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Xau-Tak: God of the Horrors

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Wahisietel
Oct Member 2005

Wahisietel

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The main reasons we assume Xau-Tak to be pretty powerful is that it has apparently destroyed planets in the past (leaving behind oceans of of undead corpses), and that the Odd Old Man claims that the Skeletal Horror gained its power by "tapping into the world's life-force", otherwise known as the Anima Mundi. You never were our brightest star, Khazard. 'Vermin slaughtered like lambs'? What does that even mean?

12-Jul-2016 11:39:57 - Last edited on 12-Jul-2016 11:40:18 by Wahisietel

Cthris
Dec Member 2023

Cthris

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Wahisietel said :
The main reasons we assume Xau-Tak to be so powerful is that it has apparently destroyed planets in the past (leaving behind oceans of of undead corpses), and that the Odd Old Man claims that the Skeletal Horror gained its power by "tapping into the world's life-force", otherwise known as the Anima Mundi.

So doing what the slug queen did, or a least had the ability to do so if she told her slugs to drop the bodies, and doing what some gnomes can do. Neither of these two are gods, so there's really not any testament to show that Xau-Tak is powerful in terms of raw power. (I don't doubt he is super dangerous, intelligent, and has the capacity to destroy worlds, but you hardly need to be a god to do that)

12-Jul-2016 11:45:07

Raleirosen

Raleirosen

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Disregarding the fact that Xau-Tak had the ability to prophesy our existence through spacetime, which is something no other character has been able to do...

Mod Wilson said :
You seem to forget that corpses in this lore have a tendency to get up and move. Why leave the bodies lying around when they can remain animate? Wouldn't swimming such an ocean be more rewarding due to the tidal effect of billions of bodies thrashing as you pass? Why leave them merely to rot when they can babble and howl your praises in the dark places, or crawl through your endless labyrinth in terrified silence? In fact, why worry about any of this when your mind is so alien your thoughts make reality boil?
We've seen a lot of powerful beings in RuneScape, but not a whole lot of them can 1) boast a kill count in the billions, or 2) warp reality with their very consciousness.

Obviously Xau-Tak hasn't really done anything and is still super mysterious and whatnot... but I think your doubt is misplaced, Kastor. Patrolling Lore FC almost makes you wish for a Great Revision.

13-Jul-2016 19:49:12 - Last edited on 13-Jul-2016 19:50:18 by Raleirosen

Cthris
Dec Member 2023

Cthris

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It is probably worth mentioning that that quote doesn't actually say Xau Tak killed billions, only that he has control over billions of corpses. Seeing as he seems to be similar to Davy Jones, I suspect that he is just reanimating those who die at sea but I guess we will find out.

It's also worth mentioning that Xau-Tak himself might not be using any of his powers to reanimate corpses but instead just found that rock that reanimates people. There is a tendency for people in Runescape to stumble upon powerful rocks.

So that quote really doesn't tell us anything about his power. He could be super powerful necromancer god, or just a small fry tier 6 with a special rock.

Just don't get your hopes up.

Edit- And as I'm sure you are aware, there are other explanations for why he knows our name that don't involve having the gift of a prophet. My personal explanation would be that like Wah said above, Xua-Tak is probably tied to the anima mundi. Now we know from Hazelmere that the anima mundi has predictive properties. So perhaps he utilized the anima mundi to his advantage to learn our name. Which would mean that the anima mundi is doing most of the leg work.

13-Jul-2016 20:03:10 - Last edited on 13-Jul-2016 20:19:15 by Cthris

Raleirosen

Raleirosen

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Cthris said :
Just don't get your hopes up.
Nobody has any "hopes" regarding Xau-Tak's power level. They're only expectations, which can of course be subverted.

The only hope I have is that XT turns out to be interesting.

Cthris said :
Edit- And as I'm sure you are aware, there are other explanations for why he knows our name that don't involve having the gift of a prophet. My personal explanation would be that like Wah said above, Xua-Tak is probably tied to the anima mundi. Now we know from Hazelmere that the anima mundi has predictive properties. So perhaps he utilized the anima mundi to his advantage to learn our name. Which would mean that the anima mundi is doing most of the leg work.
1) None of those technicalities change the fact that XT accomplished something that apparently no one else has.
2) That would be an extremely lame explanation. Patrolling Lore FC almost makes you wish for a Great Revision.

14-Jul-2016 00:22:34 - Last edited on 14-Jul-2016 00:24:02 by Raleirosen

Cthris
Dec Member 2023

Cthris

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Raleirosen said :
Cthris said :
Just don't get your hopes up.
Nobody has any "hopes" regarding Xau-Tak's power level. They're only expectations, which can of course be subverted.

The only hope I have is that XT turns out to be interesting.

Cthris said :
Edit- And as I'm sure you are aware, there are other explanations for why he knows our name that don't involve having the gift of a prophet. My personal explanation would be that like Wah said above, Xua-Tak is probably tied to the anima mundi. Now we know from Hazelmere that the anima mundi has predictive properties. So perhaps he utilized the anima mundi to his advantage to learn our name. Which would mean that the anima mundi is doing most of the leg work.
1) None of those technicalities change the fact that XT accomplished something that apparently no one else has.
2) That would be an extremely lame explanation.
1) Expectation, hope, hype, etc same thing in my opinion. When people have X for Y and don't get Y they become disappointed.

2) Actually someone has. I assume you have done the fremmy series.

"All-consuming darkness will rise from the sea, unleashed by Good Intent.
The lost Mother is dead, her Daughter risen in her place.
Wits and Skills will bring the Light; fate does not dictate.
When the tide is strongest, Good Intent will be needed once more.
And his/her name will be [Fremennik name]."

Though admittedly the person who wrote the tablets could have been Xau-Tak. Sounds a bit like him tbh

3)Lameness isn't an indicator of validity.

14-Jul-2016 02:52:42 - Last edited on 14-Jul-2016 03:01:15 by Cthris

Raleirosen

Raleirosen

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Cthris said :
1) Expectation, hope, hype, etc same thing in my opinion. When people have X for Y and don't get Y they become disappointed.
Not true. They're all similar (and obviously, it depends on the individual), but they have different connotations. Hope implies a desire for the thing to happen; hype implies excitement for the thing; expectation is a totally neutral prediction of what the thing will be.

e.g. I hope that the Magnificent Seven remake is decent. I'm hyped for Nicolas Winding Refn's next movie. I expect that the upcoming Ghost in the Shell film will be mediocre.

Cthris said :
2) Actually someone has. I assume you have done the fremmy series.

"All-consuming darkness will rise from the sea, unleashed by Good Intent.
The lost Mother is dead, her Daughter risen in her place.
Wits and Skills will bring the Light; fate does not dictate.
When the tide is strongest, Good Intent will be needed once more.
And his/her name will be [Fremennik name]."

Though admittedly the person who wrote the tablets could have been Xau-Tak. Sounds a bit like him tbh
Fair point, I blanked on that. I doubt it was written by XT, but it almost certainly has something to do with him.

Cthris said :
3)Lameness isn't an indicator of validity.
Actually, in this context it is. We're talking about plausible explanations for a fictional entity's abilities; that fictional entity was created by Jagex. Jagex has so far (in this particular plot thread) been shown to be mildly competent in their storytelling. So it's reasonable to expect that they won't reveal/confirm an unnecessary and lame explanation for the fictional entity's ability... thereby making it relatively invalid. Patrolling Lore FC almost makes you wish for a Great Revision.

14-Jul-2016 03:42:31 - Last edited on 14-Jul-2016 03:48:34 by Raleirosen

Raleirosen

Raleirosen

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wait a sec

Has anyone actually looked at the Fremmy prophecy in the context of Xau-Tak?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"All-consuming darkness will rise from the sea, unleashed by Good Intent.
The lost Mother is dead, her Daughter risen in her place.
Wits and Skills will bring the Light; fate does not dictate.
When the tide is strongest, Good Intent will be needed once more.
And his/her name will be [Fremennik name]."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All-consuming darkness, from the sea? That's gotta be Xau-Tak.

And it's going to be unleashed by Good Intent, capitalized? Could be the player, as per the last passage. Makes me think of Saradomin too, though.

Lost Mother? Mah. Daughter? Seren.

Fate does not dictate? Zaros' plan is gonna ***** up somehow.

And the last lines imply we're going to be instrumental in stopping Xau-Tak. Patrolling Lore FC almost makes you wish for a Great Revision.

14-Jul-2016 03:46:55 - Last edited on 14-Jul-2016 04:04:07 by Raleirosen

Cthris
Dec Member 2023

Cthris

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@ Ral

1) Words are constructs created by a dynamic society, and by nature are dynamic as well. The meanings and situational use are not concrete. That being said, I will admit that I did not use the most correct word in my sentence.

3) Sorry, what I should have said was "Your perception of lameness that is relative to you isn't an indicator of validity." Personally I think it has the capacity to be pretty cool, but whatever.

Raleirosen said :


Lost Mother? Mah. Daughter? Seren.

Fate does not dictate? Zaros' plan is gonna ***** up somehow.


You have to remember that this came out in 2009. I doubt that Jagex had formulated Zaro's philosophy enough yet to call him the god of fate. Mah, I doubt was even a conceived idea at the time. Zaros and Seren being connected almost for sure not a thing back then because in one of the above the lore podcasts they mentioned there being only one god who was born a god, and said that Seren was a weird ascended crystal thing.

Now of course its possible in the future that Jagex could re-interpret the text and fit in the story, but it seems like Mod Wilson is not making things up as he goes along.

That being said, I wouldn't say this means that the tablet is not connected to Xau-Tak. The the 3 Dag kings came out in 2005 when Mod Wilson started his hint dropping. I just doubt that Zaros, Seren and Mah have anything to do with it.

Though the part about fate not dictating is kind of funny. Isn't that exactly what a prophesy is.

14-Jul-2016 04:46:45 - Last edited on 14-Jul-2016 04:50:00 by Cthris

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