RuneScape Forum Archive | Rs3 Lore That Hasn't Aged Well

Darelzel

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RuneScape has been around for 20 years now, with new content (including lore) being added every year. It's natural that some of the content from the first decade hasn't aged well, but what about the second decade?

From 2010 up until 2016, there's a number of content related to the lore that has not really aged well. There were a number of storytelling or technical choices that I'm sure seemed like good ideas at the time, but have proved to be problems in the long run. And there were some things that probably shouldn't have been done in the first place. Anyway, I've got a list of content from the 2010s I believe hasn't aged well, and in the posts that follow, I'll elaborate.

1. Salt in the Wound (getting that one out of the way right away)

2. Dungeoneering

3. Plague's End

4. Death of Chivalry

5. God emissaries/Factions

6. The Mighty Fall

7. Choices/plot branches

8. Sliske's Endgame

As I'll note in my posts, some items on this list have still aged better than other items on the list. These are mostly in order of appearance, and not in order of how badly they've aged.

02-Aug-2021 01:12:00

Darelzel

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Salt in the Wound:

The most disappointing quest ever. Instead of a satisfying conclusion to a promising quest series, this quest seemed more interested in promoting the new skill/slash minigame Dungeoneering. Instead of the an increase in the dark, threatening atmosphere of the Slug Menace, we get jokes with player spoofs that would have been more at home in the pirate quest series, Colonel O'Neil being written out offscreen with an easily-missed line of dialogue, Kenneth aging himself to an adult for no good reason, and the most ridiculously anticlimactic ending in the history of Gielinor.

Mother Mallum, an ancient evil so terrible she was sealed up magically, is easily dispatched when Eva Cashien just pushes a pillar on her. If it were THAT easy, then why was Mother Mallum sealed away years ago? A scary threat is turned into a joke out of sheer laziness, thinking what works for a Dungeoneering boss like Stomp could work for an already established ancient evil. To this day, 'pillar' is a joke among players about anticlimaxes.

Sure, it's possible that with Eva Cashien siding with the Zarosian Temple Knights, it could be retconned that Eva was given special powers by Sir Vey Lance that helped her take down Mother Mallum, but the damage is already done.

02-Aug-2021 01:12:43 - Last edited on 02-Aug-2021 15:36:18 by Darelzel

Darelzel

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Dungeoneering

When is a skill not a skill? When it's a mini-game. Fans had long awaited a new skill, and in 2010 they were promised one. Only to basically be given a mini-game involving the use of most existing combat and non-combat skills where one raids several levels of a mysterious dungeon called Daemonheim. To players, it was basically the equivalent of having a Castle Wars skill or a Clan Wars skill, as the Dungeoneering skill had little apparent relevance outside of Daemonheim.

Since its release, the creators have tried to make Dungeoneering relevant for more than just Daemonheim. They've made Dungeoneering levels a quest requirement for some quests (such as in A Clockwork Syringe and the infamous Salt in the Wound). They've added special additional skilling areas at various places accessable through later Dungeoneering levels, and they've added the sinkhole minigame. They've also tied it into the lore of the Mahjarrat and dragonkin quest series. Some of these attempts have been more successful than others.

Even putting aside the whole 'It's a minigame, not a skill' thing, is it an enjoyable minigame? Well, it's a mixed bag. There are a number of major annoyances caused by its randomly-generated dungeon levels structure. You sometimes encounter skilling-themed doors that won't open because they require a skill level 10 or more levels higher than one's current level - and if you can't mix a potion that will temporarily boost your level, you can just forget about the bonus for visiting every room on that level. You can also forget about that bonus if you're on a free-to-play world and you encounter a skilling door requiring a member's skill.

(continued next post)

02-Aug-2021 01:13:54

Darelzel

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And of course some of the puzzles can be more tedious or annoying than fun. The worst is when you have to jump across a series of rocks pursued by an energy ball. Not so bad, except that randomly, you can 'stumble', resulting in the energy ball getting a free turn where it moves forward and you don't. It turns it from a strategy-based puzzle into a luck-based puzzle.

So while Daemonheim has been successfully worked into the lore, and some characters introduced with it have been put to good use in recent quests (Thok providing both brute strength and comic relief in the recent Kerapac/Anachronia quests, for example), Dungeoneering and Daemonheim continue to be plagued by flaws that have not really been fixed much in the intervening years.

The Dungeoneering hole in the beach event, meanwhile, mercilessly mocks a lot of the more annoying aspects of Dungeoneering, and partially because of that has proven to be one of the more popular parts of the event.

02-Aug-2021 01:16:58

Darelzel

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Plague's End

The long-awaited finale to the Plague's End/elves quest series, while not as spectacularly dreadful as Salt in the Wound, still suffers from a great many flaws. The overthrow of King Lathas and the mourners is a tad underwhelming, and you're given a choice to spare or kill Lathas that makes NO difference (if you spare him, he's later killed offscreen by the Dark Lord anyway). Lord Iorwerth, set up to be the main antagonist trying to free the Sealed Evil In a Can that is the Dark Lord, only briefly appears at the end -- just barely long enough to be killed by the Dark Lord. And the Dark Lord itself basically appears to be your boringly generic boogeyman, and the revelation that it's a fragment of Seren is only played up in the sequel.

OSRS, however, corrected all of the above faults in its version of the quest, titled Song of the Elves. There, the revolution against King Lathas is played up a lot more, as the player goes out of their way to stir up anger against Lathas and the mourners. The actual fight is better handled, with fires being set and various citizens (as opposed to just a small party) taking out mourners to a much better soundtrack. 'Stand Up and Be Counted', the music that plays both in the battle against the mourners and the battle against Lathas' forces, is a much more epic sounding track than 'Scape Bold Heroic' (which is just a slight variant of 'Scape Bold').

Said revolution ends with an execution of King Lathas, followed by Lord Iorwerth meeting with the player and Elena and telling the player right then and there that the Dark Lord is really a Fragment of Seren, taking the quest in a much more interesting direction. Lord Iorwerth is a major character in the quest from that point onward, and his motivations are far better defined than in the original version.

(continued next post)

02-Aug-2021 01:18:02 - Last edited on 02-Aug-2021 02:07:14 by Darelzel

Darelzel

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The best parts of Plagues End - finding and recruiting the Elven House representatives -- are still there, but the overall storyline is much stronger, with more twists and turns, and a few surprises. Highlights include Seren lore drops in the Grand Library puzzle (with the relaxing title track), the battle to defend the dwarf encampment at the Underground Pass, and the final battle with the Seren Fragment (which is a much more interesting fight than the Dark Lord battle in Plagues End).

All in all, Song of the Elves is Plagues End done right.

02-Aug-2021 01:20:51 - Last edited on 02-Aug-2021 03:12:59 by Darelzel

Darelzel

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The Death of Chivalry

It hurts to put this one on the list of 2010s content that hasn't aged well. The Death of Chivalry is a very well-written quest, giving much needed depth to Sir Owen's characterization as we team up with him. We also get further insight into Saradomin, as this is the first quest in which he plays a larger role than just a brief cameo appearance. With twists and turns, a memorable boss fight, and a lot of great characterization, the 6th age was off to a strong start.

So what's the problem? It ends on a cliffhanger. Sir Owen, Fern the ghostly centaur, and Saradomin intend to go on a quest to the centaur resting place to see if the Wand of Resurrection can do anything for them. Sir Owen, meanwhile, has to go into hiding until then because he Came Back Wrong - he has a corrupted arm and scars because bringing him back from his prior zombification didn't quite fix him up completely. This wouldn't be such a problem - this would be neither the first nor the last quest to end on a cliffhanger. The problem is, we never actually get to SEE the resolution of the cliffhanger.

The 6th Age takes a different approach to the lore and storylines than the 5th Age, which could have six or eight different questlines going at once (goblins, dwarves, elves, etcetera). The 6th Age has these huge plotlines (the gods, dragonkin, Elder gods) that need to progress. Saradomin was needed for the main story, and as it proceeded, it became clear that the whole thing with the Wand of Resurrection and the centaurs wasn't going to go anywhere. If it was, then we'd have seen the centaurs around the time of Sliske's Endgame.

(continued next post)

02-Aug-2021 01:21:50 - Last edited on 02-Aug-2021 01:23:34 by Darelzel

Darelzel

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And after Sliske's Endgame, it became necessary for future 6th Age quests to take place after Sliske's Endgame because it, like Ritual of the Mahjarrat before it, had WAY too many requirements. DoC Part II had long since lost its relevance. However, Sir Owen was still an important character in the White Knights/Temple Knights lore, and Azzanadra's Quest needed someone important whose loyalties to Saradomin needed to be tested. And Sir Owen fit the role better than Sir Tiffy Cashien or anyone else we knew who was associated with the Temple Knights.

Of course, this left what happened with Fern and the centaurs as the elephant in the room. And unfortunately Jagex didn't have the time or resources to spare for something that was ultimately a plot cul-de-sac. So instead, in the aftermath of the Battle of the Monolith, we speak to Sir Owen and he tells us, through dialogue, what happened. Apparently, the quest did not result in any centaurs being restored to life, and only resulted in the spirits of the centaurs moving on peacefully to the other side after a battle with 'necrotaurs'. Fern moved on from the world of the living as well, and the Wand of Resurrection crumbled to dust, with the only benefit being that perhaps the corruption within Sir Owen is under control.

I think it's safe to assume that the Death of Chivalry would have ended in a different way had they known what was going to happen. It's nonetheless a bit disappointing given the high quality of the quest that had so many people eagerly awaiting a sequel that we would never properly get to see.

02-Aug-2021 01:25:17

Darelzel

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God emissaries/factions

As with many of the items on this list, these probably seemed like good ideas at the time. A number of players had their favorite gods and wanted to have the game acknowledge their allegiance to a certain faction. It provided good role-playing opportunities.

However, it clashes with the lore and the player character's role within it as the World Guardian. In the lore of the Sixth Age, Guthix made the player the World Guardian, whose role it is to protect the world from the excesses of the gods. If the gods are going to start conflicts again, the World Guardian is the one who will have to be their referee, and can't always be bound by one particular side.

So sometimes the player would be in quests helping followers of Saradomin, sometimes helping followers of Zaros, and sometimes helping followers of Zamorak, and sometimes helping followers of Seren, depending on the plot. But the alliances with these factions couldn't go any deeper than 'for the greater good of Gielinor/World Guardian business'.

Also, while most of the gods are presented as having both good and bad qualities, with virtues and flaws, one of the gods represented has NEVER been portrayed in any sort of positive light in the lore. That would be Bandos. Bandos turns out to be the ultimate antagonist in The Chosen Commander, when he gives the Dorgeshuun the ultimatum to either serve him or die. He is also revealed to be behind the destruction of Yu'buisk, the world where the goblins previously came from. The player and Zanik team up to defeat him to save Dorgesh-Khan.

(continued next post)

02-Aug-2021 01:29:29 - Last edited on 02-Aug-2021 02:14:39 by Darelzel

Darelzel

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And when Bandos actually returns, before his death in the second god battle world event, it becomes painfully clear that he's every bit as horrible as previously presented. The additional lore drops in 'The Mighty Fall' even show he's just as hypocritical as the gods he criticizes, in case anyone thought his calling out Saradomin and Armadyl on their hypocrisies was his redeeming quality.

All in all, it makes no sense for the player to ally with a character who's always shown as an irredeemable horrible monster in the lore.

The other gods, meanwhile, have both their good points and their not so good points, which makes allying with them at least for the greater good of Gielinor and its people make more sense, even if (as stated above) one's alliance with any of those gods can never be too deep due to the needs of the story.

02-Aug-2021 01:31:36

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