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May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Annals I * The Great Ape Empire

So this is one of the weirder and shorter side things I have, but here’s about how it goes: The Kharidian Peninsula played a large role of the spread of monkeys across Gielinor.

Most of the southwestern portion of the mainland is or once was inhabited by monkeys. These areas were the Ape Atoll, Karamja, Mos’le Harmless, and Kharidia (also the Void Knight Isle). There may even be monkeys in the Wushanko Isles and beyond. Out of all of these areas, the Kharidian Peninsula is the largest land mass where monkeys have lived.

The fact that these two major groups of monkeys worshipped completely different Goddesses is very interesting. Apmeken (and I can** believe I’m saying this) appears to be the more businesslike of the two Goddesses, with her actions also having more influence on the Desert holistically. Likewise, her monkeys would have received some influence from the other Desert Gods.

On the other hand, Marimbo was more insular. She threw elaborate and decadent parties rather than governing her people. I blame this for the reason why monkeys never became a force to be reckoned with. Her people were maladministered, and their quality of life (poor, with bad leadership) led to them becoming cruel, greedy, and militant compared to their Kharidian counterparts.

Monkeys also have a large amount of diversity, but only on Ape Atoll, where we can see gorillas, big monkeys, small monkeys, and your average monkey. Therefore, I assume that this is the beginning point of where monkeykind came to Gielinor. The fact that they have the most advanced current monkey civilization reinforces this, though the monkeys in Kharidia may have rivalled this. It is said that the monkeys from Karamja were dull and cruel compared to their Marim and Kharid cousins.

Monkeys would eventually move through Karamja and Kharid until they could manage to spread to other lands, like Mos’le Harmless, or even Wushanko. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:47:47

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Personae I – Tumeken & Elidinis

Name: Tumeken
Affiliation: United Kharidia
Symbol: Falcon, Eight-pronged Sun
Status: Incapacitated since the Second Age. In Menaphos?!

Tumeken was said to be a dreamer by Mod Osborne, but his personality is much more severe from what I can tell. He was described as “the sun that punishes” by Senliten, Amascut implies that his heart was “so small… so hard… so cold…”, and Icthlarin tells us that his father was unyielding and dour. He very quickly saw that the Mahjarrat would become a problem – but he did*’t stop them. This is because he was expecting the worst but hoping for the best, or because he wanted to show Icthlarin precisely what his mistake was. I’m betting on the former.

It seems that though Tumeken was a dreamer according to Mod Osborne, he held no delusions about the reality of things. He saw that, at least in his mind, if Zaros were to take the Kharid there would be no stopping him, and acted. He seems a realist, but is also somewhat fatherly. He might have seen all Menaphites as his sons and daughters.

His power-level is unknown. He may be entombed in Menaphos.

Name: Elidinis
Affiliation: United Kharidia
Symbol: Hippo, River
Status: Off-world, missing since the Fourth Age

We know very little about Elidinis, as the only things we know of her come from Spirits of the Elid and passing references. I suspect that her style of rule was more gentle and passive than Tumeken’s, as she was more accepting of foreigners like Nardarine. She also seems to have been content with being a second rate power. This is best seen when she hid behind the Saradominist Empire in the God Wars.

This is not to say that she is weak, as it is clear from Spirits of the Elid that she would suffer no dishonour. She is clearly not as stern as Tumeken was, being a more nurturing individual according to Senliten.

Also, hippos are awesome and underappreciated. Go look up some hippo facts. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:48:52 - Last edited on 18-Sep-2016 17:00:02 by Captain Lime

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Theory VI – A Lion’s Redemption

One of the major questions of the Desert series is whether or not Amascut can be restored to the position she was in in the Second Age. In some ways, it depends on how maddened she actually is, but allow me to say right now that while I think Amascut may be restored in some ways, she will never be fully redeemed for what she has done.

Amascut appears to flick between times of complete insanity and a saner but still evil mania. She goes and voraciously consumes souls in order to sustain her hunger, and safely forwards her plan in her times of sanity. But it’s clear to see what damage has been done to others by her actions * Icthlarin is cripplingly guilt-stricken, Apmeken has become somber, and the Desert has bled for centuries.

Not only that, but severe damage has been done to Amascut’* psyche. Even before her descent to damnation, she felt unloved by Tumeken, and horrified by the actions of the Mahjarrat. Finally, she shattered when she saw Tumeken destroy himself to correct her brother’s mistake, being driven insane by the pain. Even a fully restored Amascut would have to deal with this emotional baggage, and the whole Desert will hold contempt for her for the rest of her days. None of what she has done will ever go away, and she will have to live with that until her death.

That’s not to say that Amascut will not be restored – I believe there’s a high chance of it. I don’t believe that Icthlarin will ever allow harm to come to his sister, even if she has become a monster. He has suffered too long with the guilt of indirectly ‘killing’ his father, he would never allow something to destroy his beloved little sister. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:49:16

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Personae II – Icthlarin & Amascut

Name: Icthlarin
Affiliation: The Underworld/The Afterlife
Age: ~8000 years old
Origin: On Gielinor
Symbol: Jackal, Ankh
Status: Custodian of the Afterlife

Ic**larin appears to have once been impetuous, childish, and headstrong. He was given a job by Tumeken to attend to the afterlife alongside his sister, Amascut. Later, he would bring the Mahjarrat, and would live to regret it.

Icthlarin is encumbered – firstly by the sheer size of the task given to him, and secondly by the weight of the consequences of his actions. He effectively has to do the job of two Gods, AND has to prevent Amascut from consuming the souls he is pledged to protect. This does three things: it makes his job harder, reminds him of his sister’s condition, and most importantly, it reminds him that no matter how hard he tries, he cannot save every soul.

Name: Amascut
Affiliation: Herself, associated with Menaphos
Age: ~8000 years old
Origin: On Gielinor
Symbol: Lionness, Inverted Ankh
Status: Insane since the Second Age, plotting the doom of civilization.

I’ve already spoken about Amascut at length – but one of the few things I haven’t talked about what she has done since she went mad. She is unable to have any true worshippers due to a curse laid upon her by her former priests and priestesses (now cats). She has amassed an army of unspeakable terrors in the underworld, and roams across the overworld all by her lonesome. She can mind control people, but for some reason, she cannot directly kill us (this is likely Icthlarin’s work).

Most importantly, she seems unable to directly destroy a Desert God – Apmeken says as much during Do No Evil. Instead, she is forced to strip away what the God is (Apmeken’s senses), or force a God away (like Scabaras). It’s quite interesting what powers she has and doesn’t have.

She is searching for Tumeken's Burial Chamber in Menaphos, according to RuneFest 2016. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:49:56 - Last edited on 18-Sep-2016 17:05:34 by Captain Lime

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Annals II * How to Return to Life

This section will largely focus on the problem of mummification.

Firstly, let’s focus on what mummification is: it seems that it’s a process developed to split the body and the soul, rather than needing Death to do it. This appears to have an extra benefit of allowing souls of the dead to return back from the afterlife. I assume it also bypasses the need to go through the underworld to get to the afterlife, as it seems that the souls are much safer, and are not at risk of attack by Amascut.

The issue is that this process is not only very complex even at its most basic, it also requires all the preparations to be preserved absolutely perfectly. There are also a lot of very metaphysical components of it: their name and personality needs to be somewhat preserved. A body double “to take the place of the dead in the afterlife,” several canopic jars (the portion we are most familiar with), and a secret recipe of herbs and spices are also required. It’s quite interesting, and I have no idea how it all fits together.

What we do know is limited: the process can often be distorted, as graves are often robbed of their numerous riches which ruins the preparations. When this occurs, the spirit either is unable to return to this world, or becomes monstrous and violent. The Mahjarrat were masters of the craft.

I suspect that the process involves the dead having their own personal afterlife that’s closer to Gielinor, rather than traversing all the way to the afterlife. This would show how the process would be much safer than traditional death, but also much more complicated. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:50:19 - Last edited on 09-Sep-2016 21:02:54 by Captain Lime

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Personae III – Het & Apmeken

Name: Het
Affiliation: Northern Kharidia, Kharidian Humans, Al-Kharid
Age: ~8000 years old
Origin: On Gielinor, in a Northern Village
Symbol: Man
Status: MIA recently

Het is popular in all of the Kharid, though especially in the north, because he looks the most familiar of the Menaphite Gods. He is always depicted as muscular, and represents the ideal man. It is said that Tumeken selected him from a village in the far north of his lands. He is the idol of health and strength, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s good. Nevertheless, he seems particularly liked by the soldiers.

Little is known of what happened to him, but Jex states that he doesn’t believe that Het has left us * I take this to mean that his powers are being used against us. Perhaps Het himself is being controlled by Amascut.

Name: Apmeken
Affiliation: Western Kharidia, Kharidian Monkeys
Age: ~8000 years old
Origin: On Gielinor, in Western Kharid
Symbol: Monkey
Status: Restored, though Sombered.

Apmeken was said to be once a monkey from the western part of the Ancient Kharidian Civilization. As such, she is always depicted with some variant of a monkey’s head, and is described to be playful and cheeky. She is the Goddess of friendship and mischief, and the patron Goddess of monkeys.

She worked against Amascut about 50 years before the events of the game, as was discovered and defeated in battle by her. Unable to be killed by Amascut, she was stripped of her senses and all her monkeys were killed.

Fortunately, through the work of an adventurer, she and her people were restored and reestablished in Western Kharid, but she has changed greatly from the experience. It is unknown if she will return to her former self, however she may forever be a grimmer version of her past self. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:50:52

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Annals III * The Treason of the Mahjarrat

So, let me get the most controversial line out of the way in this post. Every Mahjarrat that we know of is a traitor. They were all in service to the Menaphites for an extended amount of time, and yet all living ones now follow Zaros, the ancient foe of the Menaphites, or Zamorak.

Now, I have discussed this many times with many people, and the most commonly heard arguments I have heard to counter the second line of this post are *The Mahjarrat are more like Zaros, so it’s natural that they left Icthlarin” and “The Mahjarrat were oppressed under the Menaphites, and left to join Zaros because they would be treated better.” These two lines are false for a variety of reasons.

Let’s start with the former. My main counterargument to this is twofold. Firstly, not every Mahjarrat left Zaros. It DEFINITELY wasn’t unanimous, and there were many Mahjarrat who STAYED with Icthlarin, against the decision of the others. Instead, it seems that most of the Mahjarrat simply decided to obey the rule of whomever was the toughest of them, even though the one of them who decided to begin the treason was SLISKE of all people. Secondly, the Mahjarrat are physiologically as similar with Zaros as crocs and jackals.

Now to the other argument: Mahjarrat were treated VERY well in the Menaphite Empire. They were given stations of high prestige, and were respected throughout the empire. They were made into generals and great warriors, and fought against many enemies. They effectively did the EXACT SAME THING in the Kharidian Nation as they ended up doing in the Zarosian one. The ONLY evidence that anyone was unhappy with the status quo was Sliske being forced to get rid of his wights, and the fact that the Menaphites had more respect for the dead than Zaros did is a good thing.

In any event, all remaining Mahjarrat were among those who decided to betray the Menaphites. If they chose not to, perhaps the world would be better. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:51:32 - Last edited on 09-Sep-2016 21:03:07 by Captain Lime

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Personae IV – Crondis & Scabaras

Name: Crondis
Affiliation: Southern Kharid, Crocodiles
Age: ~8000 years old
Origin: On Gielinor, in a Menaphos Mastaba
Symbol: Crocodiles
Status: Goddess of Decadent Sorrow

Crondis is a Goddess revolving around humility, resourcefulness and modesty, which makes her quite unpopular in Kharidia. After all, who likes to be modest? However, the elites of Menaphos appear to hate her the most, as Menaphite elites are described to be the most decadent and most arrogant. Enough of that for now, though, as this is about Crondis!

According to RuneFest 2016, in the upcoming Golden City of Menaphos expansion we'll find that Crondis has been convoluted to now be a leech - she is the opposite of what she was before - she takes from the people and gorges herself, taking pleasure from their pain. Perhaps this is why Menaphites have become so cruel and greedy. We will need to restore her!

Name: Scabaras
Affiliation: Scarabs, Isolation
Age: ~8000 years old
Origin: On Gielinor, in a cave
Symbol: Scarab Bugs
Status: Banished from Gielinor since the 4th age

Scabaras is an interesting God, as there are many conflicting legends about him. He is very controversial, as he is the God of isolation and learning, but many of the higher institutions of the Menaphos frown on the scholars that would observe Scabaras. He has also been quite defamed by Amascut.

During the mid fourth age, he apparently threw a revolt, but this is almost certainly more slander from Amascut. Nevertheless, he was kicked out of Gielinor (not before unwillingly creating the Kalphites), and left his scarab-human hybrid subterranean civilization to its own devices.

He does somewhat influence you in the Diamond in the Rough quest. Also, the priests aren’t allowed to speak about certain aspects of his character, and we’ll talk about that in a little bit. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:52:04 - Last edited on 18-Sep-2016 17:04:20 by Captain Lime

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Annals IV – The Zen and Art of Golemtronics

Golemtronics is a bit of a manic subject of mine, and I have many personal theories about them, so let me preface this by saying I have absolutely no idea how they work.

Well, I have many ideas of how they could work, but none of it is supported by any evidence. Golems are as diverse as dogs and cats, so I’m just going to say here that the first golems were probably a Menaphite invention, but the Saradominists really progressed the science.

The very first examples of a Golem that we can see are two guards of the Tomb of Senliten. One was very old and crude, and the other completely broken altogether, but they exist. They were there to ward off Grave Robbers (a job at which, depending on semantics, it did either very well or very poorly). But it was a start, and came before any major interaction between Menaphites and Saradominists.

The next example we see of golems are actually Third Age inventions – the Golems we see during the Spirits of the Elid quest. These ones are much more refined and well-made, but most importantly, the spirits specifically state that these were gifts from Saradominist Mages, likely ones who lived in the Desert. This is the biggest keystone in Golemtronics history. The next example of Golems were the Heroes of Uzer – the ones completely DECIMATED both Pal*eera and Thamarron!

The next example is the Saradominist Colossi. We still see the originals, folks, because according to Top Trumps (a source is a source), all the ones we see in game are from the God Wars. From there, Golemtronics spread. Wushanko likely copied them through trade with Menaphos and went from there, while the rest of the world, particularly mages, began making their own. Hell, you can even see a type of them in Guthix’s tomb.

In the modern day, they are used for many purposes – for combat, for teaching, for assistance. I don’t think it’ll be long until we’ll be making golems too. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:52:38 - Last edited on 09-Sep-2016 21:03:34 by Captain Lime

May

2019

Captain Lime

Posts: 6,940 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Personae V – Osman, Leela, & Senliten

Name: Osman
Affiliation: Himself, Al-Kharid
Status: In Al-Kharid

Osman is one of the sketchiest individuals in the entire game, but I’ve already said a lot about him, so I*ll keep it short and try and stick in some new information. He is from the Al-Kharid Spy Ring, and has dubious intentions. He has agents all across the Desert (most of them hate him), and is the father of Leela. We don’t know who the mother is.

Furthermore, he may have been hired by Senliten, as we have seen him meeting with her at seemingly random times, and she mentions hiring a spy in the north. However, he brushes her off often.

He is ostensibly loyal to Al-Kharid.

Name: Leela
Affiliation: Osman, Senliten
Status: Doing Senliten’s bidding

Leela is Osman’s daughter, the possible love interest of Ozan, possible descendent of Senliten, and possible heir to the throne. She’s not nearly as sketchy as her father, and in some ways she is much like him. However, she is much more involved with Senliten now, and though she is not naïve, she is more trusting than Osman.

She is also technically a part of Osman’s spy ring, but their similarities ironically makes her harder to command than other spies. One example of this is that Osman told Leela about Queen Senliten, but specifically told her NOT to revive her until his sayso. She blatantly ignores this direct order.

She is definitely loyal to Senliten.

Name: Senliten
Affiliation: Herself, United Kharidia
Status: Hanging out in Uzer Mastaba

Senliten is a dead queen from the Second Age, who (according to nobody but herself) had a very successful reign. The entirety of her reign was spent in war against the Zarosians.

She is prideful, prickly, suspicious (it runs in the family), and above all, she seems nostalgic of her time, as much has changed in the Kharidian Peninsula since her reign.

She is loyal to the Kharid. This probably means herself. ^ "Some of those words were

STUPID.

" - Mod Raven

13-Apr-2016 01:53:26

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