 72 could bring ~10 unflagged people into a raid zone) and all T2+ zones maintained a flagging requirement
   3. 3.The flagging system also gatekeeps group zones where group loot & access to the parchments & glyphs to obtain spells can be found
   4. 4.Flagging was so disastrous that Sony added the “piggy” system, then also released zones like Plane of Valor, Crypt of Decay, Bastion of Thunder, and other group zones to be based solely on level (62+). They then backpedaled further, adding in “alternate access” quests to allow people to group their way through some flagging, and a “backflagging” system to the elemental planes & plane of time, whereby players could “piggy” in and get an item from a boss that would give permanent access to that zone
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.The lore in PoP largely comes through the flagging system, where mortals learn that the gods are hiding something powerful in the Plane of Time
   2. 2.By killing the gods in their home planes, they regenerate in the Plane of Time & team up to stop the mortals, including bringing in gods from previous expansions like Innoruuk & Cazic-Thule
   3. 3.At the end of Plane of Time, we beat the combined might of all the gods & free Zebuxorux, who has acted as a “Prometheus” figure to mortals in the past. It is revealed he gave magic & technology to the Shissar, Iksar, and Combine. The gods were not happy about this & locked him away. Before Zebuxorux can give us our promised reward of knowledge about planar travel, magic, and other cool stuff, Druzzil Ro appears & resets time. Players find themselves back in PoK as if PoP never happened, with no memory of how to access the planes & kill anymore gods
   4. 4.This is the point at which the timeline between EQ1 & EQ2 splits

7.2003 - Legacy of Ykesha releases (February)

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.LoY launches as a “gameplay pack”, offering no additional levels or AA
   2. 2.Map functionality releases
   3. 3.Introduced Frogloks as a player race
   4. 4.Added the “Find” feature
   5. 5.Introduced dyeable armor, more bank slots, and the Charm inventory slot
   6. 6.6 new zones, level 50-65
   7. 7.New utility spells, almost exclusively obtained via questing
2. 2.Legacy of Ykesha progression
   1. 1.Almost none. Primarily alternative grouping zones. Loot included focus effects, making it a better alternative for those working towards level 65 & Planes of Power due to better itemization
   2. 2.Added Veksar, revamped Droga/Nurga, added Chardok B and Solusek C
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Almost none. The Frogloks invade Grobb & retake it, renaming it Gukta
   2. 2.The Trolls flee to Neriak but will return later, undoing the only real meaningful lore impacts of the expansion

8.September 2003 - Lost Dungeons of Norrath releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.LDON launches as a “gameplay pack”, offering no additional levels or AA
   2. 2.Introduced instanced zones
   3. 3.Introduced alternative group/raid currency
   4. 4.Introduced the augmentation system
   5. 5.Introduced new spells that were dropped or purchased in PoK
2. 2.Lost Dungeons of Norrath progression
   1. 1.None really. LDON added instanced zones inside Norrath as it already existed, with group & raid instances in EverFros (Miragul theme)t, Butcherblock (Mistmoore theme), South Ro (Guk theme), North Ro (Takish Hiz/elf theme), and Commonlands (Rujarkan orc theme)
   2. 2.Players performed group or raid instance dungeons. Trash did not respawn and the objective was to escort an NPC, kill X number of mobs, or kill a boss. Players were rewarded with loot, augmentations, and adventure points
   3. 3.Adventure points can be used for gear & augmentations
   4. 4.Players quickly learn to associate the mission text with mission type & zone, leading to min-maxing of only running certain dungeons & abandoning the rest
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Almost none. The Wayfarer’s Brotherhood appears & offers an evolving charm slot augmentation & teases a bit of lore about a newly found land

9.February 2004 - Gates of Discord Releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Berserker class debuts
   2. 2.Tribute & leadership systems added
   3. 3.A brand new continent, Taelosia
   4. 4.No increase to level cap
   5. 5.Some new AAs added
   6. 6.Slightly stronger versions of some spells attached to new item drops
2. 2.Gates of Discord progression
   1. 1.The expansion consists almost exclusively of instanced content, including 10 dungeons and 9 raids. There are 8 un-instanced open world zones that are largely unused, because…
   2. 2.The developers originally planned to increase the level cap to 70, so at launch, everything was tuned as if players had level 70 stats, spells, and AAs
   3. 3.The launch goes really bad, with John Smedley, president of Sony describing the release as “Our worst mistake in the past 5 years of this game”
   4. 4.Frustrated with 19 more flagging events, a botched launch, and 4th expansion in a row with content only aimed at level 65 characters, many players fail yet again to reach & see endgame content and look for other gaming options
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.The Wayfarer Brotherhood discovers Taelosia and finds it is mostly empty, with tons of evil creatures inhabiting the continent. Brand new monsters including Ikaav, Hynids, Ukun, Kyv, Noc, Mastruq, and Pixtt are found, resembling creatures from another world
   2. 2.We learn that these creatures are all united together to conquer Taelosia, and are the invasion force of “Discord”, a mysterious trans-dimensional army that now has its sights set on Norrath
   3. 3.We work to protect the Nihil & Yunjo, native residents of Taelosia to discover that these creatures are collectively known as “Muramites”, disciples of some evil alien boss
   4. 4.A small handful of guilds that make it through Tacvi learn that Tunat’Muram is just a commander in the Muramite legions, and that a greater boss looms, somewhere.

10.November 16, 2004 - EverQuest 2 launches

1. 1.Sony president John Smedley had been watching the World of Warcraft beta like a hawk, pushing the EQ2 team to make it look & feel more like WoW with easily obtainable mounts, achievements, flight paths, and more. The engine chosen for EQ2 does not support multiple processing cores in an area where dual core & then quad core processors are becoming prevalent. EQ2 ships with a massive memory leak as a result, causing it to be literally unplayable for some and unbelievably laggy for others.
2. 2.The game is a horrible mash-up of EQ1 & WoW and on top of terrible lag issues, largely flops. The portion of the playerbase who left EQ1 for EQ2 moved on to WoW and other emerging MMORPGs like Asheron’s Call, Anarchy Online, Runescape, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve Online, and other “second gen” MMOs.

11.November 23, 2004 - World of Warcraft releases

1. 1.WoW releases a week after EQ2 & quickly vacuums up the vast majority of the MMORPG customer base. WoW boasts a majority of the initial Everquest development team, including Jeff Kaplan (game director) who played Tigole, a raid leader from the EQ guild Legacy of Steel and Alex Afrasiabi who played Furor, the guildmaster of EQ guild Fires of Heaven. These top-end raiders publicly admit they had success in EQ because their jobs allowed them to play during the work day, being able to hold camps for raiding. They promise that World of Warcraft will clean up the mistakes of Everquest, including no corpse runs or death penalties like losing experience, a faster leveling system, and better loot mechanics. They also admit they believe that endgame MMORPG content should only be accessible by those who are willing to treat the game as serious as their job, demonstrating to the world that their aggressive raiding in EQ was likely what caused Sony to adopt such severe keying & flagging systems for content access. WoW does require some initial keying, but not to the extreme that Everquest did. In the end, Blizzard quickly listens to its massive playerbase, growing into the tens of millions, and keying is quickly pared down across expansions.
2. 2.Where Everquest required 6 people for a group, WoW required 5. Where Everquest required 72 people for a raid, WoW offered 40-man raids initially, then tapered down to 20-man raids, and now offers a blend of 10 & 20 person raid content.
3. 3.WoW launches with a questfinder system directly tied to the user interface. No more hailing NPCs & guessing random words to say to them to discover or progress a quest, the ability to quest & solo to max level, an auction house at launch, and later releases a dungeon & then raid finder to help solo players or small groups/guilds find others to play with quickly.
4. 4.By the end of its initial launch, WoW claimed 8 million paid subscribers, jumping to 12 million during its Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Meanwhile, Sony stops publishing subscriber numbers during Gates of Discord and has to close/merge 13 servers in 2004.

12.September 2004 - Omens of War releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Epic 1.25/1.5/2.0 quests release
   2. 2.Level cap increases to 70 with new AA & spells
   3. 3.The task system is introduced, finally bringing players a way to track progress towards quests aside from sticky notes all over their computer desk
   4. 4.New buff slots available through AA, and a 9th spell gem is added to combat the spell & buff bloat from clickies & a constant influx of new spell lines
   5. 5.15 new zones providing a range from 50-70
2. 2.Omens of War progression
   1. 1.Reeling from the 1-2-3 count punches of EQ2, WoW, and Gates of Discord, Sony is in trouble. In the spring & summer of 2024, Everquest players organized a boycott of Everquest, including mass subscription cancellations & sit-ins. Long before the days of people 72-boxing the game to farm Krono, the game economy depended on real people farming stuff & selling it on the bazaar. Players that didn’t cancel their subscription parked their characters in the game & refused to play. Sony offers its first beta test of an expansion, allowing players to play Omens of War before its release date. For this reason, Omens of War is considered by many to be the best expansion release of all time. Sony creates the beta program, where players can opt-in to test expansions prior to release
   2. 2.Omens launches with mostly public zones, a sharp contrast to Gates of Discord, offering 9 open zones at launch for XP, 3 instanced group dungeons, and 2 instanced aid zones
   3. 3.Many zones resemble classic EQ zones: the zones are large & can support several camps of players, each with multiple named that drop loot. In addition, every zone has 3 zonewide drops that can be found on any MOB in the zone to speed up player gearing
   4. 4.Only 2 zones have barriers: Muramite Proving Grounds (MPG) which just has a level requirement of 69, and Citadel of Anguish, which requires the defeat of 6 raid bosses in MPG for flags
   5. 5.Omens offers permanent player progression: completing MPG trials offers +50 to your resist cap as a permanent AA
   6. 6.Overlord Mata Muram, the final boss of the expansion, proves to be one of the most difficult raid bosses in MMORPG history due a unique “call out” mechanic: he would target a raid member & they would have to click an item. If they did, Mata Muram would be stunned; if not, he would gain a permanent, stacking DPS boost. This mechanic was later stolen by Blizzard for the Nefarian encounter at the end of WoW classic. For this reason, guilds do not clear Omens until after the next expansion releases.
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.The Priests of Discord open portals to Kuua, a land in the realms of Discord, controlled by the Muramite legions. Kuua is similar to Taelosia in that the Muramites have conquered the native Dragorn in the name of Mata Muram
   2. 2.In Riftseekers’ Sanctum, we learn from the King & Queen encounters that the Riftseekers are enslaved by the Muramites to use their dimensional portaling ability to transport the forces of Discord across time & space to invade and conquer
   3. 3.We face Overlord Mata Muram in the Citadel of Anguish, a massive mutated, winged dragorn & learn he is simply one general in a massive, transdimensional army. Mata Muram conquers worlds & presses the inhabitants into his army. The strong are promoted & the weak are left for dead or sold as slaves in the greater Discord universe. We learn that all of the weird, alien races we’ve encountered in Gates of Discord & Omens of War are the conquered people of other worlds, pressed into service by Mata Muram.
   4. 4.Players will be left on a lore cliffhanger regarding the Discord storyline for six more expansions as the game’s storyline diverses significantly

13.February 2005 - Dragons of Norrath releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Guild halls & guild lobby system introduced
   2. 2.In-game mail system introduced
   3. 3.NPC corpse summoners & rezzers introduced
   4. 4.LFG tool added
   5. 5.7 new zones added with an almost complete emphasis on instanced content, from 50-70
   6. 6.Players choose between Dark Reign (evil) or Norrath’s Keepers (good)
2. 2.Dragons of Norrath progression
   1. 1.A marked change from Omens of War with 15 zones, almost all open world, to 7 zones where players primarily played in instances
   2. 2.DoN introduced 24-man, 42-man, and 54-man raids, an acknowledgment of the declining playerbase & attempting to match World of Warcraft’s introduction of 10 & 25 person raid content
   3. 3.DoN would see players mostly performing solo & group tasks to earn the faction needed to access raid missions
   4. 4.In a mesh of classic & new EQ gameplay, loot still dropped from monsters but players earned crystals, an alternate currency attached to 1 of 2 factions they chose, as another source of gearing
   5. 5.DoN followed Omens in having permanent, passive AA boosts tied to progression, offering +10 to all stats at indifferent faction, +3% HP (amiable), +1 buffs (kindly), +40% melee crit/+1% spell crit (warmly), and 1% chance to resist all spells (ally)
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Venril Sathir is back and convinces the gnomes of the Solusek Mining Company to dig deeper in Lavastorm, uncovering the Broodlands, the secret nesting ground of the dragons on Norrath
   2. 2.Yar’Lir & Vishimtar guard the Broodlands, with magic from Veeshan protecting them from any & all mortal magic as long as the other is alive. Venril Sathir uses a magic item called Shadowspine to trick the players into killing Yar’Lir, dropping Vishimtar’s barrier & corrupting the dragon eggs of the Nest, effectively decimating the dragon race on Norrath. Oops.

14.September 2005 - Depths of Darkhollow releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.New systems: monster missions, evolving items, spirit shroud
   2. 2.Gloomingdeep tutorial debuts
   3. 3.Epic 2.5 (turn epic 2.0 effects into augment) introduced
   4. 4.6 new zones for levels 45-70
2. 2.Depths of Darkhollow progression
   1. 1.A mix of instanced & open world content asked players to perform 4 group missions for access to Dreadspire Keep & then 5 more group missions & a 36-man raid to obtain access via the Monocle of Blood item to the Demiplane of Blood, the final raid zone of the game
   2. 2.Throughout Dreadspire Keep, players gather the Curse of Blood passive AA from defeated bosses that serve as flags to enter the Demiplane of Blood. Individuals without all 5 Dreadspire Keep kills can still enter the Demiplane, but cannot loot anything except a backflag item, the Drop of Accursed Blood. This is a similar system used in Planes of Power in the elemental planes & Plane of Time where players could 85% into the zone & loot an item from the final boss of the zone to become flagged for that zone without doing previous progression
   3. 3.The Demiplane of Blood is a large raid zone, with 9 bosses, of which Mayong Mistmoore is the final encounter. This was a really unique raid, with lots of scripts running but also offering unique loot based on talking to NPCs before the fight & choosing different AoEs during the fight to block. Based on which AoEs are blocked & which are not, the raid receives different items for Epic 2.5 augments and also various extra loot on Mayong
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.I think the lore of Dragons of Norrath & Depths of Darkhollow is some of the best in the game. We learn that the Shadowspine item from DoN is actually the Drachnid Book of the Dead. The Shiliskin Empire who are similar to mindflayers (Ilithids in Dungeons & Dragons) have created a vast empire under Norrath, with the capital being under Nektulos Forest/Neriak. The Shiliskin have warred in the past with the Shissar, Drachnid, Werewolves, & Kobold. They are losing their various wars so their emperor, Draygun, unleashes Shadowspine.
   2. 2.Shadowspine, it turns out, was gifted to the Shissar by none other than Mayong Mistmoore as the beginning of an eons long plan to have Venril Sathir find it & use it to corrupt and destroy the dragons (oops again) and also the Shiliskin. The book corrupts the Shiliskin & Drachnid, turning them into a vast undead army under Draygun’s control, who now serves Mayong. These armies build Dreadspire Keep, cementing Mayong’s rule of the underground kingdom
   3. 3.Killing Mayong in the Demiplane of Blood allows him to ascend to godhood, joining the Norrathian pantheon of gods. Oops.

15.February 2006 - Prophecy of Ro releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.7 new zones & 6 new instances/missions added for players 50+
   2. 2.Additional bank space granted
   3. 3.Merging of zones similar to EQ2: Freeport (4 zones to 1), Commonlands (2 zones to 1), and Desert of Ro (3 zones to 1)
2. 2.Prophecy of Ro progression
   1. 1.5 group missions must be completed in addition to some open world farming to gain access to Razorthorn (where Sullon Zek lives) & then 4 more missions to gain access to the Theater of Blood, where access to Deathknell is found
   2. 2.Players fight & kill Ayonae Ro, Goddess of Music, as the final encounter in the expansion
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Lots of dragon lore & general lore about the Plane of Magic where Druzzil Ro rules. Magical creatures from across time & space are attracted to Relic, the capital of the Plane of Magic like dervishes, djinn, elementals, dragons, and scrykin.
   2. 2.Skylance, one of the first of Veeshan’s brood to awaken on Norrath, attempts to takeover Arcstone (the island that Relic is on) but is beat back by a new race, the scrykin, sentient arcane golems
   3. 3.The scrykin, due to being directly fed arcane magic, turns out to be inherently unstable & we have to kill them in the expansion as well. Oops.
   4. 4.We learn that the Norrathian pantheon of gods has returned to the mortal realm after being upset that we killed them all in Planes of Power & Druzzil Ro had to reset the timeline to restore them to existence. They are here due to Mayong’s ascension to godhood, and we’re left with a lore cliffhanger for 2 more expansions

16.September 2006 - The Serpent’s Spine releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increases to 75 and a new race: the Drakkin
   2. 2.New leveling & tradeskill experience including the rest function
2. 2.The Serpent’s Spine progression
   1. 1.Progression is needed to obtain access to Ashengate North (Lethar) & Frostcrypt (2 raids with 11 total encounters)
   2. 2.Ashengate access requires faction with 3 different groups, a raid in Vergalid’s End, and raid encounters in Ashengate East & West
   3. 3.Frostcrypt access requires a faction with 2 different groups & 3 other raid encounters to enter Frostcrypt 1. 2 fights in Frostcrypt 1 are required to be flagged for Frostcrypt 2
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.The dragons have been guarding a scale of Veeshan since time immemorial, and it happens to be in the middle of a previously unreachable mountain range (The Serpent’s Spine), raised by Solusek Ro during his war against Tunare & the elves many millennia ago. This scale grants dragons immense power & is essentially shared by all dragons until the raising of the Serpent’s Spine mountains. Lethar, a black dragon, obtains & keeps the scale for himself. Dragons attempted to take the scale back from Lethar but were defeated again & again.
   2. 2.Lethar grew tired of guarding the scale, and seduced an Elddar elf, Veldyn, who gave birth to the first elf-dragon hybrid, Dyn’leth. Dyn’leth grew to be even more powerful & evil than his father
   3. 3.A group of 6 dragons: Venesh, Draton’ra, Keikolin, Mysaphar, Atathus, and Osh’vir proposed creating a new race to combat Dyn’leth & Lethar, but were banished from The Nest. This group, now calling themselves the Circle of the Crystalwing, left & settled in the Serpent Spine in an old ogre city. They found strong humans & infused them with dragon blood, creating the Drakkin race. The Drakkin rename the ogre city of Nokk to Crescent Reach.
   4. 4.Players make their way into The Serpent’s Spine mountains & help the Drakkin overcome Dyn’leth & Lethar, killing both in Ashengate. We spend the rest of the expansion killing giants, including their leader, Beltron the Shade King. These are giants who refused to join Rallos Zek’s invasion of the Plane of Earth thousands of years ago, escaping the curse of the Rathe, but were cursed by Rallos to be awakened as undead after they died. We kill the entire race of them.

17.February 2006 - The Buried Sea releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Ship-to-ship combat is teased, but doesn’t make it into the game
   2. 2.Fellowship/campfire & purity/power source systems introduced
   3. 3.5 new zones for players 73-75 was a very small expansion, with only 35 rare mobs across the entire expansion. Sony stops the rare zonewide drop system as well, hamstringing gear progression for players
2. 2.The Buried Sea progression
   1. 1.9 solo/group missions are required to gain access to the final zone, Solteris. As you complete these missions, you receive a ring that increases in power
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.We learn that the Combine Empire built a hidden city, Katta Castrum, on an island off the coast of Odus, sustaining Tsaph Katta after being poisoned by Lord Inquisitor Seru many years ago.
   2. 2.The Combine created an enclave for Kedge, Shissar, and Sphinx to preserve them from extinction, but then experimented on them (?), bringing the wrath of Prexus, the Ocean Lord, who sunk the city under the sea
   3. 3.The Kedge, Shissar, and Sphinx begin to attack Katta Castrum, whose residents use magic to keep the ocean out but now also an invasion of multiple powerful races. As we arrive, the Combine have fallen back to the city center & are on the edge of being conquered
   4. 4.We learn that the Combine Empire is using an artifact called the Pellarus Satum which is directly connected to Solteris, the throne of Solusek Ro, which is powered by Ro, the sun in Norrath’s solar system, to grant the energy to their protective dome. It turns out there is not really magic at all? Our magical items simply draw power from the sun through nuclear fission. Cool.
   5. 5.Over time, the pressure of the ocean water & magic from the Kedge, Shissar, and Sphinx has depleted the artifact, causing it to drain too much power from Solteris and indirectly, the sun itself, Ro. This causes the sun to weaken & dim, allowing Mayong Mistmoore to invade Solteris in an attempt to kill Solusek & destroy the sun, granting permanent darkness to Mayong & his vampire legions who will conquer the world once and for all.
   6. 6.We travel to Solteris where Solusek Ro is upset that we’ve entered his throne and we kill him. Mayong appears, happy we’ve done his job for him, but we kill him too. The text after the encounter suggests Mayong is no longer a god, but hints that while he is no longer immortal, he is sure he will “feel the chafe of mortality again soon”, hinting that yet again, he is not dead.

18.November 2007 - Secrets of Faydwer releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Breaking of the February/September expansion cycle: only 1 per year now
   2. 2.Level cap increased to level 80; Heroic stats added
   3. 3.Defiant armor system added
   4. 4.Focus effects are now tied to a specific armor slot for this expansion & every future expansion (face item = increased spell range, neck = increased heal spell potency, etc.)
   5. 5.12 total zones; 2 are just for end-game raiding
2. 2.Secrets of Faydwer Progression
   1. 1.Progression consists of gaining access to the group, and then the raid versions of Meldrath’s Majestic Mansion & Crystallos (final zone of expansion) by performing group tasks & then raid drops. Of annoying note, Meldrath only drops 12 items, meaning you will need to kill him at least 5 times to get enough drops to flag the raid for Crystallos
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.The majority of the expansion revolves around Meldrath, the gnome necromancer outcast from the caves in Steamfont. The Mechamatic Guardian roams the Dragonscale Hills, with one foot kicking you across the zone and the other allowing access to the zone. In addition, we combat Meldrath’s forces in Fortress Mechanotus, Gyrospire Beza & Zeka, Steam Factory, S.H.I.P, and Meldrath’s Majestic Mansion
   2. 2.In addition to Meldrath, there is a small subplot involving the Bloodmoon tribe of orcs. Spoiler: they’re werewolves. Part of the expansion involves helping the Fangbreakers faction hunt these werewolves
   3. 3.With almost no prelude, we learn that Kerafym, the prismatic dragon, is alive & hiding in Crystallos with a new set of heralds trying to keep him in check. After we almost kill him, these heralds put him back to sleep, because that has worked so well in the past I suppose.

19.October 2008 - Seeds of Destruction releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increased to 75
   2. 2.Mercenaries added
   3. 3.6 new zones with the majority of the content being group focused
2. 2.Seeds of Destruction progression
   1. 1.A very unique expansion, Seeds of Destruction asks players to effectively rebuild the universe, moving from “Void A” to “Void E” across the expansion by completing either the group or raid progression in each of the 4 initial areas (“themes”): Oceangreen Hills, Kithicor Forest, Field of Scale, and The Rathe Chamber. Completing the group or raid progression counts as completing a theme, and unlocks the next advancement of the Void.
   2. 2.Access to Korafax, the end-game zone, requires completing all 4 themes. You can mix & match group and raid progression to achieve this. For example, completing Oceangreen group & Kithicor raid tasks counts as completing both themes and allows access to Void B & then Void C. Completing Field of Scale raid & Rathe group completes 2 more themes, allowing access to Void D and the final progression, Void E with access to Korafax
   3. 3.Completing themes unlocks mercenary tiers as well, making your mercenaries more powerful across the expansion
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Players are told something is wrong in the Plane of Time & we head out to investigate, finding our good friend Zebuxoruk in a void between time & space, stuck on an empty rock in the middle of outer space with a small tree sapling growing nearby. Norrath & Luclin are shattered into a thousand pieces in the background as Veeshan’s body drifts through space. Our solar system’s sun, Ro, is black and dead.
   2. 2.Zebuxoruk informs us that when Druzzil Ro stopped us from freeing him back in Planes of Power, she created a small weakness in the flow of the space-time continuum. When we defeated the forces of Discord on Taelosia in Gates of Discord & again on Kuaa in Omens of War, the leader of the Discordian army, Lord Brekt, became intrigued about the natural power of the players. How could we stop his infinitely powerful armies?
   3. 3.It turns out we are similar to nephalim, the half-human/half-angel creatures mentioned in the Bible (and Diablo), imbued with divine power from the Norrathian deities. Lord Brekt has exploited the weakness in the timeline created by Druzzil Ro to send the Discordian armies back to 5 key points in history to ensure the fall of the Norrathian gods & the mortal races: Oceangreen Village (before it was Qeynos), the battle of Kithicor, the Field of Scale (bone), the invasion of the Rathe Chamber, and Kuaa. We stop these forces & kill Lord Brekt, restoring the timeline.

20.December 2009 - Underfoot releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Achievements & extended target window introduced
   2. 2.Pre-release events allowed players 1-week early access
   3. 3.12 new zones, with 14 total raid encounters among them
   4. 4.Coldain Shawl 2.0 tradeskill quest
2. 2.Underfoot progression
   1. 1.Underfoot introduced “The Gatekeeper”, who tells you what group tasks you need to unlock higher tier zones
   2. 2.3 Tier 1 raids are open at launch, with 4 more unlocking as the raid acquires a “Coin of Brell” from them to access Tier 2. The process is repeated in Tier 2 with Emblems of Brell to unlock 5 more raids in Tier 3, and again with Amulets of Brell to unlock the final 7 encounters. Only 6-9 drops per boss means your raid force has to farm each tier for a few weeks to move on.
   3. 3.The 1-week early access saw guilds clear the expansion before the majority of the player base could even begin
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.We learn that Brell Serilis has been hiding in his plane, The Underfoot, essentially constantly experimenting with making new races despite the ban of the Norrathian pantheon of gods. This has upset The First Creation, literally the first thing Brell made, as Brell never bothered to make any other of the same race, even a mate.
   2. 2.The First Creation has been stealing Brell’s power by having the other creatures of the Underfoot worship itself via a religion called the Faith of Self, slowly introducing impurities into the races Brell creates & degrading the state of the Underfoot. We kill it.

21.October 2010 - House of Thule releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increased to 90 & 2 extra bag slots in the inventory
   2. 2.Loyalty tokens & loyalty vendor added
   3. 3.12 new zones, aimed for levels 80-90
2. 2.House of Thule progression
   1. 1.4 tiers of progression, entirely mission based for the expansion. The group missions are required for raid progression as well
   2. 2.Raids drop 3-5 keys (Rusty/Tremulous/Sanctus) which must be clicked to unlock the next tier of raids, again ensuring it takes several weeks to progress unless you’re able to underman targets
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.The lore of the next 3 expansions is tied together, similar to the Mayong theme in Dragons of Norrath, Depths of Darkhollow, Prophecy of Ro, and The Buried Sea
   2. 2.The home of the Thules (Cazic and his children, Morell & Terris) is opened in The Feerrott, with many of Norrath’s key leaders falling into a deep coma
   3. 3.We move through many dreamscapes, learning that Terris & Morrell plan to steal their father’s power. We defeat but learn Cazic’s power isn’t restored back to him but is transferred elsewhere

22.February 2011 - Fippy & Vulak TLP servers release

1. 1.Sony creates the first time-locked progression (TLP) servers. I probably don’t need to explain these too much, as it’s statistically likely you’ve played on at least one, you mostly or exclusively play on one, or you’ve maybe only ever played EQ1 via a TLP server
2. 2.Sony really sets the stage here for a theme that will define EQ1, later EQ2, but also other large MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. The TLP phenomenon brings players back to “the good old days” when raid mechanics were more simple, familiar zones, monsters, and lore was around, and the bloat of a now 12 year old game
3. 3.TLPs & other “classic” and “remix” style servers across the MMORPG genre are a double-edged sword: they keep current players playing between expansion releases (or some only play TLPs exclusively) while luring old players back to the game but they also siphon players from the current live/retail version of the game, exacerbating low population problems
4. 4.I personally don’t believe there is a right answer here: as MMORPGs continue, the power creep that comes with increased levels, gear, achievements, AA, etc. makes it difficult for new players to join or returning players to catch up. EQ1 is the ultimate example of this: by Secrets of Faydwer, a new or returning player has to hit level 80 & grind out about 12,000 AAs to be end-game ready. At this point in time, there are still no XP potions on the Daybreak store, autogrants of AAs or spells, or character boosts. Asking a friend to join

23.November 2011 - Veil of Alaris releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increased to 95; parcel system; click items from hotbar; Hero’s Forge debuts; more buff slots (now 42 via AA)
2. 2.Veil of Alaris progression
   1. 1.Yikes. Progression in this expansion is tied to both learning the Alaran language as well as gaining “raid experience” by completing raids
   2. 2.Language is progressed by completing tasks & missions, primarily in Argath (the initial zone/city hub) and Valley of Lunanyn. Progression is slow as you need to get your language to 70 to start questing in tier 2, and another slow 5 points from tier 2 to reach tier 3. Another 10 points in tier 3 zones brings you to 85, unlocking tier 4 which grants the final 15 points to max at 100
   3. 3.Language skill is needed for spell progression, which now have 3 ranks (essentially solo/group/raid based on item drops), with Rank 1 requiring 50 skill just to buy all the spells from the vendor, Rank 2 requiring group item drops (similar to past expansions) & 50 skill, and Rank 3 requiring raid drops & 81 skill.
   4. 4.Raid progression is done by clicking an item you receive after the death of the first raid boss you kill in Alaris, a Record of Tales, to gain raid experience to move from tier 1 to tier 4 raids. Your record receives no XP from tier 1 raids once it hits tier 2, and so on. Experience gains are doubled for someone who uses the 85% (“piggy”) system to get into a raid they are not flagged for, allowing for easier backflagging in 1-2 weeks for most. Sony later pushed a change that increased the experience for all players on TLPs so that guilds could push server first upon release
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Carrying forward directly from House of Thule, we find yet another hidden continent on Norrath, Alaris. Alaris is inhabited by gangly looking alien creatures, the Alarans, who arrived on Norrath during the Age of Scale (when dragons ruled). We discover the Alarans were transported here with a barrier surrounding Alaris by their gods from a different dimension to escape the forces of Discord. Their pantheon (a triumvirate) sacrificed themselves in the process of transporting & erecting the Veil of Alaris
   2. 2.The Alarans hatched a plan to siphon the power of a Norrathian god to restore their triumvirate, stealing it from Cazic-Thule at the end of House of Thule. It turns out us fighting the Thules allowed them to do this. Oops.
   3. 3.We defeat these gods in hopes of restoring Cazic-Thule’s power, but we watch in horror as it blows through the roof of The Sepulcher, forming crystalline shards that rain across Norrath, with the largest landing on a mountain plateau on Alaris. Oops.

24.November 2012 - Rain of Fear releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.As of March 2012, EverQuest is now a “free-to-play” game; Krono introduced; significant monetization of EQ1/EQ2 begin
   2. 2.Level cap increases to 100; aggro meter introduced; offline bazaar & “bazaar from anywhere” systems introduced
   3. 3.Prayer Shawl 3.0 questline introduced; video cutscenes introduced
   4. 4.This expansion begins a development trend of returning players back to previous zones, now modified with different creatures & changes to the environment; an “alternate” version of the zone
2. 2.Rain of Fear progression
   1. 1.Following the Veil of Alaris system, spells still require tokens, but players are offered a task when they turn them in, choosing the spells they need
   2. 2.Players can complete all 25 group missions as well as a few raid drops to get a best-in-slot weapon for the expansion
   3. 3.Rain of Fear is an open expansion: players can go anywhere to quest & grind. Players must complete the group partisan achievement to unlock the rest of the questline for the zone and the hero achievement for their class weapon. Both are required to unlock the raid instance for that zone
   4. 4.Players must complete the Shard’s Landing, Kael Drakkel, and Crystal Caverns raids to unlock the Eastern Wastes raid. Once complete, five Tier 2 raids are unlocked. Completing those unlocks 3 raids in Tier 3, which are needed to unlock 2 more raids. Finally, there are 3 more Tier 4 raids. Players can backflag by completing just the final two Tier 3 raids.
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.We continue the lore of House of Thule & Veil of Alaris, setting up camp around The Heart of Fear, the largest of Cazic’s crystal shards and exploring Shard’s Landing, Velious (East Wastes, Crystal Caverns, Kael Drakkel, Breeding Grounds, Temple of Veeshan), Alaris (Grelleth’s Palace), Antonica (Befallen, Gorge of King Xorbb), and Luclin (Chelsith Reborn, Plane of Shadow). The Fear Shards in these zones have corrupted the creatures and we essentially kill mutated versions of past bosses like King Tormax, Vulak’Aerr, King Xorbb, Aten Ha Ra, etc.
   2. 2.On Luclin, the Shissar, Vyzh’dra (who survived us killing him in Shadows of Luclin apparently) is not corrupted by the shard that lands in the Grey, but rather harnesses its power to rebuild the ancient Shissar capital, Chelsith
   3. 3.Also on Luclin, a shard of fear crashes into Vex Thal, opening a portal to the Plane of Shadow. This causes different sects of Akhevans & the various creatures of Vex Thal to turn on each other. We work with Aten Ha Ra (who is also not dead?) and Luclin to restore order

25.October 2013 - Call of the Forsaken releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.New AAs & spells; Journeymen’s Speed achievement; heroic missions
   2. 2.Mercenary AA & equipment
   3. 3.4 “new” zones
2. 2.Call of the Forsaken progression
   1. 1.First expansion with a “drip” release schedule, with 8 total raid missions across the four zones. One “Tier 1” raid was open in each zone at launch. Completing those 4 raid missions unlocked the “Tier 2” raids in the zones later on.
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Buckle up! Players head to West Karana to meet Lady Lendiniara, a dragon from Everquest 2 who has breached through the Ethernere, Everquest’s version of the afterlife or purgatory. Players in EQ2 killed Lendiniara to get a key to the Sleeper’s Tomb in that alternate reality. Her transdimensional travel has dramatically changed Western Karana, fusing together different creatures of Norrath, like the ursarchanid, a combination of giant spiders & bears. Great.
   2. 2.Creatures from the Ethernere itself, the Harrowing Horde, have followed Lendiniara through the breach and begun to invade other areas of Norrath like The Dead Hills, the Bixie Hive in Misty Thicket, and even Neriak.
   3. 3.We work with Lanys T’vyl, daughter of Innoruuk & perpetual thorn in our side as well as Zebuxoruk to disentangle the two universes and send Lendiniara back home using the Qeynos Claymore’s power

26.October 2014 - The Darkened Sea releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Character boosts become available. WoW fill follow suit 6 months later
   2. 2.Level cap increases to 105; mount key ring & “autogrant” system added for AAs, 8 new zones
2. 2.The Darkened Sea progression
   1. 1.Occurs through a mixture of solo & group quests to unlock zones. Tempest Temple, Katta Castum: Deluge & Brother Island are open by default. Caverns of Endless Songs opens, then Degmar, then Thulisaur Island, then Combine Dredge, and then finally, Arx Mentis
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.We join Firionia Vie as she ventures to Katta Castrum, the underwater city of the Combine from The Buried Sea to heal the Combine emperor, Tsaph Katta. Lanys T’vyl, daughter of Innoruk, arrives & causes a group of Combine to start an insurrection and kidnap Tsaph. Great.

1.In February 2015, Sony sells the rights to Everquest, Everquest II, Planeside 2, Lord of the Rings Online, DC Universe Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Magic: The Gathering Online, H1Z1, and Palia to Daybreak Games, ushering in a new era of EverQuest

27.November 2015 - The Broken Mirror releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.The first expansion released by Daybreak Games
   2. 2.New, level scaling versions of Plane of Fear & Plane of Hate raids
   3. 3.“Pick” zone feature added
   4. 4.Dichotomic abilities & spells added: increase in power as you complete achievements
2. 2.The Broken Mirror progression
   1. 1.Progression is unique: players have initial access to the Plane of Health & Demiplane of Life, but have zonewide debuffs that lessen as a mixture of solo & group tasks are completed. After a few initial quests, access to the Demiplane of Decay & Crypt of Decay are opened. Repeating the process, access to the Crypt of Sul is granted
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Anashti Sul, the original goddess of life, returns to have her revenge on Norrath. It turns out that Rodcet Nife, the Prime Healer & god of life, is an alien from a race called the Jal’Raeth. Jal’Raeth are an immortal, technologically advanced, death-obsessed race from southwest Antonica (The Dead Hills)
   2. 2.Over time, the Jal’Raeth come to the conclusion that all races on Norrath need the gift of immortality and develop the “gift” of undeath to give them, attempting to spread plagues throughout Qeynos & the Karanas then eventually the whole planet.
   3. 3.We learn that Anashti Sul was able to escape imprisonment in The Void during Call of the Forsaken when the barrier between the dimensions of EQ1 & EQ2 was temporarily breached. When Druzzil Ro took Norrath back in time at the end of Planes of Power, it causes both mortals & gods to forget the origin of undeath: Anashti Sul herself & that she was banished by the other gods for creating the undead plague for the Jal’Raeth, causing the eventual rise to power of Bertoxxulous. Zebuxoruk’s knowledge remains only in his mind once he’s re-trapped in the prison in the Plane of Time

28.November 2016 - Empires of Kunark releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Added familiar key ring; players can have both pets & familiars
2. 2.Empires of Kunark progression
   1. 1.A total of 12 questlines allows players to unlock access to Chardok & Kor’Sha raids, but also give passive AAs that do not boost stats as in the past, but rather make you immune to different boss effects in the raids
   2. 2.Players must complete the Charasis raid to be able to raid in the next expansion, Ring of Scale
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Tsaph Katta returns to Kunark & begins to rebuild the Combine Empire, including their reclaimed capital, the Lceanium, but encounters resistance from the Sarknak, an arisen Atrebe Sathir (previous Emperor of the Iksar Empire), and of course, dragons

29.December 2017 - Ring of Scale releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increases to 110
   2. 2.“Hero’s XXX” line of passive AA added. Achievements each expansion moving forward will now passively improve Barracks (more merc slots), Fortitude (more AC and attack power plus cap increase), Resolution (increase HP/mana regen cap as well as increase base DEX/AGI/WIS/INT/STA/STR), and Vitality (increase max HP/mana/endurance plus boosts Delay Death AA)
2. 2.Ring of Scale progression
   1. 1.2 quest lines needing to access Howling Stones, Sathir’s Tomb, and Gorowyn, 2 more to access Veeshan’s Peak (a group zone), and then raid achievements to progress throughout raid tiers
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.We learn that the Overking of Chardok, Bathezid, did not abandon the Sarnak in Empires of Kunark, but was gone to rebuild the ancient sarnak city of Gorowyn. We kill him
   2. 2.Players help the Combine invade The Overthere & restore it in the name of the Combine Empire
   3. 3.We learn that Talendor is plotting to use the Ring of Scale to take control of Kunark & Venril Sathir is back with a new plot to restore his family to life & re-take Kunark in the name of the Iksar. We kill them

30.December 2018 - The Burning Lands releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Added the luck stat which improves the chance & damage of crits, success of tradeskill combines, and how much coin drops from MOBs
   2. 2.Adding evolving items as well as evolving augs & slots for them in gear; added faction window
   3. 3.2. The Burning Lands progression
   4. 1.Adopting a system used in World of Warcraft, raid bosses drop items that automatically are acquired & advanced player tasks, unlocking Tier 2 and then Tier 3 raids. Group tasks progress players’ dichotomic spell for the expansion
2. 3.Lore
   1. 1.We return to the Planes of Power, specifically the planes of fire & air, as well as ash & smoke which are ruled by opposing groups of Djinn (Plane of Air) and Efreeti (Plane of Fire) collectively known as the “Jann”. The Djinn & Efreeti are now at war, devastating the planes. We also work with the Duende, the elementals of the plane of earth who are trying to remain neutral from Jann & mortals alike. Players pick a side to support between Djinn & Efreeti & progress through the expansions

31.December 2019 - Torment of Velious releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increased to 115 and 7 “new” zones on Velious
2. 2.Torment of Velious progression
   1. 1.Breaking from the previous trend of requiring linear progression to complete questlines & earn achievements to unlock zones and raids, players can perform any task of any questline in any order in any zone. As they unlock the achievements, they earn new ranks of the “Hero’s XXX” line of AAs, a progressing aug, and bags
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.“Restless Ice” spreads across Velious, killing & then reanimating creatures across the continent. Players battle through Crystal Caverns, Kael Drakkel, The Tower of Frozen Shadow, and Velketor’s Labrynith with the belief that Velektor & Tserrina Syl’Tor (wife of Mayong Mistmoore) are behind this. Are we about to see Mayong come up again soon…? You should already know the answer to this

32.October 2020 - Claws of Veeshan releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Dragon’s Hoard added to the game: a giant 500 slot bank where you can deposit & search items. You cannot search the Hoard unless you happen to be a banker with the Hoard open. The Hoard will let you store lore items so you can have two copies
2. 2.Claws of Veeshan progression
   1. 1.Claws of Veeshan follows the same progression system as Torment of Velious. Raids are unlocked on a schedule. A unique new mechanic is added where the raid must have a current lockout for the Defenders of the Tomb raid to request the Sleeper’s Tomb event
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.We’re still in old/new Velious, combating the restless ice on the western part of the content. The giants of Kael tunnel across The Wakening Lands to get us into Cobalt Scar where we battle old foes like Zlandicar, Klandicar, Tantor, Sontalak, Aaryonar, Lord Yelinak, and the source of the undead ice, Vulak’Aerr. We kill them

33.December 2021 - Terror of Luclin releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increased to 120; teleportation keyring added, new “key” button which shows mount, teleportation, familiar, etc. keyrings
   2. 2.Level 100 heroic boosts added
2. 2.Terror of Luclin progression
   1. 1.No evolving items. Instead, players craft augmentations which, are being unlocked by progression achievements, can be rotated through different variations based on what the player wants or needs
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Back to Luclin for the 3rd time as we learn that with the power of Luclin, Aten Ha Ra plans to take over the moon. We assist rebel Akheva in their insurgency, battling through the light side of Luclin to defeat old foes like Zelniak, Doomshade, and Shei Vinitras
   2. 2.We learn that Mayong is up to something on Luclin, and is imprisoned by Aten Ha Ra. We free him

34.December 2022 - Night of Shadows releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Added the tradeskill depot, which allows players to deposit 250 infinite stacks of tradeskill flagged items, accessible from any character on the account as well as the bank. Players can also craft using items stored in the depot without needing them in their inventory
2. 2.Night of Shadows progression
   1. 1.A unique change to progression is that when guilds beat a raid for the first time on a server, it unlocks access to previous tiers, regardless if the other players have earned access through missions or not
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.A massive earthquake on Luclin frees Graco, an imprisoned owl bear spirit from a sealed room in Shadowhaven. This door was locked in Shadows of Luclin & no amount of lockpick skill would work & no key was ever found.
   2. 2.Graco mostly destroys Shadowhaven while the earthquake disrupts the moon, including Shar Vahl. Graco is one of the many animal spirits sent to the moon alongside the Kerrans who become the Vah Shir.
   3. 3.We learn that the Akhevans attempted to capture the spirits, but they escaped and have been hiding in Darklight Caverns under the protection of the goddess, Sahteb Mahini

35.December 2023 - Laurion’s Song releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increases to 125
   2. 2.Personas added to the game. Similar to dual specialization from World of Warcraft, personas take it a step further: instead of just swapping between tank & DPS skills/AAs, players can switch their entire class. Gear is automatically swapped. Name, inventory, bank, crafting skills, flags, etc. are retained. Spells/disciplines/AAs are the only thing not carried over.
2. 2.Laurion’s Song progression
   1. 1.All 7 zones are open at launch, with the entry zone, Laurion Inn, connected to the Plane of Tranquility
   2. 2.Laurion’s Song progression is quite weak outside of raiding, with only two partisan/mercenary questlines across the whole expansion
   3. 3.Raiders received a boon without any specific flagging or progression required to move through the 3 tiers of the expansion
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.Players travel through the Laurion Inn to different zones across Norrath in a time period where the Rallosian & Eldarr Empires still exist. Players intervene at heroic moments in time to stop the goblins, giants, and ogres

36.December 2024 - The Outer Brood Releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Dark Elf rangers are now a playable race/class combination (for Daybreak Cash)
   2. 2.Activated Items keyring added
   3. 3.New AA progression: Aureate’s Bane removes curses cast by Outer Brood bosses both stopping mana/endurance draining but also granting a DPS boost when used
   4. 4.New zones & NPC models receive a significant graphics upgrade
2. 2.The Outer Brood progression
   1. 1.6 new zones added with the entry point being Hodstock Hills, connected to either East Freeport or Nektulos Forest
   2. 2.Similar to Laurion’s Song, progression is largely open from the beginning of the expansion. The one exception is that a solo partisan quest must be completed to allow zoning from Theater of Eternity to Harbinger’s Cradle. Otherwise, players can travel to Aureate Covert and then to Harbinger’s Cradle
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.A massive leviathan descends from space into the sky above Norrath with a huge fortress on its back. From the fortress pour massive, ancient golden dragons: these are zealous followers of Veeshan, the Aurelians, who have come to Norrath to purge both Norrathian dragons & mortals alike for “failing to follow the scripture”
   2. 2.We learn that back in Claws of Veeshan, Vulak’Aerr transmitted a message to the Aurelians, upset with how tolerant the Norrathian dragons have become of us, the mortal races
   3. 3.These massive, four-winged dragons easily brush aside the Norrathian dragons’ attempts to approach the leviathan, which is armored to the teeth and bristling with cannons that keep them at bay
   4. 4.Players must destroy the leviathan’s defenses & enter its innards to disable it so that the Norrathian dragons can help them defeat the Aurelian threat

37.December 2025 - The Shattering of Ro releases

1. 1.Gameplay changes
   1. 1.Level cap increases to 130 & 2 shared bank slots added
   2. 2.Vah Shir druids are added as a new race/class combo
2. 2.The Shattering of Ro progression
   1. 1.The entry-level zone is the Scarred Grove, connected to Wakening Land
   2. 2.Progress is much more linear in this expansion, requiring players to advance to Candlemaker’s Workshop & complete the partisan questline to unlock access to Arcstone, Relic, and The Vortex
   3. 3.Magical spheres of chaotic magic move around Arcstone, Relic, and Vortex which have positive or negative effects inside the storms
3. 3.Lore
   1. 1.A conflict between the Norrathian pantheon emerges, with an explosion occurring in the Plane of Magic & Druzzil Ro presumably killed
   2. 2.Players find Fironia Vie unconscious in the Plane of Growth as Solusek Ro & Rallos Zek march into the Scarred Grove inside the Plane of Growth as well as the Underfoot, opposed by Mithaniel Marr & Tunare
   3. 3.As players advance through the expansion into The Vortex, it is hinted that the Plane of Magic is a doorway to different universes, particular EverQuest II and even other EverQuest games
   4. 4.As this is the current expansion, all we know currently is that the expansion builds to a conflict with an echo of Innoruuk inside the Labyrinth of Spite, although we don’t know to what end