The KaranasFollow

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Edited, Fri Dec 9 23:20:32 2005 by Railus

Oh yeah, definately South Karana. Aviaks, Gnolls, even Centaurs, and the skeleton ring. West Karana was fun, too; getting lost all the time because the map I had wasn't big enough and cut off the easternmost quarter.

One of my first memories of playing EQ with friends was in Western Karana. Long hours of joking around as we sat in the Millers' fields and pulled scarecrows. I was playing a cleric and we had no one with tracking so I'd run around casting Sense Dead to find them but then I'd never have a clue where my group was to pull the mobs back to

All I gotta say is KFC - It was finger lickin' xp back in the day - then to graduate to the spires...

East

Under the bridge

One my first character (a blind, highly charistmatic human rogue) I went happily venturing around the eq world. A RL friend had given me a dagger and I went into West Karana at night. Had not learned about /loc yet... the corpse recovery took 2 hours.

Furthermore, Chief Goonda aggros on my chanter from far away. Makes me smile everytime this ultragreen dumbka charges at me to his death. So much for ogres liking me.

The size and feel of the karanas is hard to beat in EQ. Of course, I have spent more time in King Xorbb's gorge in the past 2 months than probably anyone... so I may not be a credible opinion.

I probably spent more time in all of the other Karanas (I "grew up" in the Qeynos side of the world), but West Karana got my vote. Maybe my most lasting memory comes from that zone.

Back in 99, when night came around, it got dark. REALLY dark. Unless you were playing before they changed the gamma of night time, you don't have any idea. Even with infravision (my half-elf druid) you could barely see five feet in front of you... a human? (like my wife's cleric) Forget it. Blind as a bat.

It was great for setting ambience in a huge zone like West Karana. We were around level 8 or 9, hunting what we could during the day and dreading the setting sun. When nightfall came around, we'd huddle around in one spot, counting down the minutes until sunrise, praying that a wandering grizzly or bandit wouldn't wander into us and create a hellish corpse recovery (which often happened). It was scary - it was what The Blair Witch Project *should've* been <grin>.

I've been playing for over 6 years, seen nearly all of the game and done alot of things.... but the above is what I always come back to when asked about my fondest EQ memory.

This is a tough one! If the poll were the opposite, which of the Karanas has your least fondest memories, it would be easy: West.

North Karana is where my Barbarian Shaman first hunted "out in the real world", beyond Qeynos and Halas. I remember getting Invisible to Animals about that time and feeling a lot more comfortable medding. :) Its also the zone where he killed his first Hill Giant, with the help of a very nice uber Druid.

East Karana has the wonderful Gnoll Hill, and I've sent more of my toons there than most any zone. Killing gnolls just never gets old! The pulls off of the hill were always tricky and fun, and avoiding adds from all of the other wandering mobs kept me on my toes.

And South Karana? Just a blast, for the reasons that others have said. It was a sad day when I finally leveled past the Aviak Harriers at KFC, lol.

some things never change, huh?

South Karana - CAMP CHECK?
Aviaks camped - Paw 1st tooth, 2nd tooth, 3rd tooth - Hermit

South Karana was where I spent the majority of my time back when boat rides were mandatory (if no druid around).

I still remember how being at the aviaks would keep me on the edge of my seat (if and when I could break into a camp spot hehe).

And split paw was THE place to lvl up fast, from (then) 25 to 31.

And of course back then Gem Inlaid Gauntlets where my money maker. These were my very first farming item, Selling for up to 500pp a pop. I did that quest at least 150x's. I made my first 5kpp from them in just under 2 weeks (part time) farming.

I remember how much plat I would make from porting peeps to NK and back then I couldnt port peeps fast enough.

The first time I fell to my death was from aviak tree house hehe.

Oh and of course if splitpaw or avaiks were camped off to the hermit for loot and xp. The hermit was one of the better camps cause nobody camped him and his fast respawn time and decent loot made him a choice camp.

Those were the days. EQ was a very simple game back then and full of mystery and excitment.

The game today is completely different of course and like many other things in life I look back fondly on those memorys and cherish them.

Todays new players to EQ will never know the trials and rewards of those early days of EQ when things were so much simpler and yet so much more challenging.

Back then KS'ing and Ninja looting were hourly occurances, in fact there were entire guilds based on KS'ing and ninja looting..I wont name name's but I know many of you remember them ;P

Enough digressing hehe

Be safe all,

Sofurious
http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=1149272

Hm...I just noticed...and maybe I'm that slow...how close "Karanas" is to the states "Kansas" or "Arkansas".

Anyone else ever think that?

I noticed the same thing. I guess some people don't like the poll.

I voted for West Karana, but only mostly because I havent been to the other ones yet.