Luclin · The Shadows of Luclin
Shadeweaver’s Thicket
Shadeweaver’s Thicket is the training ground for young Vah Shir and the start of the trade road from Shar Vahl to Shadow Haven: a quiet eastern half, and a haunted western half that gives the thicket its name.
Gateway to the moon
A player guide calls the thicket a forest on the dark side of the moon and a gateway into the rest of Luclin for the Vah Shir of Shar Vahl. A classic zone atlas adds that it is the training area for the young of the city, and the beginning of the major trade route from Shar Vahl to Shadow Haven, which climbs into the caves of the moon’s original inhabitants and through to the Paludal Caverns.
The Atlas lists monsters from level 1 to about 30, so the same zone serves a brand-new character and one well on the way.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Shadeweaver’s Thicket · Allakhazam: Shadeweaver’s Thicket (zone)
The western shades
The western half is much more dangerous. The Atlas says the shades of fallen Vah Shir soldiers walk there, tormented by evil spirits that seem to grow more aggressive, and that the ground is rougher and life struggles to grow. These living dead have begun to move into the safer lands east of the mountains, sometimes with the Loda Kai bandits.
In the west a tunnel leads to an area with lava, guarded by much stronger creatures, around level 50 and aggressive on sight. The Atlas describes them as guarding what looks like a zone entrance that was not yet active.
Who lives here
The Atlas’s list of residents shows how crowded the thicket is: chitterlings and Cht’Thk beetles, the Gor Taku builders and hunters, Loda Kai brigands, poachers and traders, saurek hoppers and shredders, firefall guardians, stoneclaw burrowers, skeletal brigands and plain wandering corpses.
Its named creatures include Warlord Gok Thok, Jynhadar and the Blood Drenched Hopper.
Roads onward
The thicket has two neighbours, player guides agree: Shar Vahl and the Paludal Caverns. The caverns are the real road, because through them run the caravans to Shadow Haven, the city of trade families that also controls the Bazaar and the Nexus.
For a Vah Shir, then, the way to the rest of Luclin and back to Norrath starts in this forest.
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Shadeweaver’s Thicket · Allakhazam: Shadeweaver’s Thicket (zone) · EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Shadow Haven
Lore tied to this zone
Sources: EQ Atlas (eqatlas.ca): Shadeweaver’s Thicket · Allakhazam: Shadeweaver’s Thicket (zone)