RuneScape Forum Archive | Contingency plan for Zarosians

Hazeel

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"Zarosian ideology" is so loose and flimsy that the bulk of it is made up of player headcanon based on the loose scraps they can find in game. Whether you want to argue the existence of such ideology, though, is irrelevant.

Zarosianism is the worship of Zaros, pure and simple. Zaros is the lord and savior. Zaros will fix our problems. If we just do what Zaros wants, everything will be fine. Everything else is a very distant second.

He's not the only God like this, of course. Saradomin is much the same way, though to his credit, Saradomin actually does have a set of principles you could follow after he dies. The problem is these principles come after Saradomin, who would be willing to break them if he thought it served the greater good. So you're left in a shitty place if he's gone. Seren is even worse in this regard.

The Godless ideology--or Guthix's ideology--is one of the few, if not only, factions that can exist without its God. And even then, it's a bit hilarious how fanatical they are to Guthix, despite his desire to be forgotten.

Zamorakianism, in theory, would be the second but in practice it's more complicated. Although it preaches individualism, Zamorak--being a follower of his own ideology--would put himself first as well, which has structured his chain of command. In addition, Saradomin has pushed the mainstream Zamorakian closer to a Satanist who reveres the devil than an actual individualist. So if Zamorak were to fall, his ideology would likely be all but crushed as well.

The fundamental problem with Zamorakianism is that the line between ideology and religion are blurred. An ideology can survive without its founder, but a religion needs its God. And when it comes to Zarosianism, there's no question...it's a religion, not an ideology. If the God falls, then the religion dies. Runescape doesn't need a hero...it needs a villain. An all encompassing force of evil that will remain ever-threatening and use chaos to make the peoples of Gielinor tolerate each other, grow strong together, and fight side by side against this evil. I am that villain.

28-Feb-2021 22:14:30 - Last edited on 28-Feb-2021 22:23:37 by Hazeel

Androme

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Dan-i-el said :
Incorrect, the Zarosian ideology, in it's simplest terms, is to push yourself and those around you to improve, maximise potential and in turn society will start to improve as well.

It could be interpreted in various ways depending on if you're Christian, Buddhist, hindu, or even Northern pagan, all of which have some message to seek enlightenment of both body and mind.

Plus after playing the game for over 10 years now as a Zarosian, you start to genuinely care for it anyway.

Whilst other factions may have similar approaches, none do so in a way I can vibe with.

And to counter the point about mediocrity... Well that's kinda the point in this thread, to improve it to a higher grade.
Furthermore, people have invested years into this game, each for their own reasons, but after so many years the least these players deserve is the right to keep their faction.

The story of the game would be improved precisely if Jagex stops pretending that "all the gods represent certain ideals that they benelovently wish to impart upon their mortal followers!".

Take a step back, and look at Zaros from an outside perspective: Is the point of his actions, to "improve the lives of individual mortals"? Of course not, clearly he's preoccupied with other things, as the latest quests in RS3 have shown.

28-Feb-2021 22:41:53

Nov

2008

Marcin K

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Original message details are unavailable.
The story of the game would be improved precisely if Jagex stops pretending that "all the gods represent certain ideals that they benelovently wish to impart upon their mortal followers!".

Take a step back, and look at Zaros from an outside perspective: Is the point of his actions, to "improve the lives of individual mortals"? Of course not, clearly he's preoccupied with other things, as the latest quests in RS3 have shown.

I'd argue to the contrary (edit: to provide an extreme example) If Zaros were akin to a nuclear engineer thrown back to medieval era with the idea [for whatever reason] that the best shortcut to prosperity is to bring nuclear power to the medieval civ. the explanation of exact nuclear physics to the medieval people would make no sense.

But provided the right tools and resources building the plant would be possible in theory. I oversimplify this example on purpose.

What I want to convey is: Zaros is not revealing his ENTIRE plan to us not because he's a "douche" or "evil" or "has hidden agenda" but maybe it's simply too complicated / would take too long to explain everything in enough detail for us to understand, maybe he hopes to act before the Elder God children wake up and Tsunami-Disaster us all...

And his silence makes his biggest followers [namely Azzy] "take initiative" with ...more enthusiasm than sense....which has consequences

My bottom line: unless and until Zaros himself EXPLICITLY and clearly declares us as enemy I propose we treat anything less as conjecture and misbehaviour on the part of overzealous followers, and thus this is a fatal misunderstanding, BUT - not one that can't be corrected ...yet

28-Feb-2021 23:32:50 - Last edited on 28-Feb-2021 23:33:28 by Marcin K

Hazeel

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This is just straight up denial on full naked display... Runescape doesn't need a hero...it needs a villain. An all encompassing force of evil that will remain ever-threatening and use chaos to make the peoples of Gielinor tolerate each other, grow strong together, and fight side by side against this evil. I am that villain.

28-Feb-2021 23:43:05

Dan-i-el

Posts: 84 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I fail to see how highlighting Jagex's trigger happy nature towards player factions is denial.

Most have completely failed to see the true purpose to this post, which is to highlight that it's happening yet again that a large group of players, the largest to date, has been thrown under the bus.

Kill Zaros off if you must, I always had my suspicions he'd end up dead, what I am concerned for is future content for the faction.
Will we be forgotten about like the Bandosians too?

I'm sticking Zarosian regardless, the god and followers are only half the story for me. I do worry however if other Zarosian players will feel alienated, if so, then jagex may have quite a dilemma, we're a fair bit more popular with players than Bandos was.

I understand the story they may be going with, but I really don't think jagex have truly realised the gravity of such actions on their player base. It's a very risky game they're playing, if they do not pull of one Heck of a story, they will only recieve even more backlash from here.
Not only could a whole faction of players be getting thrown under the bus, but jagex is potentially stepping on a landmine here too.

This could potentially grow into a bigger mess than people realise, maybe I'm too cynical, but in my experience, it always pays off to expect the worst.

"oh it's just cope lol"
First it was Bandos, then V, Sliske, now us.
It's not about the npcs, it's about the player base at it's heart. I actually think having Azzy as an enemy would be cool, but I'd like our future content to have a safeguard in place first, simply dropping it like this is not a great way to do it.
Don't let this be a Bandos 2.0, not without a satisfying ending at least.

01-Mar-2021 01:22:46

Hazeel

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I was referring to the whole "Zaros isn't our enemy! I'm sure he's giving Azzanadra a stern finger wagging right now!" nonsense.

That said, it's been obvious for awhile that getting too attached to your faction "winning" is a lost cause. And simping for a God is an even greater folly...after all, Death more or less spoiled the ending for everyone in Sliske's Endgame: All of the Gods die and thus fail. Whether it will be within the timeline or not remains to be seen.

Regardless, if you want a timeless faction I suggest stripping down and joining the Godless nudist colony. I doubt any of the factions are going to have strong relevance once their God is removed from play. Runescape doesn't need a hero...it needs a villain. An all encompassing force of evil that will remain ever-threatening and use chaos to make the peoples of Gielinor tolerate each other, grow strong together, and fight side by side against this evil. I am that villain.

01-Mar-2021 01:45:18

Sep

2012

Giras

Posts: 2,399 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Zarosian "ideology" is a cult of personality nothing more. Zarosianism simply maintains that Zaros is the end all be all simply because he's Zaros. The Zarosians closest to Zaros himself have confirmed that they don't care about any ideals or reasoning, only that the orders came from Zaros and that they serve his will.

I think it's time to face facts, Zaros is just telling whichever patsy he needs to use what they want to hear as he's always done throughout history. Now that his plans involving us are over, he's gone to the "ditching the patsy" phase that every partnership with the Empty Lord inevitably ends up going.

Given the fact that we're not just going to roll over and let him do whatever stupid crap he's about to pull that'll probably get us all killed if come into fruition... he's likely going to consider us a "loose end" to be "tied up".

I'm no one's servant!

Good. Never let anyone think differently

.

01-Mar-2021 02:26:00

Mar

2014

Roland Lyons

Posts: 3,475 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Alright let me lay down some contingency plans for Zarosians, which y'all would be best going for sooner rather than later.

Did you like the dark and evil aesthetic of the faction along with the mysterious ancient powers? Go with Sliske, yeah he's dead but his faction may as well be a proxy for Elder God worship so there's that.

Did you like the idea of a large empire that spans the world? Go with Saradomin, he basically has that right now. He's the de facto king of Asgarnia and Kings Roald and Thoros will obey him. Now with the Illuminati-esque manipulators exposed and removed!

Did you like the philosophy of strengthening oneself? Honestly you would've been better off as a Zamorakian to start with. You don't even need to actually fight for Zamorak to be a Zamorakian, Zemouregal wants to betray him and Verac fought for Saradomin while he worshiped Zamorak.

Do you just want to stop the Elder Gods? Honestly just keep following this questline, faction doesn't really matter anymore because we haven't gotten cool emissary faction dialogue since Fate of the Gods, I guess Seren or Godless are your best bets here.

The best contingency plan is just join a better faction, preferably one that won't throw you away when it's done with you, that's it.

I will protect Gielinor. Zaros has no love for its people.

-Saradomin, Polemarchos Autokrator

01-Mar-2021 07:40:02

Dan-i-el

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Again it seems the other factions have completely misunderstood the point here.

I'll try explaining it one last time:

How can players, not necessarily just Zarosians, but all of us, make sure we're not just forgotten and still make player choice valid, whilst still ensuring all corners of the community still recieve a fair share of content.

It's, again, I'm having to explain this again, not even really about Zaros.

01-Mar-2021 08:41:19

Hazeel

Posts: 6,735 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Truthfully, I would be shocked if anyone's choice was "valid" in the end. The best you could ask for is a personal conclusion that takes player choice into conclusion. But not only is this very unlikely, but it could only come to pass if Jagex effectively ended all major questing once and for all...which I doubt they have any desire to do. Runescape doesn't need a hero...it needs a villain. An all encompassing force of evil that will remain ever-threatening and use chaos to make the peoples of Gielinor tolerate each other, grow strong together, and fight side by side against this evil. I am that villain.

01-Mar-2021 08:50:28

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Contingency plan for Zarosians