Thoughts on RuneScape 3's Story
Note: This article is not an April's Fool joke.
I started playing RuneScape in 2009, though I did not play for long. I only started playing the game in September 2014. I am in an extreme minority of players who prefer RuneScape 3 over OldSchool RuneScape and I think that is because of the quests in that game.
I have found memories of RuneScape 3's story. I recently watched Marstead's Blind Ironman playthrough and seeing the content of the quest and his takes made me reconsider my opinions on the story of the game. Re-experiencing the story now and I feel that it is generally pretty mid. Some elements are good, but the story was far greater in my memories. Perhaps a part of it was because I was here as quests were being released.
My favorite character is Zaros. I think it's because he feels incredibly human. He was always straightforward and seemingly honest about his actions and intentions. According to the developers, he was purposely written like an autist character, so it is no wonder I vibe hard with him. This is ironic because he is supposed to be a god - one of the most powerful being in the universe. Such a being should arguably not feel very human.
The gods never did anything that left a true lasting impact on the story. They certainly never did anything godly. They all felt just like powerful magicians. I suppose that's pretty much what they are lore-wise (most of them are just ascended mortals), but that certainly destroyed any mystique there was around them. I once saw a comment somewhere that the gods were like superheroes and I think this is spot on.
Jagex also introduced moral choices into the game. They certainly never led to anything substantial. I am not sure why they even bothered in the first place. I wonder if the upper management was like “I want the game to be like Mass Effect” and the devs were forced to comply. I am glad that this trend only lasted for 3 years.
One thing I really appreciated were the eldritch entities. Xau-Tak, Vos and Jas (to some extent) all feel like proper cosmic horror beyond mortal comprehension. This, in my opinion is what gods should have been written like. With time, the writers decided to de-escalate the story for the reasons mentioned earlier. While I think it's a good idea in general, I am sad how the eldritch horror stuff seems to have been discarded. I think there is a lot of potential to make grounded stories that involve eldritch horrors.
My favorite quest in the game is The Lord of Vampyrium. It is also generally considered a good quest by most people. Many believe that this is because the story is quite grounded. I think this is only a part of the reason. I think another aspect of it is how it explores the unknown (in that case, scary and alien vampires) like I previously speculated.
As a side note, Genshin Impact has a similar “the gods are physically present” thing going on. Unlike RuneScape 3, the game makes it very clear that they are essentially just very power magician whose power originate from whoever govern Celestia (which as of writing, are suggested to be eldritch beings of some kind). I suspect this going to be retroactively ruined and the gods will turn out to be waifus due to the nature of the game, but we will see.
I decided to perform a thought experiment. I asked myself the following question: If I had the opportunity to remake RuneScape 3's story, what would I do? The following is a pure reimagining inspired by Genshin Impact's lore:
The gods are not (and never were) physically present. Though means unknown (and deliberately left unclear), some individual can become “blessed” and gain the ability to hear the god they worship. The story would focus on “blessed” humans who caries the will of their lord or is affected by the blessing phenomenon.
Examples of such blessed agents would be as follows:
| God | Agent(s) |
|---|---|
| Saradomin | Sir Tiffy Cashien, Sir Owen |
| Zamorak | Lord Daquarius, Iban, Surok Magis, Lucien |
| Guthix | Pikkupstix, Kaqemeex |
| Amadyl | Idria |
| Bandos | The Raptor |
| Zaros | Movario, Charos |
| Seren | Arianwyn, Lord Iorwerth |
I also thoughts about a couple story beats:
- A group of Zamorakian cultists intent to sacrifice a woman as part of their attempts to discover the ritual to become “blessed” by Zamorak.
- Lord Iowerth and Ariawyn both enact the will of Seren but the orders appears to be contradictory. The player found evidence that suggests Lord Iowerth once lead an expedition in the Underground Pass and mistook the spooky voices created by Iban for Seren communicating with him (being aware of the “blessing” phenomenon prior to this).
- The Raptor is a former white knight who grew tired of the monotony in life. Upon placing himself in a dangerous situation, he is “blessed” by Bandos. Said god asssigns him “challenges” that gradually become more insane.
- The player finds Charos's journal which records how he suddenly became “blessed” one day and how the knowledge he received helped him escape Morytania. He summarizes what his conversation with the Empty Lord when he encounters the player.
- Idria's people get killed by Lucien as he retrieves the Staff of Armadyl. Following this traumatic event, Idria cannot hear Armadyl anymore.
- Kaqemeex tries to perform a ritual on the player to try to have him “blessed: by Guthix; this ultimately does not work for unknown reason.
- During a battle against black knights, Sir Owen suddenly become “blessed” by Saradomin. This causes him to become overly confident which result in him making a dumb move that leads to his death.
The general gist would be that the player would never enter in direct contact with the gods but would encounter those that are. A god could have multiple agents at the same time. Simply writing those ideas was enough for me to imagine entire quests based around the agents. Those ideas feel more “RuneScape-y” than Sixth Age quests. I guess this idea is closest to the original vision of the game as Underground Pass feature a similar concept.
Written by manpaint on 01 April 2025.