Last week I began diving into EverQuest lore via primary print sources with the base game’s manual and original strategy guide. Now it’s time for Ruins of Kunark. Previously I had photographed all of the materials, but this time I opted to go with the scans on Archive.org. I own the original books (see pic above!), but using the scans makes it all much more readable. And there’s *a lot* to read here! Enough table setting- let’s dig into some EQ lore, starting with the manual.
The world building starts in the form of a traveler’s journal about why their party traveled to Kunark, and then transitions into a version of Norrath’s origin story.
It gets interesting towards the end when Kunark and the Iksar are introduced.
And that’s it for the manual. Let’s move on to the official strategy guide, which is far more robust.
It’s not until 200 pages in that we get our first bit of fresh lore, this time about Frogloks.
The “Deities of Norrath” section is essentially the same as the one in the original game’s strategy guide.
The lore / world building really kicks in during the Exploring Norrath section. This is an extremely robust section with background on the zones.
Then we get EVEN MORE background on the world (and some of its inhabitants) in the “Cities of Norrath” section!
Verant really upped the lore with Kunark. Between the manual and the guide there’s so much here to give context to the zones, NPCs, and world.
Next stop: Velious (but probably not for a while).
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