Sentinel's Fate, Redheaded Edition

Having preordered Sentinel's Fate, Mauser and I eagerly logged in last night to get a first look at EQ2's latest expansion Sentinel's Fate. And it looks great!

According to the blurb in the box (which I preordered from Amazon), I needed to go to a wizard spires to get to the Sundered Lands, first zone of the new expansion and "Odus". So I ported to the guild hall, used the bell to the Nek Forest docks, took the griffin to N'Marr's Ascent, got distracted by chatter on guild voice chat, took the griffin back to the docks, and jumped off by the spires. There was a portal there within the spires. I took it and found myself on Spire Island, beneath the biggest honking spires I've seen in all my days of Everquesting. Bigger than the ones in North Karana I used to spend so much time waiting under.

This is not a small expansion.

The first city I came to is Paineel. It seems that it's the only city left from Odus. There are those there who still follow the Tranquil, but they are at peace with the other residents of Paineel. (Who don't think of necromancy as particularly evil, mind you.) Anyway, Paineel is affixed to a gigantic chunk of earth and rock that is floating in the sky, much like Kingdom of Sky.

Only bigger. A lot bigger.


The whole expansion feels this way. I didn't spend much time in EQ's Paineel, but my memories were of cramped spaces and narrow corridors. A cliff path led up to it from Toxxulia Forest, and a small doorway led out to a desolated plain with crawly things and ghosts in it. The crawly things and ghosts are still there, and so is Toxxulia forest. But there's lots of just empty space. Anyone who has studied art for long will be able to tell you about the power of empty space, and it's here in spades. Don't take this as a complaint, there's plenty to do, and it isn't all that hard to get to. It's just that it doesn't feel cramped the way MMO's so often do.


In fact, there are teleportals and flying saucers, and even the largest elevator known to Elvenkind (Redheaded subgenus). And you do have your mount/run speed buff, don't you? (Yes, Felicia, that is an elevator over there to the right that my fabulousness is gracing I'm standing on.)

Which reminds me, there's a character that you meet in Spire Island. She's a high elf, and obviously cute, but a bit high strung, insecure and redheaded. She wanted me to go meet people for her because she's too shy to do it herself. Her name is Felice Adae.

It's just a coincidence, right?

She's so cute. I wonder if she'd date me?