The Realm of Heroes NPCs were used to tell about something irl that happened at an SOE Fan Faire I think from Dallas around 2002 iirc, but also were used for distributing various items in exchange for coins dropped during GM events. GM events usually included slaying some diety that was GM-popped, and recieving the coin as loot.
March 25 2005 post and Oct 31 2001 post
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=6613