RuneScape Forum Archive | Xau-Tak: God of the Horrors

Jan

2005

PyraTheAegis

Posts: 9,215 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Raleirosen said :
Aquamancer said :
Tentacles are nowadays associated with unnatural or alien creatures which became common in fiction on part due to Lovecraft's works, and by more "C*hulhu" than "Pirate", Wahisietel probably meant that Xau-Tak is more like an eldritch abomination rather than an ascendant pirate-type character.
You're correct, I actually think I meant to quote someone else. But in any case my point was that people tend to make the shallowest connection possible and go "lol tentacles that means lovecraft XD" without reading into things a little more than not at all.

If Jagex wants Xau-Tak to be an eldritch abomination à la Lovecraft, then fine. But in that case they'll have to do more than give it tentacles and a villainous agenda, because frankly that won't cut it. I honestly imagine him being like the Gravemind from Halo. The corpse ocean could be Flood like zombies.

Member of the Kalos Elite Four and Team Flare.

05-Nov-2015 13:57:28

Nov

2023

Artial

Posts: 121 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Abanderped said :
Xau-Tak is probably female, seeing as the goddess Calypso in Pirates of the Caribbean is also female and the Pirate series has more ties to the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Also notice how the name of the merchant who traded with the residents of Daemonheim, Hearthen, who features in the Nadir-saga and is mentioned by the Exile, resembles the term "heathen". Calypso in the Pirates of the Caribbean is a heathen goddess. Coincidence? I think not! Surely Xau-Tak is female.

yayayaya

07-Nov-2015 22:01:07

Eren Lapucet

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I did some research on monkeys thinking I found a link, but I wasn't able to find anything substantive. Here's my thoughts anyways:

In the 49th bts, where we were able to choose between the pirate, gnome and dwarf quest, the presenter for the pirate quest said "The monkeys will be getting involved. The ninja monkeys no less.", and I was thinking, what do monkeys have to do with the pirate series? Well, the obvious connection is that cave horrors, jungle horrors, and the skeletal horrors are all ape-like.

This makes Ape Atoll a viable candidate for one of the "series of locations", although technically the quest and area came out in December 2004, and I can't think of any relevant mysteries relating to the monkeys. There are zombie monkeys though in the ape atoll cave.

There is a somewhat tenuous link. In CFB, Marimbo talks about how she became a god:
"There was a statue nearby that turned out to be a dead god. And a huge, empty wine barrel. Someone later told me he was a god of hedonism too. He was on a trawl of different worlds, challenging mortals to drinking contest for a bit of lark." Xau-Tak is a "pirate" god, so the description of being a heavy drinker fits him, especially the details about him traveling world. There are some objections of course: 1) Traveling worlds may not be special for gods in general, and 2) The god above turned to stone (ie. died). The last point may seem to break the theory altogether, but you have to remember that resurrection is a large theme in this mystery.

A few lines down in her dialogue, Marimbo says "It's a shame I lost that drinking horn. The Fancy one with all the sparkles. I wonder where it went?", which some people have suggested is the Elder Horn. The horn was used by Quin to control all the monsters of the sea. In that case, the Horn is related to the sea, and we know that Xau-Tak is related to the sea somehow. I'm too Unaligned to have a forum signature.

08-Nov-2015 02:00:05

Dec

2023

Cthris

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Eren Lapucet said :
I can't think of any relevant mysteries relating to the monkeys.

There is one less well known mystery about the monkey's. After you kill the jungle demon in the quest, instead of heading right back to ape atoll, you can enter the Marimbo statue, and talk to a small purple monkey named Bonzara.

Here is his dialog

Player: No thank you. Who are you by the way?
Bonzara: Never mind that child. You should worry more about who you are and the nature of the forces that have driven you here.
Player: I'll ... keep that in mind, thanks.
Bonzara: We WILL meet again, Player.
Player: Okay...

Idk, sound mysterious to me...

08-Nov-2015 02:41:40 - Last edited on 08-Nov-2015 02:41:54 by Cthris

Svigris

Posts: 806 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Cthris said :
Eren Lapucet said :
I can't think of any relevant mysteries relating to the monkeys.

There is one less well known mystery about the monkey's. After you kill the jungle demon in the quest, instead of heading right back to ape atoll, you can enter the Marimbo statue, and talk to a small purple monkey named Bonzara.

Here is his dialog

Player: No thank you. Who are you by the way?
Bonzara: Never mind that child. You should worry more about who you are and the nature of the forces that have driven you here.
Player: I'll ... keep that in mind, thanks.
Bonzara: We WILL meet again, Player.
Player: Okay...

Idk, sound mysterious to me...

While the monkeys are maritime they are kinda in the wrong part of the world. I suspect that this was ment as part of a monkey madness sequel which never came to light.

11-Nov-2015 15:25:32

Jakir

Posts: 4,506 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Copy of my posts from the other thread:
I believe Dragontooth Island is also linked to Xau. It was used as a Saradominist outpost in the Third Age until it was destroyed towards the end or early in the Fourth Age.

The Celestial Dragon resource dungeon is there so you could argue the outpost slaughter was done by the Dragonkin but I do not feel that is correct. Dragonkin leave flaming ruins in their wake and make no secret of the wrath they inflict but this outpost disappeared mysteriously. Additionally it is a high level divination location and basically the only fertile location near Morytania so I believe it is likely the area has some interesting relation with life force and has secrets still to be uncovered. Perhaps secrets related to its strong life force could have something to do with the dead rising.

I know it was established Xau is known for his "corpse oceans" but given that he is clearly (and now officially with jmod confirmation) linked to pirate content I find it highly likely the as an ocean of corpses may be freaky and pose a health risk the real danger that makes his corpse oceans worth mentioning is the fact those corpses pose a more serious threat, namely that they are undead soldiers and not just a lot of bodies decaying in the water.

I would be very disappointed if Dragontooth Island didn't hold some secret related to Xau. And while it may have offered a tactical location to monitor Morytania and perhaps resupply ships for an invasion force during the Godwars (traveling by land would involve dealing with swamps and ghasts and ect so using the water may be more round-about but would minimize the dangers) I would like to imagine perhaps the Saradominists went there in the first place to look for whatever Xau was doing there. Sara did have his own reanimated troops after all. (Centaurs, Zil, Spiritual warriors, ect) Or at the very least became aware the island had more to offer the longer they were there.

13-Nov-2015 02:24:03

Jakir

Posts: 4,506 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

In case you have not read Wahisietel's thread about the black mask you really should.

Long story short the dg sagas and ports mention shipments of black stones coming in from the eastern lands. The worldbearer was in charge of escorting them through Daemonheim and a shipment was supposed to be received in Nadir's Saga. The black stones are mentioned in the flavor text of one of the archipelagos as being mined there.

The purpose? Necromancy *wavey spooky arms to indicate dark magic*

More evidence is stuff like the rum'geon being an exact copy of a dg floor and was clearly built by Bilrach thus it was likely made to mine for black stones or some such purpose and ect.

So Black stones = used for necromancy (even on pet parrots), from the eastern lands, and used by Bilrach. Fairly clearly related to the hordes of undead pirates and Xau as a result. If the black stones were sold/traded as part of an alliance or stolen is unknown.

But the interesting part is that the cave horrors offer masks made of black stone used to do a ton of extra slayer damage.

Slayer tasks are given by slayer masters, and Amascut runs the organization (presumably to increase the amount of souls in circulation and thus how many she can eat and increase her own power). Xau's mask helping slayer thus makes Amascut more powerful as it increases the souls she can potentially feed on. If this relation and benefit to her is intentional or not is unknown, however it was recently revealed that Amascut did not go insane immediately after visiting Freneskae and interacting with Mah but only after her father exploded himself to fend off the Zarosians.

The Kharid-Ib which means "Heart of the Sun" is clearly related to Tumeken and likely means he isn't entirely dead. I have another theory about the Kharid-Ib being his "core" (like the Mahjarrat forehead gem) and the 4 demigods of the desert being formed after his exploding similar to how Azzanadra was split into 4 elements but regardless of if that is

13-Nov-2015 02:24:20

Jakir

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true I think it is likely given the recent lore from the Halloween event about when Amascut went insane I find it extremely likely she is trying to revive her father. Why is that a bad thing that Icthlarin would want to stop? Well it isn't. So the only logical reason that presents itself is that it is not the act but the cost which is bad. It must require far more power than is available to the current Desert Pantheon requiring Amascut to devour souls.

I'm unsure why Xau would aid her in this but he is basically the patron saint of corpse armies so if the slayer mask helping Amascut devour souls is intentional then they are working together and if you are trying to revive something I can't think of a better ally to have than Xau. (Although Tumeken, if he is alive, inside the Kharid-Ib is not dead, which is good because Gods can't be revived from death as their souls scatter. So strictly speaking this is not a "revival" but none the less this would be the restoring of a soul and surely along the same lines as necromancy.)

And speaking of reviving things Sliske and Zemouregal are well versed in necromancy as well. While Sliske creates wights using the shadow realm I would like to think Zemouregal may have investigated Xau and possibly even learned from him/his creations.

The stryke***ms dropping the modifiers to add mage and range bonuses to the slayer helm as well as the general relation between wrms and tentacles may also indicate they are related to Xau.

Lastly Loarnab being a hydra may also be related to Xau or at least have encountered him. The popular theory that Tulna's rift is related to Loarnab (built next to the Zarosian capital city, the emotions present are those which Loarnab felt as it was killed, ect) may also indicate a relation between them as the place is filled with tentacles/tendrils and things. Heck Zaros even used attacks with that form to fight Loarnab so perhaps Zaros himself has met Xau (see my thoughts on Bilrach for more on this).

13-Nov-2015 02:24:40

Oct

2005

Wahisietel

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I doubt the monkeys are relevant. Ninja monkeys were only mentioned in the Pirate quest pitch because, you know, Pirates vs Ninjas. You never were our brightest star, Khazard. 'Vermin slaughtered like lambs'? What does that even mean?

14-Nov-2015 12:17:35

Svigris

Posts: 806 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Wahisietel said :
I doubt the monkeys are relevant. Ninja monkeys were only mentioned in the Pirate quest pitch because, you know, Pirates vs Ninjas.
As adorable as that would be. If we do actually want a Lovecraftian horror in game, I think the pirate quest line needs to get a tad more serious. Which is sad on one hand because the quests so far have been freaking hysterical, which puts Xau Tak in an odd position. Serious or comical, I hope Mod Wilson has a good answer.

14-Nov-2015 18:33:06

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Xau-Tak: God of the Horrors