Journeys with Jaye

Living Legacy and Lore

I am really excited about the Living Legacy promotion, despite that fact that I can’t get a drake pet or a neat cloak. Here’s why:

Ok, that’s not why specifically, but it’s part of it. I have this Jerry MacGuire attitude when it comes to lore. Help me, help you. I *want* to like EQII lore, I really do. But every time I hail and NPC, he smacks me with a wall of text, and suddenly, the room gets dark, everything begins to spin, and I am compelled to hit the click button until it ends. I’m jazzed to kill stuff, I’m running a nice pulling pace, and I just can’t handle putting the breaks on to read lore. It’s totally me, I know that. But I’m willing to bet I’m in good company.

My proof is Exhibit A – The void and the shadowmen. Go up to 10 people in EQII and I bet 9 of them know nothing about what that backstory is. Lore junkies are going to cringe right now, but from what I gather, the shadowmen are some type of extraplanar beings, that have bad intentions, and have been studying us and doing an “invasion of the body snatchers,” sorta thing on us. They originate in the Void, and enter through the obelisks (like Obelisk of Souls and Obelisk of Blight), and they have invaded places like Enchanted Lands and Nek Forest. There are also connections to the Everlings, especially Rikantus, as well as Varsoon and Mayong Mistmoore. I know there’s a bunch more, since they seem to be everywhere, but beyond that, all I know is that it’s bad stuff.

Game update 46 will mark the beginning of some cool in game events related to the shadowmen. It sounds like they are finally going to make their move and invade. We’ll be seeing some weird energy storms that indicate their arrival, which reminds me of the movie Signs.

The reason in game events are cool is because they take the story and make it come alive. Maybe it’s just that I’m a visual person, but a wall of text doesn’t compel me as much as seeing that story actually playing out before my eyes. Hearing tales about the invasion of the shadowmen is one thing – seeing them make their way down, like something out of Independence Day, is 100 times cooler. The “invasion” of places like Enchanted Lands and Nek Forest are not compelling because they aren’t real invasions. We know from the first second we set foot in there that the mobs are going to wander their scripted paths and just lolligag around till someone offs them. They will never actually *get* anywhere, and they definitely won’t zone into other lands. All of that is out the window with a live event, or at least, I freakin hope it is! I want to see shadowmen everywhere, and see Norrathians slowly get “borged.” I want to feel like I’m doing my part to stem the tide of the invaders. I want to feel like a hero!

And hopefully, when all is said and done, a lot more people will be aware of a pretty cool backstory. Maybe even me!

Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (2)