EverQuest Starting Points – What Can I Even Say About Qeynos?

Through pixels dim, a vista grand,
Qeynos unfolds, a promised land.
Cobblestone streets, a bustling throng,
Where merchants hawk, and bards sing strong.

-Google Gemini, trying to make some Norrath poetry

Qeynos will always hold a special place in my image of EverQuest.  It was the first “city” I visitied in Norrath.  It was both busy to look at and a bit confusing to navigate when compared to the simplicity of Surefall Glade or the open spaces of Qeynos Hills or the Karanas.

I remain to this day a partisan of Qeynos and stand against the tyranny of Freeport… or something.  Freeport, the city on the far side of the continent of Antonica, was clearly the darling of the developers.

Classic Norrath

Freeport quickly became the popular nexus of the game and for good reason.  It was easily reached by much of the game’s population… unless you started in Qeynos or Erudin.  If you started on the west side of Antonica, you had a perielious journey ahead of you if you wished to get to the Commonlands tunnel, which was the player created economic hub of Norrath.  No auction house, just shouting about your goods and bargaining face to face.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  That is all yet to come in my journey.  I am still in Qeynos.

How does one even say that name?

Back in 1999 I said it aloud, if I had to, sounding like “Kway-noss.”  I knew people who said it more like “Key-noss” or “Kway-niss.”  I don’t think I ever heard anybody from the dev team say it until the advent of the SOE podcast, where they said it more like “Key-nose.”  I have gone with that pronounciation ever since.

(That is also I heard the name of my server, E’ci, pronounced for the first time.  They said it “eee-say,” which was better than my method at the time, which was to simply spell it out, the “Eee, See, Eye” server.)

And yes, Qeynos is “Sony EQ” spelled backwards.  And the palindrome of “Bolton” is “Notlob.”

Looking at Qeynos today, it feels almost like Doom, all verticle walls and squared off objects with fairly low resolution textures applied.  More sophisticated than Doom for sure, with more patterns, but it still feels closer to Doom than even something like World of Warcraft or EverQuest II, which are only five years younger and headed to their own 20th birthdays later this year.

Look at those textures… also, how many new players drowned in that pond?

Speaking of WoW, one thing I always notice when I go back to EQ or EQII is SOE’s instistance on having doors.  It isn’t that there are not ANY doors in Azeroth, but they are few and far between.  In EQ there is a door on every damn building, and often a few inside a building.  I wonder how much time was spent getting doors to even work right… it is one of those seemingly simple things that is notoriously difficult to implement well… during development of the game?  And they are all mildly awkward to use, so I admire the simplicity of Azeroth where you just walk into almost every building.

Once more I will borrow from the Project 1999 wiki, this time for maps of Qeynos… plural beacuse Qeynos was broken out into two zones, north and south.

North was the smaller of the two when it came to being a city, though it had that large “front lawn” with mobs, including Fippy Darkpaw, to play on.

North Qeynos

The points of interest from the Wiki:

1. Order of the Silent Fist – Monk Guild, Merchant who sells Monk Weapons, Bags, and Bandages
2. Kliknik Tunnel – leads to Qeynos Aqueducts
3. Reflecting Pond – tunnel leads to Qeynos Aqueducts
4. Crow’s Pub & Casino – Merchant selling Alcohol, Brew Barrel, secret tunnel to Rogues’ Guild
5. Galliway’s Trading Post – Merchants selling Food and other Goods, Priest of Discord outside
6. Ironforge’s – Merchants selling Sharp Weapons, Medicine Bags, and Weapon Molds, Forge out back
7. Jewelbox – Merchants selling Jewelry supplies (Metals and Gems)
8. Ironforges’ Estate
9. Merchants selling Medium Cloth Armor and Medium Chainmail Molds
10. The Cobbler – Merchant selling Boots of all types
11. Merchants selling Blunt Weapons and Cleric/Paladin spells
12. Teleport leading to Temple of Life, Cleric and Paladin Trainers throughout area

I am drawn to Ironforge’s, and not just because that name would recur again in a big way in WoW.

Now there is a name that will live large… elsewhere

This is where I learned of the injustice of the layout of the world.  I set about to do smithing at one point, Ironforge’s being a place that sold most, but not all, of the supplies you would need.

Missing were bits of metal, the basic ingredient required for all smithing.  If I has started out in Freeport, the vendor there… who is within line of site of multiple forges… had metal bits.  But in Qeynos the nearest vendor who had them was up in Highpass Hold.  If you’re going to go that far, you might as well just carry on to Freeport.

The first of many things thwarted due to starting in Qeynos and the nature of travel in the game back then.

South Qeynos was a busier layout than north, and the place where I would get disoriented and stuck trying to get somewhere.

South Qeynos

Again, the legend borrowed from the wiki:

1. Tin Soldier – Forge outside, Merchants selling Medium Chain Armor and Full Plate Molds
2. The Wind Spirit’s Song – Bard Guild Hall, Merchants selling Bard songs and various Weapons
3. Fharn’s Leather & Thread – Merchant selling Medium Leather Armor and Small Sewing Kit and Patterns
4. Bag n Barrel – Merchants selling Bags, Pottery Wheel and Kiln out back
5. Nesiff’s Wooden Weapons – Merchants selling Blunt Weapons, Bows, outside Merchant selling Fletching Supplies (Arrows), Royal Qeynos Forge nearby
6. Lion’s Mane Inn – Merchants selling Alcohol, Brew Barrel, Message Board
7. Tax Hall
8. Qeynos Hold – Bank
9. Underwater tunnel to Qeynos Aqueducts
10. The Herb Jar – Merchants selling Spells, Potions, Books, Crystals, and Magician Equipment
11. Wizard, Enchanter, and Magician Guild Hall with Merchants selling Spells and Wizard Equipment, outside Wizard, Enchanter, and Magician Trainers
12. Tent Merchants selling Small Leather and Ringmail Armor and Medium Cloth Armor, Loom nearby
13. Fireprides – Merchants selling Medium Plate, Chain and Leather Armor and Shields, Shield Molds, Forge outside
14. Tent Merchant selling Large Leather and Ringmail Armor and Large Shields
15. Boat Dock – with travel to Erud’s Crossing
16. Mermaid’s Lure – Merchant selling Fishing Supplies
17. Tent Merchants selling Cloth Armor, Small Sewing Kits, Bags, Axes, and Sharp Weapons (including Claymore)
18. Warrior Training Hall inside the Grounds of Fate (PvP Area), Merchant selling Various Weapons, underground tunnel leads to a variety of evil trainers and merchants in the Qeynos Aqueducts (follow the bones)
19. Underwater tunnel to Qeynos Aqueducts
20. Port Authority
21. Merchant selling Instrument Parts, Spells, Compass, and Fish
22. Voleen’s Fine Baked Goods – Merchants selling Food, Brewing Supplies, some Baking Supplies, Oven inside
23. Fish’s Ale – Merchants selling Alcohol, Brew Barrel inside, Message Board
24. Temple of Thunder – Paladin and Cleric Trainers, Merchants selling Spells, Various Weapons, and Shields of all sizes

I remember a lot of the vendors in South Qeynos, but the most immediate draw was the bank, the Qeynos Hold, because of course inventory management was an issue from day one and bags were small and scarce and so on.  Also, if you look at that map, there wasn’t a nice straight line from the north part of town to the bank.  No, you had to weave around the place.

Dun is new around here I think

There inside the bank, with the two tellers and the guard… and a very active guard because “A” turned on auto-attack and so many people accidently attacked guards or vendors or what not by accident because of that… was always crowded, with lots of people coming and going or just hanging around idle.

Inside the Qeynos Hold

There were no shared bank slots across accounts and no mailing stuff to yourself back then.  I’d get an alt character logged out in the far corner of one of the nearby buildings, then go over to that spot with something I wanted to hand off to them, drop it on the ground, log out, then log in with the alt and pick it up… because stuff you dropped stayed there.  Crazy times.

And there was the harbor, where you could take the boat to Erudin or learn about fishing from that guy down at the end of the dock.

The Port Authority

You used to be able to get up on top of the walls inside of town and get out to the end overlooking the harbor and you were high enough to see that the sky box was more like an inverted goldfish bowl, the lip of which would be clearly visible.  Lots of things to see in Qeynos.

The clock tower in South Qeynos

It was all very old school and there was nothing like yellow paint or other highlights to guide players to find hidden things like so many games today.

Move along, nothing to see here…

Qeynos is not exactly as it was 25 years ago.  There are new NPCs and the teleport book to bring you to the Plane of Knowledge and quests that were not there back in the day.  But the crude look and feel of the place… SOE redid Freeport, its darling favorite city and, while it does look better, its new look did away with all the memories that the old location would no doubt bring out in old school players.

Sometimes it is better to be ignored and left alone.

The story so far:

• EverQuest Starting Points – Surefall Glade
• EverQuest Starting Points – Qeynos Hills
• EverQuest Starting Points – Finding Qeynos