Call of the Forsaken

Call of the Forsaken is EverQuest's twentieth expansion. Beta testing to open August 21, 2013. Scheduled to be released in late September or early October, 2013. Additional content to be released in January 2014 and June/July 2014.

Extra content to be released for EQ's 15th Anniversary in March 2014.

Prologue
The once peaceful plains of West Karana have been disrupted by a series of cataclysmic events, all leading up to the abrupt arrival of a powerful dragon from another thread, known as Lady Lendiniara. The force of her entry has torn an invisible seam that binds together countless realities, exposing what ancient texts refer to as Ethernere.

Without knowing how or why the dragon oracle arrived in their world, many Norrathians view Lady Lendiniara as a threat, while others interpret her arrival to mean the end of times is near. Factions begin to form, some prophesizing the demise of the world, and others uniting to confront the dragon invader.

Whether this winged harbinger is friend or foe, one thing is certain – she did not travel through Ethernere alone. There is only one within this world who possesses the knowledge to send Lady Lendiniara back to her home, but can you really trust the ramblings of a madman?

In your quest to send Lady Lendiniara back to her world, you will travel to many previously undiscovered areas within Norrath, searching for artifacts of great power, while also encountering familiar faces many thought to be lost in time.

Official list
New Call of the Forsaken™ Game Features:
 * Mercenary AA – Increase the skill of your mercenary with new alternate advancements.
 * Mercenary Gear – Raise the effectiveness of your mercenary with by earning new items they can use.
 * Heroic Adventures – Delve into our mission-style content that allows for unique experiences each time you play through them, including a chance at new loot, rares, and currency you can collect and spend at special merchants!
 * Shared Bank Slots – Share more with an increase in shared bank slots!
 * New Crafting Recipes – Take your craft to new heights with new recipes for all!
 * More Spells, AAs and Items – Further your skills and power.
 * New Raids!

More info

 * Heroic Adventures - A system of adventures that scales to your party's level and equipment. Considered a more advanced version of Lost Dungeons of Norrath.
 * "Dead end" zones like Dead Hills, Neriak 4th Gate to be added.
 * Bixie zone.
 * No level increase.
 * Two additional shared bank slots.
 * A separate new West Karana will be the expansion hub, with portals to other areas.
 * Like Rain of Fear, content will be released in sections over time.
 * New Hero's Forge armor sets.
 * Tier 1 of CotF expected to be roughly Tier 4 Rain of Fear difficulty and item level.
 * Mercenaries:
 * Mercs can gain AAs. The AAs will all be passive, not activated.  They will go across all of your mercenaries (if you have more than one).
 * Can wear gear. There will be special merc only gear that they wear, they won't wear player gear.
 * You will be able to see their stats.

Yes there are new AA and spells coming for your classes. How many we're not 100% sure on as we're still developing them. Merc AA start at level 20 to get you into the system, but those increases are very small, and you won't get into the higher powered stuff until later.

Heroic Adventures are not going to change based upon what classes you bring, but they can s[c]ale based upon level, but only yo [sic] the highest level character in your group. Merck [sic] ARE allowed into heroic adventures and in fact were [sic] tuning them around the 2 player, 2 merc group.

We are releasing 4 zones at launch, with more coming throughout the year.

Number of raids is not finalized. We have planned out probably more than we can make currently.

Zones

 * Bixie Warfront
 * Deadhills
 * Neriak Fourth Gate
 * West Karana (Call of the Forsaken) (new separate zone from normal West Karana)

Lore
A series of cataclysmic events in the West Karanas bring the arrival of powerful dragon from another dimension (EverQuest 2), Lady Lendiniara. Torn through an invisible seam that binds realities, she does not arrive alone, but brings others. No one is sure if she is friend or foe.

Lady Lendiniara is from Ethernere, a realm where the living cross over to the dead. Ethernere is watched over by Drinal, the Silver Reaper.

...she's the EQ2 version of Lendiniara being forced into the EQ1 timeline. It's her, but a different her [from the EQ1 Lendiniara the Keeper, who guards the west Temple of Veeshan], if that makes sense.