Lore · Continents & Moons
Luclin, Maiden of Shadows
Shadows of Luclin changed how EverQuest looked and played. Its story is about a moon that became a refuge for everyone running from something.
The Maiden of Shadows
Luclin rules the Plane of Shadow. She is small, about four foot nine, slim and elfin, with solid black skin, pupil-less silver eyes and short grey hair with long side locks. Shadowy mist swirls at her feet, and she carries a silver and platinum staff shaped like two twining tendrils ending in cupped hands, above which floats a small black orb with an oily sheen.
Sources: Allakhazam: Luclin · Library of Erudin: Luclin
The Akheva
The Akheva are her immortal stewards: towering, four-armed, horned and pale, with blank eyes. Their society is matriarchal and strictly divided into castes. Their first stronghold, Ka Vethan, was destroyed by the Maiden’s Scar, a storm summoned by the priestess Aten Ha Ra during a civil war against her rival Akelha’Ra. Aten Ha Ra now rules from the citadel of Vex Thal, while Akelha’Ra’s outcast loyalists still haunt the ruins.
Sources: Library of Erudin: Akheva · Library of Erudin: Akheva (fan encyclopedia)
Everyone’s refuge
The moon became a destination for those fleeing Norrath: the Shissar escaping the Green Mist, Combine loyalists escaping Seru, Seru’s Inquisitors chasing them, and the Vah Shir, thrown there by an Erudite war. Then Al’Kabor opened the spires, and adventurers poured in by the thousand, to Luclin’s fury.
Sources: Library of Erudin: Shissar · Library of Erudin: Lord Inquisitor Seru · Library of Erudin: Al’Kabor
A moon’s ending
In EverQuest II’s history the moon is destroyed. One story shows the ancient elf Aataltaal watching Luclin break apart in the night sky as burning fragments streak overhead.
Why she left
The RPG Luclin sourcebook says the goddess dwelt in Norrath’s darkness “for untold ages,” watching the other gods squabble, until she could stand no more and moved to the world’s ringed moon. There she let Veeshan’s seeds of life germinate and nurtured what crept out, and she stayed neutral in the war between Tunare and Innoruuk, “bewildered by their foolishness.” The Game Master’s Guide adds that the moon stayed hidden from Norrath behind a veil made by a pact between Brell Serilis, Prexus and Tunare.
Sources: Library of Erudin: Luclin (Luclin — The Goddess Luclin; Game Master’s Guide — Luclin)
Life on the moon
Besides the Akheva, the sourcebook lists her moon’s other peoples: insectoid shik’nar in their hives, galorians in the rugged wilds, tegi tribes spread across the whole orb, and under the surface burrowers, fungal fiends and tentacled thought horrors. “Though it seemed a bleak and distant world to those who watched it from Norrath, Luclin was a place of life and vitality.”
Sources: Library of Erudin: Luclin (Luclin — The Goddess Luclin)
Rogues and the dusk
The Game Master’s Guide says her love of dark corners has earned her the devotion of many rogues, who offer a quick prayer when they need the shadows’ protection. In the Guild Lobby, a Disciple of Luclin welcomes players to the Alcove of Shadow and calls her “the ruler of the twilight — that which exists between light and dark, life and death.” Fallen adventurers, the disciple says, must pass through that dusk of existence.
Her favored children
The Monsters of Luclin bestiary calls the Akheva her “most favored offspring,” created in her image and given dominion over her moon, ruling in her name for many ages before collapsing in a bloody civil war. See Aten Ha Ra for that war.
Sources: Library of Erudin: Luclin (Monsters of Luclin — Shadow)
Where the sources disagree
- A fan encyclopedia claims the moon is called Drinal, an anagram of Aldrin; official sources call the moon Luclin and name Drinal as a separate spirit god of death, so we do not repeat the anagram claim as fact.
Keep reading
Retold in our own words from the sources linked under each chapter; short quotes are marked and sourced. The illustration is an original AI-generated painting made for this page alone, not from the game.