Touring in Alaris: Exploring EQ's New Expansion
Editor-in-Chief Chris "Pwyff" Tom went on an in-game tour in EverQuest's upcoming Veil of Alaris expansion!
It’s taken EverQuest almost twelve and a half years, but by next month, players will be five levels away from doubling the level cap that they started with in 1999. EverQuest’s eighteenth expansion, Veil of Alaris, is heading to servers and I managed to hop into an in-game tour with SOE’s Eric “Piestro” Cleaver, to check out some of this new content.
Hopping into the world of Norrath, Eric caught me up on the events leading up to Veil of Alaris. With EverQuest’s previous expansion, House of Thule, players had finally succeeded in killing Cazic-Thule, the Norrathian God of Fear. With Cazic-Thule’s death, the remnants of his powers took off to the previously sealed off continent of Alaris, thereby weakening the seal and revealing the continent. This obviously gives EverQuest players the opportunity to go exploring (and looting) this entirely new region.
Cazic-Thule’s death, however, brings up a concerning problem for his peers. Up to now, the Norrathian Gods had believed themselves to be immortal and all-powerful, but upon witnessing the death of Cazic-Thule, each God has reacted in his own peculiar way. For example, in one of the new areas in Alaris, the Valley of Lunanyn (Eric is fond of calling it the “bread basket” of Alaris), Solusek Ro has decided to wage direct war on the Alarans. Meanwhile, the God of the Earth, Brell Serilis, commands his gnomish followers to construct an enormous airship to travel to the new continent. While no other Norrathian Gods were revealed in the tour, I left genuinely curious as to how the others had reacted and what part they would play in the expansion.
After the first round of explanations, we kicked off our tour in Argath, the starting zone for this expansion. The city of Argath is dedicated to the Alaran God of War, but peaceful times have made these citizens a little weak, thereby prompting an attack from Erillion, the City of Bronze. Eric noted that the forges of Argath had run over during the battles, resulting in what appeared to be a magma-scarred landscape. Below, Erillions launched an occasional assault on the Argathian soldiers.