Ak’Anon

Half fortress, half laboratory

Ak’Anon is an ancient city built into the edge of the mountains by the gnomes who call it home, and both EQ Atlas and the Project 1999 guide describe it as half fortress and half laboratory, where the gnomes have developed their clockwork machines and defences for generations. In ages past, the guides say, the gnomes were powerful enough to defy the gods and build a clockwork dragon to protect the city; when it went rogue it was imprisoned far beneath the city or banished to another land.

It lies nestled in a small valley on the southern edge of the Steamfont Mountains, and Allakhazam agrees it sits in the mountains’ southern part. Outside, the ever-churning machines of the gnomes mark the gates; they may be engines of war, though it is hard for anyone but a gnome, and for some gnomes, to tell.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Ak’Anon · Project 1999 Wiki: Ak’Anon · Allakhazam: Ak’Anon (zone)

A city of water

Water ties the city together. A great flowing river and lake runs through every quarter, pumped up from deep beneath the mountains by massive machinery, powering the city as it flows and supplying every shop. The guild halls lie far apart in their own sections, and clockwork guides stand throughout the winding corridors, ready to give directions to anyone who asks.

The warriors live near their king, in barracks guarding the only land route in. Allakhazam lists the city’s guild homes: the Abbey of Deep Musing for the Deep Muses, good-aligned clerics, paladins and rogues; the Gem Choppers Hall for warriors; and the Library Mechanamagica, home of the Eldritch Collective, for enchanters, magicians and wizards. EQ Atlas lists a brewery, forge, kiln, oven and pottery wheel for artisans.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Ak’Anon · Allakhazam: Ak’Anon (zone)

The Dark Reflection

Far in the north of the city lie old caverns taken over by the less desirable elements of gnome society. There, where the water runs polluted by the city’s machines, the necromancers and other evil gnomes keep the Mines of Malfunction, guarded by the undead they summon. Allakhazam names its guild: the Dark Reflection, for evil-aligned clerics, necromancers, rogues, shadow knights and warriors. Our lore page records whom they serve, Bertoxxulous the Plaguebringer, and their letters waiting for “the time” that “grows ever near.”

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Ak’Anon · Allakhazam: Ak’Anon (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Ak’Anon

A free race

The gnomes’ own history is in Ak’Anon and Meldrath the Malignant: how a people who had lived in something close to slavery under the dark elves were declared free and allied with the elves, and how they built a city of their own. They have a small presence in the Lesser Faydark too, more to protect their communications with the elves and dwarves beyond than to claim the forest, and the guides point gnome travellers toward the small outpost beside the Steamfont pass.

Brell Serilis is honoured here as well as in Kaladim; the Deep Muses of the Abbey are counted among his faithful, while the Dark Reflection turns to plague.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Ak’Anon · Project 1999 Wiki: Ak’Anon · Allakhazam: Ak’Anon (zone)

Connections

Ak’Anon’s only classic connection is the Steamfont Mountains. Allakhazam’s connection list today also shows later additions, including links used by the Plane of Knowledge era and beyond; the guides of 1999 to 2001 describe a city with a single land route, the one its warriors guard.

Sources: Allakhazam: Ak’Anon (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Ak’Anon