The Ruins of Kunark

The Ruins of Kunark (RoK, Kunark, or simply the Kunark expansion) was the first expansion to EverQuest; a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It introduced a new land area to the game, the continent of Kunark, which had been previously unexplored. Through a mix of in-game events and fiction published on the web by Verant Interactive, the storyline of the discovery of Kunark was established.

General information

In terms of the game, The Ruins of Kunark had a very different visual feel compared to the original zones in EverQuest: the color pallete was more vibrant, and many of the models used for the monsters were more detailed. This detail was most evident in the Iksar, a new playable race of lizard people introduced with the expansion. The Iksar had a number of racial advantages, including the ability to swim for a near-unlimited amount of time, and reasonably good regenerative powers. This was balanced by the fact that they were hated by all of the other races in the game, and that there were very few places they could go without being attacked.

The Kunark expansion also increased the maximum level a character could attain from 50 to 60, and introduced a substantial number of new and powerful monsters for characters above level 50 to fight. The most notable of these was Veeshan's Peak, a zone populated by dragons that was, at its release, declared to be the hardest zone that would be put into EverQuest. In reality, the zone quickly was surpassed by other zones, and is in fact not used often by players.

However, it was not until the next expansion, The Scars of Velious, that EverQuest would see its first expansion geared entirely towards high-level content. The Ruins of Kunark still had a number of low and mid-level zones, several of which are still popular zones today.

The Ruins of Kunark was also the focus of 'epic quests', or quests for powerful weapons for each character class, which were introduced between the Kunark and Velious expansions as a source of further high-end content.

Zones

• Burning Woods
• Cabilis East – Cabilis is the city of the Iksar
• Cabilis West
• Charasis (Howling Stones)
• Chardok
• City of Mist
• Crypt of Dalnir
• Dreadlands
• Emerald Jungle
• Field of Bone
• Firiona Vie – Firona Vie is a High Elven outpost
• Frontier Mountains
• Kaesora
• Karnor's Castle
• Kurn's Tower
• Lake of Ill Omen
• Mines of Nurga
• Old Sebilis
• Skyfire Mountains
• Swamp of No Hope
• Temple of Droga
• The Overthere
• Timorous Deep
• Trakanon's Teeth
• Veeshan's Peak
• Warsliks Woods