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"It's undoubted: Zaros's favourite hobby is to calculate how the world will change to his every whim and action. The magnitude of his indifference makes me sick. I could almost feel the boot in my face as he stepped to victory."
Seren, on Zaros
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/azzanadra.png
Azzanadra leads the Zarosians to war.
The World Guardian must navigate the grand schemes and honeyed words of these enemies and allies alike to protect the world of Gielinor and its people from their dangerous ambitions.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!


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Gods

    Examples 
  • Zaros is the divine aspect of darkness born at the beginning of the current universe by the dreams of the stillborn Elder God Mah. Craving knowledge and insight, Zaros spent an eon building up the power needed to leave behind his mother Mah and sister Seren, and began following the paths of the other Elders to learn from them. During the journey, Zaros outwitted the master of the demons in a contract to earn their loyalty, taught the vampyres culture and society to have them worship him, and came upon the perfect world of Gielinor where he founded a millennia long and mighty empire to work toward his birthright of Elder Godhood. Encountering the Mahjarrat during his conquests, Zaros earned their loyalty by preserving their race with an improved Ritual of Rejuvenation, only to be betrayed and defeated when their leader Zamorak used the Staff of Armadyl to steal Zaros's divinity. Recovering over the centuries, Zaros worked with his champion Azzanadra to return after the death of Guthix and got the better of the younger gods during Sliske's game for the Stone of Jas. Later rejected by the Elder Jas herself, Zaros's ancient plots come to fruition and he opens a great rift to the Shadow Realm to finally earn his birthright, ultimately not caring that Gielinor would die in the process.
  • Azzanadra is the right hand and most loyal follower of Zaros who served as the head of his god's church during the height of the Zarosian empire. When Zaros was banished by Zamorak, Azzanadra kept the empire afloat for centuries into the God Wars until he too was sealed away in Jaldraocht Pyramid, only to be freed millennia later by the World Guardian. Becoming their closest friend and ally among the Mahjarrat, Azzanadra uses them to restore the ancient temple at Senntisten, gather powerful relics to establish contact with Zaros, and set up empowering beacons that let him overpower and injure his rival Lucien during the Ritual of Rejuvenation. After Zaros returns, Azzanadra uses his friendship with the World Guardian to manipulate them into aiding his lord's planned ascendency to Elder Godhood and later betrays them when Zaros's goals threaten the world. When Zaros abandons Gielinor to destruction, Azzanadra tries to sacrifice himself to save the world, but turns into a new god by accident and personally leads the effort to prevent the Elder Gods awakening and consuming all life.
  • Seren is the divine aspect of light born to Mah alongside her brother Zaros, yet chose to stay and care for her nearly mindless creator. When the Mahjarrat were born from Mah's dreams, Seren took on her mother's guise to teach the Mahjarrat a ritual to sacrifice their own to feed Mah the energy, and later taught them a ritual to birth more of their kind to keep up the cycle. Feeling there was nothing more she could do, Seren also left and wandered the universe until she found the elves and quickly became their beloved patron goddess. She would break off crystal shards of herself and teach the elves songs to shape them and bound them to her to give them longer mortal lives, creating a death obsessed part in the process. Later using this forced bond to manipulate the elves to Gielinor, Seren helped Guthix create a peaceful world and hid her followers during the apocalyptic God Wars. When Guthix demanded all gods leave, Seren broke herself into pieces to always be with her people, and was later restored by them after Guthix died. Learning of her brother's plan, Seren makes it the goal of her existence to stop his ascendency after he masterminds Mah's death, and later devotes herself to appeasing the Elder Gods and showing them the true value of mortal life.
  • Xau-Tak is an ancient and mysterious entity older than the current universe who scarred Mah's egg and caused her to be stillborn. Xau-Tak wields its iconic black stone to corrupt mortal life and often personally uses disturbingly humorous avatars and twisted irony to bend others to its will. Setting its sight on Gielinor, Xau-Tak whispers to the dragonkin Kranon that it can cure the curse Jas put upon its kind, only to entrap him and mold him into its prime servant and Ambassador. Seeing that the World Guardian will be his greatest obstacle to return, Xau-Tak sends them foreboding messages across time and space to break their mind and will to fight against it. In the modern age, Xau-Tak has the undead pirate Rabid Jack spike rum with black stone to spread its control and has the Ambassador gather a cadre of dangerous allies to summon it into the world, both times stopped at the last minute and always with a warning of its inevitable return.

Mahjarrat

    Examples 
  • Wahisietel is a Mahjarrat follower of Zaros who was named a general in the ancient empire for his skills in subterfuge and warfare, and played the forces of enemy gods against one another to give the capitol time to evacuate during the God Wars. Hiding in the desert for the following centuries as renown scholar Ali the Wise, he makes a friend and ally out of the World Guardian and has them gather information on his peers to use against them in the next Ritual of Rejuvenation. He particularly gets the better of his rival Zemouregal by masterminding the heist of the heart of his undead slave Arrav and freeing him to turn against his master during the Ritual. An unrivaled diplomat, he convinces three forces of rival gods to work as his armies during the Ritual and ultimately proves vital in aiding Azzanadra in returning their god to power and prominence.
  • Bilrach was chosen to be the right hand of Zamorak for his unending loyalty and for being the greatest summoner among the Mahjarrat. When Zamorak was banished at the end of the God Wars, Bilrach sought a way to return his master to Gielinor and found it in the dimension distorting Rift beneath Daemonheim. To keep his excavations secret from both rivals and enemies, Bilrach took a force of loyal servants and created a self sustaining society built on the otherworldly resources to provide evermore workers over the centuries. As he dug deeper, Bilrach used the portals he found to coerce great monsters to his side and managed to avoid be driven insane in the lowest halls through sheer force of will. He would later become the beloved mentor of the half-Mahjarrat Moia by simply respecting her and gave his god a perfect base and loyal army to herald his return.
  • Khazard is the son of Zamorak and youngest of the Mahjarrat and thus sees his aspirations and accomplishments to be the best hope for his dying race. Seeking to give his faith a foothold in a Saradominist dominated world, Khazard uses his dark charisma to act as an undead warlord that draws countless human tribes and their lands to his service and proves to be a competent military leader that drives the southern gnomes to near destruction after they attack his territory. In the modern day, his forces ambush and kidnap the Servil noble family to have them hand over their lands, yet keeps his promise to let them go when the World Guardian wins their freedom in the arena. Later encountering the adventurer in the shadow realm, he tricks them into gathering intelligence from his spies and lures them into a deadly trap when he has no more need of them.
  • Kharshai stood alone among his kindred for maintaining a staunch neutrality after Zamorak's betrayal forever tore apart the Mahjarrat. Seeking to prevent his tribe's extinction, he served as a peacemaker that settled conflicts between the warring factions and ensured minimal violence during the Rituals of Rejuvenation. Knowing this left him with few allies, Kharshai forged the bane weapons to use against his kin and set up a complex gambit to erase and later restore his memory to both keep himself undetected and to prevent a loss of his divine energy. After a failed assassination, Kharshai seals away his memories and takes the identity of the immortal warrior Koschei the Deathless for decades before using the World Guardian to set off a series of triggers that fully restores him. In the modern day, he swears an oath to unite and save his dying race from themselves.

Others

    Examples 
  • Kerapac is the most brilliant and ambitious Dragonkin to ever live and seeks the death of the Elder Gods for both destroying his world and cursing his people to a painful existence bound to the Stone of Jas. He would spend millennia seeking a cure to the curse by vivisecting his own kind, passing his traits to the different dragons he created, and creating clones of himself to restore the Kin's fertility. In the modern age, he found his solution by recruiting the World Guardian to find the "link" to the Stone and then using the siphoning power of the Elder Mirror to channel anima from Gielinor itself to shatter the Stone and finally end his people's suffering. Willing to sacrifice Gielinor to save the multiverse, Kerapac betrays his mortal allies to steal the time controlling Elder Needle and uses it to build a device to flood the world with toxic shadow anima to murder the sleeping Elders. Ultimately defeated and again enslaved by Jas, Kerapac constantly fights to regain control and warns his former allies of the Elder's coming invasion.
  • Vanescula Drakan is the only female vampyre among the ruling family of Morytania, and what she lacks in ruling brother Lowerniel's brutality is made up for with a devious cunning. Fearing the future her brother seeks for their people, Vanescula allies with the human resistance group, the Myreque, led by the half Icyene former prince Safalaan Hallow to assassinate her brother. She first disguises their agents and guides them through vampyre society and has them fashion weapons from a tree anathema to her kind while slaying her brother's most loyal agents. When the attack goes awry, Vanescula quickly recomposes herself and leads the Myreque through the hunt targeting them and proves vital in the final battle against her monstrous sibling. Having seduced Safalaan, she betrays them to use his blood to cross over into the human kingdoms to better feed her people, but backs down and rules alongside Safalaan when he offers a better future for both their peoples.
  • Charos is an infamous sorcerer that learned guile and charm to survive growing up in the slums of Vampyre ruled Meiyerditch. Living as an informant and interrogator in the royal court of Lord Drakan, Charos was rewarded with magical training that allowed him to create his iconic Ring of Charos to charm anyone and a magical brooch to take on any form. Forced to flee after an innocent prank on Drakan, he was hunted and allowed many to die in his place before finally faking his death with a simulacrum of himself. Living several lives for fun, he ultimately settled on the royal librarian Reldo and secretly provided aid to the World Guardian countless times. Later sought out by Kerapac for his own schemes, Charos gives the adventurer one last grand riddle before revealing his identity and later proves invaluable as he masterminds the plot to stop Kerapac's world ending scheme.
  • Osman is the royal spy for the Emir of Al Kharid and uses his extensive information network to protect his city from the dangers of the Kharidian Desert. Following the kidnapping of Prince Ali and the sudden death of the Emir, Osman sets up an escape for the thief Ozan and the Adventurer after they are caught stealing the Kharid-ib diamond so they can trade it for the Prince and to deny his involvement. When rival city Menaphos opens its door to trade, Osman has the adventurer act as his agent and find proof that he is the true heir to the throne of Menaphos rather than the currently corrupted and tyrannical Pharaoh. After it is revealed Osman planned the kidnapping of the prince to prove his lineage, he organizes a coup and overthrows the Pharaoh. Now freed from Amascut's madness, Osman murders the defenseless Pharaoh in cold blood and begins his own dark reign.
  • The Fairy Godfather is the boss of the Fairy Mafia and would-be usurper to the throne of Zanaris. Using his affable demeanor and skilled leadership, the Godfather worked his way to being the Fairy Queen's advisor and betrayed her when they went to fight a monster threatening their kind. Manipulating the adventurer to his side, he tricks them into killing the monster for him while also delivering the Queen's magic essence to keep her in a coma and out of the way. When the Queen later recovered, the Godfather amasses a legion of orks to consolidate his power and binds their three loyal generals to him to create an impenetrable shield around himself. On the verge of absolute victory, the Godfather is only defeated through experimental tooth magic but gets the last laugh when he curses the ivory constructs to turn on the fairies to leave his foes a final parting gift.
  • Pescaling Pax is the head of Research and Development for the KGP (Killer Gentoo Penguins) and the mastermind behind the penguins' bid for world domination. Under his leadership, the penguins have turned into disciplined agents skilled in disguise and espionage and Pax proves to be a prepared spy master when his anti-magic security catches the adventurer sneaking around his base in a clockwork penguin suit. Forcing them to flee, he uses their handiwork to design a giant mechanical penguin that his dwarven agents forge into a submarine. When the vessel is stolen by an insane captain, Pax sets up the adventurer to unwittingly track down the sub for him by having his engineers pretend to enslaved and deliver the sub right to him. Far more dangerous than he appears, Pax wins completely by capturing their allies and leaving them to their doom.
  • Ali Morrisane is a shady and opportunistic businessman that more than lives up to his self proclaimed title as "the greatest salesman in the world." Morrisane hires the adventurer to go to his home town of Pollnivneach to find his nephew, and they get involved in the local feud between rival gangs in the process. With everyone in town conspicuously named Ali, the adventurer manages to drive the gangs out all the while being forced to buy a myriad of expensive goods from the town to accomplish their goals. Later revealing his nephew never existed, Morrisane was the ring leader of the entire town and tricked his patsy into getting rid of the hostile bandits all the while fleecing them for all their hard earned gold.

Old School

    Examples 
  • Lord Iorwerth here is no longer a cruel warlord intent on the genocide of the other elven clans, but a well-meaning schemer seeking to restore Seren and give his people a brighter future. Upon discovering a piece of Seren was imprisoned in the Temple of Light, he forms a pact with King Lathas of Kandarin and uses the fake plague devised by the King to have his soldiers, disguised as the Mourners, take the sick and use them to mine a path to the prison. Using the King and the adventurer to dispose of his enemies, Iorwerth convinces elven rebel leader Arianwyn of his cause and uses him to expose the rebel town. Taking a child hostage and releasing him after getting a key to the prison, Iorwerth tactically gets the better of the adventurer and their allies and frees the Shard of Seren, only to be betrayed by Arianwyn and die after watching his goddess be slain and admonishing his foes for throwing away the last hope of the elves.
  • Xamphur is an ancient lich and most devoted follower of the legendary Xeric, who nearly conquered the kingdom of Great Kourend a millennia ago. Following his master's defeat and exile, Xamphur was imprisoned by Xeric's lizardmen slaves but grew to control and dominate them over centuries of coercion. Needing the power of the dreaded Dark Altar to restore his master, he gives the last king of Kourend a potion that drives him insane and convinces his advisors to poison him and later tricks them into causing the king's daughter to fall into a coma when she discovers the plot. Blackmailing the new Royal Council into his service, he uses them to access the Dark Altar and draw power from it. Xamphur later creates a false treasure hunt to lure a relic seeker to become possessed by Xeric's spirit and finally reunite with his master and begin their next plot to claim ever greater power.

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