Welcome to the first publication of The Antonian. I’ve wanted to start a blog like this over a year ago, and now it’s finally happening.
So what can you expect out of The Antonian? This blog will be about classic EverQuest and Project 1999, but will be looking primarily at things of classic EQ – such as mechanics, oddities, lore, etc. Discussing server policies, politics, drama, and so on will not be the focus of this blog, however I will most likely look at some stuff that is unique to P99 such as variance in the future.
I intend for The Antonian to be entertaining and informational at the same time, and I hope you enjoy this supplement to Project 1999’s classic EverQuest experience.
So let’s begin.
What Was Intended?
Last week I picked up a Razor Sharp Short Sword, and became quite interested in this item. Let’s take a look at the stat window:

The stats are kinda boring, but there’s a bit more than meets the eye. This was most likely designed to be the Rogue off-hand weapon in Kunark. In fact, the ratio (1.625) even surpasses the epic (1.667). The only better weapon currently in the game that I can think of is Wu’s Fist of Mastery (16/22, 1.375).
But, as I mentioned there’s a bit more to it than that. This weapon is pure ratio. The stats are fairly meaningless by the time you can obtain it, and it’s one of the few Veeshan’s Peak weapons without a proc. This might actually be a good thing, since a lot of procs are quite unreliable against raid mobs.
There is one other off-hand weapon that can be compared to the Razor Sharp Short Sword, and that is the Katana of Flowing Water from Phara Dar. I don’t own one so I won’t include a stat box, but this is a very slow 19/33 off-hand option. The ratio (1.737) is considerably less than the Razor Sharp Short Sword, but what’s nice about this is the +10 saves to all resists.
And I feel this is one of the situations where Project 1999 diverges from classic EverQuest a bit. In 2000, Rogues are going to want the Razor Sharp Short Sword, but in 2014 a lot of Rogues just use the Katana of Flowing Water full time due to the absolute importance of resists with the system we’re using. This might be changing soon, and I am going to have a write up on Project 1999’s resist system coming, but for now it’s something to think about.
But this is not the focus of today’s article. Instead, I’d like to take a look at the weapon model that Verant/SOE chose for the Razor Sharp Short Sword:

I have some issues with this weapon model.
First of all, take a look at those edges. Now, classic EverQuest is definitely not known today for its amazing weapon graphics, or really graphics of any kind. However this one is just not good. It looks like someone cut the texture out by using the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop. Seriously, what’s with all those ugly jagged edges? That weapon texture doesn’t even look like it belongs in the same game as the Ragebringer, which you can see in my primary hand.
Even stranger is that this is supposed to be a short sword. But as you can see, it’s longer than my body and about as wide across as my head. In what world does this qualify as a short sword?
It’s very odd. But then I started thinking about a weapon model from Veksar that could have been perfectly described as a “Razor Sharp Short Sword.”
If you’re a true classic EverQuestian, you may be wondering what the hell Veksar is. Well, I will tell you. If you’ve ever explored the actual lake in the Lake of Ill Omen, you will notice some buildings at the bottom. The largest one has a short underwater hallway – this is where the Bloodgill Marauder spawns. Just past the marauder is a double passage zone in / zone out system very similar to the Dreadlands / Karnor’s Castle zone lines. There was obviously meant to be a zone here, but it was never part of the Kunark expansion.
Veksar was meant to be the Kedge Keep of Kunark. Obviously, Kedge Keep was so popular amongst players that they felt the need to recreate it in the new expansion. Or rather, they probably ditched it due to time constraints after realizing that EverQuest probably didn’t need another Kedge Keep.
There was even quite a bit of lore known about this place at the time. Essentially, after the Shissar were banished from Kunark the Iksar decided to celebrate by building the city of Veksar over top of the lake in the Lake of Ill Omen. But as fate would have it, some dragon name Garudon came and destroyed Veksar, causing it to sink to the bottom of the lake. Now, the Iksar are a race that routinely get their cities destroyed by dragons. Why they thought building a city on top of a giant lake was a good idea is not covered in any lore I’ve ever found. But I digress.
On June 12, 2003 (a few months before Lost Dungeons of Norrath) Veksar was finally added to the game. The zone actually ended up being mostly not underwater, and although I’m not sure how that’s even possible considering the entire structure is submerged in a lake, it was actually a neat zone reminiscent of Kunark design.
What’s interesting is that we got to see some “new” weapon models here, although some of them had been around since the Kunark expansion launched but were just unused.
Anyways, I mentioned that one of these weapon models actually did resemble a “Razor Sharp Short Sword.” Here it is:

If it looks like other Kunark weapon models, that’s because it technically was. And please correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t remember any weapons in Kunark ever using this model. Wouldn’t this fit a “Razor Sharp Short Sword” more than that bulky pixelated mess that was used instead? Consider the fact that someone designed and modeled this thing, yet it was never used in a game that was often criticized of reusing the same models over and over.
I don’t think it was a mistake, since the weapon’s iconĀ kinda matches the giant machete model that was used (the subject of unused and poorly used item icons will be the subject of another article). The model they chose seems intentional, I’m just not sure why.
And that wasn’t exactly an anomaly. There’s also this:

We all know that dagger graphic options are especially lacking. In vanilla we had the “Rusty Dagger” model, the slightly fancier “Dragoon Dirk” model, and the above model that would have been perfect for higher end piercing weapons, but was never used. At some point the Rogue guild leaders in Halas started carrying a pretty crummy dagger with this model, but on Project 1999 they just wield rapiers. This is the only time this model has ever been seen in the game.
There were a few other unused weapon models in vanilla and Kunark, but you get the point.
Then there’s the realm of underused models. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

This might be the most interesting Kunark weapon model, yet the usage of it is a bit strange. As far as I remember, it’s only used for the Sword of Skyfire and the Sarnak Ceremonial Sword. Both are quite low-end Kunark weapons.
What makes this all even stranger to me is that there was some consistency in the weapon models used for Kunark. For example, every class essentially has their version of a weapon that used a translucent black blade model. If you know what the Noctivagant Blade looks like then you know what I’m talking about. That is the Shadow Knight version, Bards have the Breath of Harmony, Warriors/Rogues have the Blade of the Black Dragon Eye (or Blade of the Green Dragon Eye), and Paladins have the Sword of the Morning. I don’t think it was a coincidence that almost every melee class (sorry Rangers) had one high-end weapon with this model.
Considering that this model shares the same translucent effect as the Noctivagant Blade, it just feels like it should have been reserved for some nicer weapons. This is especially true when you consider just how boring most of the weapon models from Veeshan’s Peak are.
Finally, there’s one more thing that needs to be mentioned while we’re on the topic of models that were never used in the game. As we all know, between the launch of Kunark and Velious Verant/SOE added an epic quest for each class that resulted in a special weapon. These weapons were unique in that they all had some sort of particle effect as part of their graphic. In fact, these rewards were often referred to as the particle weapons.
But did you know that a similar, particle effect shield also existed at this time? Let’s take a look at it:

Considering how boring most shields look in classic EverQuest, this thing is pretty cool. More observant people might notice that the particle effect is just one of Warrior epic sword’s particle effects pasted around it 5 times.
One has to wonder what was planned for this shield, and why it never made it into the game. When it’s animated in game, it can look a bit awkward. Those red particles are designed to run up a sword blade, so as you run around with the shield they tend to “sway” around.
Even if the particle effects didn’t meet their standards of quality, they could have been removed. This texture still would have been great for high-end shields. I can’t help but think of Yakatizma`s Shield of Crafting – the best and most prestigious shield in classic EverQuest which just happens to use the most disappointing newbie buckler graphic available.
That will conclude this edition of The Antonian. Check back for more updates. In the next article I may take a look at where EverQuest succeeded and failed with itemization.
Thanks for reading.
Byrjun @ The Antonian