Mobhunter: Drizzt Joins the Wayfarer Brotherhood

R.A. Salvatore will be writing a series of novels based on Everquest. Here's the press release. Salvatore is the author of the very popular Dark Elf books which has now reached a total of sixteen novels. About half of the PC names in Everquest are different spellings of "Drizzt" so even if you haven't read his stuff you've already know his work.

Lore is a very important part of the game for me. There is a lot of story that can be gathered from various quests and some outdated information from the beta. Often there are holes and half the fun is filling in those holes with our own lore. Don't like how the Wayfarer's run things? Perhaps they're a fascist organization spreading propaganda and using the players as their own army of thugs and assassins. Can't figure out why the vampires of Mistmoore aren't attacking Felwithe? Perhaps they are too busy in-fighting to care about the mortals up above. Marvel comics used to have a thing called the no-prize for people who fixed continuity mistakes in their comics. Its fun to do that with EQ as well. It's easy to find a plot hole but it's harder to come up with an explanation of the plot hole yourself.

Salvatore has spoken well of Everquest in the past. He is an Everquest player and even made the mistake of giving his name out during an online chat with SOE and the players. I sent him a tell once but he was AFK in the bazaar. I think Sony built him a special kiosk up there.

Salvatore has the opportunity to fill out the world of Norrath beyond anything we've had so far. A lot of Everquest lore comes from woefully outdated bits and pieces from pre-beta days. Expansion lore, in-game stories, and quest dialog fills out the rest. There is a lot of room to fill, however, and some of us have a great time filling it in with our own ideas. Lore is a very important part of the game for me and I am looking forward to these novels. It will be nice to carry a bit of Everquest with me when I can't log in.

[Update: One would have hoped that I had actually carefully read the press release. Salvatore isn't writing the books himself but editing books written by a selected group of fantasy writers. Its still good news, but we won't be seeing Salvatore's writing himself, at least not for all of it. Published Everquest fiction from any author is still very exciting and I am still looking forward to it. Sorry for the error. - Loral]

This week is the fifth anniversary of Everquest. Keep an eye out for scavenger hunts, battles against beasts of ages long past, big firework displays and possible armies attacking our fair cities.

I haven't seen a lot of in-game events happening recently. The dynamic nature of Everquest leaves a lot more room for events like this so I hope we will see some fun ones this week and I hope we see more of them in the future.

The official Everquest 2 website has gone through an update including a large expansion of the official Everquest 2 forums. Our old friend Moorgard is running the show over there so be nice. It was on that forum that I first learned about Salvatore's new books.

There was a small patch today. The casino returns for the third time so lets all keep our fingers crossed. There is a new newspaper at the town Crier. I don't know how many people read it but it is very relaxing to buy up a newspaper and sit on the shores of Felwithe's river reading of the Antonican Bards news.

There were some positive changes to the Shaman heal over time spells with some fifty point per tic hit point increases on spells. I can't say if this will appease Shaman or not but its a step in the right direction.

See you at the fireworks display!

Loral Ciriclight
loral@loralciriclight.com
16 March 2004