A decidely frumpy thread speculating about the positive aspects of the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion entitled “So… Has anyone got anything good to say about Velious?” has drawn the attention of SmokeJumper who announced that the main Signature quest telling the storyline of Destiny of Velious was withheld from Beta to keep it a surprise:

Much of this gets explained in the signature quest line. As usual, the sig line was not included in the beta test so that it would be new to everyone at launch. This is slightly risky from a QA perspective, but is traditional with EQII releases, so we did it that way again here.

From EverQuest2.com:

When adventurers seek out the lands of Velious, they’ll soon discover that Lodizal, a great and ancient turtle, will transport them to the lost continent.

Continued at EverQuest2.com…

Karen Bryan writing for the Tattered Notebook at Massively has turned in her followup article on Velious, this time delving into the institutional memory of what the Scars of Velious expansion meant for players of the original EverQuest, and how we really need for history to repeat itself.

Scars of Velious was a big expansion for EverQuest — literally. Overland zones like Western Wastes and the Great Divide were so large that it was easy to get lost. Dungeons like Temple of Veeshan and Kael Drakkel were the size of small cities and could house multiple raids each night. And everything you fought was enormous, from the Velium spiders of Velketor’s Lab, to the Giants of Kael Drakkel, to the Dragons that seemed to be everywhere. But this expansion was about more than Dragons and snow.

The 10th Ring War. It was big. It was open. It was dynamic content before the phrase was even coined. Dozens, sometimes hundreds of players would take part in driving back waves of giants as they sprinted towards Thurgadin, and everyone who passed through could see and take part in the action. It provided so many opportunities for individuals to be the hero, and we relished the chance to share our tales of heroism afterwards. There are several reasons players loved Velious, but the 10th Ring War is probably at the top of the list.

Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Why Velious is so Important at Massively.

Ok, that was bad even by our standards… 😉

Anywho, Cronyn has put his two cents in on the Vampire Lore, to try to reaffirm that this isn’t just an afterthought to leverage other popular vampire franchises:

Heya folks! I thought I’d pop in here to help a bit.

So, I wanted to assure you that the lore for the vampires is indeed tied to bigger events and characters. The piece that was posted was mostly intended to be more of an overview, and was intentially more vague. I was hoping to get you all talking, and they start releasing more pieces fo the puzzle to have you work into your discussions. Unfortunately, it clearly did not work how I intended it to, and I apologize for that. What you see (and have surmised) is not the entirety of their origin, and there is more still to be told – I didn’t mean to give the impression that this was all you would be seeing.

Again, my apologies, everyone. I’ll try to fill in the blanks here sooner rather than later.

Thanks again, guys. You all are awesome.

Another puzzle for astute EQ2Wire readers… It involves mortal peril of a different sort…