Depths of Darkhollow

The way into darkness

The launch notes of September 13, 2005 say that as Lanys T`Vyl and Firiona Vie crossed blades in Nektulos Forest, a failed curse exploded and shook the land from sky to stone. Down where the forest river slips under loose stone, it laid bare a passage into an underground world called Darkhollow.

The official strategy guide places the way in at the western edge of the river, where the water runs underground: the entrance to Corathus Creep, first of the vast caverns called the Depths of Darkhollow and the expansion’s starting zone. A post of September 14, 2005 invited players to study the caverns in the manual’s expanded history section, whose text the guide repeats.

Sources: EverQuest patch notes, 9/13/2005 (Depths of Darkhollow launch) · EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow, Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Games / SCEA, 2005) · EverQuest.com (Sep 14, 2005): Depths of Darkhollow manual

The peoples of Darkhollow

The guide names the peoples below: the shiliskin of the Shiliskin Empire; the first feral werewolves, the wurines; the sporali, a kind of thinking mushroom; the drachnids, half dark elf and half spider; and the gnomes of Ak’Anon Expedition 328.

Dreadspire Keep was raised by a mysterious being whom the people of Darkhollow call only the master. A later EverQuest.com article names him as Mayong Mistmoore.

Sources: EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow, Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Games / SCEA, 2005) · EverQuest.com: Mayong Mistmoore and Dreadspire

The drachnid hive

The Hive belongs to a strong breed of drachnid. The guide splits their territory into four parts: the Drachnid Hive, the Hatchery, the Cocoons and the Queen’s Lair. The largest, called simply the Hive, is a wide open space where many drachnids keep small campfires, with two towers and four huge structures shaped like beehives.

The Hatchery, also called the Living Larder, holds their spare food, which is often a careless adventurer caught and wrapped in a cocoon to eat later. The Cocoons form a rounder part of the Hive on three levels. The Queen’s Lair is one round room where Sendaii, the Hive Queen, rules her people.

Several entrances to the Hive lie south of Stoneroot Falls, and a couple of them are hidden. Quest steps also name a sub-area called the Coven of the Skinwalkers, where Kalyth, the Keeper is found, though the guide tells no story about it. When Xill fell, every shiliskin there was killed, drained or dragged back to the hive and cocooned for later.

Sources: EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow, Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Games / SCEA, 2005)

A history in years

The guide’s history chapters carry their own years: the wurines’ civil war in 4300, the reign of Illsalin, the Gladiator King, in 4500, the birth of the sporali in 4900, the fall of Xill in 5200, the War of Four Crests in 5250 and the fall of Illsalin in 5275. The shiliskin began writing their history around the year 2000. The guide does not tie these years to the calendar of the surface world.

Monster Missions let players watch the fall of the Illsalin Empire, a storyline wholly native to Darkhollow. See the Ruins of Illsalin for that history.

Sources: EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow, Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Games / SCEA, 2005) · Library of Erudin: Depths of Darkhollow, Part II · EverQuest.com (2005): Monster Missions

News on the surface

A story text in the archive has Queen Cristanos of Felwithe telling King Naythox of a place some call Darkhollow. Its account, which the guide shares, says an expedition of Qeynos miners broke through the barrier of Darkhollow, the first meeting with its werewolves; see the werewolves of Darkhollow.

Sources: Library of Erudin: Depths of Darkhollow, Part I · Library of Erudin: Depths of Darkhollow, Part II · EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow, Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Games / SCEA, 2005)