Deepshade is a zone in EverQuest’s 29th expansion Night of Shadows.

In Episode 27 of The EverQuest Show, the developer of Deepshade, Phillip Sexton, talks about the inspiration for creating one of the most beautiful zones in EverQuest.

Asking the Playerbase For Input

When we were discussing the plot for Night of Shadows, we got to a point where we’re talking about all these different places that we’re gonna be going to.

And one of the things that I asked the community of is what is something that you want answered that we haven’t yet. One of them that someone brought up was the door in Shadowhaven.

I thought to myself. This needs to be an Ooo Ahh moment.

This needs to be when a player walks in , they go, oh my goodness. What is this? Wait, this has been here this whole time?

Developing the Story

So what I was given was essentially the part… a beat of the story and the name, The Deepshade.

What was the inspiration by Deepshade in EverQuest?

And I just upset people by saying “The” on that one. I understand that.

I kind of thought to myself. I know it’s gonna be a cave. It’s gonna be dark, hasn’t been opened in a while.

So something was trapped in there. What are we gonna do with that? What would happen?

An Artist Stuck In A Cave

And to me, I thought if I was an artist and I was stuck in a cave, what would I do?

I’d paint the walls. I’d start painting the walls and slowly go insane.

And that’s kind of one of the things that I kind of built in that zone is that you’re watching someone go insane.

Location Location Location

I just wanted to make a zone that you think you have it all figured out.

So you’re walking around and you’re on the top level, then you find a hole or you find another direction where to go for the story or you find the big hole and you’re like, wow, it’s a really pretty area because that’s where all those mushrooms are that are, that are colored.

I wanted to mix that up with the the lore of where deep shade is located, deep shade is underneath the Paludal Caverns.

So the idea was that the magic that’s been there has been seeped through and it can fall down into that cavern.

Inspired by San Diego?

And I wanted to have bioluminescent spores in there for the painter, whoever was stuck in there to paint that’s actually inspired by San Diego.

Every year, we have a bioluminescent migration that shows up on the beach and people will go take pictures. It’s very pretty.

And I remember that happening when I was writing up what to do in deep shade. And I’m like, yeah, bioluminescent paint.

The Eyes Have It

I also came across the idea that wanted to use things that are familiar.

So I wanted to use the elementals and that’s why the elementals are painted the way they are is because I thought that was really cool.

They don’t have eyes. But what if they did have eyes that they couldn’t see you with? That would be really creepy, right?

You know, let’s have those all over that kind of thing.

And I wanted them to play with the colors of the paint that we did and I was so happy with how, what came out of that.

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