Talk:The Lore of Fauna: The Behemoth (Collection)

This quest first appeared on June 15, 2006 with the arrival of Live Update 24, though the first hint of a quest to come arrived with Sony Game Deisgner's May 19, 2006 post in a thread about "The Behemoth" bones located in the Beaver Pond of. He wrote:

"What you see before you are remains the likes of which you have never seen. Very, very few Norrathians even know this creature once walked on Norrath. Now, what is it? And why are its remains resting in Nektulos Forest? So many events took place between the Age of Turmoil and the Age of Destiny. Many of these are not important to current events, but may be spoken of someday."

When pressed further for information, he amazingly replied again with the following information:

The Behemoth is a creature of legend, a legend so ancient that it was lost to time. But there are scholars that began to research the existence of this creature and document their findings. One of these scholars is the great Professor Romiak Jusathorn, last benevolent head master of the Academy of Arcane Science. I recall an encounter I had once with a fellow guest diner. It seems we were both invited to dine with the great Professor Jusathorn within a tower he had erected in the wilds of his hometown. Here in the tower we discussed many topics, among them the true origin of the supposed Combine Spires and the differences between the kerra and the vah shir. Sometime after the endless cat man debate, Romiak stepped out for a short walk and we began to speak of extinct creatures of the ancient ages. That is when the fellow next to me, a scribe named Jeroel, told me he had in his possession the last copy of "The Lore of Fauna: The Behemoth," one of Romiak's many volumes within his prize winning series, "The Lore of Fauna." I asked to see this tome, but the drunkard refused. Luckily he was not only a glutton of wine, but also of cauldron blowfish and thicket crayfish, the very meal set before me. So, bartering away my final portions of the meal I was able to steal a glimpse of the rare book. It was a fairly good read and offered a bit of enlightenment on the creature Professor Romiak Jusathorn dubbed the behemoth. Let me tell you, sightings of this beast have been recorded, but most scoffed at by scholars. After discovering that the great professor himself believes the creature to have once existed, I concur. From what I can tell you, the remains in Nektulos Forest came about around the Age of War. It was no natural occurrence.

Therein ensued a discussion as to the nature of the bones and their origin amongst the players who frequented that thread. It was not originally intended to be announced in the update notes for Live Update 24, but instead should have been secreted to a single player. Again, Game Designer, Tony Garcia writes:

"This one is a just a bit of lore, a snack about the behemoth. Although not as long or as deep as the quest for the, it does contain clues to the future. It is unfortunate that it was ever mentioned within the release notes. I was going to do the usual and simply inform a few lore keepers who then would pass it on in their own fashion, but it mistakenly made its way into the release notes. We'll try and not let that happen again."

And finally, when the few people posting to the thread after the solving of the quest commented on the book's rather standard appearance (it looks much like any other book, rather than distinctly different, like ), he responded one last time with: "I will look into the graphic of the book and see what we can do. We may be seeing more of the Professor's prize winning series, The Lore of Fauna."

Thus promising that there would be more books in this series to come. And indeed, when you read the last page of the reward from this quest, it promises that very thing.

--Kodia 01:24, 17 June 2006 (W. Europe Daylight Time)