Runescape has, along with its rather large amount of storyline-heavy quests, quirky activity and skill-related personalities and reasonably extensive background lore, quite a few characters, which will be detailed here.There will naturally be spoilers here.
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Gods
Saradomin
Amazing Technicolor Population: A flashback sequence in Ritual of the Mahjarrat shows us that the common depiction of him is not quite accurate. Although he does have white beard, he also has blue skin and glowing eyes.
God's Hands Are Tied: Invoked. When Guthix sees the devastation caused by the gods' direct interference in mortal wars during the God Wars, he decrees that the gods may only influence the mortal realms indirectly through their followers. He enforces this by threatening to destroy the entire world if they step out of line. So far, it's working.
Jack-of-All-Stats: Equipment aligned with Guthix usually fills the exact midpoint between the Saradomin and Zamorak equivalents. Saradomin's Holy Book gives +8 to defense; Zamorak's Unholy Book gives +8 to attack; Guthix's Book of Balance, therefore, gives +4 to attack and +4 to defense. Similarly, the Saradomin bow gives a healing boost where the Zamorak Bow gives a damage boost, and the Guthix Bow splits the difference by giving a smaller boost to both.
Have You Seen My God?: Zaros was betrayed by Zamorak and banished from Gielinor. "The Temple at Senntisten" revolves around Azzanadra's attempts to find him and restore him to power again.
Written by the Winners: Nearly all the records of Zarosian civilization were destroyed by the combined forces of Zamorak and Saradomin; most of what little remains is their propaganda about how he was totally evil.
Bandos
Apocalypse How: Before he came along, the Goblins lived on a peaceful swamp world named Yu'biusk. Then he found it. The result: Yu'biusk suffered a Class 6, and all the goblins now live in other planes.
Loophole Abuse: Bandos wants to make war, but the Edicts of Guthix prevent him from doing so. His solution in "The Chosen Commander" is to empower one of his followers with his own strength to create an avatar of himself, which he can then use to conquer the world without technically being the one personally out there doing it.
Floating Continent: The Clan Citadels (originally Armadyl-aligned fortresses).
Have You Seen My God?: Armadyl vanished from the plane around the end of the Third Age.
Signature Heroes
Announced in this developer blog. The main three, Ozan, Ariane, and Sir Ewain have been a part of the website's background since the Dungeoneering update.
Chew Bubblegum: "I'm here to kick ass and take names...and I'm a Temple Knight, so I already know your names."
Combat Pragmatist: "Saradomin wants me to destroy evil and protect the innocent. I'll use whatever methods are best for the job, and make any sacrifices I have to. If that means I use tactics the White Knights think are unsporting, then so be it. Succeeding in the mission is more important than obeying arbitrary rules."
Shoot the Dog: "Those guards had to die for me to get to my objective. Raising the alarm and giving them a chance to fight back wouldn't have helped anyone. I placed the crossbow bolts in the middle of their brains. They died instantly; they probably didn't even feel pain."
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ozan and Ariane, though he makes a point of mentioning that they're the two people he trusts the most.
What Could Have Been: Was initially going to be involved in a quest where he was a Badass in Distress, but it was scrapped. Also, he was meant to go by "Ewain" and looked less rugged.
Xenia
She features in the Blood Pact quest, and teaches the main character about combat.
Anti-Hero: As seen in "Song from the Depths". He is ruthless, prefers killing the Siren, and completely flippant and tactless when dealing with the woman who could have lost her husband.
The Dreaded: Even Kuradal, the top slayer master, is terrified of him. So is anybody he gets involved with on quests.
Foil: In "Song from the Depths", he is shown to be a foil to our character from personality to methods. Where our character will solve puzzles, show some reasoning, and takes time understanding the situation, he will prefer brute force and killing.
Jerkass: Of all the heroes, he doesn't show much respect or kindness towards the character, undermining their achievements instead, and he has little tact when it comes to people who need help.
Jerkass Has a Point: He is a cold, anti-heroic jerk, but notes in "Song from the Depths" that the Siren was a danger to the town, unintentional or not.
The Mahjarrat
By and far the most powerful of all mortal beings in the game, and thus coming with some of the most storyline-heavy and epic quests in the game, the Mahjarrat are a group of demigodly beings, brought in from another world, Freneskae.Tropes associated with the Mahjarrat in general:
Death World: Freneskae has been described by a Mahjarrat, and by human standards, it's not a particularly nice place.
Human Sacrifice: The Mahjarrat sacrifice one of their own every half millennium to grow stronger and add to their already considerable lifespan.
Magick: The Mahjarrat are the most prominent users of Ancient Magicks, and Azzanadra is the one who teaches these to the player after Desert Treasure.
Skull for a Head: All of the Mahjarrat qualify for this in their weakened pre-ritual form. After their rejuvenation ritual they gain more flesh-like facial features.
War Is Glorious: The standard Mahjarrat mentality, however some, like Azzanadra disagree on this.
Azzanadra/Dr.Nabanik
Zaros' champion and one of the most powerful Mahjarrat in existence, he remained fiercely loyal to Zaros even after he was banished and Zamorak rose to take his place.
Brick Joke: He claims to have spent some time in the pyramids as Dr. Nabanik.
Magick: The most prominent and powerful known user of Ancient Magicks, he teaches these to the player after releasing him in Desert Treasure.
Oh Crap: Implied to be the standard reaction to seeing him by his enemies.
Sealed Badass in a Can: To defeat him, entire armies banded up, bound fragments of his power to enchanted diamonds and imprisoned him in a giant pyramid.
War Is Hell: He doesn't seem to share the same mentality as most of the other Mahjarrat.
Yet there are those who would claim that war is an artform. Fools they are, and fools they remain. By their bloodlust they are blinded to beauty, deafened to melody, and numbed to sanctity!
Bilrach
The master of Daemonheim, Bilrach is, as of yet, an unseen presence, though definitely a felt one. Described as "average" by his contemporaries, he is utterly loyal to Zamorak, and is using the dungeons of the place in order to dig his way to the Rift, a portal to his master's plane-and free him through it.
Dead All Along: Dialogue with Ali the Wise after Ritual of the Mahjarrat implies that this is his fate. Specifically, the 'strange power' is what happens when a Mahjarrat dies.
Not So Harmless: Viewed as "average" by Azzandra, with no notable qualities to speak of. Boy, was he wrong.
Jhallan
Jhallan plays a major role in "The Tale of the Muspah", where the Player Character helps hide him in an ice cave to regain his strength. He is sacrificed in the mahjarrats' Ritual of Rejuvenation during "The Ritual of the Mahjarrat".
Human Popsicle: You find him frozen in a block of ice and thaw him out. Then he asks you to help him re-freeze himself in a better spot.
One of the most powerful Mahjarrat currently, possibly trailing directly behind Zamorak, he initially appears as a simple mage who asks the player to retrieve a staff. It all went downhill from there.
A God Am I: He's stolen two artifacts of the gods, including the one that Zamorak ascended to godhood with. In "The Ritual of the Mahjarrat", he claims himself to be a god.
Failure Is the Only Option: Whether or not you deliver him the Staff of Armadyl during Temple of Ikov does not matter, he obtains it anyhow.
You've killed the Balance Elemental and left the Stone of Jas unguarded for him to nab as he pleases, congratulations.
And before that, it turns out that helping a strange, hooded man raid an ancient tomb for an artifact that you know nothing about may not have been the best course of action.
The player is shown just how powerful he is when he first kills 4 of the heroes, including Hazelmere and Cyrisus, and later summons a pair of tormented demons as lowly familiars to dispose of the player.
Used again in Ritual of the Mahjarrat, on him. The dragonkin almost effortlessly kill him, showing just how powerful they are.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Let's see, with names like Plane-freezer Lakhrahnaz, Night-gazer Khighorahk, Shadow-forger Ihlakhizan, Flesh-spoiler Haasghenahk and World-gorger Shukarhazh...
A race of demons brought in by Bilrach, who don't serve him directly, but their leader has instead made a shaky alliance with him. Mostly weak to magic, and each one comes with a few gimmicks of their own. Their naming convention is Na'Me the Nounverber.
An Ice Person: To'Kash. As if the title 'Bloodchiller' didn't say enough.
Bad Boss: If a demon says he failed during Kal'Ger's intro cutscene, the poor sap gets destroyed.
Barrier Change Boss: Not exactly, but if you've seen the stats on the celestial catalytic staff, you know Kal'Ger's magic weakness is gone the moment he picks that thing up.
Climax Boss: Kal'Ger is split into five phases, uses all corners of the combat triangle effectively, slams off your protection prayers if you use them long enough and actually uses his wings. Yk'Lagor is no slouch either, and a fitting finale to the occult floors.
Evil Sounds Deep: Yk'Lagor was the first boss to ever be given voices. They haven't gotten any less deep since.
HP To One: Don't keep that protection prayer up against Kal'Ger for too long.
Kaizo Trap: When Kal'Ger dies, he explodes and deals damage anywhere between your maximum base health and 1. If you're really unlucky, this can kill you from full hitpoints.
Magic Knight: The demons primarily fight with magic and melee, both about equally destructive.
Mundane Utility: To'Kash freezing some poor sap and then shattering them in a shower of Ludicrous Gibs is said to be a favorite party trick of his.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: To'Kash the Bloodchiller, Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter, Bal'Lak the Pummeller, Yk'Lagor the Thunderous and Kal'Ger the Warmonger don't exactly sound friendly.
Nigh Invulnerable: Bal'Lak's defences gradually increase until he's virtually impossible to damage. To make him vulnerable, you have to lure him over the green rifts in the floor, or teleport out and wait for it to drop on its own.
Basically just bigger than usual animals dwelling in Daemonheim, the Behemoths were discovered by Bilrach's party and left as sentries to guard the passages deeper in. Not particularly intelligent, but definitely there in the brute force department. Their names are actually just descriptive ones given by Bilrach's team.
Big Eater: Take a wild guess where the Gluttonous behemoth got its name from.
Charged Attack: The Hope devourer telegraphs its strongest attack with a roar. Should any player have a protection prayer up when the attack comes, it'll instantly consume it to heal itself, or 'devour their faith and hope'.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Since they were named by the exploration team, their names are mainly descriptions. Examples are the Bulwark beast and the Gluttonous and Runebound behemoths.
Extreme Omnivore: Gluttonous Behemoth will gladly munch a rotten bovinmastyx corpse (that has likely been in that state for a very long time) when its health is low.
Luck-Based Mission: Beating Stomp in the minimum of three rockfalls is not always possible without creative use of gatestones or even with it. The rocks may just fall so they block either the lodestones, crystals, or both.
Shout Out: It's not clear whether he's a king, but he does have a nice yellow coat.
Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Between "Kennith's Concerns" and "Salt in the Wound", Kennith ages up about ten years because he decided that he wanted to be older.
Ezekial Lovecraft
Brick Joke: "Now I can go home. I wonder if my tuna sandwich is still there."
Bank Robbery: His most infamous caper, and the one where he got his party hat.
Camera Abuse: When he robs the bank, he smashes the camera to end the cutscene.
Dude, Where's My Reward?: Feels that the people of Gielinor owe him compensation after heroic acts in the past.
Retired Badass: Used to be a hero, but now resides in a cluttered house full of stolen treasures in Draynor Village.
Screw the Rules, I Have a Nuke!: Abuses his powers to murder innocents and break into the Draynor Village bank simply because he feels he is entitled to a greater reward. It's also hinted that his next target is the Wizards' Tower to the south, which he and his girlfriend Zenevivia promptly go and attack after they are reunited.
Unscrupulous Hero: Despite being a good guy, he has no qualms about using his power to break the law for his own gain.
Walking the Earth: In his youth, he wandered the globe in search of adventure.
Unstoppable Rage: Anyone who touches/uses the power of the Stone of Jas causes a rage in the hearts of the dragonkin, leading them to take it out on anyone they think deserves it, especially the one using the power- thus, the deaths of Lucien, who used the power and tried to keep the stone for himself, and Idria, who foolishly tried to make an alliance with them when they were discussing who to kill.
The Worf Effect: They manage to slay Lucien with ease and Lucien was the most powerful mahjarrat at the time.
. The main three, Ozan, Ariane, and Sir Ewain have been a part of the website's background since the Dungeoneering update.