Drakkin Exposed, the New Player Race for Everquest: The Serpent's Spine

Being released by Sony on March 16, 1999, Everquest is one of those games that made a spectacular breakthrough, in a time when MMORPGs were young and the basis of the genre was still in development. Fans were waiting the release of a graphical MUD with impatience and Everquest was one of the games to deliver in full. The world of Norrath set on fire the imagination of millions, and thus, a legend was born. Over the years, Sony released twelve adventure packs and now, time has come for The Serpent's Spine, featuring the Drakkin, the first new player race in seven expansions. You can get the adventure pack at the usual retail price of $9.99, available for download in September.

It is told six dragons defied the Council of the Ancient Dragons of the Nest and chose to create a new race to protect their dwindling kind. As guardians of this future, the Drakkin are born of humans touched by dragon blood, thus colors and appearances represent the dragon which created them. Through rapid aging they are reaching maturity within months since birth. The Drakkin forget their human beginnings and make their pilgrimage to Crescent Reach, the home of their dragon creators and the rest of their kind.

The level cap has been increased as players can now reach level 75. New spells, abilities, quests and raids of greater magnitude have been prepared for the unsuspecting adventurer. In addition, this expansion features full level 1 to 75 content within the Serpent Spine Mountains, thus players need not leave the new field of battle unless they wish to. The mountains host Crescent Reach, a fully functional city recently discovered by our heroes. It is a starting base holding everything required to learn and thrive in Everquest, including merchant, quest, combat and tradeskill areas. The world wouldn't be complete without new additions such as areas unexplored before, NPCs, destructible and interactive objects. Alternative Advancement abilities and new spells await the daring adventurer on the far reaches of the Serpent Spine Mountains.

Here is the full story of how the Drakkin came into existence:

"After Venril Sathir's curse was released into the Nest and destroyed the dragon eggs, it was clear that the future of dragonkind was in danger. With the next generation of dragons lost forever, Veeshan's bloodline was in jeopardy. Six dragons - who were children of the Nest - proposed a plan to their elders: the creation of a race to protect dragons and the Wyrmqueen's bloodline, something they had seen done once before.

The six dragons were scoffed at by the elders of the Nest, but they were so adamant with the idea that the elder dragons ordered their exile, so their ideas would not gain a foothold. To the elders, it was unthinkable. The six left the Nest and ignored the decree of the elders. They settled in the nearby Serpent Spine Mountains to carry out their plan to create a new race to protect the existence of Veeshan's bloodline on Norrath. They would create a race of dragon-touched humans and call them Drakkin which means "Dragon Child" in the language of the elders.

They called themselves the Circle of the Crystalwing, defining them as the future of dragonkind. The six dragons in the Circle: Venesh the Greenblood; Draton`ra, Master of the Void; Keikolin, Bringer of Enlightenment; Mysaphar, Seeker of All; Atathus the Red Lord; and Osh`vir the Windspirit. In human form, the dragons traveled to Freeport and combed through the taverns and inns, looking for the right humans to suit this new race. The honorable dragons found many who sympathized with their plight and plans and agreed to help right the wrongs that mortals inflicted on dragons of the Nest by unleashing Venril's curse. Many humans considered it a great honor. The darker dragons were not so willing to negotiate and simply took the human subjects they desired. Each human taken was touched by the magic of a single drop of dragon's blood across their cheek.

In only a matter of months, the dragon-touched humans began to experience changes, a coming-of-age that became known as the Awakening. It is then that the latent strengths they inherit from their dragon bloodline surface and they have a burning desire to better understand them. Their hair takes on new texture and color - the same color as the dragon that touched them. Parts of their skin show small, toughened scales, and runic patterns representing their new race began to show on their face, torsos and legs - all in the color of their dragon progenitor. Delicate horns appear in patterns on their foreheads. They are the essence of beauty to most that see them.

As their new traits develop, the drakkins yearn to meet their parents. They find themselves on a pilgrimage into the Serpent Spine Mountains. Their final destination is the ancient abandoned ogre city of Nokk, now alive with drakkin who calls it Crescent Reach.

As they enter the Dragon's Grove of the great stone city where their parents await them, their human past is lost forever. It is from their parents that the drakkin learn their purpose - to live and grow stronger to protect the future of Veeshan's bloodline on Norrath. With their new identity affirmed, their drakkin life truly begins."