Summoning

Summoning is a future skill set to be released in January 2008. Its exact nature is currently unknown, and will likely remain so until released. Before it is released, Jagex plans to release four mini-Development Diaries and three wallpapers detailing the process of developing the skill. Two wallpapers and three development diaries have been released.

Former Hints
The first hint of Summoning was the discovery of life runes, which were never released. For more information about life runes, see below.

Summoning was mentioned in Issue 20 of the god letters when saradomin mentions the mysterious old man and the fact that he was looking for people to teleport over great distances

On March 31, 2004 a BTS-like article was published, which included the updates of the next few years. Within these, there were also "Summoning spells - summon skeletons, demons, etc...!".

Some degrees of Summoning were introduced in RuneScape, both from NPCs and players.

Many NPCs summon monsters and other magical energies; for example, Malignus Mortifer summons ghosts, skeleton mages, skeletons and fungi when he failed to summon an undead creature. This hints that summoning by players may also be failed once in a while. The Wizard Grayzag, at the top of the Wizard's Tower, used to summon imps to fight for him when he was attackable. Strongbones also summons four skoblins to fight alongside him.

On February 19, 2007, the Tower of Life quest and the subsequent Creature Creation minigame were introduced, where players could "summon" certain creatures. At the time, some players speculated that this was all there was going to be to a players' summoning ability. After the Tower of Life quest came out Mod Ash stated on the forums that this was not summoning and that it was more of a test to see how the servers would handle summoning. He also stated that there was more to come in this area.

Some people believed that Summoning would never be introduced into the game, due to the fact that a Jagex moderator once said that it probably won't make it into RuneScape, because it's too controversial. However, it is indisputable that Summoning will enter the game in 2008, barring an unexpected halt in its development.

Concept
Firstly, Summoning was considered as an addition to Magic, leading to the creation of the life runes, which were never released, but their existence was discovered by some players. Due to the development of alternate spellbooks, Summoning was switched into a skill of its own.

In February 2005, Mod Bennett wrote the initial brief for Summoning, which wasn't well-received. The development was halted, but after Jagex moving in a new office (mid-2005), it was revived.

So the skill was redesigned. The beasts you could summon could help you in a variety of things, not just combat. The skill's name was changed to "Animal Lore". In May 2006, Mod Wilson wrote a new design brief from scratch, this time focusing on Animal Lore. Because of technical reasons, there couldn't be hundreds of players with pets on a server, so this follower-based approach was ruled out and development was again halted. Mod Wilson was asked to refine the brief, and the skill's name was again changed to Summoning, because of player expectations. When this final design brief was signed off (September 2006), the development of Summoning properly began.

Development proper
The development of this skill began in November 2006, along with the release of the Hunter skill. Summoning has the longest development time among the newest skills, with 14 months, compared to 12 months for Construction, 8 for Slayer, 8 for Hunter and 7 for Farming.

Behind the Scenes - November 2007
This article mentioned something about "something very, very big on the horizon", which was going to be released along with "the new year".

Development Diary 1
The 1st development diary was released on November 22, 2007. It focuses on the development of the concept of Summoning, up to November 2006, when the development of Summoning properly began.

Wallpaper 1
The first wallpaper has concept art for the wolpertinger and spirit wolf, as well as a strange pile of rocks that could be a recharging obelisk and concept for what appears to be a summoner.

It is likely the rocks (or obelisk) may be, or relate to, the rocks north of Falador. A feature of one of the rocks is the symbol of what looks like a life rune, an idea that was scrapped in the production stage.

Behind the Scenes - December 2007
This article mentioned that Summoning is "just weeks away" and that there were going to be two more Development Diaries and one more wallpaper in December.

Development Diary 2
It may be possible to have multiple followers.

There are said to be over 70 creatures a player can summon.

Karamthulhu in a fishbowl was mentioned as a summoning pet.

Magpie may be a type of summonable bird.

Near the end of the article, several (possibly) birds' eggs were shown. Left to right, the eggs are chicken, an unknown egg, red birds' egg, raven egg, green birds' egg, vulture egg, and blue birds' egg.

Wallpaper 2
The second wallpaper features the concept art for some sort of half snake/half bird creature. They may be cockatrice.

Development Diary 3
Summoning will be included in the player's combat level allowing for a top level of 138. According to one of the Jagex moderators, this new skill will be somewhat hard to train. At level 99, like all other skills, a skillcape will be available. At level one, the player will be able to summon a dog and at level 43, cockatrices. A quest titled "Wolf Whistle" will be made available at around the same time to serve as a tutorial for the skill.

The length of time on how long something will stay summoned depends on your summoning energy and your skill. When the energy runs out, it needs to be recharged at an obelisk. A prayer for Protection against Summoning will also be released.

Wallpaper 3 and Development Diary 4
The Wallpaper 3 will be released the first week of January. Development Diary 4 will be released the second week of January featuring the release of the skill.

Known Summonable Monsters
These images have been released along with new releases about summoning, so it's fair to say that these will be summonable.

In order of release:

- Wolpertinger - Spirit Wolf - Dreadfowl - Minotaur - Cockatrice - Fruit Bat

Following pets have been mentioned in the 3rd devolopement diary on the subject:

Pet Dog - Level 1 summoning Cockatrice - Level 43 summoning

Pet shop
If a player stands next to the table on which there is a green potion on the first (American: second) floor of the Magic guild, they can see part of a pet store in Yanille. You may also go to the Yanille wall beside the shop to view it from a different angle.

NOTE: You must be on low detail.

Animations leak
On December 21, 2007 a RuneCrypt user found animations of the summoning monsters which had been retreived by hackers and posted on a Brazilian RuneScape site. Many monsters which had been hinted at by Jagex were shown as well as many that were not. The RuneCrypt images and other pictures from | Edgeville.net.

Skill Icon
Many people have noticed that in each of the Development Diary comics, there is a cup that has different pictures. When combined, these three pictures appear to form 3/4 of the Summoning icon. However, others have noticed that it forms 3/4 of a picture of a wolf in a whistle, as Jagex has mentioned that the Summoning "tutorial" will be a quest called Wolf Whistle.