Feldon 
Logo mockup by EQ2Wire
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:
To all Norrathians,
The Velious saga continues! New lands and adventures will be uncovered on April 30 with Game Update 66 entitled EverQuest II: Scars of the Awakened!
Ever vigilant, Norrathians march united under the banner of the New Combine army, deeper into the perilous continent of Velious.
Finally, the army breaches the borders of a region known as Cobalt Scar – a majestic, lush, but tormented region. And from within dark passages in the surrounding mountains, the inhabitants of Sirens Grotto beckon to all.
The first news heard from Cobalt Scar concerns tribes of Othmir that succumbed to an unfortunate fate that now threatens everyone. Further examination into the area will reveal a foreboding presence of the Awakened Legion, a force of evil that decimated dragonkind in the legendary city of Skyshrine.
Nearby, in the watery depths of Sirens Grotto – unseen by landwalkers for the ages – it is said that the caverns hold secrets of their own. And the beguiling siren coven known as the Darkwater Sisters will not give up those secrets easily.
All the while, the Ages End Prophecy looms with its promise to see Kerafyrm – Norrath’s most evil, powerful dragon – bring a violent end to the world. Heroes from every corner of Norrath are called to explore this new land in Velious and fight for a future for all.
For those brave and stalwart, we welcome you to EverQuest II: Scars of the Awakened! Cobalt Scar will have many new carefully crafted quests that tell incredible stories. Sirens Grotto – the new dungeon — will bring you solo, heroic, and raid challenges. You will also find all-new collections, tradeskill quest lines, tradeskill apprentice items, and updated PvP rewards. Not to be forgotten are improvements resulting from the class feedback players gave us on our community forums!
Beta is expected to begin on April 2 and we encourage everyone to log in help us ensure our game is fun and tested well!
Look for more details in the coming weeks as we release art, lore, and gameplay features through articles, webcasts and more! You won’t want to miss a thing!
Holly Longdale
Producer, EverQuest II
Beta starts the second…push it out the 30th…
Hoo boy. Gonna need more popcorn.
wow i wonder if our current green adorns that only work by killing stuff in obol plains en ej is going to level up in here.
I kind of really don’t get this kind of move. Not only that but such a short time for beta wow yea were in for a bumpy ride.
4 weeks is a long time for Beta for EQ2 these days. As to whether these abbreviated schedudles produce a stable product…
Am I blind or no mention of Western Wastes or ToV & Dragon Necropolis?
C’mon! If they gave it 6 months Beta folks would still criticize, complain and caterwaul. Not enough time, content, lore, dungeons, raids, overland quests, etc. etc. etc. A large and vocal number of MMO people just adore being miserable and try really hard to make everyone share their misery. EQ2 forums are no different than Rift or LOTRO or whatever game forums. Too many can’t seem to separate fantasy from reality.
The comments are the true entertainment.
@Tarb
I do remember them mentioning Western Wastes early on when DoV came out, but I don’t remember them mentioning a Dragon Necropolis. Unless there is more than one (which there likely is, unless dragons are really stupid) Wurmbone’s Crag and Wurmbone’s End would be your Dragon Necropolis.
I am confused, is this an expansion, an update, an adventure pack? They named it so wondering what the plan is here as they move forward.
Game Updates get named all the time. Some even have an official logo.
GU64: Qeynos Rises
GU63: Skyshrine
GU62: Freeport Reborn
GU61: The War of Zek
GU60: The Children of War
Since Lv95 was unlocked with CoE, will GU66 drop Lv92 gear for those who only have DoV?
“we encourage everyone to log in help us ensure our game is fun and tested well!”
LOL I can’t wait to test and /feedback all month long and then have every bit of it ignored as usual. What fun!
“Am I blind or no mention of Western Wastes or ToV & Dragon Necropolis?”
During the skyshrine timeline you recieved an 18pg book called “[eq2u]The Loss in Western Wastes[/eq2u]”. if you search your inventory you likely have it placed in housing or in your bank. It describes how Kerafyrm’s forces completely destroyed Western Wastes and it crumbled into the ocean. Only The Temple of Veeshan was left standing which is likely the dungeon they will be adding where we kill Kerafyrm. earlier on it also explains how cobalt scar and siren’s grotto were cut off from the rest of DoV.
Once again, SOE has used an apocalypse to explain why you get less zones in eq2 than you did in eq1. Id love to see a list of all the places in eq1 that were vaproized.
That being said I’m looking forward to the new zones they did chose to preserve, however….
“Further examination into the area will reveal a foreboding presence of the Awakened Legion”
more awakened legion mobs? /boredface
Couldn’t we fight some zombie othmirs or somethin? ive fought enough drakes, wurms, wyverns and draogs for one lifetime.
The tail end of EQ1 Velious was ALL about awakened legion, while the beginning was all dwarves and giants. This is running parallel to EQ1 quite well.
I loved ToV in EQ1, let’s hope they do well with it when it comes out here. And does anyone remember what was after Velious? Yes, Planes of Power. /shiver
After Velious was Luclin…and while Luclin is currently in parts, I’m sure they can conjure up a reason why Emperor Ssra, the Thought Horror Overfiend, Lord Seru, and entirely too many four-armed freaks with way too many HP’s managed to survive it being DeathStar’d.
Luclin was indeed the next expansion after velious in EQ1, I would love the next EQ2 expansion to be “Ruins of Luclin” or something of that nature.
I never played EQ1 much, so I don’t know a lot about Luclin. I remember reading on a few sites that Luclin was divided into 3 areas, permanent darkness, permanent light, and an odd twilight realm. My first thought after that was the Overrealm from Kingdom of Sky. Tenebrous is always in twilight. Barren Sky is always in light. Bonemire is in eternal darkness. Is the Overrealm really just the pieces of shattered luclin? It would explain why there are Ulteran spires there (or did Luclin have Combine spires?)
So, im having a hard time understanding the point of adding more overland zones when everyone is already 95/320.
@ Tarb…
I think the intention is for CoE to be the last paid expansion for EQ2 (and I think that was originally going to be a game update), with all future content being just regular free game updates. Though I wouldn’t bet on it.
I too would definitely love to see Luclin in some form or other, even though it is shattered and in pieces, they could still do something with it I’m sure. Maybe even the moon of Drinal.
Does anyone know if this will be the final Velious installment? I’ve enjoyed Velious lots but I just hope it doesn’t drag on as much as the void stuff seemed to.
Also back just before the release of CoE there was mention of everywhere in Norrath having an alternate version in the Ethernere. Maybe this is what is going to come in the form of content over the next couple of years?
Part of me likes that as an idea, I do like what they did with Obol Plains / Eidolon Jungle, but I don’t know. I guess I’d like to see something really fresh, I love exploring brand new overland zones. I know they take a long long time to create, but they were meant to be working on some developer tools and whatnot to help them develop and churn out landscapes / overland stuff much more efficiently. So who knows.
Brad McQuaid back at EQ1 for anyone who’s missed it btw!
Benj said…
Mmmm, I had never thought of that at all, makes perfect sense!
Abitterbeing said…
Well, maybe the level cap is going to be bumped up a couple of levels again. In fact, I’d be quite surprised if it didn’t. Either way, it’s more content, overland zones and instances.
Great info all 🙂
I’m very excited to see what they do with cobalt scar, that zone wasn’t very big in eq1, same with sg because that was the only zone in eq1 I hated lol
Tarb wrote: “Luclin was indeed the next expansion after velious in EQ1, I would love the next EQ2 expansion to be “Ruins of Luclin” or something of that nature.”
The rumors i’ve heard is the next expansion is being called “Return to the Void”.
@Vortix
I thought about that too. It will be hard for them to justify why this update will only be available to player that bought CoE. Because I’m 99% certain that this will be the case. Either nobody at SOE thought about it or they decided to go with it anyway. I hope I will be surprised.
Not with Scars, but with Expansion-after-Chains-of-Eternity.
2 months late…
Kander(I think it was) posted somewhere that they had to hurry to finish GU66 so they could start working on the next expansion.
So there will be another expansion.
With AoD I think they had the idea to push content as GU’s and features as expansions, but I think that idea got scrapped when they saw the reaction to AoD.
@Vortix
I just hope they release the Planes of Power stuff before EQN comes out. I won’t be staying in EQ2 but Plane of Time flagging was my favorite content and memories in EQ1.
And the reason many players quit EQ.
Mentin wrote…
Mmmmm that’s interesting.
I was reading an article on Massively the other day that quoted SJ in an interview at SOE Live which said…
I’m seeing a lot of contradiction going off @ SOE. Brasse contradicting Smed over the release of EQNext, then there was something else recently with SJ and Smed also relating to EQNext, and now this on expansions.
I don’t mind expansion packs for games I love and actively play so I am cool with that if thats where they are going.
So if they’re doing a ‘U’ turn again then I just hope any future expansion packs are fully fledged.
I like CoE for the most part, but the fact that the two overland zones were reused with different colours and a bit of tweaking, speaks volumes. Ok, a fair bit of tweaking in places. And I know thats something that has gone on since day one with Lavastorm / Bonemire etc etc. I’d just rather see new stuff, and plenty of it, and if it’s reused stuff then that has to be heavily disguised and if its just more Ethernere versions of existing zones in Norrath, thats ok, but give that as free updates for owners of CoE, and don’t make those into any future expansions.
It’s actually been stated since launch if you look back at the lore that Velious for the most melted. Surprised how intact it is. We’ll probably see some sort of zone for the Western Wastes. It’ll just look completely different.
We’ll that should be obvious who we’re fighting against. I’m sure we’ll get some new type of mobs. Droags, wurms, drakes, wverns ect can be creative if you actually give them unique models. Lets hope they dont recycle the old.
Also we’re seeing the sirens grotto and those walruses. Probably will see zombie othmir who been messed with by the Awakened Legion.
Has that man finally come out of six year redemption after the drama that occurred with the development of Vanguard?
Oh god ITS BEEN SIX YEARS! Damn time flies!.
kindom of sky is post to be bits of the luclin moon i think ?
Correct.
Nah, that was Gates of Discord, all the way.
Kingdom of Sky is the Plane of Sky bleeding through.
GoD was the final straw for many. Difference is that SoL/PoP drove away the more of casual crowd of EQ1 for focusing on endgame hardcore raiding while GoD drove away a good chunk of raiding guilds for being just too damn broken.