The Rathe Mountains

High peaks, hidden valleys

The Rathe Mountains lie between the Plains of Karana and the southern swamps, along the southern route from Freeport to Qeynos. The high peaks hide many separate areas, each with its own dangers. The EQ Atlas writer found it a confusing place to pass through rather than to adventure, and rarely saw anyone else there.

Monsters run from about level 7 to 45: fire beetles, lizard man scouts, warriors and mystics, orcs, skeletons of many kinds, hill giants plain, tainted and corrupted, bears up to kodiaks, ebon, obsidian, onyx and basalt drakes, unkempt preservers and cyclopes. Allakhazam records that the frogloks of Gukta settled here after 2005, pushing the hill giants and cyclopes to the northeast.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Rathe Mountains · Allakhazam: The Rathe Mountains 2.0 (zone) · Project 1999 Wiki: Rathe Mountains

Everything bites

This is a mid-level zone and the monsters are strong. Hill giants and giant skeletons roam parts of the west and cyclopes the northwest; the undead temples hold dry and ice bone skeletons and giant skeletons; and most creatures are in camps. For evil races everything attacks, including a camp of paladins and the guardians of a protected temple.

South of the Feerrott entrance are two lizard man camps a pair of tenth-level characters can handle, and an orc camp at twelfth. North of it is an open area full of fire beetles, a high-level orc camp, gypsies and an inn. The northwest is the only easy place in the south for evil races to hunt bears, though grizzlies and kodiaks swarm it.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Rathe Mountains

The sphinxes

The zone’s strangest residents are two sphinxes, said to be about level 50, one good and one evil. Their names share a first syllable with named beetles in the zone, Zaza and Ankh, and the temples the beetles guard look Egyptian. The northern sphinx, Ankh, is said to be the good one and the southern, Zaza, the evil one, though the guide’s writer found both ready to attack.

In front of the Lake Rathe entrance lies an eerie area with a hill that reaches for the clouds, roamed by cyclopes and giant skeletons, and the only gypsy camp this far south that sells combine weapons. Named figures include Ankhefenmut, Zazamoukh, Blackwing, Shardwing, Maldyn the Unkempt and Oculys Ogrefiend.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Rathe Mountains · Allakhazam: The Rathe Mountains 1.0 (zone)

Roads

The range connects Lake Rathetear and the Plains of Karana to the north with the Feerrott, and through it the ogres reach the wider world. The mountains belong to the Rathe, and the frogloks who later made a home here are in Gukta, Outpost of Marr.

Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Rathe Mountains · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Oggok · Allakhazam: The Rathe Mountains 2.0 (zone)