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

Zulkir

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Wahisietel said :
Good to see that he didn't betray my already low expectations.

If you don't expect much, best not to play it at all. God forbid content is made that doesn't align to your theorizing

Zarosian Lorehound

Master Questcape Owner

Inconsistent Completionist

23-Sep-2016 19:01:18

Jul

2015

Uncle Harper

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Wahisietel said :
Mod Raven has said that they are very reluctant to do any more time travel plots (with us doing the time travel, at least) as recently as The Light Within, since it cheapens storylines if we're just able to go back and change things.

So that being said, I think we can rule out us time travelling again in connection to Xau-Tak. Considering how many other unremarkable characters are capable of it to some degree, it's pretty likely that Xau-Tak was simply able to see the future, or it just took note of us when we were messing around in the First Age.
It just has to be done right and not simply us making brief appearances in the past. A full time travel story that has actual ramifications on our timeline is what we need and i seriously doubt the enchanted key story line is over. I have seen the dark universe yawning, where the black planets roll without aim;
Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name.

23-Sep-2016 20:23:56

Ancient Drew

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Something occurred to me. Jagex mentioned that there are actually hundreds of gods out there apart from the ones mentioned. Most of these gods are animals, such as Saradomin (human) and Armadyl (aviansie), and some of them are plants like Brassica Prime. This then leaves the other group that could possibly be a god yet at the same time is weaker than mortals; a mineral or a microbe. Xau-Tak may actually be a god disease, either lacking a form altogether or being a tiny bacterium or virus that spreads slowly.

I noticed that Xau-Tak seems to lack a gender, which animals and even plants possess. This is shown in Death at Sea, where the werewolf Lygrass says:

"What carves its hate upon the monolith? XAU-TAK! Through what do we crawl in silence? XAU-TAK! What swims the oceans of the dead? XAU-TAK! XAU-TAK! XAU-TAK!"

This indicates that Xau-Tak could be a microbe that spreads like a plague, and the fact that it makes threats to the World Guardian in the past shows that the World Guardian is immune to this illness. It's also shown due to our lack of awareness of such a thing, and it's possible that Guthix already knew of this disease but his Edicts couldn't stop it. They let demigods stay, so a tiny microbe in a form that may be weaker than mortals by itself could easily slip through the cracks.

And speaking of Guthix's awareness of the disease (whether he learned it himself or if Seren or V told him), the Enchanted Key is heavily suggested to have been involved. This shows that while Seren and Guthix were working together to make something to defeat this virus, Guthix made plans to provide someone with an immunity, that person being the World Guardian. And since Sliske took part of our soul in Kindred Spirits, it's possible that he was looking to get in on the vaccine himself. Whether this will make us weaker to the disease or not, we will have to see at the Endgame.

Of course this is just a theory, and might be completely wrong. Prepare for hell on RuneScape in Naval Cataclysm!

Pokemon battle? Friend Code: 4614-0426-2439

23-Sep-2016 20:38:06

Jan

2021

AesirWarrior

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Wahisietel said :
Mod Raven has said that they are very reluctant to do any more time travel plots (with us doing the time travel, at least) as recently as The Light Within, since it cheapens storylines if we're just able to go back and change things.

I mean, there's a thousand ways to work around that. The easiest way would be to change the time travel rules so we literally cant change the past, because any time travel is already part of history. It'd all be stable time loops/bootstrap paradoxes. Think Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, or Gargoyles if any of you have seen that.

... Of course that'd involve retconning Meeting History, so they could do something else.

Either way, I doubt we've seen the last of time travel in this game. There pretty much has to be some in Robert's story for his notes to make any sense at all. Doubt there'll be any in Xau-Tak's story though. I think Xau-Tak knew our name because it either exists outside of time somewhat, or it can see through it. If the people of Seers Village can see the future then an eldritch abomination can too. -

I have noticed your kind does tend to blindly stumble forward towards danger simply because it exists. What is your word for that?

- We call it being a hero.

23-Sep-2016 21:16:42 - Last edited on 23-Sep-2016 21:19:08 by AesirWarrior

Hguoh

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AesirWarrior said :
I mean, there's a thousand ways to work around that. The easiest way would be to change the time travel rules so we literally cant change the past, because any time travel is already part of history. It'd all be stable time loops/bootstrap paradoxes. Think Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, or Gargoyles if any of you have seen that.

I'm actually quite fond of the way time travel works in game right now.

In Meeting History, we are perfectly capable of changing certain small events (the trees, sarah, and assisting Laura), but the overarching timeline remains consistent. Herblore will still be called Herblore, the Wizard's Guild will still be established, the Amserdrwys will will itself into existence, and the Outpost's significance will be forgotten.

It's very Dr. Who-like: you can change certain events, you cannot drastically change the outcome of the more important (influential) events (in the Betrayl's case, Zaros would still 'die' and Zamorak would still become a god, but you might accidentally save a Chthonian Duke by unintentionally convincing the Zamorakians to banish them instead), and the majority of history remains unaffected.

24-Sep-2016 02:53:55 - Last edited on 24-Sep-2016 02:54:07 by Hguoh

Maiden China

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I am not at all a fan of doctor who's time travel (although I do like the show. Actually, I'm not a fan of time travel in general

th doctor says that certain points are in flux, that they can be changed... but some of those in flux moments would change the world so drastically that the 'fixed' moments would never be able to happen... an an example, the pompeii fire-giants and ww2

and... the way time travel in game works now (as far as I'm aware) is that all your time travel medling will already have happened always... you can't change anything, you have to change it because you already did change it. Say goodbye to the illusion of free will. Carn

24-Sep-2016 05:32:53

Hguoh

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Maiden China said :
th doctor says that certain points are in flux, that they can be changed... but some of those in flux moments would change the world so drastically that the 'fixed' moments would never be able to happen... an an example, the pompeii fire-giants and ww2

Except that both of those were fixed events (hence the Doctor's extreme reluctance to save anybody from it and him trying so hard to explain to Mels that her plan to shoot H***** wouldn't work). The most interesting bit about those events, however, is that they were fixed events already in danger of being changed (the fire giants in Pompeii and the Teselecta), and the Doctor was brought in against his will (he didn't mean to land in Pompeii and Mels forced him back to WW2). And, of course, the Doctor fixes things so that the fixed event goes as planned (because he had little choice to do otherwise in Pompeii and did so accidentally in WW2).

Of course, you could be talking about another WW2 episode (the one with the Daleks). But again, the Doctor is lured in by something out of his control (Winston Churchill calling for help) and fixes what would have derailed the fixed point (gets the Daleks off Earth and stops their bomb's explosion).

Then there's the water on Mars episode, where the Doctor deliberately attempts to drastically change a fixed point, but only succeeds in changing a minor detail about it.

Or there's the episode where the Doctor failed to die in his designated place and time. But even then, time broke until the event was back on track, the Doctor's actions beforehand ensured the event would get back on track, and the event did get back on track with the entire season up to then hinting that him avoiding his death through technicality was how the event was meant to go down in the first place (the looping time aspect of the events making it so that this was always how it did go down).

24-Sep-2016 10:54:28

Hguoh

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Yes, it's very contrived way to get around the cascading effects of time travel in an episodic TV series, but it works well in that respect. And considering the typically long interludes quest series experience and the limit on just how much they can change, it might be one of the better ways to handle time travel in Runescape.

Maiden China said :
and... the way time travel in game works now (as far as I'm aware) is that all your time travel medling will already have happened always... you can't change anything, you have to change it because you already did change it. Say goodbye to the illusion of free will.

If that were the case, then we wouldn't have been able to change anything about Past B in Meeting History as our actions in Past A would already have happened even though we had yet to do them. If our actions had already and would always occur, then Past B as the future of Past A would have already been changed by our actions just as the future had. As we clearly observe changes to Past B caused by our actions in Past A, then our actions cannot have always been a part of the timeline.

This indicates that though we could change small things, the overall timeline remained constant (ex: even when we hadn't yet inspired young Jack to go off and establish the Wizard's Guild when he was older (a distinct and observable change between the two pasts that we cause), it was still established in the Future).

24-Sep-2016 10:59:14 - Last edited on 24-Sep-2016 11:12:48 by Hguoh

Oct

2005

Wahisietel

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The problem with Xau-Tak being something like a disease is that diseases do not have tendrils and cannot swim

. You never were our brightest star, Khazard. 'Vermin slaughtered like lambs'? What does that even mean?

24-Sep-2016 15:06:56

Ancient Drew

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Wahisietel said :
The problem with Xau-Tak being something like a disease is that diseases do not have tendrils and cannot swim

. Parasites do.

And wouldn't there be diseases and pathogens going around corpse oceans anyway? It's a good thing Guthix gave us a vaccine to that thing before he died. Prepare for hell on RuneScape in Naval Cataclysm!

Pokemon battle? Friend Code: 4614-0426-2439

24-Sep-2016 15:13:41

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Xau-Tak: God of the Horrors