EverQuest 2: Unfinished Stories Part 2c

Well this is taking more work than I thought, but I'm going to continue it to the end, the faction grind is slowing me down a bit.

However back to the Ratonga History

The next time we get an update to the Ratonga History is with the release of the expansion Sentinel's Fate. We return to the continent of Odus which has been transported to Ultera when the Erudites tried to reconnect the Ulterian spires.

When we get to the Sundered Frontier one of the quests you get is to take care of some vermin, these vermin look very similar to ratonga, and as you go further in the quest you find they are actually the Roekillik.

When you do the Lore and Legend quest for the Roekillik the book you are given give a lot of insite not only to the roekillik but to the ratonga as well.

An Agenda to Carry Out

I write this for you, the young ones of the pack.

The lesser-ones, yes, the bane-touched creations given our name – As if they could ever replace us! HA! They were to carry out the Agenda. They knew enough of the plan to carry it out, say the pack elders. They were to be used. Tools to our ascension, discarded when done. But now we are cut off from them. You don’t think they could be messing it all up or worse, they could be fulfilling it, and reaping the rewards for themselves!? To even think of those pathetic no-claws conquering and spreading disease throughout the world when they only deserve to serve us, the true roekillik!

I was not there, nor was my sire, or his, or my greatsire, but oh, I know the lesser ones’ place and history! Even if they do not! We came first, carved out of the Clay of Cosgrove, by Brell Serilis, that miserable excuse for a deity! But then he didn’t like us. He attacked us, his own creations, when he learned of my ancestor’s campaign of dominating and purifying the Underfoot! What else were we to do?! We have always been good at killing! It is said that we had successfully brought about the eradication of several inferior beings within the Underfoot. Even then we knew it was our destiny to conquer all of Norrath. We are superior!

His divine wrath crushed and cut down a great many of us! The true roekillik were all but destroyed. Smote by our own creator! Unwilling or able to annihilate all of us, he imprisoned the few survivors within the Vaults of Serilis. Guess he didn’t have the spine for eradication! There my ancestors languished, unable to dig their way out, despite their teeth and claws, the very instruments bestowed upon us by Brell for burrowing through the stone of the Underfoot. Then to find that he went back to his pile of clay and created them, the lesser-ones!

Our jailer and creator tried to recreate us, but this time he employed the help of Bristlebane. Good ‘ole ‘Bane boy! A touch of mirth was to be added to these new creatures, with the intention of replacing the “darkness” that he claimed dwelled with us. At first, the plan seemed to work and Brell smiled upon our imitations. But his mockery didn’t stop there! He named them roekillik too! His creativity must have hit bedrock! Disfigured and crippled imitations, they had inferior teeth and hardly any claws to speak of. But what they lacked in menace they made up for in deception! To our glee, the King of Thieves had given them this talent in secret.

They began to spread out from the lowest reaches of the Underfoot, rebelling against Brell’s wishes, and venturing into the higher levels of the plane. Oh, how they grow up! Once there, they began stealing the riches of the Underfoot, hoarding and amassing treasures. And oh, when daddy Brell discovered this was he furious! Although, he went rather easy on them, if you ask me. Rather than decimating the no-claws, he merely imprisoned them within the Vaults, confining them within his fortress, alongside the true roekillik.

Brell’s arrogance and foolishness made our foresires livid! He had created us, and we were superior to all that existed! How dare he attempt to “improve” upon us with these new ones, and then say these lesser-ones were worthy of life, while we were not!? The battle that occurred within the Vaults of Serilis was devastating! Their pack out numbered ours, but they were no match for the deranged ferocity and wicked cunning of the true roekillik. We are superior! Before the sentries of Brell were able to separate them, nearly all of the pitiful no-claws were slaughtered, with the survivors quickly enslaved by our foresires. We were their ascendants in more ways than one!

These lesser-ones lived within the bonds of servitude, manipulated from afar by our mental prowess, for countless seasons. Pulling on their strings! During the age called “Blood” by surface-worlders, a band of dark men entered the Vaults of Serilis and met the no-claws. Using their skills of trickery and guile, they were able to convince the dark men to facilitate their escape from their divinely-imposed imprisonment. Don’t be impressed, man is stupid! This was to our advantage, for although they had not released us, the lesser-ones returned to the Underfoot, where they continued to perform nefarious deeds on our behalf, still calling themselves roekillik.

That is, most of them did -those that knew better! The majority of the freed lesser-ones were still loyal to their masters – their rightful masters! They knew their place and were prepared to carry out their part of the Agenda. The details of the Agenda did not matter to them. They wouldn’t have understood them, anyway! But our foresires heard of an uprising amongst the freed no-claws. A select few of incompetent lesser-ones were attempting to leave the pack, and break their bonds of servitude. Maybe a few of them had spines after all, but not for long! They were slain for being pathetic traitors, forcing those who agreed with them to think again, or flee.

Those who skittered away were merely putting off the inevitable. They would be slaughtered without the protection of the pack! They were doomed to meet their horrific end within the harsh world of the Underfoot before they would ever reach the surface world. Squish! Rock in the brain pan! We shouldn’t even give thought to the possibility that they survived and continued to besmirch our good name by spreading themselves upon the surface. Those that knew their place continued to carry out their part of the Agenda. They courted Bertoxxulous, the Plaguebringer! Our foresires had long admired the god of disease, and his tenacious lust for decay. A god with a kindred spirit! His help was the cornerstone of the Agenda.

I wouldn’t state here the details of the Agenda, in case this tome was to ever find its way into the wrong hands. In fact, I may have told too much as it is! But you’re one of our own. I will say that the lesser-ones were eager to please their ages-old masters, even when it meant self-sacrifice. How useful! They were to be carriers, using the caverns of the Underfoot as their means of travel. This ensured that there would be no place on Norrath that they could not reach. The world would be left a cursed cesspit of disease for everyone to wallow in, and the true roekillik would reign!

The Agenda was certain to succeed if it had not been for the damned actions of our wretched creator! Spoil sport. He sealed the Underfoot off from the rest of Norrath when he withdrew from mortal contact. Run away squeamish one! We could no longer communicate with our servants, and they help the gift bestowed upon us by the Plaguebringer! We had no idea what was happening outside the sealed realm. It was of little consequence that his absence gave us the opportunity to escape the Vaults of Serilis, for we could still not leave the Underfoot! Then came the intoxicating day of magic!

Our foresires had no idea what triggered it or what had happened outside the of Underfoot. They only knew that there was a great hum as loud as any horn, and suddenly the world felt penetrable, and their eyes were blinded by the brightest of light to have ever reached the dark recesses of Norrath! Arcane powers flowed through their veins, overwhelming them with exquisite pleasure. When they woke from the experience my ancestors could see nothing different, but they felt it. An immeasurable arcane experience had occurred, and they survived it!

It has been years since that day.Oh, how time flies when you’re killing! And a myriad of ways to escape the confines of the Vault of Living Stone have been found. Called by the abundant (and addictive) kaborite deposits within Odus, we now take refuge within the Hole, and any of the caverns and tunnels of the deep. It was not easy, but we will never be deterred! Let this be a lesson those damned lesser-ones learn! The day will come when we are no longer imprisoned! There is talk now of a magic system of travel being explored by the grey men. Could they finally be of use? Just a teensy bit? If they give us the key to our freedom, maybe their deaths should be quick. Right, young one?

Then we will fulfill the Dark Agenda!

After reading this a number of questions have been answered, the Ratonga were not only created by Brell but also with the help of Bristlebane. They ancestors of the ratonga escaped from the Vault of Serilis with help from Erudites and after there escape an uprising took place between the ratonga that continued to serve the roekillik and those that wanted to throw off the shackles of the roekillik.

So the Ratonga we see today are the decedents of those that escaped from the Roekillik.

Now as we continue along the time line we find that the Roekillik are also a divided race.

When you enter the zone called Demitrik's Bastion you encounter Pushu-ken of the Caertaxian Legion who want you to stop Demitrik from unleashing his version of the Dark Agenda because it inferior.

You of course kill Demitrik stopping his plan but who is Caertaxian and what is his Dark Agenda.

I'm going to leave it there because the grind for faction in The Hole is taking me longer than I thought, and I really want to impart my own experience and impressions rather than just taking someone else's posts and combining them.

RGX

EverQuest 2: Unfinshed Stories Part2b

This is my continuation of Ratonga History

After the Roekillik are introduced no new information is released about either races, but when Echoes of Faydwar is released on November 13th, 2006 a new group of rat like creatures are introduced and they are called the Ratillik.

The Ratillik can be found in Kaladim in the Butcherblock Mountains. There is no difference between them and ratonga's in appearance. I have included the lore about Kaladim to give some us some backround

Before the Age of Cataclysms, a gnomish construct came to Kaladim, city of the Dwarves, with an image of The Vaults of Serilis, a temple built by Brell Serilis himself in the deepest reaches of Norrath. Most dwarves, including the army, left Kaladim on a pilgrimage to find the Vaults, leaving behind only civilians.

When the Cataclysm struck, Kaladim suffered a severe cave-in, trapping many dwarves inside. The dwarves that had been outside mounted a rescue expedition, aided by the trapped dwarves working from the inside at first. Before the cave-in was cleared, all sounds from within Kaladim had ceased. Finally breaking in, the dwarves had found that the Cataclysm had not only caused the cave-in, but opened a path for the Horde of Serilis to leave the Underfoot and invade Norrath. The Horde of Serilis slaughtered the dwarves remaining in Kaladim and set it up as their new home.

Now this piece of lore is significant in that it mentions the Horde of Serilis and the Underfoot. The Plane of Underfoot is home to the god Brell Serilis.

Brell Serilis was the first to come to Norrath during The Age of Scale, and from his Plane of Underfoot, a dark realm of vast caves and endless tunnels, he quietly created a magical portal to a cavern deep in the belly of Norrath. Through this portal the Duke of Underfoot seeded the depths of Norrath with all manner of creatures. Brell then returned home, sealing his portal within a labyrinthine chamber of mystical Living Stone. During The Elder Age, he created the Dwarves as part of the gods' plan to keep watch over the dominant dragonkind.

Later, Brell returned to create the Gnomes, resembling Dwarves to some extent, yet more wiry and gnarled, consumed with tinkering with devices more so than their cousins.

Followers of Brell Serilis believe that the surface world is a waste of space. They find true happiness in the caves, caverns, and tunnels that perforate the belly of Norrath. But this is one of few points that all followers of Brell can agree upon. There are many different factions who wall worship Brell. The Runnyeye Clan of Goblins claim he is their father much to the disgust of the Dwarves of Kaladim who know that the Dwarves are the true children of Serilis. But the vicious Gnolls of Splitpaw disagree entirely. For was it not Brell who sculpted them out of the sacred Clay of Cosgrove? Followers of Brell Serilis in one form or another can be found nearly anywhere you enter the Underfoot of Norrath.​

So at this point we need to assume that the Ratonga, Ratillik and the Roekillik are members of the same race and they are simply different factions of that race, we also have to assume that they were  created by Brell.

A few other indicators of the Ratonga coming from the underfoot and being created by Brell is that there are Ratillik priests in the Underfoot Cathedral in Kaladim as well as Ratillik Serilian Knights.

One other fact is the Serilian Language Quest that starts in Steamfont Mountains sounds similar to the Language of the Ratonga, and  Ratonga characters can automatically get the language without having to do the quest.

So now we know a bit more history of the Ratonga, we know who created them and where they came from, what we still don't know at this point is what happened in the early history of the Ratonga that split them into different factions or who Belaska was.

I'll end this post here since the next bit of information will make this post quite long.

RGX

EverQuest 2: Unfinished Stories Part 2a

This post is going to be much longer than normal and I am going to split it up since I am not finished my play running of parts of the quest series, but I still wanted to keep with my Wednesday post.

When EverQuest 2 was released on November 9, 2004 most of the playable races were already playable in some form in the original EverQuest except for one and that race is the Ratonga.

One thing to note about this post is that I will be going chronologically going from what we knew at the beginning of EverQuest 2 to what we know now and why the Ratonga are an unfinished Story. 

Any text that is italicized has been taken from in game text. 

The Ratonga race was originally introduced as and Evil Race found in the City of Freeport. When creating a Ratonga character the information you were given stated - The Ratonga are agile, crafty and surprisingly charismatic. Little is known of their past. They are keenly perceptive and highly intelligent, but tend to be selfish and manipulative. 

At the start this is all we know of the Ratonga Race, later on we find a Quest series called The History of the Ratonga which unlocks a book for us. 

The History of Ratonga 

Through my own experiences, I have gained knowledge and insight into the ratonga.

Each part of this history tome can only be completed in its own time. 

Story 1 

Since the world is changed and we come to live on the surface, some traditions may be lost. May you learn the ratonga ways and keep them. Many are the grains of sand in the desert and also many are the years of the ratonga. Long did we dwell in the hidden places of the world, in the hidden places of the heart. Listen now, my children, draw close to hear our story, our song.

In the long-ago when the shape of the world was different, we first awoke in the darkness. See our hands? They are thin and quick and more agile than the hands of any other. See our whiskers? They take the measure of the air and the thoughts of others.

There are many paths to the light, but few that lead back into the darkness. Many are those of the surface that fear the dark, but if they could see what we see in the light, they would fear that as well. Light creates shadows. Without light, there is no dark. 

In the darkness, the Ancient of ratonga whom we call Belaska was pursued by her enemies and they caught her. She kept her fur combed and clean and slipped from their grasp, but they clung to her and would not let go. She found a small tunnel and fled into it.

Still her enemies grasped at her, pulling and pulling as Belaska twisted and clung to the sides of the tunnel. She was stronger than her enemy and pulled herself free, but her enemies' hands had stripped the luxurious fur from her tail. And that is why the ratonga tail has but fine silken hairs and not fur. Run combs of ivory and bone through your fur often and you will live long. 

Story 2  

The worlds above change as the bright sun rises and sets. Over and again, the days of the overworld come and go. Feel the rhythm of their days, through light, then half-light, then dark and half-light again. And while the overworld had its rhythm, so too had we our own. 

For is not all life of a rhythm? That is why we dance, all who breathe and know that they live will dance to music, such beautiful and haunting music. It is soft and gentle. It is hard and fast. It throbs like the pulse along the tenderest length of the neck. Listen to the rhythms, children. Listen!

Those of the overworld cannot hear the music, do not feel the rhythms as we can. And in those half-beats where they are unaware, we are keeping count. Pulse for pulse, when the rhythm is in your blood and heart, it gives you speed and grace. It gives you stealth.

That is why there is the Dance of the Ancient, my children. When the rhythms of the light and dark have spun past the world, young ratonga gather before their tribes to dance. Those whose steps are most airy and graceful are taken and trained in the Ways of Belaska, of which we will say no more. 

There is a leader among them who feels the rhythms, however, and it is to this leader that we are drawn. For around him he gathers power and prestige, and those who value these things value possessions of the world as well. They hoard their treasures, and we have seen them. 

Story 3 

Know then, that we lived many seasons of the overworld in the dark places and we danced many times over the Dance of the Ancient before the people of the overworld first knew us. They do not think as we do. They do not feel the rhythms around them. And so we watched.

In one of the many wars of the overworld, our help we granted to the leader with prestige. Through many of our secret paths (though not all) did we lead them to their victory. And in thanks, their leader gave us a patch of the overland upon which to build homes such as theirs. 

Our feet are ever on the ground and we feel its rhythms though the overworlders feel it not. And so, they trembled and cried when the rocks split and the waters churned, for they did not know it would happen. We knew and we changed our rhythm to match. In our many long lives, our places in the dark often change and shift. It gives us purpose, to anticipate what may yet be. We feel the changes and we change with them. Look at our tails! 

Now, many of the old paths are shut and many new ones are open and we have seen them. With our delicate fingers we have touched the secret centers of the world and felt its pulse. Though it may always change its shape, its pulse is known to us.  

Changes come with the shifting of the worlds. Learn the rhythm of the new world around us, but never forget the ways of our past. While we are now in the overworld, our feet still touch the ground. Sit in the open spaces of the overworld now and touch the sky as well. 

So from this book we learn that the Ratonga were originally a subterranean race and that they had fled from their enemies. We also learn that they helped Lucan D’lear lead the Freeport Militia thru tunnels during the Age of War and were given a place in Freeport for their help.

What is also mentioned is Belaska, now whether this person was just a ancestor leader of the Ratonga or a Goddess or Demi-Goddes we are not really sure of. There is another quest called Dance of the Ancient which gives us a little more background but does not really answer any question regarding Belaska.  

The Dance of the Ancient

The Dance of the Ancient is a tradition among the ratonga that they trace back to an ancestor named Belaska the Ancient. Is there more to the stories of the Ancient than the ratonga let on?

In the days when the ratonga lived below, they held gatherings several times a season. At the end of each of these gatherings, the young ratonga joined in the Dance of the Ancient. The story told is that it represents the pursuit of the Ancient, Belaska and how she evaded those who chased her.
 
Cheska could not wait for the Dance of Ancients. She walked always on the tips of her toes, graceful and swaying. She knew that only the best dancers would be selected for the secret rites that went back to the days they lived under the ground. She knew they would pick her.  

Whenever anyone teased her for walking on her tiptoes, Cheska would retort, "I must practice for the Dance of the Ancient." Everyone knew what Cheska hoped for, and they would wish her well. Some seasons, no one was selected at all to learn the Ways of Belaska. Some seasons, only one or two were chosen. Cheska wanted to be chosen.
 
The morning of the Dance dawned bright and clear. Though they had lived in burroughs just outside Freeport for several seasons now, the ratonga retreated now to darker places to perform the Dance. All through the morning, Cheska twirled on her toes, dipping and swaying gracefully, her arms arched perfectly before her, fingertips barely touching.

There was no music for the Dance. Not since the time the orcs came through the Commonlands and slaughtered an entire tribe. The ratongas cursed the orcs, but they also learned a lesson. Under the ground, sounds echoed so that their origins were hard to trace. Beneath the open sky, sounds were easier to track.  

Cheska joined the line of ratonga girls formed for the Dance. At the nod from the elder, her head snapped back and her dark eyes glittered with pride. "This is my Dance," Cheska thought. She swooped along gracefully, twirling higher than she had before and bending lower than the other girls. 

As the lines continued the Dance, the elders sat watching them, conferring by the simple twitching of their whiskers. Cheska stood even straighter, her smile even more dazzling as the girls' line spun before the elders. They simply had to choose her, she was dancing better than she ever had before. 

On their next turning, the girl immediately in front of Cheska skipped a step, breaking the rhythm and faltering as she tried to return to the proper Dance steps. Cheska's concentration was broken. "Left foot, left foot, glide...glide..." she murmured to the other girl, who smiled her thanks as she returned to the flowing movements.

 
The elders rose. Cheska's heart pounded; they were choosing now! The elders picked five boys and three girls. They did not pick Cheska. She held herself up proudly gritting her teeth to congratulate the ones selected to learn the Ways. There would be other Dances, but she would never dance again.
 
One of the elders called her aside and said, "Cheska, we would have chosen you, but...you failed us." At Cheska's puzzled look, he said, "To be ratonga, is to save yourself. You tried to save that girl. The ratonga will only survive on the surface if we think of ourselves. Remember that." Cheska simply nodded. It was a lesson she would never forget. 

Now during the original game there was a world event that introduced the Roekillik these use the same model as the Rotonga but are all smaller and have white fur.
 
I did manage to find the lore that was released when this event originally took place and include it here.
 
Roekillik - Investing in the Future

"How much?"
 
"For the entire operation?" Even as Ashargru spoke, his greedy mind calculated the profit he could make. The buyers seemed impatient, though not desperate. Not yet, anyway. He had put them off for a week, but they had returned and were much more insistent. Ashargru named a figure 35 percent above the current market value of the mine. If they declined to pay that much, he could accept less and still come out ahead.  

"Done. Coins will be delivered directly to bank. You would not carry so much; is very heavy. 

Grunting, Ashargru said, "I will take a partial payment now, if you don't mind. This mine is my only source of income; I cannot risk total loss on the words of a rat."  

The buyer's red eyes narrowed, but he said nothing to Ashargru. As he affixed dark spectacles to the bridge of his nose, the buyer gave instructions to his assistants to make sure that a partial payment found its way into seller's paws within the hour.

Even a partial payment would be sufficient, thought Ashargru. The mines had never been profitable through the many long seasons he had owned them. Once, these mines had easily produced a fine copper ore that was used in weaponry as well as decorative pieces. Now, tunnels had to be dug deeper and deeper to reach the grey-green outcroppings of such rock. It cost more to locate the copper than the copper made on the open market. Ashargru feared ruin if he could not find a way to unload the mine, sooner rather than later. 

Only two weeks ago, a handful of little white rat-folk appeared, asking questions about the soil, the conditions and the mine's depth. He'd seen ratonga before, but not little rats like these. They reminded him of stories of rat-folk that had lived in Norrath long before ratonga first appeared. Stories he had not heard or thought of since he was a child. 

Whatever they were, the main thing was that they were willing to pay for the mine. Ashargru could retire and need never set foot below ground again. The rat-folk whispered excitedly amongst themselves, scurrying to and fro. Whatever else they might be, most of them were excitable and edgy. Every so often, they stopped running around to gawk at their surroundings as though overwhelmed.

"Don't you like mining?" Ashargru asked one that paused nearby. "I thought you rat-folk hated going above ground?" 

The little white rat jumped nervously and skittered sideways before responding. "Yes, yes, we do not like it outside. The mine is very big, though. Much ground to uncover."

Another white rat paused beside them, rapidly combing its whiskers. "It must be found before the wing…" 

Immediately the first white rat began chittering excitedly, drowning out the comments of the second rat. Ashargru frowned. "The wing? The wing of what?" 

"Is nothing," said the first rat, clearing its throat and aiming a kick at his comrade. "He means the Wheel. Always searching for the Wheel, we are." 

Grumbling, Ashargru pulled on his scuffed leather overcoat. "Bah!" he growled, "I'll be glad enough to see the last of this place, wheels or wings or not. Where's my payment?" 

"It is here," hissed a voice so dry that Ashargru's spine charged with electricity. He turned slowly to see a dark shape looming over him, much taller and broader than the little white rats. In fact, he realized suddenly that the rats had scampered off and he was alone now with whatever the mine's darkness held. 

As he turned to flee, he felt its jagged claws raking through him, stripping away his greed, his fear and his life
 
One thing to note in the story is where he mention stories of Rat-folk before the Ratonga appeared. This might be referring to the Chetari which could be found in the original EverQuest in the Dragon Necropolis on the continent of Velious.

Running thru the quest you find that the Roekillik were simply hired by the Drakota to find some artifacts. No further mention is made of them again so we are left to assume the Roekillik are just an offshoot of the Ratonga or vice versa.

I'm going to end the post her since it's probably quite long already and I still have a number of quests to run and go lore to go over.

RGX

EverQuest 2: Unfinished Stories Part 1

I thought for Blaugust I would write a series of unfinished stories I have found in the world of Norrath. These are stories and quests that I think of as unfinished and could be used in future content.

The player never seems to wonder at what happens next, we killed the main bad guy and everyone lives happily ever after, or at least until the next bad guy shows up, and we repeat the cycle over and over, never really thinking of our actions and what the repercussions may be.

The unfinished story I am going to write about is about pirates and more specifically gnomish pirates.

The quest is from the Destiny of Velious Expansion which was released on February 22, 2011 and was the 7th expansion for EverQuest 2 so most people won't even remember this quest.

In the Great Divide on the Thurgadin Docks stands a female gnomish pirate captain named Captain Bin Nalot she is the Great-Great-Granddaughter of Captain Nalot who could be found in the Iceclad Ocean in the original EverQuest and what part of the Pirates of Iceclad.

Right now she is a Captain without a ship and she asks you to help her get the materials to build one. As the series progresses you manage to get enough supplies to build a small ship but than she wants a larger ship and she asks you can go diving and recover any loot from her Great-Great-Grandfathers sunken ship. You manage to find a lockbox that contains a old contract for an new ship to be constructed that was never fulfilled. She asks you to convince the gnomish shipbuilders to fulfill the contact and then collect her hidden gold and get the measurements from her Great-Great-Grandfathers sunken ship. With this all in hand construction now begins on her ship.

As a side note there is another quest series from Dort Lumrick who is part of Captain Bin Nalots’ crew.

Now why I consider this story unfinished is because to this day the ship is still sitting unfinished. As you progressed thru the quest you saw the small boat appear, and then saw the construction of the larger ship take the place of the smaller ship so the mechanic to have objects appear when they have completed a quest is readily available so it would be an easy manner of showing a completed boat after a certain amount of time has passed.

The developers could than continue to fill out the rest of the continent of Velious which I believe hasn’t all been explored, why I think that I will leave to another post.

Lastly this would finally close this story and the gnomish captain who has waited so long would finally have her ship.

RGX