NORRATH1999

The Lore Library

The Lore of Norrath

Every zone you camped had a story behind it. Here are the stories behind the gods, wars, empires and legends of EverQuest, retold from the original manual, in-game books, official lore articles and the community wikis that kept them. Each chapter links its sources, and where the lore contradicts itself we say so.

Original painting of a glowing open book of lore in a candle-lit library

Gods of the Pantheon · Planes & Wars of the Gods · Ages & Empires · Legendary Figures · Continents & Moons · Expansion Sagas · Cities & Peoples · Timeline

The Ages of Norrath

  1. The Age of Scale

    Veeshan rakes her claws across Velious and leaves her brood on Norrath. Dragons rule the world.

  2. The Elder Age

    Brell Serilis brokers a pact; dwarves, kedge, elves and giants are made to keep the dragons in check. A second pact brings gnomes, halflings, trolls, ogres and orcs.

  3. The Age of Monuments

    The ogre empire invades the Plane of Earth. The gods curse Rallos Zek’s children and seal the Planes of Power.

  4. The Age of Blood

    The Marr twins create the barbarians in the frozen north. Conflict follows them everywhere.

  5. The Lost Age

    Solusek Ro raises the Serpent Spine; the Elddar Forest becomes desert and Takish-Hiz falls. Humans appear and the Combine Empire rises and vanishes.

  6. The Age of Enlightenment

    Qeynos and Freeport grow; Erud leads his followers to Odus and founds Erudin.

  7. The Age of Turmoil

    Erudin’s necromancer heretics are driven out; the last battle tears open the Hole and Paineel is built. This is the age classic EverQuest is set in.

  8. Later ages (EverQuest II)

    The official timeline continues with the Age of War, the Age of Cataclysms and the Age of Destiny, the era of EverQuest II.

Sources: Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text) · Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook: History of Norrath (2002) · Library of Erudin: The Ages of Norrath

Gods of the Pantheon

The Nameless made the gods; the gods made Norrath, and then fought over it.

Rallos Zek, the WarlordThe god who would not share, and paid for it with his children.Tunare, Mother of AllMother of the elves, and the forests she could not save.Innoruuk, Prince of HateLeft out of the pact, he made his revenge out of elves.Cazic-Thule, the FacelessThe god of fear, and the day mortals finally beat one.Mithaniel & Erollisi MarrValor and love, and the gods who tried to corrupt them.Bertoxxulous, the PlaguebringerEverything dies, and he finds that beautiful.Brell Serilis, Duke of BelowThe deal-maker who seeded the world before anyone noticed.Fizzlethorpe BristlebaneThe King of Thieves, and the halflings he gave a valley to.Karana, the RainkeeperThe storm god of the plains, and the farmers who shelter strangers.Prexus, the OceanlordThe kedge’s creator, and the faithful he left behind.Quellious, the TranquilPeace, enlightenment, and a blade made to teach.Rodcet Nife, the Prime HealerThe healer god with a very strange origin story.Solusek Ro, the Burning PrinceHe raised a mountain range and burned an empire.Fennin Ro, the Tyrant of FireThe god of the Plane of Fire, and of one very good server.Xegony, Queen of AirThe air goddess, and the birds who looked down on everyone.The TribunalJustice without mercy, and no mortal court above it.Veeshan, the WurmqueenThe first god to touch Norrath, and the mother of dragons.Druzzil Ro, Matron of the ArtShe taught Zebuxoruk to share knowledge, then stopped him.Saryrn & Terris-ThulePain and nightmares, both with a taste for randomness.The Rathe, Council of EarthA god made of many, and the one death they could never undo.Morell-Thule, Lord of DreamsThe Faceless god’s outcast son, who rules the dreams of everyone asleep.Drinal & Ehayae, the Spirit GodsThe wolf who ends every life, and the hawk who begins it.The Lord of Light & the TitansTwo gods, four kinds of titan, and cages buried under the world.

Planes & Wars of the Gods

Wars fought in the heavens that left scars on the world below.

The War for the Plane of EarthThe war that cursed the ogres and froze Everfrost.The Plane of War & the Zek BrothersDrunder, the Diaku, and the generals who became gods.Agnarr the Storm LordThe storm that took over a god’s dream.Underfoot & Brell’s RestWhere Brell’s faithful go when they die, and what the gnolls are hiding.The Plane of HateA city with no open sky, built out of one god’s hatred.The Plane of SkyIslands chained to nothing, in a sky that never finishes sunset.

Ages & Empires

Dragons, elves, ogres, iksar and men: the empires that rose and fell.

The Ages of NorrathFrom the Nameless to the Age of Turmoil: the whole history in one sitting.The Elddar and Takish-HizThe great elven forest that became the Desert of Ro.The Combine EmpireHumanity’s lost empire, and the handshake that ended it.The Iksar EmpireSlaves, then emperors, then ghosts in their own ruins.Toskirakk & the Rallosian EmpireThe ogre capital whose slave-mine minted Norrath’s platinum.Ykesha & the Fall of GrobbA blood-carved prophecy, a stolen stone, and the night Grobb became Gukta.Chardok & the SarnakThe dragon-men an emperor made as slaves, who outlasted his empire.

Legendary Figures

Emperors, liches, traitors and heroes whose names you still remember.

Venril SathirEmperor, lich, and the most patient villain on Kunark.Trakanon & the Dragon WarThe dragon who saw the future and started a war to stop it.Lord Nagafen & Lady VoxThe original raid dragons were star-crossed lovers.The Claws of VeeshanThe dragon schism, and the prophecy that built the Sleeper’s Tomb.Khati Sha the TwistedThe greatest Vah Shir hero, and the terrible thing he became.Al’KaborThe wizard who sent all of Norrath to the moon.Mayong MistmooreHe let us kill him. That was the plan all along.Lanys T’Vyl & Bloody KithicorThe battle behind Kithicor’s haunted nights.MiragulFour identities, one obsession, and a fatal mistake.Aten Ha Ra & the Akhevan Civil WarA priestess made from shadow, and the storm she used to kill her sister.Kerafyrm the AwakenedThe Sleeper woke up angry, and built a nursery for a new world.Frostcrypt & the Shade KingA giant king who stayed home from a god’s war, and the funeral that never ended.Antonius Bayle & the Founding of QeynosThe plague-hunter who refused to be called king.Kerafyrm, the SleeperThe prismatic dragon and the one-time awakenings.

Continents & Moons

Kunark, Luclin, Taelosia, Alaris: the places beyond the old world.

The Vah Shir & Shar VahlA city thrown to the moon by someone else’s war.The ShissarThe serpent empire that fled a plague to the moon.Luclin, Maiden of ShadowsA goddess who wanted to be left alone, and everyone who came anyway.Alaris & the VeilA continent the dragons hid, and gods that live on belief.Katta Castellum & the LoyalistsThe Combine’s last city, on a moon, still waiting for its emperor.

Expansion Sagas

The stories that each expansion told, from the Planes of Power on.

The Planes of Power & ZebuxorukMortals storm heaven to free the god who wanted to teach them.Taelosia & Mata MuramA madman’s visions that turned out to be true.Mata Muram & DiscordA slaver of worlds, and the dark god who sent him.Al’Kabor & Miragul in the House of ThuleThe greatest wizard’s worst fear, and the lich who dreams to stay sane.

Cities & Peoples

How the cities you started in came to be, and who they were built against.

Erudin, Paineel & the HoleA civil war fought with spells, and the crater it left behind.Lucan D’Lere & the Freeport MilitiaThe orphan knight who was trusted with a city and kept it.Crushbone & the Faydark OrcsThe orc clan that split a forest in two, and the ambassador whispering to its emperor.Halas & the NorthmenA city founded on a dream, built on the cellars of a dead capital.The Coldain of ThurgadinNinety-four shipwrecked dwarves, and the leader whose name they took.Kael Drakkel & the KromzekThe last true children of Rallos Zek, and their roads made of bones.

Coming next to the library

Stories we have found and are still sourcing:

  • Neriak and the Teir’Dal houses
  • Kelethin, Felwithe and the Faydark elves
  • Ak’Anon and Meldrath the Malignant
  • Kaladim and the Butcherblock dwarves
  • Rivervale and the halflings
  • Firiona Vie and her companions
  • Lady Vox and Permafrost
  • Sanctus Seru and the Lord Inquisitor
  • Grieg’s End
  • Skyshrine, Lord Yelinak and the Claws
  • The Ring of Scale
  • Terris-Thule, Queen of Nightmares
  • Zebuxoruk, the forgotten god
  • Dranik and the dragorn
  • The Bloody Kithicor war

Every illustration is original art made for one page only. No game screenshots, logos or box art are used.