Key Art for Renewal of Ro

With the launch of EverQuest II’s Renewal of Ro expansion website, a flood of new information has arrived for Norrathians to digest!

The key art for Renewal of Ro features Firiona Vie looking down over a valley that includes ruins, likely that of Takish-Hiz.

Two sabertooth tigers are visible as well as a tangled forest of vines and brambles.

UPDATE:

A few additional screenshots were extracted from the launch website:

Renewal of Ro Features

Features for the expansion are listed as :

  • New Teleporter design exclusive to the expansion
  • New dungeons and new raids
  • New adventure and tradeskill quests

Explore the southern part of the isle while conquering new dungeons and raids.

Cross into undiscovered lands to live new adventures never seen before in Norrath.

EverQuest II Renewal of Ro

Additional features for the expansion were also listed, which include:

  • New Solo, Heroic I and Heroic II dungeons
  • All new Achievements
  • New house and recipe books
  • Powerful weapons and armor
  • Epic spells
  • New Collections
  • New Signature Quests

We also get a look at a few screenshots, locales and their descriptions for the expansion. Take a look:

RAJ’DUR PLATEAUS

A sweeping land of plateaus and deep canyons that is home to warring factions, the Raj’Dur, a collective of cutthroat thieving bandits, and the Hizites, a nomadic herding dervish tribe that roam the plains. Throughout Raj’Dur Plateaus, numerous madmen stalk the crevices and byways of this region, particularly the farther east one goes. Tread carefully.

EverQuest II Renewal of Ro

TAKISH BADLANDS

With a storied past that is evident throughout, the Takish Badlands is also a region of huge change and contradictions. Through monumental, nefarious action by Solusek Ro who arched the spine of the Serpent Mountains, the once lush forest that belonged to the Elddar Empire, was transformed into the Desert of Ro. The Takish Badlands, the heart of the ancient Elddar forest, was home to the capital city, Takish’Hiz. But during the Age of Cataclysms, and the later bombardment of the region by Luclin debris, caused by The Shattering, further changed this landscape into what it is today.

EverQuest II Renewal of Ro

SANDSTONE DELTA

Bordered to the north by the severe mountains that contain the Clefts of Rujark and to the south by the unnavigable Sea of Sand, it’s no mystery why this land had been rarely traversed since the Age of Cataclysms. Winding through its aridness is the modest remains of the Lifire River, a once mighty torrent that cut through the Desert of Ro to form the Oasis of Marr and feed the Innothule Swamp. Much has since changed.

EverQuest II Renewal of Ro

BURIED TAKISH’HIZ

This ornate and lavishly sacred city has been sealed and cursed away for eons. It includes the most holy and arcane locations that would have been found within the forested walls of Takish’Hiz. It was first sealed away to protect it from enemies who intended on committing defiling acts.

EverQuest II Renewal of Ro

An additional placeholder screenshot was also shown in place of where the trailer for Renewal of Ro will live on the website.

This may be a nighttime view of Takish Badlands as the geography, and flora look very similar.

What’s Going On?

The introduction to the expansion gives a general idea of where we’re headed in Renewal of Ro:

While on a valiant quest to help the Aerakyn return to their original thread of reality, adventurers find themselves going back to the brutal island of Ro and to the southern half of the flaming desert. Here, with the help of a local tribe of Hizite nomads, they’ll make their way across the unforgiving Raj’Dur Plateaus to explore what is left of the Elddar Empire’s cursed city, the long Buried Takish’Hiz, before finding themselves within the renewed Takish Badlands as they are led into the treacherous Sandstone Delta by the machinations of a notorious foe.

They will come face-to-face with Raj’Dur bandits, cursed Elddar, Dunetooth goblins, the Mhyt-moo school of Yha-lei, the Stormfury and Swordfury cyclops clans, the Ortallians zealots of Ro, and other enemies, not to mention the glorious heroes they will team up with along the way.

EverQuest II Renewal of Ro

The expansion seems to revolve around the ruins of Takish-Hiz and what has happened since we last visited in the events of EverQuest Live.

Takish-Hiz was the original home to the Elddar elves, until Solusek Ro raised the Serpent Spine mountains and turned the forest into the Desert of Ro.

The ruins of Takish Hiz have been visible in Oasis of Marr and Desert of Ro since the original launch of EverQuest.

In EverQuest’s Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion, the Takish ruins theme allowed for some exploration of hidden caves and sand-covered dungeons.

The Prophecy of Ro expansion fleshed out these themes more fully, with The Ruins of Takish Hiz fully explorable, along with a trip back in time to the Elddar Forest and the original city of Takish Hiz.

Preorder for Renewal of Ro is available now.