After the Dragonkin/Majharrat, what's next?

[Zepheras]

So I was doing my usual Slayer training and occasional Castle Wars today, and at the same time looking through my stats and quest list. I could still remember the first time I joined member and how the list of quests undone was overwhelmingly long, but right now I have only nine quests to go. It's not like I'm having difficulty completing them either. Quests are one of my favourite activities in the game, so I only choose to do them whenever I feel like it, and every quest I did I read through every possible dialogue options.

 

Referring to runescape wikia, the quest series that have ended nice and neat are the Fairy Tale series (4 quests), Dorgeshuun series (5 quests), and the Spirit of Summer series (2 quests). Unfinished storyline that probably won't cross over with the Majharrat series directly and can end nicely on their own would be the Elemental Workshop, Fremmenik/Moonclans, Gnome, Myreque, Pirate, Dwarf/Red Axe, Sophanem/Menaphos, Penguin/Slug and the Elven series. Some other quests may have a storyline of their own in the future, others are just out of place.

 

Of course, the Majharrat/Dragonkin series is one of the most important quests in the game, featuring a lore about the central theme of Gielinor, linking the gods and the god wars, majharrats, dragons and dragon weapons, as well as involving many other quest series in one way or another. I'm sure some of you know that the final quest related to the ritual itself would be coming out near the end of 2010, but browsing through my quest list got me thinking, "What's left of the lore of Gielinor after this?" The story of how Guthix modfiied the plane known as Gielinor with the Stone of Jas, how Zaros fell and Zamorak came to power, how he gathered the Majharrat, how the God Wars came about, and how Lucien is attempting godhood with a bunch of other Majharrat in other series gaining power would conclude THIS YEAR.

 

Then?

 

After the remaining not-so-breathtaking storylines end, is Jagex still going to limit all the lore and history within this one continent alongside a few islands? Start another quest with a NPC in Dorgeshuun who a favour to ask, and end the series in Varrock? Have the elves clash with the penguins one fine day?

 

Here's the thing;

There's a total of 166 quests today, over a span of around 10 years. That means that in one year, we have about one quest per month for 8 months and another 4 months with 2 quests each. The gap in between quest release dates of one series almost feel like a real time event.

 

Jagex seems unwilling to expand the game area beyond this one continent. And I'm talking about creating another. Area updates in the past started from filling up the borders of Gielinor (we're left with the desert, elven city and Piscatoris), to creating islands, to creating dungeons almost everywhere, to creating otherworldly planes with inhabitants that may or may not even look like they fit in with the rest.

 

Jagex seems unwilling to expand on historical events using quests, at the most briefly mentioning them in another quest, or writing a small paragraph about it on the Lores' Section on the homepage. When can we see a quest about aviansies and Armadyl, Jas and other elder gods, or explaining who discovered and named the herbs we're using, or what the symbols on summoning charms mean. Random things get added to the game leaving us wondering if those are going to be backed by a story (Stealing creation, for example).

 

To top it off, Jagex seems to be slowing the update pace to a mixture of small and large updates, and one no-update week every month. They've also hinted at stopping the release of new skills after Dungeoneering too, even though I still see a few interesting ideas floating around, and Dungeoneering itself was a contradicting update in the history of skills.

 

If we're talking about completing every realistic achievement in the game, then perhaps I myself am quite far from the end. However, it seems to me that I'm seeing the endgame of the lore of Gielinor, with the current rate of expansion and depth, along with bugs that Jagex have to repeatedly spend time fixing every single week and release patch notes about them. The core storyline is ending soon, Gielinor itself is pretty squeezy, a bunch of areas have yet to receive their due graphical update to keep in line with the rest of the areas, I'm not sure when would I get to enter Prifddinas, Jagex is giving us updates at the same rate as years ago, and Eastern Lands would probably take another 10 years to reach the state of Gielinor at the pace we're going.

 

Anyone else feels the same?

[Grimy_Bunyip]

Eastern lands. That's what jagex said they were planning to work on once the main questlines on our current continent are exhausted.

I can't imagine there's anything bigger than the Dragon kin storyline anyways.

[K4ylan]

Kind of a noob question, but can anyone explain in a nutshell what the Eastern Lads are?

[Zepheras]

Kind of a noob question, but can anyone explain in a nutshell what the Eastern Lads are?

 

 

Supposedly some asian looking land. There's a NPC in Port Phasmatys that came from there by the name of Ak-Haranu, you can see his design to get an idea. RS wikia has an article on it as well.

http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Eastern_Lands

 

And nice 5th generation pokemon avatar. =D>

[Howlin0001]

There might be a western lands as well? Anyone thought of that?

[Hippodo]

It's kind of late here so I'm not in the mood to ponder your main point, but I will tell you this: Jagex has stated that they will start developing the Eastern Lands once this continent is completely finished. Kind of what Morionic said.

[Andy]

Sailing.

[tortilliachp]

Sailing.

 

to get to the east lands, then let's add some other small islands.

 

oh wait, that's windwaker -.----

[Sylpheed]

Like everyone else has said, and by what Jagex has written in the Q&A's, I would imagine that once they are done fleshing out and stuffing the continent we have now with content they will begin work on some new form of 'expansion' in the loosest sense of the term. Jagex have already stated numerours times that the Eastern Lands will eventually be released but they are more of a long term project.

 

Anyway, once the Mahjarrat storyline has concluded i'd say it's more than obvious that this well then unfold into the next central storyline of the Dragonkin. Clearly, the Dragonkin are deserving of their own storyline and the heavy emphasis that Jagex seems to be putting on them at the moment seems to support this.

[brunokiller]

named the herbs we're using

 

You will discover who founded herblore in a quest :thumbup:

 

And yeah, more dragonkin.

[Blutters]

The pace of "significant" updates does seem to have steeply fallen. If you go back to the very earliest news it seems like just about every one of those updates was significant...

I don't know if anyone else remembers, and I like to make this point often on this topic, but originally they promised that the dwarf series would be 8 quests long. We've got... 3?

I really just want longer quests. All of those big bad ones that were required for entry into the Heroes and Legends Guilds were my favorites.

However, While Guthix Sleeps had to have been the best quest ever. It had a decent length, good puzzles, tricky monsters, and almost EVERYTHING was HD quality. I'm waiting for another quest that can match WGS and that huge food one.

 

Oh, something on topic?

I don't think we should even bother asking. With the rate of updates at the moment, all of the storylines you mentioned won't be completed before RS slips into its eventual coma.

Or it just becomes RuneScape 3: Stellar Dawn...

[K4ylan]

I don't think that they should just start new storylines when the current one's come to an end, they should gradually release it, so when we finish the Mahjarrat(sp) and Elven quests, we're already familiar with the new stuff.

[Obtaurian]

The pace of "significant" updates does seem to have steeply fallen. If you go back to the very earliest news it seems like just about every one of those updates was significant...

I don't know if anyone else remembers, and I like to make this point often on this topic, but originally they promised that the dwarf series would be 8 quests long. We've got... 3?

I really just want longer quests. All of those big bad ones that were required for entry into the Heroes and Legends Guilds were my favorites.

However, While Guthix Sleeps had to have been the best quest ever. It had a decent length, good puzzles, tricky monsters, and almost EVERYTHING was HD quality. I'm waiting for another quest that can match WGS and that huge food one.

 

Oh, something on topic?

I don't think we should even bother asking. With the rate of updates at the moment, all of the storylines you mentioned won't be completed before RS slips into its eventual coma.

Or it just becomes RuneScape 3: Stellar Dawn...

 

I agree. The finales of the goblin and fairy quests could've been much more epic.

[Saru Inc]

The pace of "significant" updates does seem to have steeply fallen. If you go back to the very earliest news it seems like just about every one of those updates was significant...

I don't know if anyone else remembers, and I like to make this point often on this topic, but originally they promised that the dwarf series would be 8 quests long. We've got... 3?

I really just want longer quests. All of those big bad ones that were required for entry into the Heroes and Legends Guilds were my favorites.

However, While Guthix Sleeps had to have been the best quest ever. It had a decent length, good puzzles, tricky monsters, and almost EVERYTHING was HD quality. I'm waiting for another quest that can match WGS and that huge food one.

 

Oh, something on topic?

I don't think we should even bother asking. With the rate of updates at the moment, all of the storylines you mentioned won't be completed before RS slips into its eventual coma.

Or it just becomes RuneScape 3: Stellar Dawn...

 

I agree. The finales of the goblin and fairy quests could've been much more epic.

 

The final Goblin quest was pathetic.

[Den]

Wow, nice coincidence here. :P I was reading through all the old update articles from classic times last night and I envy the amount of quest-oriented release style Jagex had back then. Its like quests were the main content, and I wish it still was.

 

I was looking through the mourning's end releases, and it amazed me how focused they were on that quest line in classic.

 

If we ever get to see the final dragonkin quest or get to enter prifddinas, it wont be untill like 2015 or later at the pace storylines have fallen to.

 

While Guthix Sleeps was and is the greatest quest of all time in Runescape. :P

[Karvinen]

Unfinished storyline that probably won't cross over with the Majharrat series directly and can end nicely on their own would be the Elemental Workshop, Fremmenik/Moonclans, Gnome, Myreque, Pirate, Dwarf/Red Axe, Sophanem/Menaphos, Penguin/Slug and the Elven series. Some other quests may have a storyline of their own in the future, others are just out of place.

 

If the Dark Lord of the elves is Zamorak as it's commonly suspected, the elven series is already a branch of the Mahjarrat series.

 

Also, the Dark Bow can shoot dragon arrows, so it was likely created by the Dragonkin and it hints that the world that Arianwyn calls "Zamorak's world" and where Iorwerth is trying to open a portal to is Freneskae, the home world of the Mahjarrat, Dragon items and also likely the Dragonkin.

 

Freneskae is a "deathly" place according to a Postbag from the Hedge post. Was the death altar built over a portal to Freneskae?

 

Ah, Freneskae: an ash-covered, smog and lava-filled delight. You humans would consider it desolate and harsh, a deathly place.

 

In Blood Runs Deep (a Fremennik/Lunar/Miscellania quest) it was told that there will be "The End of Things". Seems to be an obvious reference to Ragnarök. Second war of gods?

 

Frostenhorn = Gjallarhorn?

Lucien = Loki (the god who starts Ragnarök)?

Freneskae = Helheim, the Underworld?

 

Koschei the Deathless is suspected to be Kharshai the Mahjarrat. Koschei the Deathless is a lich character in Russian mythology.

 

Isn't the Sophanem/Menaphos series same as the series with Amascut and Icthlarin? Icthlarin brought the Mahjarrat to Gielinor.

[Zepheras]

Unfinished storyline that probably won't cross over with the Majharrat series directly and can end nicely on their own would be the Elemental Workshop, Fremmenik/Moonclans, Gnome, Myreque, Pirate, Dwarf/Red Axe, Sophanem/Menaphos, Penguin/Slug and the Elven series. Some other quests may have a storyline of their own in the future, others are just out of place.

 

If the Dark Lord of the elves is Zamorak as it's commonly suspected, the elven series is already a branch of the Mahjarrat series.

 

Also, the Dark Bow can shoot dragon arrows, so it was likely created by the Dragonkin and it hints that the world that Arianwyn calls "Zamorak's world" and where Iorwerth is trying to open a portal to is Freneskae, the home world of the Mahjarrat, Dragon items and also likely the Dragonkin.

 

Freneskae is a "deathly" place according to a Postbag from the Hedge post. Was the death altar built over a portal to Freneskae?

 

Ah, Freneskae: an ash-covered, smog and lava-filled delight. You humans would consider it desolate and harsh, a deathly place.

 

In Blood Runs Deep (a Fremennik/Lunar/Miscellania quest) it was told that there will be "The End of Things". Seems to be an obvious reference to Ragnarök. Second war of gods?

 

Frostenhorn = Gjallarhorn?

Lucien = Loki (the god who starts Ragnarök)?

Freneskae = Helheim, the Underworld?

 

Koschei the Deathless is suspected to be Kharshai the Mahjarrat. Koschei the Deathless is a lich character in Russian mythology.

 

Isn't the Sophanem/Menaphos series same as the series with Amascut and Icthlarin? Icthlarin brought the Mahjarrat to Gielinor.

 

And with so many reference to the same storyline from multiple quests, don't you think that we'll be left with a void of emptiness should so many quest series conclude in a single quest at the end of this year? And if not all series would end with this Ritual of the Majharrat, how impressive would they be? And do we have to wait for ten years for the Eastern Lands to develop to the stage of Gielinor today?

 

The point is, Jagex isn't releasing updates at a pace suitable for a company that has operated for so many years. Not that I like to compare with WoW, but that game has over 81,000 articles on their wikia, be it lore or game mechanics, against RuneScape's 15,000 articles, and both are comparable in terms of development time. RuneScape is pretty simplified in its gameplay, which may appeal to many players as well, but lore-wise they are taking their own sweet time. The length of the whole story arc that we have right now in RS seems comparable to what I'll get if I play a single offline RPG such as newer games of the Final Fantasy franchise.

[Me_Hate_Libs]

Personally I think Jagex is missing out on using one of the biggest tools in its desposal to both make great storylines and create epic quests:

 

The Making/Meeting History quests. I mean, think about it, if they just moved away from it being Ardy centric, and we can use the key to travel to different places back in time, it would be awesome! We can participate in some of the most major events in the history of Runescape, meet all the old people, and do much more.

 

I mean, if you think the Ritual quest would be good, imagine if we did a quest where we were there and actually participated in the fight between Zamorak and Zaros and the latter's impalement and banishment.

 

They are seriously missing the boat on this idea.

[Zepheras]

Personally I think Jagex is missing out on using one of the biggest tools in its desposal to both make great storylines and create epic quests:

 

The Making/Meeting History quests. I mean, think about it, if they just moved away from it being Ardy centric, and we can use the key to travel to different places back in time, it would be awesome! We can participate in some of the most major events in the history of Runescape, meet all the old people, and do much more.

 

I mean, if you think the Ritual quest would be good, imagine if we did a quest where we were there and actually participated in the fight between Zamorak and Zaros and the latter's impalement and banishment.

 

They are seriously missing the boat on this idea.

 

 

I wasn't actually impressed with the History quests when I did them. To me they seem to have been rushed out to fill an update week instead of being well thought out to fit the lore. I don't really remember what the two quests were about, so I checked out RS wikia just 5 minutes ago, and was reminded of how quests in RS work; once you've done them the first time round it's hard to read the full plot anywhere else.

 

But anyway, there's tons of contradicting and/or missing information (or that I can't remember what happened in the quest) in Making History and the outpost itself that I'll probably need clarification from someone. And re-reading the information on all the NPCs involved in the quest just makes me more confused than ever. <_< Meeting History was well, the way those people just popped out of a portal looks ridiculous, we don't even farm the fruit trees that the people in the past were farming, the introduction to herblore seems weak when the player that is us becomes the guy who did it, whole time travelling to fix the past isn't my cup of tea to know about the history and lore, and if we're the central character who travelled in time and made impacts in history, we should be like Hiro from the Heroes, someone who is in control of time. The fact that we're given the crystal from an unknown source just seems....weird.

 

What I hope for is the expansion of Varrock Library to be an actual library, much like how the museum functions. Have more old books/diaries/scrolls discovered in quests about real time events, and eventually having a set in the library to read about. Flesh up the events instead of leaving things hanging here and there, so that RS wikia and its group of earnest users can piece the lore together to form a more reader friendly version.

 

I mean, we're playing RuneScape in the land of Gielinor during the 5th Age right? Search RS wikia for information on the history of runes, ages, and runecrafting, all you get is a few lines on the first 1-4 ages, the picture of how Guthix created runes in Meeting history (one of the worst cutscenes in my opinion), barely any history on runecrafting altars (because they weren't all released at the same time, because Jagex somehow decided that runecrafting skill can be released with several altars unreleased until months/years later, and thus can't start writing history when you don't have everything to begin with). The percentage of WoW players who know the term 'azeroth' is easily many times that of RS players who know about the term 'Gielinor'. I don't even play any warcraft games and I see this name often enough. :blink:

[Me_Hate_Libs]

I do agree that the first two quests were done poorly, but I stand by the time traveling idea being a good one.

 

Also, could you imagine the cut scene that they could make for the downfall of Zaros? Should they put ample effort into it mind you.

[Zepheras]

I do agree that the first two quests were done poorly, but I stand by the time traveling idea being a good one.

 

Also, could you imagine the cut scene that they could make for the downfall of Zaros? Should they put ample effort into it mind you.

 

 

Not sure if you've seen this before:

 

But nowadays, I'm rarely impressed with cutscenes made by Jagex. Walking NPCs in a fight? Arrows and magic spells that fly at and amazingly slow speed an trajectory path even for 1-2 squares apart? Now the only nice cutscenes I remember are the ones showing the overall scenery, such as when you enter Keldagrim for the first time, and the opening section of the Dungeoneering video....oh well, yet another fundamental problem with the game. :rolleyes:

 

 

Sometimes I wonder what's the core issue with the game, lack of staff? Instability of the language used to write the game? Never have I seen a game where the same bug keeps appear over and over and over. Till today capes are still giving us problems, and just not too long ago skill capes on males become shorter than usual for no reason at all. :wall:

 

Gah, writing all these kills my mood to log in and grind my prayer up. :wall:

[Den]

This thread is bumming me out, but its still interesting to read. :P

 

Just reading how much potential Runescape has but isnt being taken fully advantage of.

[HunterDexter]

I do agree that the first two quests were done poorly, but I stand by the time traveling idea being a good one.

 

Also, could you imagine the cut scene that they could make for the downfall of Zaros? Should they put ample effort into it mind you.

 

Oh Guthix, I'm dieing to see that. :P

You make an interesting point, one that I've thought about quite some time ago. Maybe we could even save Dahmaroc from getting cursed. Or sneak into a Dragonkin castle, or maybe have a chat with a noob from the 3rd age about how bad his armour is and that you will trade him your shiny rune set for his *worthless* armour. :P

[svs]

You are able to see globes around RS, the globes display lands unlike ours but somehow are slightly similar.

The world of Rs is flat, like any other game out there but perhaps they'll make it round like a real globe.

If so, that would mean there's still loads of space for new content.

 

But that's a bit far fetched i must admit.

Perhaps they will release a new world one day, one that starts out small just to get us excited and satisfied.

 

I'm not really in to the lore of RS but aren't dragonkins from another plane? Or some other race was...

Maybe once we get that far we could see a new world.

[Erichermit]

It's worth noting that a large amount of those storylines are not only connected, but have hints towards being connected behind the Dragonkin. I imagine Dragonkin will be the big bads being almost all the current stories.