Secrets of Faydwer (2007)

Announcement and launch

On May 10, 2007, SOE was "pleased to announce EverQuest® Secrets of Faydwer™, the 14th expansion for the EverQuest", and said it "will be released in November." The preview of November 9 set the day: the expansion "launches on Tuesday, November 13, 2007." SOE’s launch-day guide of November 12 said all Live servers would come down "at 2:00 am PST" for the update, with an "estimated downtime" of "14 hours." Source [3]

On November 13 SOE posted a launch notice: "The sum of many months of hard work by dozens of people on multiple teams comes to fruition today with the release of the fourteenth expansion to EverQuest." Source [4]

The story

The official story line, used in both the preview and the launch highlights, opens in the Steamfont Mountains: "The clockwork armies of the evil gnomish necromancer Meldrath the Malignant gather in the Steamfont Mountains, awaiting his order to invade the kingdom of Ak’Anon." Source [5]

The same text names the three fronts players were sent to. The Loping Plains were "home to the soul eating wereorcs of Bloodmoon Keep". In the Hills of Shade, humans and elves had been "cursed for centuries". And "east of the Dragonscale Hills" was the place where "the prismatic dragon Kerafyrm the Awakened plans his revenge." Source [5]

The producer’s letter

Producer Clint Worley’s launch letter called it "the 14 th expansion" and said the team was "extremely happy with the extended development time that we had this cycle". The letter announced fixes for Solteris stability and "a workaround for the infamous WEST BUG!!!" Worley also credited the "Unfolding the Lore series" as one of the features made with community manager Zatozia for the EQPlayers website. Source [6]

Level 80 and heroic items

The launch notes said: "Players can now achieve level 80." The increase came with "New high level item sets, new Alternate Advancement ability lines, and new spells", and "a new AA that grants a new spell slot." Source [5]

Heroic items were the headline system. SOE explained that once a character hits the maximum for a stat, normal gear "offers no benefit", so "Heroic Items feature particular stats that allow players to go beyond those maximums. For each point in a heroic stat, the player gains one point in the statistic and the maximum on that statistic is increased by one point." Each heroic stat had extra effects. Heroic Strength "increases damage done by melee attacks and improves the bonus granted to armor class while using a shield"; Heroic Charisma "Improves reaction rolls with some NPCs and increases the amount of faction you gain or lose". Source [5]

SOE gave the zone count in its own words: "There are 15 new realms for adventurers to explore including Meldrath’s maniacal Fortress Mechanotus, the Dragonscale Hills, the Loping Plains, and Kerafyrm’s Lair, Crystallos." Changes that shipped the same day included a "Loot All" button for corpses, higher mitigation for every class (casters got "a considerable increase"), a new fog renderer, automatic multi-core CPU support, and the Fan Faire "Book of Legends" in the Plane of Knowledge library. Source [5]

Unfolding the Lore and reception

Before launch, SOE released eleven "Unfolding the Lore" articles between August 24 and November 9, 2007, one per area: Mechanotus and its towers (Parts 1–4), the Bloodmoon curse and Bloodmoon Keep (5–6), the Hills of Shade and the Crypt of Shade (7–8), Crystallos (9), the Dragonscale Hills (10) and the Guardian (11). Source [7]

In January 2008 WarCry gave Secrets of Faydwer an Editor’s Choice Award for Best Expansion of 2007. SOE reprinted WarCry’s words: "The most original and innovative expansion of 2007 came from the grandfather of them all." Source [9]

The Dragonscale Hills

The Dragonscale Hills were "Exposed to Norrath by the launch of Meldrath’s Fortress Mechanotus" and "rise up to the south of the Steamfont Mountains", on Faydwer. SOE warned that the natives were "not happy about the intrusion of adventurers into their lands." Source [8]

Kirkoten Fortress is the home of the Kirkoten Minotaurs, "Carved out of the rocky hillside". The minotaurs are led by Overseer Gakkor Deepscar and are at war with "night-crawling wereorcs and exploitive gnomes", though from outside "you would never know they were at war". SOE calls them "the oldest and fiercest of their kind." Source [8]

Nightmare Grove holds a horse owner named Lelluran, cursed after trying to "capture and breed Equestrielle the Corrupted". SOE identifies Equestrielle as the unicorn "whose horn was broken by Firiona Vie in order to defeat Cazic-Thule". Her presence "corrupted all his horses and him as well", and Lelluran became "more animal than wood elf". Source [8]

Prismatic Valley and the Guardian

Prismatic Valley lies "Far to the south". Explorers found the ground taking on "a sheen that danced before their eyes", then "crystalline and metallic outcroppings", and at the deepest point Kerafyrm’s "great prismatic pools", which he uses as "magical wells, drawing upon the power within Norrath to bolster his power." Source [8]

A hundred-foot steamwork, the Guardian, fell off Mechanotus on its first flight. Its story is told on the Fortress Mechanotus page. Source [10]