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The Tower/Well of Life

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Sepulchre
Dec Member 2020

Sepulchre

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Greetings, fellow Lore nerds! It's been a long while since I've been truly active in the community.. I plan to remedy that, now that my quest-caping alt is finally all quest-cape ready.

That being said, earlier today my alt completed the Tower of Life quest.. and there are some interesting tidbits in there that I didn't really have an explanation for.

For those of you who may not remember, in the Tower of Life quest, we basically do everybody's job for them (so a lot like most quests) from fixing, repairing, operating, etc. a big glorified water-puzzle to negotiating with scared living beings created by some jerkwads (Can I say that on here? I don't remember...) who are too closed-minded and cowardly to deal with their own consequences, ultimately setting this Homunculus on a path of either Magic or Logic (which, to my knowledge, affects... effects... very little).

Through the quest we have a few pieces of dialogue that pertain to the well of energies that rest in the basement of the tower, the first two from the head alchemist, Effigy, the third from the Homunculus itself.

We can already create gold, we can already transform matter from one thing to another, and now we have the ability to create life itself! We owe much to the power of Guthix, for without the life essence he left below ground, we would have never been able to bring this tower alive!


Long ago we found a strange source of energy that we believe was left behind by the great Guthix. He used to create life with such ease.


They use essence of Guthix power. Create tower pump this from ground. Make me with godly power. Dangerous.


Now obviously this is back when the lore still dictated that Guthix was the creator of Gielinor, and that Saradomin and Zamorak were two largely unknown rival Gods, whom Guthix sometimes referred to as "my brothers," so a lot of people thought the trio were creators.. A
World Guardian
must learn to find
Balance
in themselves.
Only then can they
Control
themselves and forge their own
Fate .

04-Oct-2017 20:53:25 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2017 20:54:13 by Sepulchre

Sepulchre
Dec Member 2020

Sepulchre

Posts: 3,525 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
So if we were to apply modern-day lore to this, we could make a few things here different.

Mainly that we know the Elder Gods created the world, not Guthix, so whatever "life essence" was left underground is most likely in fact the Anima of the world.
What's more, it seems that these alchemists found a way to use the Anima with their own magic to create... life. At least somewhat. In reality, it was only them applying what they studied of alchemy to the Anima, creating artificial life. In a way, it is a few steps below the Zarytes. They were at least unique and took on some features of the races they were made from, and of Zaros himself.

It seems also that they were the first people to find and make use of Anima, since Glouphrie at any rate. What's interesting is why was it so present in that area? Coincidence? I mean it seems to be a steady supply, but the Anima flow of the world is otherwise unaffected. If all this is true, that it is Anima, it would mean that these 3 fools have actually found a way to use Anima as an unlimited energy source.

There are probably also other interesting things about this to consider that I haven't been able to come up with. As per the usual, I ask for your opinions, your thoughts, your input, etcetera. I'm interested to see other takes on this. A
World Guardian
must learn to find
Balance
in themselves.
Only then can they
Control
themselves and forge their own
Fate .

04-Oct-2017 20:54:28 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2017 21:12:13 by Sepulchre

Hguoh

Hguoh

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Marine Doge said :
Pretty sure that the quest is considered noncanon nowadays, by and large. Too much to try and explain away, really.

It's not that hard to explain away though. All you need for the tower to function is a pocket of elder god magic in that area and a reason for it to be there.

I was kind of disappointed that one of the elders wasn't revealed to be sleeping there, with the Tower using the ambient magic it produces as a fuel source (much like when Zaros created the Nihil by siphoning off Mah's magic), but there can still be another reason for a pocket of elder god magic to be sitting below ground there.

Once you establish that, it points to the alchemists having reproduced (to a limited extent) the ability of a t2 god to manipulate life and elder god magic (perhaps less efficiently).

Alternatively, the alchemists might have found a way to synthesize elder god magic from anima (in which case all you'd need is an anima reservoir beneath the tower), which could play into Zaros attempting to become an elder god (say he studies the mechanisms of the tower to see if he can replicate the process with his own abilities).

04-Oct-2017 22:23:21 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2017 22:45:34 by Hguoh

A Mad Hatter
Dec
fmod Member
2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Summerleaf said :
I think I remember Osborne or someone saying that it's basically non-canon, and needs to be redone eventually.


I don't see why it shouldn't be canon considering Zaros essentially did similar things we do in that tower to create the Nihil. Really, the only thing I can think of that needs to be accounted for is (to my understanding) the lack of Elder God magic that was around Freneskae when the Nihil experiments were a thing.

Then again, Gielinor is the perfect world and has 5 Elders or so sleeping under it in some areas. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some magic of theirs floating around the wider world after all those years of napping on the planet.
^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

05-Oct-2017 19:30:41

Rondstat

Rondstat

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This is one of the things that has most infuriated me about the 6th Age. There are a lot of occasions where they've contradicted or otherwise ignored old lore, but this is one of the most egregious. And the thing is, this was pointed out by the lore community pretty much from the moment we learned about Elders, in a thread originally by Goldmage over on the Future Updates forum (pre-lorum days, boiiizzz), and later by myself here.

I actually made up my own take on many of the 6th age quests, that would put the Tower of Life as the resting place of Bik. But, unfortunately, a lot of devs took the 6th Age as licence to ignore all that came before. That said, Raven has actually been one of the best for respecting old lore - One of a Kind and Nomad's Elegy are tremendous in that regard. The Elder locations were decided by someone else.

06-Oct-2017 07:26:07

Byzantinist

Byzantinist

Posts: 337 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
In the 5th age, everyone thought Guthix created the world and all life on it for a long time, luckily we could correct this grave misconception, just like rune magic, for we now know he only ever brought life with him . Homuncolus could've easily undergone a mandela effect to believe that his essence was Guthix's.

The fact that a bunch of mortals could create life out of raw Anima before anyone else is simply breathtaking - and very interesting indeed. I think the real explanation for mortals experimenting with Anima to form life might lie in mere interpretation.

If Nomad had succesfully done it, I guess anyone could do it, as long as they'd have the right amount of Anima to harvest; it's not entirely limited to the higher tier gods, so maybe mortals can too with the sufficient knowledge. But then you might ask, what forms of life could we create? I believe the intelligent type is simply not an option, maybe just primitive beings of basic essence, perhaps even without souls. Sometimes one must operate within the
shadows
to serve the
light
. For a man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear fruits again in season, in order that the world may ever be new.

14-Oct-2017 00:12:47

Inque
Nov Member 2013

Inque

Posts: 548 Steel Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
That quest is basically retconned now. But like it's already been said, the hybrid monster things are basically nihil: "life" created from already existing life, and not life created from scratch.
You can't read this signature. It's written in invisible inque.

14-Oct-2017 15:28:51

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