The Serpent's Spine

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The Serpent's Spine

The Serpent's Spine is Everquest's 12th Expansion. It was released on September 19, 2006.

This was the first 'All levels' expansion released since Shadows of Luclin. The Developers of Everquest added a new player race, the Drakkin, as well as content to go from Level 1 through L75; the new level limit introduced with this expansion.

A new resistance stat, Corruption, was also added with this expansion.

The expansion explores the history of Norrath, especially the period of the first Rallosian War and the invasion of the Plane of Earth.

The Zones of this expansion are all located in the central part of the Antonican continent, within the Serpent Spine mountains, south of the Broodlands. Besides Wizard and Druid ports, and a Guild Portal port, entrance to this expansion is through a valley in High Pass Hold, which indicates this region is north of Highpass. A book to the Plane of Knowledge is located in Blightfire Moors, near the zone to Highpass.

Content is pure classic Everquest, with many of the original mobs we are used to getting new looks with this expansion. People hunting in these zones as they level up will encounter the old favorites like snakes, skeletons, wolves, bears and spiders. But they will also see bixies, goblins, orcs, drakes, dragons (both friendly and hostile), giants (both friendly and hostile as well), elementals, griffons, oozes, gnolls, centaurs, satyrs, harpies and treants.

The introduction of the Drakkin race was notable in particular because it is the first view players had of the third set of player models (after the original and Luclin models). The Drakkin are being used as the 'proof of concept' for the new player models. As time goes on, the remaining races will be transitioned to use the same model engine the Drakkin use, opening the ways for new armor models as well. Humans are the next race targetted for this revamp, though there is no current ETA for their arrival.