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The Lower Plane Pantheon

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Trib
Oct Member 2023

Trib

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In 'The Promised Gift', Zaros details how he went to a series of lower planes to create the powerstones which he then gave to Nex in order to upgrade her. These lower planes included Vampyrium (Blood), Leng (Ice), the shadow realm (...Shadow), and Infernus (Smoke). We know that Vampyrium, Leng, and Infernus are leftover planes from the previous revisions, dead husks of worlds that still had traces of ancient magicks from previous revisions, associated with the mentioned elements in tbe ancient spellbook. Edit: This is only relevant insofar as it easily introduces the ancient planes and the elements they are associated with, which makes it easier for my ramblings that follow to make some amount of sense :P

The 'Pestilent Journal' gives us lore on a series of deities apparently worshipped by the displaced Mwanu (jungle horrors, cave horrors, unspeakable horrors, etc.). Their names and descriptions, taken from the lore book, are as follows:

09-Aug-2020 12:17:54

Trib
Oct Member 2023

Trib

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Uvhastar is described as follows: "It possessed the hints of a woman's body, with the curved figure so often associated with deities of childbirth and fertility. It possessed no arms, and its legs terminated in a great mass of tentacles that knotted around each other as though each tentacle warred with another. Where the head should have been instead rose a great many heads, all growing out of a central column which itself was made of more faces, such that there was no neck, only more faces. It unnerved me". I theorize this to be a goddess associated with Leng, as well as the sea slugs. I know this sounds far-fetched to the uninitiated, but in The Journal of Fell Arnesson, it is revealed that Fell, who accidentally traveled to Leng, encountered only one living creature (besides giant glacors): a slug-like creature which leapt for his face before he killed it. We know the head sea slug was described as 'Mother Mallum', going back to the matronly description given to this deity. We also know sea slugs hated heat through the sea slug questline, sort of affirming their affinity for cold, as Leng is a frozen hellscape, and they also came from the sea.

09-Aug-2020 12:18:09

Trib
Oct Member 2023

Trib

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Yogsathla is described as follows: "A lunar deity is common in primitive cultures, and one that relies so heavily on the sea would doubtless venerate the moon because of its influence on the tides. Yet this carving, again hewn from the same black stone, is a terrible sight. They have decorated it with a silver filigree that could have been enchanting if not for the terrible monstrous eye that sits in the centre. The eye reminds me of the bloated corpses of rotting fish, and every time I see it I find myself convinced that the eye is watching me more than I it." I theorize this deity to be Ocularis, father of the seeker race. Ocularis was a large stone moon that somehow spontaneously generated life after drifting around the lower planes of the cosmos. He is described specifically as a moon with a large eye at its center, and interestingly decided to settle his eye upon Infernus, where he watched the demons battle behind Zamorak, before spawning the seekers so that he may understand what it is to live. An interesting note here is what lore we do have on Ocularis says "A brain of stone cannot comprehend the true essence of being a living thing, and he knew this.", from Dishonor Among Thieves. The Pestilent Journal describes this deity as being one the mwanu he was observing cursed, and his desire to understand the living almost serves as a dichotomy to Xau Tak's apparent disdain for life (more on this later).

09-Aug-2020 12:18:21

Trib
Oct Member 2023

Trib

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The third of these deities is called Nyarlahydra and was described as follows: "The third deity is perhaps the most unpleasant of their gods. This was less a carving and more an arrangement of carefully cleaned bones. I can only assume these are the bones of one of the larger of their number, skinned and bound together with thick string and sinew. Upon its skull sat a terrible black mask, hewn again from the same black stone. They called it Nyarlahydra, and its name was only whispered when one of their number died." This deity was hardest for me to realize into my theory, as it is linked most strongly with the Mwanu directly, as well as the Skeletal Horror which we fight near the Odd Old Man. Shoutout to Laton from the RuneScape official discord who helped me realize it into the theory. His ideas are as follows: We know that occasionally modern planes and ancient planes of the same element exist- known lore says that Abbinah is the modern smoke plane, while Infernus is the ancient one. Perhaps then, Jermyn (original home of the mwanu people, as well as apes) is the modern blood plane and this deity is thus associated with Vampyrium due to the blood aspect. This is supported with other bits of Jermyn lore, especially as found in the Decaying Journal which says that Jermyn was created by the next deity, with the following text: "This bored Tezcasathla and so he reached his hand across the world and pricked a finger upon a mountain. His blood flowed down the surface and mixed with the stone and the trees. The blood infused the dirt with strength and purpose and so the stone took form and the first of the mwanu was born. Strong as stone, and he stood proud and defiant against the fiery stare of Tezcasathla, he was not afraid and this pleased Tezcasathla." Their whole culture then becomes the mwanu slaying monkeys and apes, who were created next, in order to make blood sacrifices, and to literally "bloodfeast"

09-Aug-2020 12:18:48 - Last edited on 09-Aug-2020 23:17:32 by Trib

Trib
Oct Member 2023

Trib

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Finally, we have Tezcasathla, which is described as follows: "The final figure is carved from that same black stone, but is nothing but a writhing mass of grasping hand, clawing their way out of the pool in which it rests. I believe this to be their central deity, the chief god from which all the other pledge their fealty." Tezcasathla is then implied to be Xau Tak, with the following text: "But, somehow, I know that that is not its name. I fear that I know the name somehow. Like an infection of language seeping into my soul from some place other. I dare not write the name, lest you, dear reader, become similarly infected. My books should educate, not endanger. I really want to protect you, dear reader, from this horror. But then, I wonder, do I really think I can save you." The 'think I can save you trope' is one applied to Xau Tak throughout the quests. A lot of people speculate Xau Tak to be a shadow leviathan, which is described as a being which chiefly hates life and writhes around at the depths of the shadow realm, seeking to destroy all life it comes across. Thus our final god of the Lower Plane pantheon: Xau Tak, Shadow Leviathan, of the shadow realm.

09-Aug-2020 12:19:03

Trib
Oct Member 2023

Trib

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Tl;dr: A lore book associated with Xau Tak introduced 4 deities, one basically said to be Xau Tak in a very on the nose way. These 4 deities are easily associated with 3 ancient lower planes of Leng, Infernus, Vampyrium, as well as the shadow realm. I believe that 3 of these 4 deities have already had some presence on Gielinor in lore sort of related to Xau Tak: Uvhastar, aka sea slug goddess from Leng; the sea slugs were led by a matriarch, are Lovecraftian in nature like Xau Tak, had an affinity for cold, came from the sea, and hated heat, and match a descriptor given of creatures on Leng. Yogsathla, aka Ocularis from around Infernus, a stone moon cursed by the Mwanu (perhaps unwitting followers of Xau Tak) who spawned the seekers, another aspect of lore associated with Xau Tak via his link to dungeoneering in Halloween 2018. Nyarlahydra, aka Skeletal Horror god from a plane with strong blood links much like the lower plane of Vampyrium, which housed the ancient element of blood. And finally, Tezcasathla, aka Xau Tak of the shadow realm, who is all but literally openly said to be Xau Tak, though it's unclear if he always was or took the place of another god- we know Xau Tak hasn't been here himself yet, and recent lore suggests he doesn't exactly know where Gielinor is but he is searching for us.

09-Aug-2020 12:19:22

Trib
Oct Member 2023

Trib

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Vaguely related musing I just thought of which bolsters the theory slightly: The word 'la' has been used in a few places in relation to stone. The dragonkin word for black stone associated with Xau Tak is referred to as Kreath takla, and the pause word for the Needle in The Needle Skips is Wenla (which I believe symbolizes that the needle is associated with Wen, hence her affinity being described as inversion in the 2017 runefest lore q&a). Interesting then that we have 4 deities here, 3 under my theory as having an affinity to stone, and one not. The 3 that would have an affinity, Tezcasath la , Xau Tak and black stone god himself, Yogsath la , Ocularis the stone moon that came to be alive, and Nyar la hydra, the Skeletal horror related god who wears a black stone mask, all feature La in their names, while the one that does not seem to have a direct stone relation, Mother Mallum the sea slug-adjacent matron god from Leng, does not and is called Uvhastar.

Final note for now: I don't necessarily believe Mother Mallum, the Skeletal Horror, or the Seekers we've seen *are* these gods and goddesses, just that they represent their presence or avatars already being here on Gielinor.

09-Aug-2020 12:19:34 - Last edited on 09-Aug-2020 12:52:11 by Trib

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