Brailyn@Lucan DLere wrote:

We've all been prone to nostalgia when it comes to EverQuest... I too long for some awesome reliving experience of those I had in EQ.

But frankly, it's been 500 years and this is EverQuest II. If they bring out anything then you'd have to assume that regardless of what climate or shattering or anything else, 500 years is a long time to change the landscapes.

You could expect the same thing from anyone in a major metropolitan city in the United Sates. They love their city and know exactly what it looks like, but do to some unfortunate changes and events, the city no longer looks the same. Yet, the people adore and cherish their city despite having years go by with things looking differenly that before.

I'd love to play EverQuest all over again with better graphics too! However, I am prepared for what this game brings to the table in terms of 500 years gone by.

 

---- From what I gather still, it appears maybe we can be aligned with these "invaders". There have been quartermasters and merchants/menders, etc...

Does anyone have any new lore text from quests or dialogues yet?

Geologically speaking, 500 years is nothing.  Thus far, the geological destruction on Norrath seems to be limited largely to old Antonica.  Faydwer had minimal upheaval, with the only major change being that Dagnor's Cauldron is open to the sea.  Kunark had a couple of earthquake faults open in Burning/Stone Woods and Swamp of No Hope, and they destroyed Cabilis.  Most of the changes we've seen on Norrath beyond the original breaking of Antonica have been political, not geological.  If they pull the trigger on Velious, I'd expect the same there. 

The rumor is Velious melted.  Given the lore behind Velious' freezing, I find this to be unlikely.  It could ultimately prove to be no more than a rumor, or it might be real.  Only the devs know for sure, and unless they are working on it right now, they can always change their mind a dozen times between now and whenever we might see it again.

I have no doubt that the original intent when the game was launched was to have melted Velious, but the game has significantly changed directions in terms of how it presents Norrath since then.

The Order of Rime, if it indeed hails from Velious, would indicate significant freezing remains.  That Frost Giants are working with dwarves and other races is a new political development that I find to be very interesting.  The dragon turtles pulling the ice vessel could, however, be no more than a new interpretation of the species of giant "dragon turtle" , an example of which was the giant turtle in Iceclad Ocean in EQ1.  I cannot wait for this to go live and I hope beyond hope that the Order of Rime is NOT connected to the Void in any vital way.  The Void is played out and the Order of Rime looks damn interesting.  And I want their armor.  Wow.

I repeat: Velious is a continent made of rock, and covered with snow. All of you who are doubtful of Velious "melting" must be thinking that the whole continent was one giant ice cube, and that 500 years isn't enough to refreeze anything that has melted.

The basic premise and lore of the game pretty much states that the water levels around the Shattered Lands rose because of Velious' ice melting.

For a good idea of what frozen southern continents look like, compare Antarctica:

http://scentofpine.files.wordpress....arctica_map.jpg

It's a continental chunk of rock, like Cusa said, with a layer of perma-ice (and Velium), with ice sheets surrounding the core. Even if all of the ice sheets melt, the rock remains...

Well hopefully velious will only be half melted, we arrive at a time when velious is starting to melt but a large chunk of it is still freezing/just about to thaw.

that would be neat

It's already melted. What's done is done.

Cusashorn wrote:

It's already melted. What's done is done.

Antonica is done.  Faydwer is done.  Kunark is done.  Why?  They exist in game. 

Odus is not done.  Velious is not done.  Why?  They do not exist in game.

Lore and rumor ultimately mean nothing until they are realized in physical art and code.

Velious can go any way the devs feel like making it go until it's coded and rendered.  They could decide they wanted to crashed Odus into Velious making one supercontinent and sucking the whole thing into the Void if they wanted to. God I hope I didn't just give them another bad idea. 

My point is, games change direction from conception to launch to live evolution.  Devs leave and new devs with new ideas and philosophies join.  The game has had several managers come and go.  The original lore dev left and was replaced.  Anything and everything that was stated and we believed to be true from the game's launch that hasn't made it live is open to revision.  Sometimes it's open to revision even after it's live.  The point is we simply don't know.  We aren't in charge and we aren't privy to what's being made until they choose to make us privy.  Until that point, we merely have belief.  You believe the ice melted.  You don't know.  I believe it could go either way.  I don't know.  I know what I want, but what I want and what becomes reality rarely mesh the way I want them too.  What I do know is that I can't wait util Fan Faire to see what they've actually come up with.  It could be an entirely third direction.  I've been playing SOE MMOs for over ten years now.  I've learned never to put faith in what is stated or declared until I see it on my screen.

Meaghan@Lucan DLere wrote:

Cusashorn wrote:

It's already melted. What's done is done.

Antonica is done.  Faydwer is done.  Kunark is done.  Why?  They exist in game. 

Odus is not done.  Velious is not done.  Why?  They do not exist in game.

Lore and rumor ultimately mean nothing until they are realized in physical art and code.

Velious can go any way the devs feel like making it go until it's coded and rendered.  They could decide they wanted to crashed Odus into Velious making one supercontinent and sucking the whole thing into the Void if they wanted to. God I hope I didn't just give them another bad idea. 

My point is, games change direction from conception to launch to live evolution.  Devs leave and new devs with new ideas and philosophies join.  The game has had several managers come and go.  The original lore dev left and was replaced.  Anything and everything that was stated and we believed to be true from the game's launch that hasn't made it live is open to revision.  Sometimes it's open to revision even after it's live.  The point is we simply don't know.  We aren't in charge and we aren't privy to what's being made until they choose to make us privy.  Until that point, we merely have belief.  You believe the ice melted.  You don't know.  I believe it could go either way.  I don't know.  I know what I want, but what I want and what becomes reality rarely mesh the way I want them too.  What I do know is that I can't wait util Fan Faire to see what they've actually come up with.  It could be an entirely third direction.  I've been playing SOE MMOs for over ten years now.  I've learned never to put faith in what is stated or declared until I see it on my screen.

 

/agree - we have seen Sony take so many crazy liberties with Everquest when creating EQ2 why is not above them to completely change this?

Maybe Velious didnt melt, maybe Karana was in on the whole blowing up of Luclin and created 40 days and nights of storms and omg, a HUGE FLOOD HAPPENED!

In all seriousness though, If the Order of Rime is from Velious (As it seems to appear they are with their velium weapons and looks etc...) then it would indicate that at least some of it is still frozen so saying "Its melted, whats done is done" is completely shortsighted of you Cusa, it is CLEARLY not completely frozen cause these dudes are riding on a freaking glacier. 

The simple fact is a completely melted velious would suck and frankly this game cannot take another crappy xpac since the dog pile that TSO is.

Trevalon wrote:

In all seriousness though, If the Order of Rime is from Velious (As it seems to appear they are with their velium weapons and looks etc...) then it would indicate that at least some of it is still frozen so saying "Its melted, whats done is done" is completely shortsighted of you Cusa, it is CLEARLY not completely frozen cause these dudes are riding on a freaking glacier. 

Velious is not some floating iceberg, it is a contanient that is so cold it is permanatly frozen.

The RL equivlent to this would be either Antartica or Greenland. If either of these fully melted, it would raise the sea levels around the world by a good amount (as seen in EQ2), but there would still be a land mass in their place. instead of being an ice, snow and glacier place, it would be a rocky land mass with rivers where there were once glaciers and fields where there was once just snow.

Noaani wrote:

Trevalon wrote:

In all seriousness though, If the Order of Rime is from Velious (As it seems to appear they are with their velium weapons and looks etc...) then it would indicate that at least some of it is still frozen so saying "Its melted, whats done is done" is completely shortsighted of you Cusa, it is CLEARLY not completely frozen cause these dudes are riding on a freaking glacier. 

Velious is not some floating iceberg, it is a contanient that is so cold it is permanatly frozen.

The RL equivlent to this would be either Antartica or Greenland. If either of these fully melted, it would raise the sea levels around the world by a good amount (as seen in EQ2), but there would still be a land mass in their place. instead of being an ice, snow and glacier place, it would be a rocky land mass with rivers where there were once glaciers and fields where there was once just snow.

Yes I know what Velious is.  I am just committing on the absurdity of them releasing a Velious based xpac with a melted Velious and how completely stupid it would be.

Basically I, as well as a few others here, are hanging onto hope that Velious isn't actually melted and some of the clues from the Rime dudes seem to indicate that it may not at least completely be melted.

Even I have stated in this thread that it's not impossible for it to have refrozen. You really think I can't see that for myself?

Let's think real world mechanics here for a sec. We know that severe glacial melting from Velious was the culprit behind the massive sea level rise we find throughout Norrath today. Yes, it's possible that the continent has begun to refreeze, but wouldn't that mean an equally dramatic drop in sea levels would accompany it? On Earth, glacial expansion means ocean levels drop (think Alaskan landbridge). In order for Velious to be anywhere near as large or frozen as it once was would mean ocean levels at or near pre-cataclysmic levels, don't you think... barring some sort of divine intervention in the extreme.

Greyquill wrote:

Let's think real world mechanics here for a sec. We know that severe glacial melting from Velious was the culprit behind the massive sea level rise we find throughout Norrath today. Yes, it's possible that the continent has begun to refreeze, but wouldn't that mean an equally dramatic drop in sea levels would accompany it? On Earth, glacial expansion means ocean levels drop (think Alaskan landbridge). In order for Velious to be anywhere near as large or frozen as it once was would mean ocean levels at or near pre-cataclysmic levels, don't you think... barring some sort of divine intervention in the extreme.

Which could explain why the once incrossable seas that prevented us from going to Kunark and Faydwer are now calm enough to cross.

As a continent with large patches of magically frozen ice on it, even if the whole thing melted it wouldn't make sense for ALL the snow to go away. The patches of Velium would begin to refreeze immediately even if peices of Luclin came raining down red hot.

Possibly a good 70% or more of the continent is melted, but significant chunks of it should still be covered in normal ice layered over "ancient" velium.

And as for real world mechanics...this is a world of magic. And more than that, its part of a story. While we logically want things to proceed in a realistic manner, emotionally it often makes more "sense" to ignore the logical or the scientific in favor of the "romantic" and "exciting". I'm just hoping the new continent of Velious manages to satisfy the nostalgic and is beautiful.

I've recently heard a rumor, and it's only a rumor, that the current take on Velious is to have the ice partially thawed in areas but to have other areas remain frozen as they were in EQ1.  This would be in order to stay somewhat true to the original vision for EQ2, but not alienate those original EQ1 players who had fond memories of the original and would take exception to drastic changes to beloved locations  i.e.the rage over  Felwithe/New Tunaria.  This is only a rumor I've heard and is no way based on any hard information.

I can believe that.

We know that Melt from Velious caused global flooding...but like was said before...Velious is a huge continent. the ice melt off from a melt the size of iceland coudl cause the flooding..yes still keep most of Velious frozen...while the Wakening lands expands in the melted area.

you know, that coudl be the whole Order of Rime itself. the Coldain/Kromrif that couldn't adapt to the 'melted' velious have been forced to join forces on the still 'frozen' parts due to thier not being all that much left that isn't (potentially) dragon controled.