Dragons of Norrath

Release

Sony Online Entertainment announced Dragons of Norrath on January 11, 2005, at U.S. $29.99, for February in stores and as a digital download. The announcement counted Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power, Legacy of Ykesha, Lost Dungeons of Norrath, Gates of Discord and Omens of War before it, and pointed readers to an official site at dragonsofnorrath.com. The launch notice on February 15, 2005 called it the ninth expansion.

The official FAQ promised content for characters of level 45 and up, with raids, events for several groups and adventures for a single group. It also said the minimum system requirements had not gone up.

Sources: Sony Online Entertainment (2005): Dragons of Norrath announced · EverQuest.com (2005): Dragons of Norrath launch notice · EQ Archives: Dragons of Norrath · Dragons of Norrath official FAQ (2005, archived)

The Age of War

The announcement said Firiona Vie and her nemesis Lanys T`Vyl return and find themselves at the center of events. A dark influence had seeped into Norrath, new tensions were rising, a new age was dawning, and the Age of War had come.

The expansion’s features page set the story in the land between Halas and Lavastorm, where players search for the Nest, the ancestral birthplace of all dragons, sealed away for ages. If the Nest is laid bare too early during the Brood Dawn, it warned, every dragon and egg will be cursed forever and death will rain down on every Norrathian not in their service. A player reference says a gnome mining expedition dug through the northern mountains of Lavastorm and found the nesting grounds in an unexplored part of northeastern Antonica.

A community article goes further, and nothing official backs it. It says the Solusek Mining Company dug north for a dark-robed figure who paid them. In its telling the Nest is over 4,000 years old and is kept by five dragons nearest Veeshan’s pure blood, Veeshan’s Children, with their own Servants of the Children. New eggs are chosen every thousand years, and the Brood Dawn is the thousand-year guarding of those eggs. Yar`Lir hid the Nest’s magic veil with storms, and when the veil broke, Tirranun, the dragon living in a volcano’s fires, brought fire down on Lavastorm.

Sources: Sony Online Entertainment (2005): Dragons of Norrath announced · Dragons of Norrath official features page (2005, archived) · EQ Archives: Dragons of Norrath · Library of Erudin: Dragons of Norrath (community article)

What the expansion added

The announcement listed new zones and creatures, among them drakes, goblins and dragons, along with an interactive world map, a player barter system, a potion belt, the bandolier, new spells and tradeskill recipes. Updated models included goblins, drakes and a menacing frost giant. A player reference lists the new models as dragons, stone sentinels, kirins, drakes, spiders, pumas and dervishes.

Lavastorm itself was rebuilt with new art and new characters for every subscriber, the FAQ said, keeping its old level range while adding some higher content and many new quests. New cultural armor was incomplete without augments that attuned it to the wearer’s god, and the armor and augments became no-drop once worn, augmented or sealed.

Sources: Sony Online Entertainment (2005): Dragons of Norrath announced · Dragons of Norrath official FAQ (2005, archived) · EQ Archives: Dragons of Norrath

Guild halls

The guild tools were the headline. The announcement promised an instanced guild hall, a guild bank, a guild stone, a pool that restored mana and health, an altar for summoning many corpses at once, a guild portal, guild tradeskill objects, tools for finding members and guilds, and a pause on buff timers.

The FAQ said the Guild Lobby was open to anyone who owned the expansion, guild or no guild, and that its altar could summon a corpse from anywhere in Norrath for a fee set by level. The Lobby and the barter zone were reached from the eastern side of the central section of the Plane of Knowledge. Guild members without the expansion could not enter the Guild Hall.

Today’s zone database describes the Guild Lobby as a city zone, not instanced, open to all levels, where nobody can fight and buff timers stand still. It links to the Guild Hall, Guild Hall Housing Edition, Nedaria’s Landing, Sunrise Hills and the Plane of Knowledge. The Priest and Priestess of Luclin summon corpses, Magus Alaria sends travelers to the Wayfarer camps, and Tavid Dennant and Annabelle handle housing. The Guild Hall is an instanced city zone whose portal is worked by a gnome, with a regeneration pool in the back right room and tradeskill tools.

Fan maps mark the Lobby’s exits to the Neighborhood and Standard guild halls, Sunrise Hills and the Plane of Knowledge, with a corpse-summoning altar, a guild message center, a banker and merchants. The hall map shows a guild banker, guild portal stone, guild tribute master, healing pool, forge, kiln, loom, oven, pottery wheel, brew barrel and Yenny Werlikanin, who handles parcels.

Sources: Sony Online Entertainment (2005): Dragons of Norrath announced · Dragons of Norrath official FAQ (2005, archived) · Allakhazam: The Guild Lobby (zone) · Allakhazam: The Guild Hall (zone) · EQ map files (Brewall Rainsinger maps)

Norrath’s Keepers and Dark Reign

Players took a side: the good Norrath’s Keepers or the evil Dark Reign. The FAQ said every character starts neutral to both and must choose one, though friends on the other side can still be helped with their adventures. A player reference adds that neither faction affects any other zone, that both camps sit in the caves of northern Lavastorm, and that a Wayfarers group to the south-southeast hands out tasks too. Keepers earn Radiant Crystals to spend with Tatsujiro the Serene, Dark Reign earns Ebon Crystals for Xeib Darkskies, and faction tokens go to the same two.

A player blog transcribes the camp dialogue, which no one has checked against the game. In it Chieftain Relae Aderi calls Firiona Vie the Chosen of Tunare and leader of Norrath’s Keepers, and calls the Dark Reign the followers of Lanys T`Vyl, the Child of Hate. Solo tasks raise standing with the Keepers and Firiona Vie and lower it with the Dark Reign and Lanys.

Progression ran in five tiers. The blog names the Keepers’ rewards Gift, Valor, Embrace, Power and Sanctity: ten more to each stat’s maximum, then extra health, mana, endurance and a level-69 spell, then a buff slot, a better chance of critical hits and stronger resistance to harmful spells. A progression guide gives the second tier a different bonus, a percentage of base health with less mana and endurance, so the two accounts differ.

Sources: Dragons of Norrath official FAQ (2005, archived) · EQ Archives: Dragons of Norrath · Pak'Cafan: Dragons of Norrath progression (dialogue transcription) · EQProgression: Dragons of Norrath progression guide

Raids and dragons

A progression guide lists the raids by tier and size. Calling Emoush is tier two for 24 players. Trial of Perseverance, for 24, and Volkara’s Bite, for 42, are tier three. Tier four has Goblin Dojo for 24, Guardian of the Sands for 42, and An End to the Storms against Yar`Lir for 54. Tier five is The Curse of Ju`rek for 24 and In the Shadows, against Vishimtar the Fallen, for 54. Dark Reign’s raid contacts are General Lereh Dirr and Captain Aleeth Zyrv; the Keepers have Captain Areha Burina and Lieutenant Ekiltu Verlor.

Each raid yields a token. The blog lists a Glowing Stone Fragment from Emoush the Destroyer, Lava Spider Spinners from Volkara, a Meditation Stone from the Storm Reach Sensei, Quintessence of Sand, Yar`Lir’s Fang, Diseased Wing Fragments from Ju`rek the Corrupted, and the Shadowscale of Vishimtar.

Yar`Lir is the storm dragon of Thundercrest Isles. Official lore puts Kessdona the Enlightened, a golden dragon, and Rikkukin the Defender, a platinum dragon, in the Mountain Peak lair above Stillmoon Temple, and the transcribed dialogue says these metallic two are thought to be Veeshan’s first children on Norrath. The same dialogue ties Tirranun to the volcano and says an entrance to its lair was found. It calls Ju`rek a dark drake and says the dragon in the Nest was Yar`Lir’s mate, also a storm dragon, without naming it.

Sources: EQProgression: Dragons of Norrath raids · Pak'Cafan: Dragons of Norrath progression (dialogue transcription) · Allakhazam: Thundercrest Isles (zone) · EverQuest.com: The Ascent

The zones

A player reference gives the zone list with level ranges. The Broodlands, for levels 40 to 60, is entered through the northern caves of Lavastorm. Lavaspinner’s Lair (45 to 60), Stillmoon Temple (55 to 65) and Thundercrest Isles (60 to 70) open off the Broodlands. Tirranun’s Delve (45 to 65) is reached through Lavaspinner’s Lair, and The Ascent (60 to 70) through Stillmoon Temple. The Accursed Nest, at level 70, lies through the gap in the rocks at the center of the Broodlands lake.

Instanced versions of Lavaspinner’s Lair, Tirranun’s Delve, Stillmoon Temple, The Ascent and Thundercrest Isles offer missions for levels 60 to 70, and the Accursed Nest has missions for 70 to 75. Fan maps show Lavastorm’s new exits to the Broodlands and Lavaspinner’s Lair beside its old ones to Solusek’s Eye, Nagafen’s Lair, the Temple of Solusek Ro, Najena and Nektulos Forest.

Two pages cover the zones: the Broodlands and the lairs, and Stillmoon, the Ascent and Thundercrest.

Sources: EQ Archives: Dragons of Norrath · EQ map files (Brewall Rainsinger maps)