Everquest II: Rise of Kunark

Release Date: Est. November 13, 2007

Genre(s): MMORPG

Rating(s): Teen

Platform(s): WindowsEverquest II: Rise of Kunark is an upcoming EverQuest II expansion pack from Sony Online Entertainment The expansion pack is set to introduce a new continent, Kunark; a new player race, the Sarnak; and raise the level cap for adventure, tradeskills and guilds to 80.

History of Kunark

Over the five hundred years transpired between the setting of the original Everquest and Everquest II, the continent of Kunark has changed in many important ways. The various cataclysms that occurred during this period in Norrath had a tangible impact on Kunark, with many areas of the geography being unrecognizable to those familiar with the continent from Everquest.

The Iksar Empire is being rebuilt, with the giants being pushed towards the north of the continent, and the Sarnak, the new playable race, pushed towards the west, and their home city, Chardok. Upon arriving in Kunark, players will be immersed in a war between the powerful Iksar Empire and the other inhabitants of Kunark.

The Sarnak

A render of the new player race, the Sarnak.

The Sarnak in Everquest were an NPC race that inhabited part of Kunark. In Rise of Kunark there are two distinct types of Sarnak: NPC characters who will be familiar to players of the original Everquest; and the new, playable Sarnak, who were “magically engineered” to fight in the war against the Iksar Empire. These Sarnak were hunted by Iksar, who saw them as a threat against their rapidly growing empire. Thus, the remainder of these engineered Sarnak were hidden, believe destroyed by the Iksar and have only just began to emerge.

The playable Sarnak will begin in the lush jungle islands of Timorous Deep, where new Sarnak players attempt to rejoin their race, learn about their history and find their way to the city of Chardok. The eventual quest for Sarnak players is to be able to help their race in the war against the Iksar, and to be able to be of use, the players will have to level in Timorous Deep, the Shattered Lands of the base game, the Desert of Flames, Kingdom of Sky and Echoes of Faydwer content, before finally being able to be reunited with their race and fight in the war against the Iksar.

New Features

A character in a dungeon in Rise of Kunark.

Rise of Kunark brings several new features to EverQuest II. The expansion will feature considerably larger zones than any previous content in the game, the expansion consisting of large areas which are actually multiple zones with seamless transition between them.

Another newly introduced feature will be that of epic weapons. Epic weapons were introduced in EverQuest with the The Ruins of Kunark expansion pack, and allowed each player to complete a series of quests for a powerful magical weapon, unique to their particular class. According to the announcements, the difficulty in obtaining the epic weapons will be due to the difficulty of the events, quests and encounters. However, the epic weapons are not designed to be regarded as an entitlement that every member of a class will obtain, and that the series of quests, which will include solo, group and raid content will require effort and dedication.

There will be 24 epic weapons, one for each character class; each of which will have a distinctive look and be tailored to be desired by the class it was designed for.

Rise of Kunark zones

The coastline of the new starting zone, Timorous Deep.

The new starting area is Timorous Deep, which will have content available for new characters from levels one to twenty. All Sarnak will start in Timorous Deep, and newly created characters from any of the neutral races will have the option to begin in Timorous Deep. The zone will consist of lush, jungle islands in the ocean known as Timorous Deep, and the new village of Gorowyn.

The vast majority of the rest of the content will be focused around the levels of 65 to 80, forming the new endgame content of the EverQuest II. Aside from Timorous Deep, new zones include: Kylong Planes (consisting of the zones of Dreadlands, Burning Woods and Firiona Vie from the original EverQuest expansion pack, The Ruins of Kunark) the Fens of Nathsar (consisting of The Ruins of Kunark zones Timorous Deep, Field of Bone and the Lake of Ill Omen) and Jarsath Wastes (containing the OverThere and Skyfire Mountains from The Ruins of Kunark). New indoor areas and dungeons include the City of Mist, Sebilis, Karnor’s Castle, and Veeshan’s Peak.