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Battle of Forinthry: Aftermath

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H 1 L D A
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H 1 L D A

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Finally, the Strange Power incident has nothing to do with Xau-Tak. We know that it happens whenever a Dream of Mah is slain. In the case of Bilrach, he killed the last Chelon-Mah beneath Daemonheim.

Which leaves that Halloween event - which still needs additional substance. It's been 5 years that event and Moia still seems like a Zamorakian Mahjarrat with grounded ideals. It's not necessarily impossible that such an event couldn't have left some kind of impression, but it has been kept real quiet.
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27-Nov-2023 19:36:58

Dilbert2001
Jun Member 2006

Dilbert2001

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Note that Moia isn't attacking Fort Forinthry anymore. He summoned Bilarch and ordered him to attack Misthalin next. The RS3 Jmods have also told us the Fort Forinthry season ends this year. Next year we start with the Misthalin Storyline and then Age of Chaos Storyline. We know the facts already.

Zemo, and we should know later Bilrach too, are just small potatoes. Zemo knew Moia's grander plan too. They are just distractions. Zemo to distract us to Fort Forinthry, and then Bilrach to deflect the issue to Misthalin, buying their Domina the time she needs to finishes the key plot on Gielinor and then the entire universe.

Zemo may have a use later, how about we sacrifice him in our Um ritual site and ascend to the Guardian of the Universe?

Daemonheim certainly means a colossal lot to a lot of the old and new storylines. Whoever underneath the Floor 60 Rift must have a reason to fool Bilrach to perform the ritual. Don't forget they tried to do a similar ritual in Dragnor. Although it didn't serve the main purpose, nonetheless it opened the gate for Daemonheim NPCs to escape to the surface world. Hence we have them in the Wildyness quests. Flash Events and most recently, we have Forgotten Warriors bowing to their Domina in the latest quest. And yes, the Imperator and Domina titles of the new Moia come from Xau-Tak and the Daemonheim NPCs, not Mahjarrat or Zamorakians at all.

27-Nov-2023 20:09:35

H 1 L D A
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H 1 L D A

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Firstly, Forinthry -is- a duchy of Misthalin - and secondly, that doesn't diminish the importance Moia seems to be placing on Mahjarrat lives. It would be foolish to leave Bilrach alive with the information that we have so far, just how it's foolish for us to have left Zemouregal alive, whether after defeating him or after he had slipped up and revealed Moia was working on something.

If Bilrach ends up being Moia's next cannon fodder general sent our way, I'm expecting one of his objectives to be to lead a rescue effort for Zemouregal based on the dialogue given in the quest.

---

I do not kneel to those handed 'authority' on a silver platter. I won't let Adrasteia take this from me. 'Basilissa' indeed... an empty title for a weakling and a fool. I won't let Trindine and the Mahjarrat continue to disrespect me. This is MY time. My own father treated me like an experiment, and tossed me aside the moment I ceased to be of any use. The Mahjarrat demeaned and belittled me for the audacity of being born to a human mother. I've had to struggle against the world for every breath I draw, every scrap of power I wield, every modicum of respect I'm shown. Now it's time for the world to struggle against me.


- Moia, to the player in her memories during 'Daughter of Chaos.'

I can't get past that the way this conflict is setting up, it's being designed as a struggle between Adrasteia as she gets her feet underneath her following Saradomin's departure, and Moia as she forces her way up the totem pole to fill the void left by Zamorak.

I also feel like Xau-Tak is far too valuable as the "white whale" lore piece of the game. The entity is entrenched in so many places in Gielinor that a proper introduction to it would need to make acknowledgement of those attachments - from the pirates, horrors, and Eastern map to the Mahjarrat.

Occam's razor has a log of shaving to do before anything related to Xau-Tak becomes a reasonable plot pursuit.
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28-Nov-2023 05:03:06

Dilbert2001
Jun Member 2006

Dilbert2001

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Mod Jack has already told us the distinctions between the Fort Forinthry, Misthalin and Age of Chaos Storylines. The Fort Forinthry Season will be over this year (or actually should be over barring any surprisingly unannounced content the 34 days).

Moia clearly doesn't care about her failed puppets. Zemo is a failure and she spared him and Bilrach just to have more servants to stir up things and distractions so she can finishes... the universe changing ritual. Think how useless Zemo is now when even lowly Fort Guards could capture him? Zemo is just a loud mouth who only talks trash, creates illusions and distractions... but doesn't mean a thing to the big picture. The even bigger demise for the likes of Zemo is there is no more Ritual of the Mahjarrat for him to rejuvenate. It is all she wrote for the demise of Zemo... and for the same reason Bilrach too.

Now, lets look at the new Domina. It actually tells us a lot more than just a word or title... It absolutely tells us the Forgotten Warriors among other creatures previously cursed to stay in the Daemonheim Dungeons came from a Kingdom! But... what kingdoms in the Gielinorean history carried the titles of Domina and Imperator? Well, perhaps none that we know of... but there is actually one mysterious kingdom briefly mentioned somewhere in our lore...

The kingdom is nigh! We will get to that kingdom soon. :)

28-Nov-2023 17:57:29 - Last edited on 28-Nov-2023 17:59:05 by Dilbert2001

H 1 L D A
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H 1 L D A

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You certainly might be on to something there.

> Daemonheim has a confusing history. Due to having noticeably Dragonkin architecture, it's very likely the fortress existed as early as even the First Age. It for sure existed pre-Fourth Age, as it was seen through a portal on a lush, green hill prior to Zamorak's decimation of ....are we calling it "Old Forinthry" now? at the end of the God Wars.

> We know that Daemonheim itself has been associated with Xau-Tak through an incident involving the Exile from POP being tasked with the moving of "black stones." We also know that the Kal'Gerions were responsible for trying to call Xau-Tak - the hundred-handed one - through the use of Moia. (Is this a part of the Halloween event? Again, I missed this one - most of my knowledge of the events is second-hand, so I try learn more about it each time it gets brought up.)

---

I think I could be convinced that we learn a fair bit more about Daemonheim's inhabitants and their involvement with black stone during these current engagements - particularly as Deamonheim's forces remain a substantial part of Moia's coalition. With the release of Necromancy being very recent, the iron is still hot on these kinds of things.

That being said, I still think Jagex could slow roll this stuff while letting more grounded conflicts play out. While you may be onto something, it does fly in the face of the company "wanting to turn the temperature down" after having a nearly cataclysmic event occur in the Elder God Wars saga, then strip the World Guardian of their WG powers as the Young Gods are banished from the world. As a result - you may be reading a few pages ahead of where Jagex wants to go.

---

Here's another grounded spitball. I'm going to assume the player does NOT foil Moia at every turn, and that we see the end of 2024 with Moia having the upper-hand in a larger conflict.

(cont.)
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29-Nov-2023 07:45:25 - Last edited on 29-Nov-2023 07:46:40 by H 1 L D A

H 1 L D A
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H 1 L D A

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> Lending you some credence, Dilbert, I think we get little drip, drip, drips of information about Daemonheim and the source of this "Domina, Imperator" lingo through cutscenes while Moia throws things at us. It certainly helps your cause that Bilrach is at her disposal, and that there is a connection between Daemonheim and Xau-Tak, if not necessarily Bilrach himself. I think Zemouregal also plays a role here, if they wanted to continue to hammer home necromantic power as a backbone of Daemonheim's involvement. With Bilrach and Zemouregal being masters of Daemonheim and Necromancy respectively, it's not really surprising that these two in particular have taken center stage over someone like Enakhra.

> I think we focus a whole lot more about the Mahjarrat, which has been Jagex's biggest winner when it comes to non-God storylines for RuneScape's entire existence. Moia follows in the footsteps of her father, and of Sliske, and of course naturally Zamorak.

> Adrasteia is going to be put in a position to make some tough calls. She might have to sacrifice clearly Saradominist allies in order to keep her somewhat more tenuous relationship with the Zarosian contingent she's working with intact. Doing otherwise, on the other hand might expedite Moia's acquisition of more Mahjarrat to her cause, even though there is a traditional feud between Zarosian and Zamorakian Mahjarrat in place.

> The player may be put in a position to weaken Moia's hold on the remaining demonic forces after the Zamorakian Civil War. That may come in the form of stealing Moia's diobulous and freeing Avaryss, which enables Nymora to turn heel. In order for this to happen however, the player can't lock themselves up in their Fort. They'll need to find ways to leave it unattended and make moves in other fronts of the war.
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29-Nov-2023 08:00:45 - Last edited on 29-Nov-2023 08:01:51 by H 1 L D A

Dilbert2001
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Dilbert2001

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Dragonkin, the shadow and Demonheim are certainly related. Dragonkin might be the "enders of the Great Wars" the shadow referred to too. It is a rather complicated matter, and recent quests have provide a solid theory pertaining to the prehistoric Great Wars, so I will go over it a couple of days later after we looked at some supporting evident first.

We don't need to "foil Moia" and we may not be able to foil "her" just like we didn't foil the Elder Gods and we couldn't possibly do so ourselves.... but wait... did we "foil Xau-Tak" in 'Til Death Do Us Apart"? Rest assured, we did, but we didn't do it alone. We, the entire RS3 Community, did it together, with the Four Horsemen. We have not just the players, but also all the Signature Heroes, living and dead ones (thanks to our Necromancy skill), as well as newly found powers from non-signature but mighty heroes likes Thok, Laniekea, Hannibus and Charos.

Now back to the Mahjarrat. The Zamorakians Mahjarrat are pretty much done. Zemo and Bilrach are one foot in the grave and Moia is no longer a Zamorakian and arguably not mentally even a half Mahjarrat anymore. We are going to deal with the kingdom of shadow, as Rasial told us in the last First Necromancer quest, and not exactly Moia. Imperator and Domina refers not to Moia, but the only prehistoric kingdom that fits all the lore:

"I remember my grandmother. She sat me down and she told me the story. It goes something like this. Sethirak and Vokun had left their village to seek adventure. Along the journey they encountered an old dragonkin who told them that there was a great treasure hidden within the kingdom of Shadow, a stone that would grant them wondrous powers. So the two heroes, ready for adventure, headed into the kingdom..."


https://runescape.wiki/w/Kranon%27s_Ancient_Journal

Adrasteia clearly has the mightiest Mahjarrat ass-kicking World Guardian and the above mentioned heroes on her side. Don't forget Zarosian Mahjarrat will defy Moia too

29-Nov-2023 19:58:08

H 1 L D A
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H 1 L D A

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You fool! I may not be able to return in time to stop the shadows. You've set me back too long.


-Rasial, after the player defeats him in 'Alpha vs Omega.'

I'm assuming this is the passing comment Rasial makes that you're referring to. He doesn't explicitly mention a kingdom here - but I'll give you shadows.

The problem with this not being explicitly a kingdom though is that it doesn't have anything to correlate Rasial's shadows with the "Domina/Imperator" usage.

---

However, I can think of a certain empire not too much later on that does make use of Roman epithets - the Zarosian empire, which would eventually employ Mahjarrat such as Sliske who would possess power over shadows. There's also that matter with Aurelius and Kolton in which they encounter Vos, who sings a beautiful song that "asked for so little."

- which is itself a connection to the Ambassador and his journal.

Thus - both the Dragonkin -AND- the ancient Zarosians have encountered voices encouraging them through song to bring Xau-Tak to Gielinor through similarly "cheap" means! The plot thickens even further, as we know that there was a shipment of "black stones" to Daemonheim from the Exile, which likely ties Bilrach (and by association Moia) to our web here too.

---

To me, this sets up as follows.

1. While externally waging war against the Human Kingdoms, Moia is instructing Bilrach to reattempt the ritual he was trying to carry out underneath Daemonheim in which he thought he was going to encounter Zamorak (He likely encountered Vos/Xau-Tak instead.)

2. The Zarosian Mahjarrat, which seem to have a lean toward Adrasteia and the player for the moment after Azzanadra's stint of godhood on Gielinor, are the link between the Saradominist side of this conflict and the knowledge of Vos. I wouldn't be surprised if the player's exploits during the Curse of the Black Stone are used as supplementary knowledge here, illuminating Moia's plans.

(cont)
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30-Nov-2023 05:24:07

H 1 L D A
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H 1 L D A

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3. The waning stages of the conflict involve trying to stop Moia from performing the ritual and those setting Gielinor on a course for imminent world destruction yet again.

---

Now, if the plot really is careening toward another attempt at this ritual, my question would be how its so important to mask this behind wars. Allow me to return to our friend Rasial.

Wait, you were being serious calling this a test? I was never in danger?


Have no doubt. I would have consumed your necromancy knowledge and enacted my plan had you not bested me. Someone has to step up to protect this world, I had just assumed that meant me. I am not however, displeased with this outcome. It is rare that I underestimate someone. Congratulations, you win. I will release the undead from my thrall. Good luck. You will need it in the wars to come. Perhaps we shall meet again in a future age, should you not fail to preserve this universe.


Wait, what? Wars to come? Universe?


*maniacal laughter*
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30-Nov-2023 05:33:44 - Last edited on 30-Nov-2023 05:35:26 by H 1 L D A

H 1 L D A
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H 1 L D A

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I'm going to try and combine some knowledge of this ritual with potential areas of conflict in the Zamorak/Saradomin conflict of today.

Misthalin


The most recent use of black stone in the area was around the time of Archaeology's release, when Xephos, a member of Silhouette (a Zarosian group), had given Guildmaster Tony a black stone to put on the Codex - which resulted in Tony being sucked into Erebus. The Monolith could be a potential destination for Moia's forces for several reasons if we're assuming she's trying to bring Xau-Tak to Gielinor.

Kandarin


Black Stone was used by the wizard from Zogre Flesh Eaters around the Jiggig area south of Castle Wars. This could easily tie into a Kandarin conflict in which Hazeel and General Khazard are deployed as an objective that ties into the ritual.

Morytania and the Eastern Lands


A large bulk of black stone is intrinsically linked with the mwanu (now horrors), which would be centered around Mos'Le Harmless.

Then there's the temple of Aminishi further east, which has a lot of instances of black stone appearances.

I feel like the best way to bring war to the east for Moia would be to start a Werewolf uprising that awkwardly causes the Vampyres to need our help in surprising the rebellion. Due to the alliance that had formed between Misthalin and Morytania though - perhaps this isn't out of the question. Moia could use this uprising to send envoys to the archipelago.
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30-Nov-2023 05:56:45

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