Finding the Fae

by Tony "RadarX" Jones

Everyone has been buzzing about the news of Expansion since last month's announcement. New race, new starting city, new zones for 1-70, cloaks, etc. I was curious to know what I was going to see at E3 from them. Obviously, I totally expected the expansion to be part of what was being shown. As I showed up to my appointment, and the always kind Taina Rodriguez ushered me back where Steve "Moorgard" Danuser was running the demonstration.

He ran through all the accomplishments they've made over the last 6 months, which I was already intimately familiar with, but I let him finish because...well he's Moorgard. I fear his nerf power. We went through the demo movie, which showed a wonderful cinematic sequence mixed with a little gameplay footage.

One of the most exciting aspects of Echoes of Faydwer, is the introduction of the new race, the Fae. The Fae have been in Faydwer for centuries according to Moorgard and will provide players an opportunity to start a new character. Having wonderfully colorful, butterfly like wings, they'll be the envy of every WoW player with mismatched armor. The Fae will be a neutral race, so I asked if there would be any class restrictions. Moorgard said no definitive decision had been made. I'm having a little trouble imagining a Fae in full plate armor though.

Another exciting aspect of this, is with a new playable race, comes a new starting city. Those who played EverQuest 1 will be very familiar with Kelethin. This city among the trees was wildly popular early on as a place to start out as an elf, or pre-Shadows of Luclin to actually auction your goods. Many others remember it as "that place Radar kept falling off of because they built this complex city and got cheap on the safety rails." Not bitter. While you can remain in this new city, Moorgard mentioned there will be an option to become a citizen of Qeynos or Freeport as well.

The footage I saw of Kelethin looked absolutely amazing. The buildings themselves look like giant acorns, and since it is a starting city, I expect a ton of new NPC's, quests, a bank, a broker, etc...The only thing I saw lacking in this gorgeously designed city, was, freaking safety rails. Apparently after hundreds of years, we still have the same lax safety regulations. Just because Fae have wings and can fly, does not mean dwarves in full plate armor are safe.

Well, you can start in the new city, but does that mean you can level near the city? I'm glad you asked. Echoes of Faydwer will have 20 new zones with content ranging from level 1-70. This will be the first expansion I've ever seen released for EverQuest2 that will include every player. One of these zones Moorgard mentioned, would be a personal favorite of mine, Castle Mistmoore. If you don't know it from EverQuest 1, it's hard to describe. I hope the EverQuest 2 team does it justice. If they don't, I'm totally going to cancel all my subscriptions to WoW, and play Auto Assault instead. Make sense? Yeah I don't understand what I was thinking either. Excuse me, while I grab some more Bawls mints.

Are there Giant Squirrels too?