RuneScape Forum Archive | Twilight of The Gods

Aug

2023

T Ancalagon

Posts: 3,254 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

So how are you fellow Lore fans feeling about

Re-establishing the Edicts of Guthix and permanently removing the Gods from Gielinor?

Here is some thoughts I wrote on another thread.

I've played the game since 2006 and always been a quester. In the old days the hints and mysteries about the Gods were fascinating and I always longed to know more and Imagined what it would be like to see them in a story. Then in 2013 when the World Wakes Quest was released, we suddenly got access to all these RS gods who names we had heard for years.

Jagex started making them nuanced and complex characters instead of good/bad/balance etc Allowing players to pick their path, support their favourite God, it's an aspect of the game I will really miss and I don't want those characters to be gone.

It's clear in the last few years that Jagex perhaps regretted giving players so much choice (I agree it was a complicated) and the story makes our choices for us now regardless of which God we chose to align with. Does anyone even know if picking the "I've no quarrel with Zamorak but I won't standby and let Demons kill civilians" option over the "Zamorak must be stopped" option even makes any difference in this quest?

The other Gods just instantly accepting this plan as well, especially Saradomin... I don't know why Jagex want to remove the Gods again, perhaps they feel the Gods presence hampers their freedom to tell other kinds of stories in quests? I don't see why it should though. After Extinction and the Great Revision, they could have just said they were all weakened and laying low. Leaving the world open to any story they like.

Love the Lore and the RS Gods!

07-Jun-2022 09:17:53

Jul

2013

Derack

Posts: 3,066 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I'm gonna miss those voices and my World Guardian powers..
Guess we can go for godhood now then? Would prefer demi-godhood though.

Guess we can safely say that the WG is neutral/Guthixian, and every choice during a quest to support another faction and world event one participated in is just sort of fan service.
Shame, i expected atleast some choices i made during End Game would be brought up...

Can't say i still like the idea with Zamorak's desicions for Gielinor domination and manslaughter. But, i'm glad he isn't gonna be put into a coffin, yet. Now i'm more curious on whats gonna happen next for him and the other god's when they are banished, again. (10 years since their return and now we boot them back out, it's way to funny tbh.)

Still, we will probably meet them again on some other world and stuff, probably.
It's ironic we only gonna safe Gielinor, every other world is gonna be stuck with some divine driven maniac. Yet, we also have to still deal with Zaros and xau-tak... And amascut..

I'm surprised with the other God's not minding being banished, again, even Saradomin, figured he would try to put up more of a resistance towards the plan. Again, i'm not against the bannishing of them all, but it feels little bit out of place, i dunno, feels just like it. But, it's better then just killing them off in the long run. More story's some day with them all.

Of course asuming the plan is gonna work and happen for all if not for some.

And yes, we can't forget about post quest dialogue, hopefully we will get plenty of them.
Godless, we really need to hear more them.

Almost forgot. Wight Nomad, he still has a tiny bit of the WG soul, what would happen with that?

"If you believe you can distance yourself from the harm you cause, you're deluding yourself. You're not some mindless tool. You're accountable. Your actions will catch up with you eventually." -Jedi Master Jun Seros; Swtor Bounty Hunter storyline.

07-Jun-2022 20:51:58

Dec

2023

Cthris

Posts: 5,206 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Banishing the Gods will be the right move. The presence of literal Deus Ex Machina 's walking around severely weakens any story you might want to tell. Any major problem or obstacle begs us to ask why isn't Armadyl or Saradomin stepping in. This forces the writer to include unnecessary contrivance, simply pretend the issue does not exist or include these characters constantly. All choices are bad from a storytelling perspective.

Would Saradomin or Armadyl really "lay-low" in a world-threatening crisis? Probably not.

Furthermore, there were already issues with how the gods were returned and integrated with the game world. Saradomin was a particularly bad case. What I mean is that the story of the game did not really cover what it was like for a bunch of monarchal societies to suddenly have their god just show up. One would expect there to be at least some issue with chains of command being disrupted. Would soldiers and peasants be more loyal to the king or to their god? The RS writers sidestepped this issue and made it so since the gods have returned there was one crisis after another so that it seemed natural that the god's and king's interests would be aligned. However, as things are winding down, and the gods (Saradomin and Armadyl) become more and more political in nature, then these issues start to emerge. While it would be interesting to explore these issues, Runescape is just not the medium for a slow political burn.

Point in case, just look at how terribly the whole "missing" king of Falador has played out, or rather, not played out.

Finally, sending the gods off-world does not even return us to the old status quo because unlike before "The World Wakes" we have access to the world gate and other interplanetary teleportation devices. Frankly, it seems like a win-win situtation because these characters can still be used when the writers want to use them, but the writers will never be forced to use them for gielinor quests.

08-Jun-2022 12:35:34

Oct

2023

Ixfd64

Posts: 1,561 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

On a side note, I wonder if we're going to enter the Seventh Age after the ED4 update.

09-Jun-2022 00:59:03

A Mighty

Posts: 2,337 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Honestly this was a giant middle finger to questers and questing in general. They didn't consider ANY of our past choices, including Emissaries, and they didn't let us pick our own choices in this quest either. What should have happened was that we were able to "choose" which gods we wanted to stay and which we didn't, then cast the edicts only to realize it banished all of the gods anyway. Instead we get this awful pile of dung.. and we didn't even reach the climax of the quest during the quest itself, instead it will come in elite PvM content that will probably be required for all subsequent main storyline quests... honestly WTF was Jagex thinking?? As bad as the slime quest was, it was just a 10 minute F2P quest. This was a main storyline quest that was "full of lore" by Jagex's own words, and it honestly might be the worst quest I've ever played when taking all of these aspects in. Shame on Jagex.

To those cursed by war and pest, Come into the light of Armadyl and rest. This is the law of Armadyl.

09-Jun-2022 05:26:16

Nov

2010

DaddyVx

Posts: 140 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I hate this twist. I agree with most of the posters here. I want a choice and I would choose

not to lose my world guardian powers.

I have spent years, literally years, becoming who I am. For Jagex to take it away is just wrong.

10-Jun-2022 12:47:26

Dec

2021

Mel 624

Posts: 744 Steel Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

You wouldn't really have to kick out all the gods to justify not having them involved in everything. They weren't handling every little detail of their domains before the edicts and they wouldn't have reason to after. They may be powerful and immortal but they're still people with limitations, hobbies and priorities. They mostly get involved in stuff beyond the scope of what other people can handle, especially conflicts with other gods. They don't need to get involved every time there's some problem that can be dealt with locally by some passing adventurer(s) or the relevant group. How to block a forum user

Death And Taxes: An Analysis

12-Jun-2022 02:56:53

Deltaslug

Posts: 32,671 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Think about it this way:
The threat of the Elder Gods is more or less gone.
Tuska (the next pseudo eldritch abomination) is dead
Bandos (a god that likes war) is dead
Zaros is stuck in the shadow zone
Seren had a mental breakdown and is now alone with the chibi elder gods and they just want to be left alone
... so most of the known remaining threats, besides Amascut are dealt with ...

Azzandra never really had the personality type to take power. He's kinda like the good soldier that fills in when it is needed, but it is more out of duty rather than personal drive to lead like some people have.
Armadyl has been a wreck since the God Wars anyways
Saradomin has probably just seen that things are likely to just go back into a cycle, and the whole "dealing with problems that are greater than him" .... and losing his hat ... has probably affected him mentally.
Marimbo was always willing to bail since she isn't big on conflict.

So you're pretty much left with a group of individuals that have a good understanding of where each stand and most are probably to a point of "if the other is willing to leave, so am I for the sake of peace"

All of them are aware that there are other deities in their class that are likely to pop in and start yet another god wars.

21-Jun-2022 12:40:44

Deltaslug

Posts: 32,671 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

the other part of the problem is ... well ... 10 years of different devs working on it (rare to have the same dev do the exact same story line) and no one seems to have really set in the stone what the powers of the "World Guardian" really were.
Sure it gave a degree of protection from god magic. Enough that Seren and Zaros couldn't outright smite you. but you weren't invincible. Even Elder God influence was never really codified.

sometimes, it was "powers as the plot demanded" sort of effects.

Without consistency in what players can expect from it. In addition, it wasn't like players could activate it at anytime themselves. It only happened in quests or were just mentioned passively.

Take Sliske's Endgame. The final confrontation with Sliske.
We were able to beat down an empowered Mahjarrat. considering that most of the previous time the player char fought a Mahjarrat, they were already in a weakened state or "let you win" ... and here, the player char goes into a cheat mode and just pummels him. With cooldown timers basically ignored. Constant adrenaline. And more.
I'm sure if you could tap into that anytime you'd like .... Vorago, Telos, Araxxi, et al wouldn't be so much of a challenge.
But yet, this is literally the only time the player char uses that feat. Despite having had similar scenarios come up that might have triggered it as well.

21-Jun-2022 12:47:30

Deltaslug

Posts: 32,671 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The final kick in the knee: the world guardian power was supposed to give a mortal a "level playing field" to a god

What happened? Does the player character ever fight a god in a straight up battle?
No.

WE1: Zam and Sara in a beam-o-war and the community feeds them power. Popularity decides the winner.
WE2: Bandos and Arma build giant towers and sit while mortals collect anima for a beam weapon that kills the god. Popularity decides the winner.
WE3: Hey you get handed a spear. Charge it with anima. The community pokes Tuska to death after devs nerf the event.
One quest where a "god" is created by Nomad, but it wasn't really a god.
One quest where we don't fight against Mah, more accurately just endure what she throws at us when she's groggy from her nap.

Time and again, we interact with gods ... or we have player agency taken away from a decision ... or we have to do something indirect ...

To date, the player bested gods BEFORE the World Guardian Powers were bestowed.
Granted ... we're talking aspects of avatars or fragmented powers.
But this wasn't like Extinction or Fate of the Gods where it was just an "endure".
The player bested the Avatar of Bandos. The player still beat down Mahjarrat. The Player still beat the shadows of Tumeken. The player still beat the corruption within Crondis created by Amascut.
But all of that was before the 6th Age.

The only god character the player can canonically defeat is Zuk.

21-Jun-2022 12:58:01

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Twilight of The Gods