EverQuest continued their "Unfolding the Lore" series yesterday with the introduction of Kernagir, the Shining City. This latest area of the Underfoot expansion is "where the chosen of Brell Serilis go to live out eternity in Underfoot."

The city of Kernagir was built to honor and worship Brell, and is created using the unlimited natural resources that his followers enjoy to make Kernagir a place of beauty. Kernagir was designed as a sort of Utopia for Brell's chosen, and the citizens have traditionally been fairly choosy about who they allow in. Things are changing in the Shining City, though.

With Brell keeping his distance lately, followers of the Faith of Self are seeking out the talented craftsmen who live in Kernagir, and the "heresy of individualism" is spreading. The tale of Kernagir says "This has led to a philosophical schism and the taking of sides. The acrimonious debate between the two sides is descending towards violence and may lead to rampant chaos in the Shining City now that Brell's influence has disappeared."

What happens next? The story of Kernagir and its fate will continue with the December release of EverQuest: Underfoot.

Everyone has their own lists of what games have been the most important in the grand scheme of the industry, but it's pretty impossible to argue that EverQuest doesn't deserve a spot near the top of the list. While time hasn't seen the classic game and its sequel remain the 900-pound-gorilla of the industry, it still holds a place near and dear to many people's hearts. More to the point, the impact it had on MMOs as a whole is undeniable. That's why the new Evercracked! video series running on IGN should bring a nice dose of joy, nostalgia, and general good feelings to a number of people.

Hosted by Jace Hall, the series is slated to include interviews with veteran players and designers, behind-the-scenes footage, and a general collection of trivia and recollections. The first episode is now available, with new episodes going live every week until December 10th, so really, what's keeping you? The game has inspired countless people into the genre, including the original sources of the industry's current big success story. Even if you're just looking for historical purposes, it's likely to contain some amusement. And if you got your start in the genre with EverQuest, well, that's all the better.

Halloween is probably second only to Christmas in terms of holiday popularity. Ask just about anybody what their favorite holiday is, and they'll probably list one of those two (if it fits the culture). Naturally, as MMO players, we have fun celebrating it in our virtual worlds just like we do in the real world. And boy, this year, do we ever celebrate. Just about every active MMO out there had (or has) something going on. The 2009 lineup included:

• Final Fantasy XI - Harvest Festival
• City of Heroes - The Deadly Apocalypse
• EverQuest II - Nights of the Dead
• Fallen Earth - Days of the Dead
• Warhammer Online - Daemon Moon Rising
• Aion - Harvest Revel
• Guild Wars - The Mad King's Revelry
• Runes of Magic - Pumpkin Festival
• Lineage - Cavern of Chaos
• Lineage II - Spooks and Scarecrows
• Age of Conan - Nights of Lost Souls
• EverQuest - The Haunting of Norrath
• Legends of Norrath - Brraaaaaainss!
• Star Wars Galaxies - Galactic Moon Festival
• Exteel - Hey, sweet! Paint!
• Free Realms - Super Spooktacular
• Champions Online - Blood Moon

Most of these events last a few days into November, so if there's any one in particular you're dying to experience, you might still have a chance if you have a subscription laying around. If you're not able to visit any of these in person, we have screenshots from many of these events in the gallery below. Enjoy!

Sony Online Entertainment might just take the prize this Halloween for the best transformation item in an MMO this year. EverQuest and EverQuest II players can purchase a Transmogrification Scroll or a Race Change Potion for a change of race. If you've been dying to try out a new race but hate the thought of starting all over and losing your progress, you need to get to the marketplace.

The change is permanent, but you can always purchase another scroll or potion to change back or try a different race on for size. EverQuest players have even more fun items to check out while they're shopping. A couple of different auras will surround you with floating jack-o-lanterns or candles, a Collar of the Cursed Lupine will net you one werewolf companion, and a Bat on a String will summon a bat to follow your every move.

Halloween's coming up fast, so grab your bat, your floating jack-o-lanterns and pick your shiny new race in time for trick-or-treating!

It's easy to talk about gaming addiction as an abstract concept, but whether or not you think the idea holds a lot of water there are an awful lot of studies and examinations of it that just won't go away. Still, the concept is easy to deny. The human element, however, makes it much more real and that much harder to ignore. Which is why, ultimately, it's probably a good thing for everyone that Kotaku's editor Mike Fahey has written up his story of his EverQuest addiction -- the origin, the escalation, and the recovery of sorts.

Mike describes how the death of his relationship led to him escaping into the video game that increasingly was preferrable to his normal life -- which, in turn, led to him winding up without his car, then without a job, and then ultimately to the point that we could probably see coming, where the game became preferrable to pursuing a romantic relationship. He chronicles the downward slide, followed by the slow crawl back out of being addicted -- but, at the end, he doesn't conclude that EverQuest itself is the problem.

As he himself puts it regarding his addiction: "I hid. I ran from my problems, hiding away in a virtual fantasy world instead of confronting the issues that might have been easily resolved if I had addressed them directly." His story focuses not upon the game, but on his own responses and how they were what was ultimately responsible for what happened and where he wound up. It's an interesting piece for the conclusion alone, and worth reading for anyone with even the slightest stake in the topic of game addiction -- which, for those of us who play MMOs, should really just include all of us.

We are well into that time of year - Halloween is almost here and a quick look into nearly any MMO out there will show it. We've been talking about quite a few games out there and how they're celebrating, but they're certainly not the only ones putting jack-o-lanterns in their windows. Follow after the jump for a look at how some of our other favorite MMOs are celebrating.

The ground in Norrath has literally begun to tremble with the introduction of the third and final "Road to Underfoot" event in EverQuest. "Breaking the Seal" completes the series of events, and participating in all three will allow players to gain access to the Underfoot expansion ahead of its official release date. This time the event involves the Cliknar -- from our Underfoot zone previews, we know that the Cliknar inhabit (or rather infest) many regions in the expansion. Now they've raised a significant army and are causing trouble on Norrath's surface.

The Road to Underfoot mini-site has been updated with a section on Breaking the Seal, as well as a short video showing the enemy in action. The epicenter of the shaking seems to be coming from Odus, so those willing to fight should gather there. Remember that apart from the early access, there is also a beta for Underfoot that SOE is still taking applications for, so there's another way to see the expansion ahead of time too.

It's time for another EverQuest: Underfoot zone preview, as the EverQuest Players community site is featuring a look at "The Foundation". Like many of the other areas in the Plane of Underfoot, The Foundation is used by Brell's servants to create things that will end up in the world -- however, we haven't previously seen any creations quite as massive as what is made here. If you've ever admired a scenic mountain located somewhere in Norrath, then you have the inhabitants of The Foundation to thank. The enormous Genari stone giants push up mountains from underground, and then tirelessly hold their positions to keep the mountains standing.

Their job gets even worse. Sometimes a god might decide to raise a new mountain themselves, without thinking about the Genari underneath. When that happens, the Genari will most likely be crushed under the new weight. Don't fret though, because the Genari's broken form is often enough to keep the mountain up, and Brell can simply make another giant later on. Now that's cold.

Screenshots for The Foundation have been added to our Underfoot gallery, and we're very pleased to have another handful of exclusive pictures to share. Check them out below, and learn more about The Foundation's lore at EQ Players.

Reality check time: EverQuest is more than ten years old. And yet the game is still pushing out content, patches, and expansions, albeit more slowly. We recently reported that the most recent expansion, Underfoot, was open for applicants for beta testing, and today we've been treated to an interesting boost of game lore regarding one of the new areas in the expansion, Brell's Arena.

The Arena was created to let gnolls and kobolds play a "game" known as the Boomerang Brawl. The word is in quotes because it would qualify only by Roman or Mayan standards - weighted metal boomerangs are thrown at the opposing team. The game also features exploding barrels, as if it weren't dangerous enough. Adventurers who venture into the game are promised appropriate treasure for winning one of these insanely dangerous games, however.

In addition to all of this (and to form the third part of the alliterative title) there have been a number of recent patches and game updates, in the form of classic mission improvements and expanded "hot zones" for extra experience gain. It's a little strange to think of the game as being so old, but it clearly hasn't lost its life just yet.

EverQuest has just been updated, and it's time to say goodbye to the ironically freezing set of hot zones that have provided icy experience bonuses for the past few months. This isn't a bad thing, as the new list of hot zones includes a number of popular areas for people to do their leveling in -- the full list can be found after the break, along with the rest of the patch notes. One of the hot zones, Howling Stones (also known as Charasis) has been altered to be more inviting for potential visitors:

Apparently while performing some end-of-the-summer cleaning, the doors within Howling Stones were left unlocked. It may be some time before a maintenance crew can be sent there again to lock the doors up tight. Use this knowledge as you will. In addition, the spells protecting the entrance to Howling Stones have weakened, and adventurers of lesser skill and strength may find its halls now accessible.

The other big change with this patch involves some tweaking of the Ancient Heroes missions from the previous update. The rewards from these missions have been the subject of much controversy ever since their introduction, and this patch has made many of them worthless (though they can still be refunded by handing them to the quest-giver). Having said that, some of the group-level rewards were actually improved. Hit the jump to see the patch notes in their entirety.

Sony Online Entertainment's long running MMO Everquest is preparing to launch its sixteenth expansion, Underfoot. Fans who have been looking forward to this expansion since its reveal at Fan Faire in June now have something more to look forward to. SOE announced today that they are accepting signups for the beta, which is expected to run from October 20th until December 1st.

SOE made an effort last year to streamline the signup process and make it easier on everyone involved, so you only need to sign up once. Your original signup will place you in the beta pool for every invite stage. The beta signup page will remain open until the end of beta testing as well, meaning you have plenty of time to join the beta pool.

2009 Fan Faire attendees still need to sign up, but will be included in the beta, as well as receiving a free copy of the expansion. 2009 Dragon*Con EQ Panel attendees who filled in the sign-up sheet will also be included in the early beta.

Although the Legends of Norrath digital trading card game can be played completely separately from EverQuest, the two games have a lot of ties to each other beyond just lore. The former can be launched from within the latter game. There are also "loot cards" which not only function in LoN but can be redeemed in EverQuest for certain bonus items. Some people that play EQ but not LoN may have been upset in the past at missing out on a few of these loot card items, but it's doubtful that anything has caused as much of an outcry as is currently occurring over an upcoming loot card. The card in question is the Dragon Brood Crypt Key Card, and the resulting EQ reward will be the only way to access a brand new dungeon instance.

The next EverQuest: Underfoot zone preview is up at the EverQuest Players community site, this time giving us a sneak peek at an area called "The Underquarry". The Underquarry's main feature is two large sinkholes that were made by some intense waterflow. When the water stopped coming, the area's inhabitants (more servants of Brell) found that there was good mining to be had in the caverns. Similar to the creatures of Pellucid Grotto, the miners take the results of their work and seed them into Norrath, rather than hoarding them down in the Plane of Underfoot.

As is expected from these expansion zones, there is some emerging conflict in the Underquarry to look into. Part of the problem is a group of stubborn Burynai (shown above) that are refusing to share parts of the mines, and there are also Cliknars that constantly invade and cause trouble. Our Underfoot gallery is now updated with screenshots from the Underquarry, including a few more Massively exclusive pics -- check it out below.

Just recently, the EverQuest Players community site featured a preview of the zone Brell's Rest from EverQuest's next expansion Underfoot. Another preview is now up on the site, showing off the Pellucid Grotto zone. The Grotto is home to a race called the Crystalkin, and these hard workers spend all their time harvesting, refining and polishing gems. They aren't in it for personal gain though -- far from it. After the gems are ready, they go and scatter them throughout Norrath, where adventurers end up finding them and either selling them, using them as spell reagents, or combining them with things using tradeskills.

However, if the players want this gravy-train to keep running, they might want to look into a new disturbance that the Pellucid Grotto is experiencing. We're pretty sure there are far worse consequences to the world at stake than just missing out on gems, but ... well, the gems are a pretty good reason anyway. We like gems.

Below you'll find our gallery of screenshots from Underfoot, newly updated with Pellucid Grotto pictures, and two of them are exclusive to Massively! For more on the lore of this area, check out the EQ Players feature article.

The focus of the next EverQuest expansion Underfoot is the Plane of Underfoot and its cavernous areas, which the god Brell Serilis created and filled with inhabitants. An update on the EverQuest Players website has given us an early look at one zone from the new expansion, "Brell's Rest". Apparently, the most devout followers of Brell are brought to Brell's Rest upon their demise. Since a healthy mix of races pay homage to the Duke of Below, this means that the area is home to quite a few different factions, including dwarves, gnomes, gnolls and kobolds.

While the dwarves and gnomes tend to live a peaceful life in the Shining City section of Brell's Rest, the gnolls and kobolds have traditionally enjoyed ripping each other apart for all eternity. However, in recent times the gnolls have begun to withdraw from their beloved skirmishes, whispering about "The Destroyer" and "The Undying One". That's all we're going to find out for now, but it sounds like an interesting quest-line to look into when the expansion is released. The zone is also said to feature an arena for some good old-fashioned warrior games. Along with this chunk of lore, the EverQuest Players site had a handful of Brell's Rest screenshots to show off. We've put them all together for easy viewing in the gallery below.