Antonica · EverQuest (original release)
Misty Thicket
The halflings’ newbie woods, cut in two by an ancient wall: safe farmland and bixies on the Rivervale side, Runnyeye goblins and Deathfist orcs on the other.
The wall
The Misty Thicket lies beside Rivervale and is the city’s main newbie zone, with a smaller one in Kithicor. It is also the ground the halflings have staked out to protect their home from the Runnyeye goblins to the west. Their ancient walls stretch right across the zone and cut it into two halves.
The east side, toward Rivervale, is the newbie area, kept by the Guardians of the Vale. The west side is for higher levels, but the guards are close. Monsters run from about level 1 to 12: rats, bats, snakes, fire beetles, klaknaks, wolves, bixies, giant wasps and spiders, black bears and young kodiaks, goblins, and orcs of the Deathfist legion: pawns, centurions, legionnaires and oracles.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Misty Thicket · Allakhazam: Misty Thicket (1.0) (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Misty Thicket
The safest start in Norrath
The guide calls this one of the safest zones in the game, and its own writer thinks it the best newbie zone of all, because of the wall: no high-level wanderers can reach the newbie side. There are only two danger spots there, both ruins close to the city, where aggressive rats and skeletons attack in packs.
The other hazard is Mooto, a goblin wizard much stronger than his kin and aggressive. Other named figures include Slaythe, Gunrich, the Bixie Queen, an orc lumberjack, Old Gourdhead and Queen Klaknak;
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Misty Thicket · Allakhazam: Misty Thicket (1.0) (zone)
A halfling’s first home
There is good hunting and a fair number of quests for halflings. Many stay here until about tenth level before spreading out, which the guide thinks excessive but possible. Merchants’ huts mean you can buy and sell without zoning; the more enterprising traders set up to catch the stream of travellers between Freeport and Qeynos.
The Thicket of today is a remake: Allakhazam keeps the original as a 1.0 record, and the zone was rebuilt in 2007.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Misty Thicket · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Rivervale · Allakhazam: Misty Thicket (zone) · Allakhazam: Misty Thicket (1.0) (zone)
Through the gap
East, the path leads to Rivervale. West, it runs to the heavily guarded break in the wall, past which goblin camps litter the countryside, and on the far western edge is the entrance to Clan Runnyeye. From there the road continues through the Gorge of King Xorbb to the Eastern Plains of Karana.
The halflings who built the wall are the subject of Rivervale and the Halflings, and their mischievous god of Bristlebane.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Misty Thicket · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Runnyeye Citadel · Allakhazam: Misty Thicket (1.0) (zone)
Lore tied to this zone
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Misty Thicket · Allakhazam: Misty Thicket 2.0 (zone) · Allakhazam: Misty Thicket (1.0) (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Misty Thicket