Hail Norrathians! I hope 2026 is treating you well and continues to do so throughout the rest of the year. It’s hard to believe that EverQuest II is going to be 22 years old this year! Time seems to be flying by for sure.
First, I’d like to remind everyone that the Origins Servers are headed into Beta for Rise of Kunark on April 14, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. PT. This Beta will run until April 27, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. PT. Hop in and help Beta test and help Anashti Sul and Dozekar out.
Next, I’d like to remind everyone that Zarrakon will be merged into Antonia Bayle next month. I encourage everyone to read the article located here for questions or concerns.
Our engineering team has been busy giving the Character Creation Flow a much-needed usability change. Currently, when a character is created, the server is selected last which results in the choices of some classes or features being unavailable when the server is finally chosen, which can mean having to go back and start over. This is being rectified by moving the server selection to the beginning of the flow, so all limitations are seen before you put in time creating your character. There will also be additional information added for each server such as current expansion and other relevant information about the specific ruleset for the chosen server.
Next up is to talk about the new server. Our 2026 Time Locked Expansion server will be called Wuoshi and will be opening in June. This server will open in Echoes of Faydwer, hence the server’s name, and continue through to Chaos Descending. This server will be Free Trade as well. Since Wuoshi will be launching with so many active expansions, it will be able to participate in nearly all the live events from the start! In fact, of the holiday events remaining being celebrated in 2026, only Tinkerfest will have a limited set of activities.
And now, onto the main attraction, the expansion.
Imagine traipsing through The Crossroads for a minute... You’re just walking along the road, weary from a long day of adventures, when you glance down and see an oddity. You pick it up and open it to find a strangely coded missive. You stare at it until the characters swim about in your view, still unable to decipher it. You feel an urgency to find someone who can decrypt the piece of intel before it’s too late. What do you do? Where do you go from here?
Words are power.
Jenn Chan
Head of Studio
