OP isn't used to the Wayback machine and its quirks. Long story short, this isn't proof the Eye was around before Kunark.
1) Click on the OP's link, you get sent to an April 7th 2000 allakhazam, yes.
2) Click "This Link" as directed, and you get redirected to a May 2000 version of everquest.allakhazam.com, here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20000511...llakhazam.com/
3) Click on Equipment as directed, and you get redirected to this page here from June 20th, 2000:
https://web.archive.org/web/20000620.../equipment.htm
4) Click Held Items (non-melee), and you get redirected to this page here from October 26th, 2000:
https://web.archive.org/web/20001026...ment/Held.html
So the Eye of Innoruuk entry the OP is referencing is actually from the October 26th 2000 version of Allakhazam.
How did this happen? Wayback will send you to the closest/latest version of the page you click on based on the page you came from. So just by clicking around you will always gradually drift towards the future. You always have to check the link you are sent to - click to open links in a new tab and check the URL.
Anyways, I did some digging on this, and Everlore, EQLizer both added Eye of Innoruuk in September/October 2000, coinciding with the introduction of epics. Other sites like Graffe have the same pattern:
First Everlore comments on Eye of Innoruuk are from October 2000:
http://web.archive.org/web/200201311...&pg=1&sortby=1
EQLizer news page shows them adding Eye of Innoruuk on September 21st 2000:
http://web.archive.org/web/200010021...eq/index.shtml
EQ General Forums topic "Verant: Quite a tease to Wizards with Eye of Innoruuk", last post Nov 30 2000:
http://web.archive.org/web/200012021...startpoint=680
eqloot.gamez.com shows Eye of Innoruuk updated on October 17, 2000:
https://web.archive.org/web/20001201...eld/index.html
Graffe.com equipment page doesn't have Eye of Innoruuk in September 2000, but it has it in October 2000:
http://web.archive.org/web/200009181.../equipment.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/200010150.../equipment.htm
Epic quests in EQ were released in September 2000, so this is
incredibly suspicious timing for the Eye of Innoruuk to start being added all over the place. It was almost certainly added with epics and should be versioned to September 2000.
https://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_N...ber_19.2C_2000