Reign of the Skeleton Bear
Just a server idea that I have been working on.
The basic idea is for an alternate Kunark time line with Kunark era mobs progressing through player unlocks to a revamped Antonica and Odus.
My desire is to create a fun progression that is friendly to soloists, groupers, and raiders equally. Tradeskillers, groupers, and raiders can all thrive.
I never really liked the way EQ gave you so many spells all at once. I am a D&D nerd from way back so I liked only have so many spells you could memorize per day. Lacking the patience to actually make that mechanic a reality, I have created (copied) a later EQ mechanic that made getting spells and gear more difficult. But I also balance that by letting players grind out tradeskills to craft gear and spells that match or are slightly better than those dropped by NPCs.
This server is not even close to a finished product, just an ideas with a few zones and quests completed.
Server Name: Reign of The Skeleton Bear
Timeline: Alternate
Client: Titanium
Server Version: Current EQEMU
Database: Current PEQ except custom content in Cabilis, Sebilis, Charasis, Karnor's Castle, Firiona Vie, Veksar, Chardok, all zones in Odus and Antonica.
Start City: East and West Cabilis, all races, all classes.
Zones Available: Kunark initially, Odus/Antonica unlocked by player progression.
Maximum Level: 60
Concurrent Connections: 1 initially, up to 2 if player base desires.
Starting Gear: Tier 0 class chest, tier 0 class weapon. Quest notes.
Starting Spells: Tier 0 class spells
Item Acquistion: Class Spells and Gear are acquired through turn in of looted runes. There are 10 tiers of each. Rewards will be random each tier weighted based on slot. Duplicate items can be crafted, along with an additional rune of the appropriate level, and various looted or purchased items into a desired item of that tier. Trivial skill level will be based on item tier, and recipes must be discovered by players after server start. Recipes will be no drop, and players may share or sell them as they desire.
Spell and Gear Runes: All will be no drop. Gear runes will only be usable by melee and hybrid. Spell runes will be usable only by casters and hybrids.
Weapons: Basic weapons will drop regularly from mobs, however player made weapons will be far superior. Each tier of weapon can be upgraded into one or more versions at the next level by a smith of appropriate skill. Recipes will be available as npc loot at server start. As with other recipes, they will be no drop, and players may share thier knowledge, sell their knowledge, or keep it to themselves.
Coin: Mobs and merchants will be coin poor, except for hoarder type boss mobs. The fastest initial route for coin acquisition will be through quests. Obviously the more difficult the quest, the more reward in coin.
Mob and encounter difficulty: Typical mobs will be tuned to classic like difficulty. Raid events will exist, however their difficulty should not exceed the need for two to three level appropriate groups.
Gems: Gems will have typical higher value as loot, however thier true value will be in their tradeskill use. Player made gear will typically be significantly better than loot found on trash mobs. Rare and Boss mob loot will typically remain best in slot.
Epic Weapons: There will be three routes to the acquisition of epic weapons. (1) The simplest route will be similar to classic, requiring the individual player to complete a series of difficult but solo-able quests, followed by a final turn in to a quest NPC that only spawns upon completion of a level 50 raid event. To avoid bottle necks, but keep introduction of epics low, the final NPC will despawn after six turn ins per raid event. (2) A second route for more casual players or guilds incapable of raid content will exist requiring the player to complete the same series of difficult but soloable quests, followed by a number of difficult single group quests, followed by a final turn in. The final turn in, however will also require multiple rare items and a significant amount of coin. (3) And finally a third route will be available to the soloist. This method will require the soloist to complete a more difficult series of solo quests that will require the mastery of several tradeskills to create items traded to NPCs throughout the world for epic runes. The completed epic rune set once turned in will allow the soloist to attempt a series of class events of increasing difficulty that must be defeated solo. Players can pursue all three routes concurently.
Draft Lore:
As the outsiders from Antonica continued to pour into the lands of the Kunzar, Venril Sathir finally achieved the lichdom that Innoruuk had long ago promised. With a new corporeal form Sathir began anew his effort to revive the powers and magic of his Shissar masters.
On the cusp of mastering the Shissar magic and with his confidence at its peak, Sathir broke free of Innoruuk's bargain and abandonded Karnor's Castle. Although he felt no particular love for her, Venril made his way to Charasis to raise his wife Drusella. While no love existed between them, their combined power had always been formidable and their lust for ever more power and vengeance made the renewed match more than convenient.
After raising Drusella, the pair's combined power and knowledge gained over a millenia of exile was quickly put to use laying plans to rebuild the Kunzar Empire with the help of Venril's new found Shissar magic.
In the tenth year of their labors, Venril discovered the long lost laboratory of Atrebe Sather at Kor'Sha. The vast knowledge housed at Kor'Shar, particularly the knowledge of dragons and the secrets of the creation of the Sarnak and Sokokar were just what the Sathirs sought to provide them a loyal army to reestablish thier domination over all the lands of the Kunzar.
Feeling himself master of the Sebilisian and now Shissar magics, Venril began breeding his army and experimenting with magics designed to break the power of the Ring of Scale in Veeshan's Peak and throughout the lands of the Kunzar. He even went so far as to contemplate and design experiments for magics that would complete the Silencign of the Gods, and expel them entirely from Kunark, granting him continental hegemony.
For five years Sathir labored while his army matured and trained, and one day a training accident in the ruined city of Chelsith, uncovered the perversely preserved remains of a Shissar soldier. To his utter surprise, Venril Sathir had possession of the preserved corpse of a race not seen in his world for thousands of years, his former masters, a slave more powerful than he had hoped for. A slave race of this power would not only provide him an unstoppable army, but perhaps unlock even more secrets of their power that in their time nearly matched that of the Gods themselves. So Sathir set about attempting to raise the Shissar soldier and clone it, and after many attempts he was successful and produced a small brood of live Shissar.
His tinkering had not gone unnoticed. Cazic-Thule had not sent the Greenmist to destroy his creation, the Shissar, without reason. This intrusion into his godly demesne could not go unpunished. However lacking means to directly intervene Cazic was forced to dispatch an avatar in his place to destroy the broodling Shissar and punish Sathir and his wife. To his chagrin, he had waited too long, and after a mighty battle the avatar of fear was defeated and imprisoned in Charasis. This also did not go unnoticed and other Gods, fearing that Cazic-Thule woudl achieve a foothold on the continent, sent thier own minions to contain the avatar in Charasis.
Having abandoned Charasis to the now battling minions of the Gods, Sathir and his grown Shissar soldiers established a short lived foothold in Chardok, but the Shissar wizards rose up against Sathir and drove him out. Sathir's Sarnak host fought bravely but were driven through the Burning Wood, beyond the Sky Fire Mountains, as the Ring of Scale watched in horror, at the return of the Shissar. Sathir's army fought and lost battle after battle until they eventually were driven through Trakanon's Teeth and fled into Old Sebilis, inadverdantly liberating the imprisoned dragon Trakanon. To this day Venril and Drusella experiment and plot in the ruined city of Old Sebilis, seeking a way to regain dominion over the Shissar and the Kunzar Empire.
Horrified by the thought of Cazic-Thule's creations once more establishing their cruel empire in the lands of Kunark, Phara Dar and the Ring of Scale took action. Not wishing to take sides and in keeping with the laws of Veeshan, Phara Dar set out a plan to seperate from them, the Iksar and goblin slaves that the Shissar needed to maintain their empire. But Talendor, instigated by the poisonous whispers of Trakanon, had other ideas. Rather than simply deny the Shissar access to slaves, Talendor and his hoarde chose to destroy the slaves entirely. The near genocide of the Iksar race was more than Phara Dar could bear, and once again the Ring of Scale split. With grudging assistance from the Claws of Veeshan, Phara Dar drove Talendor and his hoarde from the lands. Perhaps naively Phara Dar chose to believe that Talendor would simply find a jungle in Antonica and return to a more peaceful life. She was sadly mistaken.
Talendor and his hoarde ravaged the continents of Antonica and Odus, sacking city after city. Again instigated by Trakanon, Talendor agreed to liberating Lady Vox and Lord Nagafen from their confinement. But fearing the stories of the power of a chromatic dragon, that their illegal pairing could produce, Talendor wisely secreted away Lady Vox's eggs and their Drokota defenders.
Driven from their homes, a small band of Barbarians searched all of the lands of Antonica and Odus. They gathered to them all of the remnants of all of the races and as much knowledge and magic as they could carry, and set sail in the Timourous Deep in search of a new home.
Landing in the lands of Kunark they first discovered the ruins of Firiona Vie. But abandoned the idea of reestablishing the outpost after months of pitched battles, and were driven into the Lake of Ill Omen where they were rescued by the sad remnants of the Iksar population. The Antonican refugees, in desperate need of respite, accepted the Iksar invitation to reside for a time in New Sebilis on the condition that they work to discover the secret to entering Veksar, the last Iksar city unbreached by Dragon or Shissar.
For a decade, under the leadership of the barbarian Clan of the Skeleton Bear, the refugees from Antonica and the remnants of the Iksar civilization have grown and thrived. And now have called out to all among them who seek adventure to travel the lands, learn new skills, seek out artifacts of power, and gain strength. For Antonica will not suffer the dominion of rogue dragons forever.
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Hybrid Mode
