Dark Races' Travel Guide

for Trolls, Ogres, Dark Elves, Iksar, and other sociopaths...

So, you've gone ahead and hit "Start" on the character creation screen that tells you "Moderate/High Difficulty," have you? Well, you're going to need my help then, because if you want to get any of the cool stuff in the game (and I'm sure you do) you're going to have to travel. Although Verant blessed the Trolls by putting the most goodie-filled dungeon on their doorstep (Guk), you all will still want to travel elsewhere in order to see more of the world. This guide will go through some of the more problematic areas that you might have to travel through and tell you how to not die...

Religion

Religion makes a large difference about whether or not a dark race is attacked. This is especially true for dark elves, who are generally accepted (if not liked) in a few major cities. Choosing Agnostic for your religion helps, as many won't attack you based on race but instead based on your religion. This is apparent with DE Enchanters, who can illusion their appearance but still be KOS from their religion. Something to consider. Religion is separate from faction when determining how others consider you.

Faction

This is the only place on the site where I'll mention faction, and then only in general terms. Faction is the term given to your relative standing with certain groups (factions) within the game. For instance, there is a faction associated with the Freeport guards. This faction is different from that associated with the merchants in Freeport, the paladins in Freeport, and the evil classes underneath the city, for example. Some of these factions are also in opposition to other factions, which means that if you get some positive faction with one of them, you will likely lose faction with another of them. There may be ways to raise or lower one without affecting the others, but more often than not their aren't.

What this means is several things. Since everyone starts out with some basic faction values for all the factions based on race and class, you may be limited to where you can go. An ogre, for instance, starts out with bad faction with the Freeport guards, but good faction underneath the city. This faction can be changed, however, through your actions during the game. Killing orcs in the Commonlands raises faction with the guards of Freeport, for instance, so an ogre might, one day, be able to walk through Freeport freely. The downside is that you lose faction with your brethren underneath the city, who will learn to dislike you. Certain things can't be overcome, either, so an ogre shadowknight is likely going to worship some evil god, and since religion is an independent factor in how others consider you, you could kill orcs til they were all dead by your hand, and still be hated in Freeport because of your religion. This is important to know so that you don't waste your time trying to fix faction that can't be fixed.

Another good (and relevant) example of faction occurs in Kunark with Venril Sathir faction. This faction is what the merchants in the evil Outpost in Overthere base their considerations on. However, there are many places in Kunark where you could fight monsters (notably ogres in Timourous Deep, and several high-level dungeons like Karnor's Castle) and get negative Venril Sathir faction. Following the information above, this will, over time, make you KOS in the evil Outpost, and doesn't really give you any corresponding good faction anywhere else. This faction is also very difficult to raise, so you need to be careful.

That's all I'll say on faction. It's a very complex topic that I couldn't hope to explain well, and that you'll have to just pay attention to. Keep an eye on the factions you get with each kill and see if they make sense. If you're an iksar, and you lose faction with Cabilis, you might want to hunt elsewhere...

Freeport

Freeport is probably the most frequently travelled city by the dark races. It is the port by which they all have to use to reach the island continent of Faydwer. It also lies between the Dark Elf city of Neriak and the swamplands to the south where the Trolls and Ogres reside. Due to its importance to the evil races in general, I will discuss it first.

The Tunnels

There is an extensive tunnel network running beneath the city of Freeport, which the dark races and less-than-legal classes use to get around. These tunnels start (from the outside) in both West Freeport and East Freeport. The path through West Freeport is the simplest. The entrance to the catacombs lies in the northeastern corner of the newbie area in the West Freeport zone. One of the two bends in the corner is where the actual tunnel is, and it is not distinguishable from the rest of the wall. The tunnels inside represent the remains of a water system that is empty at present. The key to getting to any area of interest is to stay to the left. If you take every left turn in the West Freeport zone, you will eventually zone into North Freeport.

Once there, you will find yourself with your first danger, having to travel an open waterway underneath the paladin guild! The trick to this is that you have to travel through here at night time. During that time of day, all the guards that typically stand on the bridge that goes over the water are gone, and you won't be attacked. After passing into the tunnel on the other side, you again zone into West Freeport. In West Freeport again, you turn first right and then left, and this brings you out into a long, open-topped aqueduct running through a fairly empty section of the city. Specifically, it opens up behind Torlig's Herbs and Medicines, on the eastern edge of West Freeport just north of a zone to East Freeport. This is a dangerous area for evil races, although guards are not too common here. The zone to East Freeport is a short step away, but guarded by a guard (and you can't get anywhere on the other side except through guards anyway). The only place you can really go is to head into the court with the empty stage and the shady thief guys in the middle. They are involved in some quests. This is as far as the tunnels into West Freeport will bring you.

East Freeport has some more important places of interest in the tunnel system. There are two entrances to it from the newbie zone, the easiest one to take is in the southwestern corner of the newbie zone, found in a similar fashion to the entrance in West Freeport. Passing into this tunnel entrance you will enter a small circular room with two exits leading off of it. The tunnel to the left leads to the other entrance to the catacombs and an interesting underwater structure, but nothing more. To the right leads to the other interesting parts of the city. Passing through this tunnel, you will come to a choice about going left or right. Left will lead the explorer to the Necromancer, Shadow Knight, and Cleric trainers for Freeport, and beyond them to a secret door that leads into the inn in the southeastern section of East Freeport. Taking the right path brings you to a door guarded by two Rogues. To the left of the door is a passage that leads to a room with a dark elf and another door into the Seafarer's Roost at the docks of East Freeport. If you pass through the door behind the two Rogue guards, there is a long tunnel that leads to an opening into the bay, whereby you can swim to the left to reach the actual Freeport docks.

The docks of Freeport are usually safe, as long as you stay outside of the Port Authority. There are a bunch of guards on the other side of the Port Authority, and I haven't tested whether or not they can see you. On the dock side of it, though, there are no NPC's (that I know of) that will attack you. I have on rare occasions seen a guard standing on the main dock, but only rarely. There are also reports of a fishing woman that will occasionally attack evil travellers...

Qeynos

The outside entrance to the Qeynos tunnels lies to the east of the Gates in North Qeynos. Along the wall there is a section of wall that is overgrown with vines. This is a false wall, and behind this wall lies a small room with a well, where the Klicknik Queen is known to spawn. Swimming down the well will bring one into the Catacombs of Qeynos. There are other entrances/exits to the catacombs within the city, providing evil creatures some degree of mobility. The lake just outside the Crow's Nest and the Monk's Guild has a tunnel into the catacombs, as does the water under the bridge just before one enters the section of town with the bank. The last normal entrance is in the water by the docks where the boat comes in. All of these tunnels lead into the catacombs, and through the catacombs eventually connect with each other.

The other, more unusual, entrance to the catacombs is through the arena. When entering the arena, one wall has an opening that leads into the area under the arena, where blood and bones mark those that died within those walls. Marked out in bones is a path that leads into one of the larger prison cages and to a secret door that leads into the catacombs. The catacombs at this point are dangerous to those who are not of the evil races or classes, as they are guarded by skeletons. In this area lie the Shadow Knight and Necromancer guilds for the city of Qeynos, as well as trainers for the other magic-using classes for evil races.

Faydwer

Half of the battle to reaching Faydwer is in getting onto the boat at Freeport. But what do you do when you reach the other side? You basically have to jump ship and swim for shore outside of the dock area. If you have to pick a side, go to the right, as there is more open area there and it's easier to get around. Going to the left forces you to walk past several guard houses in order to reach some of the better parts of Butcherblock, and this can easily be avoided.

As far as zones on Faydwer, they present their unique challenges and benefits for the dark races. Butcherblock is a large, open hunting ground, with the benefits of no roaming guards. Greater Faydark is the hub of all the other zones, and is good because you can be bound anywhere within the zone (not in a hostile city). The down side is that most of the areas near the cities as well as near Crushbone have roaming guards that will attack you. The entrance to Crushbone is generally safe, as is the area to Lesser Faydark. Lesser Faydark is generally safe, with a few exceptions (the ranger camp). Steamfont Mountains are similar to Butcherblock, scattered relatively easily avoidable non-moving guards. The downside to all these zones is that most if not all people are hostile to you, and buying and selling may well be impossible.

The next trick is how do you get home? If you are travelling by boat, that can be fairly tricky. You basically have to swim around the entrance to the docks and get on the docks onto the boat without being seen and attacked. The NPC at the end of the dock will not attack you, but the one near the base of the dock will, although he can be avoided. The method that I've heard about (note I've never actually tested this myself) is that the dark races can swim in the water in front of the boat and wait until it passes over them. They then are somehow sucked up into the hold of the boat and can avoid all that fighting at the dock. Again, I haven't tested out either of these to see if they work or not, I have, however, been assured by many people after first posting this that this works just fine. The most reliable? Find (or pay) a friend to teleport you.

Cross-Country Trip

The trip from Freeport to Qeynos is dangerous even for the good races, and the problems are exacerbated for the evil races. First of all, there is no easy way through the center of the continent. The passage through Beholder's Maze, Runnyeye, Misty Thicket and Rivervale is complicated by the fact that all evils are KOS in Rivervale. Likewise, passage through High Keep is complicated by the same problem, as well as the high level orcs and gnolls that are there. The safest route (and unfortunately the longest) is the southern route through the kingdom of the ogres. Basically, from Qeynos, the route consists of travelling into Qeynos Hills, Western Karana, Northern Karana, Southern Karana, Lake Rathetear, Rathe Mountains, Feerrott, Innothule Swamp, South Ro, Oasis of Marr, North Ro and from there East Freeport. The most difficult of these is Lake Rathetear where you need to avoid a fairly high-level camp of undead upon entering from South Karana and then get on a boat (or swim with more danger) to the eastern shore.

Odus

The continent of Odus is currently (effectively) closed to the evil races. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but it currently is. The basic difficulty is that there is no tunnel system or other system by which to avoid the guards when entering and going through Erudin. The docks pass by several guards, then you zone into a chamber patrolled by several guards, and then into the main city where guards are ever-present, only to walk outside by the guards. As you can see there is no way to avoid them, and as far as I know you can't swim around to Kerra Isle, for instance. Erud's Crossing is still a possibility to hunt at, although it's so difficult to get to for the evil races (and the Kerrans might KOS them), that it's probably not worth it.

For evils stuck in Paineel who want a way out, you have three options. First is to trust your invisibility and go through Erudin to the dock, stay invisible through Qeynos and eventually you'll escape. Second is to get a teleport out of there. Lastly, you can use the Nexus Scion at the wizard rings in Toxxulia Forest to take you to Luclin, from which you can go anywhere else.

Kunark

Kunark is the last continent to still pay attention to the old world factions (see below for Velious and Luclin for what that statement means). The newest area in Kunark (and one that introduces a new "Dark Race" for discussion here) is Cabilis.

The iksar are unique in their ability to travel around. Basically, they can't. Iksar are hated in every single area of the old world and Kunark except where there are other Iksar. This has to do with the storyline of Kunark, but basically the Iksar are despised. If you play an Iksar, you have no friends in the old world. Cabilis is your home. Other evil races are as hated in Cabilis as Iksar are hated elsewhere, so don't think they are your new friends. Cabilis is iksar-only. You can increase your faction, however, to the point where you can travel in and out of those cities (especially Freeport but also some of Qeynos). This takes a great deal of time, and I won't describe the process here, but it can be done if you are exceedingly patient.

The easiest way for evils to get to and from the continent is by using the shuttle through Timourous Deep from Oasis of Marr. This is very convenient, since it takes off from a neutral shore close to the home towns of the evils, and deposits you (eventually) in the evil Outpost in Overthere, where you are free to shop or do whatever you want. You can also get there on the shuttle designed for good races to Firiona Vie, but this is much more dangerous. Basically you get on the barges in Butcherblock, and take them out to the ship in Timourous Deep. You board that ship and take it to Kunark, being sure to not get off when it stops in Timourous Deep. You then need to jump ship and swim ashore outside of the docks in FV. It is possible to go invisible through the town, but needlessly dangerous. If you can't bind yourself, you can bind in Frontier Mountains.

Velious

Velious was the first expansion that was race/class neutral. What this means is that any old race or class could travel here and be as liked/hated as any other race or class. The ship to the continent takes off from North Ro in a safe area on the shore, and is guarded by neutral gnomes. The main city is Thurgadin, which is again neutral to all. In Velious, faction is everything, and you are liked/hated based on your faction and not based on race or class, and everyone's faction starts out neutral. Not much else to say on that. This is all because the beings on Velious have essentially no history with any outsiders, so haven't learned to hate or love them.

Luclin

Luclin is also (mostly) a race/class neutral expansion. The easiest parts of Luclin to reach are completely race and class neutral and you can travel as freely as on Velious. The only areas on Luclin that is not kind to outsiders is Sanctus Seru. The guards of Sanctus Seru start out anywhere from actively disliking evils to actively attacking them within the city itself, and actually one particular guard attacks just about anyone, evil or not. This is again based on the history of the place, where Sanctus Seru was a very righteous faction of the Combine Empire that tried to assassinate their ruler because he wanted to let dark elves into the Empire. Thus, they dislike dark elves and all others evil. Katta Castellum is the half of the Empire that wanted dark elves in, so they are a bit nicer to evils, and won't simply kill you because of your race (I don't think). However, bad religion will make you KOS in Katta, so if you worship an evil god (you know who you are) you will be hated here as well. Your only safe place will likely be Shadow Haven then.

With Luclin came evils' best friend -- The Nexus. Basically, anywhere you are, you can travel safely to any other place throughout any of the realms by use of the Nexus, including hard to reach places like Odus and Faydwer. This is also helpful to everyone, since you are never forced to wait for a port or the boat to get from place to place, just run to your neighborhood Nexus Scion and be on your way.

Conclusion

The above is a description of the major sections of the game and how the evil races can thrive and travel almost as much as the good races. Note that many of these problems can be circumvented by invisibility spells (in fact Odus is open to you if you can become invisible) and illusions. For the most part, though, these areas are open to the dark races as I've put forth above. I hope this means I'll see more ogres in Crushbone!