History

The First Age
In this time, Guthix discovered a "blank plane". He shaped it as he saw fitting, and created savage life forms. He then went into his first deep sleep. Shortly after, Zaros and Armadyl arrived. Then Saradomin came and civilized the world of men. Then Elindis and Tumeken had their children, Amascut "The Devourer" and Icthlarin, God of the Dead.

The Second Age
In the Second Age, Zaros toke a tribe of Savages, known as the Mahjarrat, from Icthlarin and from their homeland of Freneskae or Frenaskae. Among the Generals was Zamorak, who organized the downfall of Zaros by stealing the Staff of Armadyl and using it to weaken Zaros so he could be deafeated. By deafeating Zaros, Zamorak toke his place as a god, although there are still traces of Zaros all over the areas that were part of his empire. This is the only known time of any alliance between Saradomin and Zamorak. At the end of the Second Age, the God Wars began.

The Third Age
Not much is known of the Third Age, as it was the period where the god wars took place. Although only Saradomin and Zamorak were recorded, all of the gods participated. Towards the end of the war, Guthix awoke and stopped it. Afterwards, he went underground, to what is now known as the Lumbridge Slayer Caves, and wept for the lives that had been lost. His tears splashed onto the nearby rocks, allowing to rocks to feel sympathy and sadness, and thus the rocks wept. Guthix placed a guardian by the rocks, the snake Juna, and Guthix once more left the world of Gielenor for a long slumber.

The Fourth Age
The Fourth Age, sometimes known as the Age of Mortals, lasted for roughly two thousand years. With the godwars over, the mortal races were at last able to multiply and prosper. There were many races all competing to make their mark in the world, though. Humans, dwarves, goblins, ogres, gnomes and many more all competed for land and resources. There was much fighting between the different races, so cultural and scientific advances were slow.

To make things even harder there were tales of strange undead necromancers who arose from time to time, summoning armies of undead skeletons and zombies which swept across the land destroying all in their path.

During the early parts of the Fourth Age most of the humans lived in nomadic tribes, battling to stay alive against each other and against the tribes of other races. Over time they started to make more permanent settlements throughout the world, but they continued to have to war with their neighbours.

Many legends, tales and poems exist from this time and tell of the exploits of many heroes such as Robert the Strong and Arrav of Avarrocka.

No race had supremacy in these wars for many centuries until human mages on the northwest continent stumbled across ancient runic magics!

The human mages learnt how to create powerful magical stones known as runestones. They began to create them in large numbers. How they made the runestones was kept a closely guarded secret between just a few of the mages so as not to let the information fall into enemy hands.

These stones meant that many people - not just accomplished mages - could use powerful magic. Virtually anybody with even a small amount of magical ability was able to do something with the runestones and so the humans started to become dominant throughout the world. These events mark the start of the Fifth Age - the Age of Humans.

The Fifth Age
The human settlements became big cities. They expanded their territories and the human tribes combined to form larger kingdoms. The human kingdoms of Misthalin and Asgarnia quickly grew to become the kingdoms of RuneScape they still are today. The mages who discovered the rune magic set up a great tower of wizardry in southern Misthalin.

Soon these runestones were spread to neighbouring human tribes and the Kingdom of Kandarin came into existence. Smaller human strongholds were also set up in places such such as Al Kharid, Karamja and Entrana.

For a period things were looking very good for the human kingdoms. Some people tried to stand in the way of their expansion, most notably a wave of invading barbarians who objected to the use of runestones and rampaged through Northern Kandarin and Asgarnia, but the runestones were powerful enough that the kingdoms could deal with all that came their way.

But then disaster struck! At this time the wizards allowed followers of Zamorak among their number, which proved to be a foolish mistake. At a summit in the Wizards' Tower most of the powerful mages were gathered - but the Zamorakian mages betrayed them, igniting a great fire which razed the tower to the ground. Most of the great wizards were killed, and their great library which stored the key to much of their power was also destroyed.

Still, there were plenty of runes left in the world. Enough that the existing kingdoms were able to adequately defend themselves from invaders, though they no longer wished to expend runes to expand their borders any further.

Following the burning of the tower there was a massive backlash against Zamorak's followers, who had previously been tolerated, if not exactly welcomed. In many areas the Zamorakians quickly became outcasts who had to hide away from the rest of the world, though the black knights of the Kingdom of Asgarnia still held much political sway in that land.

Thus was the world in relative equilibrium for the next 100 years, the three great kingdoms held off all invaders. Most notable among these invaders was a mysterious and powerful undead necromancer whose army of skeletons and zombies launched an attack on the city of Varrock.

The year is now 169 in the Fifth Age, but the wizards are worried that the most powerful runes they had used to protect the kingdoms are running low. The enemies of Misthalin, Asgarnia and Kandarin are beginning to find footholds in their lands again within dark corners everywhere. New heroes must arise to maintain order and to stop the collapse of civilisation under the forces of evil!