Zaros

Zaros is commonly thought to be the God of pure evil, though no confirmation has ever been made to his true motive. He is also referred to as the God of Ancient Magicks or "The Empty Lord". Zaros existed after Guthix's sleep and before the God Wars, which is why Guthix has little knowledge of Zaros. Zaros once led a tribe of powerful mortals called the Mahjarrat, who come from Freneskae, a plane of eternal warfare, but was deposed by the Mahjarrat general Zamorak and his close followers. Most of the Mahjarrat joined Zamorak with only Azzanadra and Akthanakos remaining loyal to Zaros. His legacy is still strong as Saradomin will not speak of him and Zamorak fears him immensely.

Betrayal
Zamorak, a Mahjarrat general under Zaros, wanted to become a god and leader of the Mahjarrat. With his close Mahjarrat followers Hazeel, Zemouregal, Drakan and others plotted Zaros' downfall. To defeat Zaros though they needed a powerful artifact, such as the Staff of Armadyl.

Staff of Armadyl
Veldez, a faithful Saradomnist, stumbled upon the Staff of Armadyl, who knew that it was a very powerful God Staff and could not fall into the wrong hands. However, a thief called Rennard found Veldez, knocked him unconscious and stole the Staff. He intended to sell it to Zaros, but his messenger, Kharrim, instead took it to General Zamorak of the Mahjarrat, who was mortal during that era. Another Saradomnist called Lennissa found out about the sale and gave it to a Saradomnist Mage called Dhalak. Dhalak was supposed to pass it to Saradomin himself, but he enchanted the Staff so that Zaros could not detect it and then gave it to Zamorak so Zamorak could rebel against Zaros, destroying evil in the process.

Betrayal
Zamorak with his close followers, including a human warrior called Viggora, dealt with Zaros' guards while Zamorak fought Zaros himself. He plunged the Staff of Armadyl into Zaros' back and wounded him. However, even when Zaros had a god weapon in his back, and Zamorak was the strongest mortal in all of RuneScape, Zaros was still an immortal god, and so Zaros was still able to beat Zamorak. However, Zaros tripped while attempting to choke Zamorak to death, and both of them were impaled by the Staff of Armadyl.

Aftermath
Zaros faded from RuneScape while Zamorak seemed to become more real. However, before he was banished, Zaros uttered a curse unto Veldez and all those involved in the rebellion. The curse was to make them wander around Gielinor as ghosts for eternity. The following six people were affected by the curse: ~Zamorak was also affected by Zaros' curse, but because he became a God, he couldn't die~
 * Veldez, a Saradomist
 * Rennard, a seemingly Zarosian thief
 * Kharrim, a Zamorakian messenger
 * Lennissa, a Saradomist spy
 * Dhalak, Lennisa's boss
 * Viggora, a Zamorakian warrior

However, the others involved were seemingly unaffected. Viggora theorizes that it was because all of Zamorak's other followers were magical and so the curse was much less effective on them. Zamorak won the rebellion in the end.

Religion
The symbol of Zaros is a circle surrounding an equidistant cross, and is found on a Sigil at the Digsite, on the Ancient Staff and on the Zaros mjolnir. Orignally Zaros was worshipped by an unkown empire in the north east of RuneScape and the city of Uzer, however the empire has been destroyed by Zamorak and Saradomin while Uzer was destroyed by Thammoran, one of Zamorak's generals. Most traces of the Zaros religion, such as altars and temples, have been destroyed by Saradomin and Zamorak, however there are two altars remaining: one underneath the Digsite and another in Azzanadra's temple. Azzanadra, Sharpyarpy, and Akthanakos are the only current NPC worshippers of Zaros.