My apologies in advance if this is not the place for this question but I wasn't sure where to post.
I have been playing Anarchy Online since around March 2004. To be perfectly honest, I have never really cared all that much about the backstory behind the game. I stayed in AO because of its complexity, community and overall game enjoyment. That being said, I always felt that I had a basic understanding of what was going on in the game.. it didn't seem to be all that complex. Admittedy, I never truly understood what shadowlands was all about (another dimension? another time? .. didn't know/didn't care) and would always get REALLY confused everytime I would read the quest text to obtain inferno boots.
That being said, I would like to get up to speed after playing this game for 5 years. Where do I start? I don't mind reading, but I have no idea where to get the information I need so that I can understand 'current' events. Since Xan brings tons of new quests, I'd like to actually understand them rather than mindless 'fetch' tasks just for axp or phats.
Any assistance would be appreciated I haven't done any research, I just figured it would be easier to ask the roleplay community since many of you are experts on the subject.
Thanks in advance
Edit: Let me also state that I am one of the people that always reads quest text so I'm not completely noob to the storyline. There are some key things, however, that are not 'fitting' for me and I want to get clarity.