Taken from the EQ-IQ Guide to Nektropos Castle.

One of the most deep and fascinating lore stories in Everquest 2 is the one that involves the Nektropos castle and the story of the Everling family. The core of the story revolves around Lord Rikantus Everling whom was a citizen of Freeport. His father left him a shop that dealt mainly with rare or unusual things that were cursed, supernatural or other wise unique in nature. The shop had some tough time in the early going but became very famous and attracted a very affluent client base making the Everling’s very rich. The timeframe which this all occurs seems to be in the later half of The Age of Enlightenment. This age according to EverQuest lore was when the Erudite’s founded the city of Erudin on the continent of Odus and the Erudite’s civil war occurred. If this is the case the story began a very long time ago. So long that it predates the original EverQuest timeline over 800 years ago before the current EQ2 timeline. As far as I know The Everling’s were human so I did not know humans lived so long. Oh well it is fiction I guess. You won’t find any trace of the original Everling Shop since about 300 years ago Sir Lucan D’Lere ordered that section of the city to be destroyed with no record of any new shop being built. Now it is not entirely clear when Rikantus himself lived. I could only guess about 300 years ago. He is found today in EverQuest 2 but only as a split persona.

Rikantus was married twice in his life. The first wife was Alana and they had two sons, Maltus and Ollix. Maltus had a daughter named Alexa. This is debated since I have seen some contradictions about weather Alexa was the daughter of Maltus or actually Ollix. These players have a lot to do with the Nektropos Story line which you will find out later during the walkthrough and the guide that will be done very soon. In Freeport a great epidemic came over the city and many citizens were struck with insanity. Both of Rikantus’s sons were overcome by the epidemic so Rikantus had to lock them both up within his home for there own safety. For some reason a personal servant named Plimptos whom was sworn to serve Alana as a child had freed the sons from their rooms. This unfortunately led to the deaths of both sons as a result of their insanity. Even though Rikantus could not prove that Plimptos was the culprit he began to call him Pelleas which means whelp. Rikantus according to lore had never trusted or liked Plimptos, which makes me wonder why he kept him around after Alana’s death. Rikantus’s wife Alana died shortly after from a broken heart. Now if you ask me, I am not so sure Plimptos was responsible especially if he had sworn his life to protect his beloved master Alana. More on this thought later.

Rikantus became convinced his family was under a curse that he had received from one of his supernatural objects which he sells. He tried feverishly to identify the cursed objects to no avail. Dealing with these curses became his priority which led to some forbidden alliances. One of these alliances led to the construction of Nektropos Castle. During Rikantus’s travels and his obsession to eliminate the curse he developed a relationship with The Ebon Mask. This is a guild of assassins which is located out of Neriak and you can to this day visit the Guild Hall of the Ebon Mask which is still located in Neriak. Because of the good relationship with the guild Rikantus was able to get permissions and help to build the ever famous Nektropos castle deep within the Nektulos Forest. The castle walls were not just built of ordinary stone. They were built to the specifications of the Flesh Bound Tome which called for magically-imbued black stones that were shaped by Teir’Dal masons. Rikantus had hoped to building this fortress would both protect his family from the curse, as well as protect the world from his hoard of cursed artifacts. He also moved his family’s graves to the crypts within the walls of Nektropos Castle.

During the construction Rikantus met his second wife Theeral. Together they had six daughters, Ouch, poor guy. He really is cursed. Their names are Sheila, Deirdre, Crysta, Elise, Jenni and Melanie. They had all grown to become women when they pleaded with their father to send away the family guardians that were recruited to protect them. One night the guardians returned and murdered all six of the daughters. You will see this acted out in Nektropos Castle: the Return. Once again Rikantus blames the servant Pelleas for the deaths of his daughters. No proof can be found only the accusations of Rikantus. Never the less Rikantus had Pelleas locked in his quarters and sealed in by magical means to starve to death. You will come across his room in the both Nektropos castle 1 and 2 instances. Frustrated that once again his entire family was wiped out, Rikantus was determined to retrieve his daughters’ souls from the Ethernere. This is sometimes referred to as the Void, A place where souls go before moving on the next phase of there existence. Rikantus once again makes another questionable alliance this time with the Mage/Necromancer Varsoon. As one may know Varsoon was always looking for total immortality so this would be a natural person that Rikantus would seek to unlock the entrance to the Ethernere. The problem is that somewhere along the way Varsoon withheld important information to the rituals and as a result Rikantus’s soul was ripped into three parts, two of these exist in Norrath today. You can find one in the Evernight Cemetery in Antonica; the other is Antiquitor Kantus Mor’Tael, a merchant in Maj’Dul, leaving the core soul of Rikantus in the Ethernere. He is actually seen if you go talk with Antiquitor Kantus after completing the Nektropos Tribulation instance.

Well enough of the Lore behind the castle and the Everling family. There is more lore you can find from the book quests in the third instance of the Castle. I guess you can say this is a sad story for someone whom has brought much of the pain upon himself. Was Rikantus good? Was he Evil? There was one more mention in lore about a trip Rikantus took in search of a very important cursed artifact that his father had spent much of his life looking for. This led him to find and become a worshiper of the sub deity Ullkorruuk within the plane of hate. Looking slightly at that lore you will find the Ullkorruuk was once a member of Erollisi Marr’s elite guard. She betrayed him and her Plane of Love to become the Lady of Betrayal. You will find an altar to her in the Chapel room within the Castle in all 3 instances. Kind of fitting for Rikantus wouldn’t you say? Evil or not I will let you decide as you venture through the story yourself.

Download the guide which will be released soon for a detailed walkthrough of the Instances of Nektropos Castle. Also Show number 9 covers much of the story found here as well as a walkthrough of the main instance.