Gielinor

Gielinor is the world in which RuneScape takes place. It was created by the god Guthix in the First Age when he found an "empty plane" and shaped it into what is now RuneScape. It is mostly based on Europe in the Middle Ages(feudalism, kingdoms, etc.) combined with the folklore of that time (vampires, elves, leprechauns). Gielinor's regions include Misthalin, Asgarnia, the Kharidian Desert, Kandarin, Karamja, Troll Country, Fremennik Province, Tirannwn, Morytania, the Wilderness, and the northern and southern seas.

Astronomical Location
Astronomers have deduced that Gielinor is not alone in its world, and that beyond it exist many planets, stars, and solar systems. However, technological limitations make information on the subject of astronomy limited.

Gielinor Realm is believed to be part of a solar system revolving around a star. Gielinor has one moon, which revolves around it in 24-hour intervals. The large orrery study also shows that there is at least one other planet in Gielinor's solar system, which has two moons. Gielinor is as well believed to currently share its orbit with a collection of small asteroids and shooting stars which within them, inhabits beings known as the Star sprite.

Geography


Gielinor is a mixture of mountainous, barren, forested, volcanic, and tropical areas. Most of its cities lie in kingdoms, and others in numerous islands. Much of Gielinor is lushed with large amounts of water resources, enabeling vast rivers and seas to exist. There is also a large, unclaimed area to the north called the Wilderness. At least one other continent exists in Gielinor, but it is, as of yet, unmapped. The entirety of Gielinor's known landmass lies in its Northern hemisphere; the tropical areas lie to the south, while the North is cold and icy. The East is largely a barren desert, the West is a dangerous forest, and the temperate regions form most of the continent.

Unknown Locations
When speaking to some of the various peoples of Gielinor, there will be mentioning of some places that have been lost or are currently hidden. Among these places include the Shadow Realm and Zanaris.

Creation
Gielinor was created roughly 12,000 years ago by the God Guthix. The forming of Gielinor took about 4,000 years to complete, and afterwards, Guthix went into a state of hibernation. Eventually, mortals began to form the first civilizations, beginning the Second Age of Gielinor. During the Meeting History quest, it was discovered that when Guthix created the world, he hid runes around the world, resulting in this world being dubbed RuneScape, a play on words on runes and a scape, which is a large amount of land.

The God Wars


Near the end of the Second Age, Zaros, the god who controlled the Ancient Magicks, who had taken complete power of Gielinor, was betrayed and banished by the Mahjarrat general Zamorak. Zaros was gone, but other gods, however, wanted his lost power for themselves.

A war broke out, beginning the Third Age of Gielinor. The gods' great power created destruction everywhere in RuneScape. However, 4000 years later, the god Guthix, who had gone into a great slumber since the end of the First Age, awoke, and ended the war immediately. After the war ended, most of the gods left Gielinor to other planes of existence.

Modern History
Over the 2,000 years following the God Wars, Gielinor's inhabitants slowly became more technologically advanced. The surviving Humans in Gielinor began as Nomadic tribes but eventually began to establish feudal civilizations, while Goblins, Ogres, and Trolls remained primitive and tribal. The other intelligent races of Dwarves, Gnomes and Dorgeshuun Goblins had hidden underground during the God Wars, although the Gnomes began to emerge and settle on the ground.

The Elves, who came to Gielinor in the First age through the World Gate, have not been seen by any mortal for many centuries, and have passed out of common knowledge. It was believed (and proven during the Regicide Quest) that they now inhabit a strange forest in the West, over impassable mountains. It is also known to a few scholars that their society has been torn by a civil war, and their great works are all but forgotten.



At the start of the fifth age, Rune essence was discovered by humans. This enabled them to learn and use magic easily, leading to the dominance of humans across most of mapped Gielinor. Modern humans are relatively safe and peaceful, and cultural development has began. Human civilization is centered on the three kingdoms of (from east to west) Misthalin, Asgarnia and Kandarin. The Dwarves are believed to be the most advanced race, having invented many industrial technologies such as steam power (although most Dwarves quit using magic a long time ago), and they built a prosperous city underground during the Third and Fourth ages.

Size
The following information is taken from a thread in the Future Updates forum.

Conclusion
Between recorded points, RuneScape is about 52' EW and 45' NS. Accounting for the fact of open seas, estimation on calculations, and coordinates from certain locations. It appears that the map we have been lead to believe is approx a 55' square. Accounting for Acheron, which we will assume adds another 11' N(about the distance from the observatory to Camelot going on an EW parallel), accounting for open seas and the ice shelf. This gives Gielinor a ±40' latitude from ground zero (the Observatory, 0'0" ).

Now assuming that Gielinor is proportional to Earth, that would make a longitude ±80'. Because longitude and latitude are drawn onto a rectangle (even though latitude is shorter or longer) we have a 160' by 80' map in total. Therefore the total (12800'x') subtracted by RuneScape (3025'x'), a total of 9775'*' undiscovered. This is 76.4% of Gielinor to discover.

Assuming in addition that 75% of RuneScape is covered by water, this leaves 2443.75'x' of this area to be land. This is double, if not triple, the land area of RuneScape.

It is likely, however, that Jagex are aware of none of this, as Lumbridge—apparently situated just north of the equator—clearly has a temperate climate, wheras lands further south have tropical ones.

One thing to note is that a player can walk across the world and experience several climate changes in just several hundred steps.

Due to the release of the Grand Exchange on November 26, 2007 part of the map was increased slightly.

Related Pages

 * A map of Gielinor.
 * The History of RuneScape.
 * The different Locations in Gielinor.
 * For alternate planes of existence see:
 * ScapeRune: A possible alternate reality to that of ''RuneScape.
 * Yu'biusk: Yet another possible plane of existence and the original homeland of the Goblins.
 * Shadow Realm: Only mentioned during the Shadow Sword miniquest.
 * Spirit Realm: A parallel plane to the Wilderness of Gielinor.
 * Zanaris: The realm of the fairies.
 * Land of Snow:An icy realm created by Guthix to balance the heat of Gielinor.

Gielienor