The most recent free update to EQ2 added the dark elf city of Neriak to the game. In addition to the city they’ve added a not-so-new race, the evil faye. This just means that a player can now start a faye character and make them evil from the get go, and they also have the benefit of starting in the Neriak area.

All of this means that I had to resub for a month to see the new sights… of course!

Before looking at the screen shots you should know that Windows Vista has DRAMATICALLY reduced the performance of my computer. It’s a #@!$ nightmare, freezing up every few steps to load new textures or whatever it’s doing. As a result I now run around at the “high performance” setting in the game, and as a result of that, these screen shots are not going to be very good quality.

EDIT: I really should have included a link to my DxDiag. Just click here for a link to that and be sure to check the comments below for more information.

I tell ya, I’ve seriously considered buying Windows XP again (since I gave away my XP computer). . . I digress, though.

This is Sylius, my evil little Faye. She’s a cute as hell assassin, and she knows it.

I haven’t given any thought to the character’s personality because I made this character to find where Neriak was located on the map. Generally though I think of her as the evil, cute, spunky stereotype character.

It passes as RP for now, and considering how little time I spend in these games anymore I’m not entirely sure that I care to put much thought into the character. It could be a waste of time.

The Eye

Anyone familiar with Neriak from the original EverQuest will remember the floating neon “eye” in the middle of the waterfall. It turns out that the “eye” is, now at least, a stylized creature of some sort. Think of a cross between an eye and a monkey.

The area of water around the “eye” in EQ1’s Neriak was a fair bit larger than what you see here.

The Ebon Mask

Characters new to Neriak must attain citizenship. To do that they have to obtain a sponsor, and this, of course, requires doing someone’s dirty deeds.

Pictured here is an NPC at The Ebon Mask, the place that your would-be sponsor is located.

This citizenship requirement holds true for dark elves too, but I do not know if it will be true for dark elves that begin their days in the Neriak area. I can say that the quest that I received is rated as level 27, so it’s definitely not intended for new characters.

I’ve spent hardly any time running around the city, mainly because of Vista’s atrocious performance. These are the only screen shots that I have at this time. I also still need to check for the secret passage but I suspect that will be gone. According to the EQ2 story - if I’m recalling correctly - the halflings used this passage as part of their invasion of the city.

Have fun,
~Steph

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