Hello. I hope you enjoy this opening chapter. I do this to appease the machine spirit. You don't really need to know much about Runescape lore other than some basic power scaling. Most gods could easily wave away cities with a flick and continents at their most powerful, the exception being transcendent and elder gods being planetary to multiversal.
Chapter one
A father's pain
In a vast plain of dark purple, black, and blue energy that swirled and twinkled like a galaxy of stars that stretched beyond the eye could possibly see was a dark rock platform that floated in the very middle. It was sharp at the sides and resembled a sphere cut in half. Barely more than eighty feet wide, it would be easy to miss for any being or creature that floated by at that moment, however on it were a group of humans and gods that were about to decide the future of not only one world but many.
On the flat area of the stone was a circle of stone pillars with stone slabs across the top. In the middle was a large stone circular slab, an altar for siphoning the energy of the souls from the underworld. Two men and one woman standing in a neat line at one side of the altar across from a woman on the other all stood quietly, not daring to speak. They had tanned skin and wore purple robes that had golden lines on the arms and shoulders.
One of the men had a short beard that was well tied into a small sharp paintbrush like tip, his gray hair mostly bald except for a ring on the lower part of his head that spiked outward slickly. His face was scrunched up with a large prominent nose that was quite flat at the tip. He was Jabari, a Menaphite who had worked under the Pharaoh that Osman had recently replaced.
The other man was nameless, most likely a thrall. He was old, most likely in his mid seventies. He was thin and hunched over, his gray eyes dull from most likely countless applications of cruel magic used on him, even if he wanted to resist what was happening, he had not the will nor the power to do so. His gray hair frazzled and thin, sticking out in frayed clumps.
The woman next to him was in her early forties with long dark black hair and a similar dead look in her eyes, most likely put under similar dark spells that stole her will and mind completely from her. He stood with her shoulders slumped and breathed heavily, trying to breathe as best she could but was having a very hard time.
The woman across from them was not in such a condition, instead she stood tall and straight, dwarfing the humans at a towering nine foot seven. Her skin was a dark reddish brown, her black hair full and silky as it flowed down her back. Her clothes were a purple robe and a spiked golden crown with red gems that looked like thorns. Her eyes were a glowing red and were full of fury
"YOU WILL NOT STOP ME! YOU ARE A GHOST AND NO LONGER MY FATHER! BEGONE FROM MY SIGHT! YOU FAILED US ALL WHEN WE NEEDED YOU! AFTER YOU DESTROYED EVERYTHING IT WAS NO BETTER THAN IF THE ZAROSIAN FORCES TOOK US!" She screamed at the altar. No, not the altar but a fist sized Diamond floating above it. Her voice shaking the very air around them with frightening divine power.
"My daughter, I am sorry for what happened to you and our people because of me, but without such measures, the Demons and Creatures from beyond the stars would have taken everything. Please try to understand that I did what I had to to save our people. You don't have to do this Amascut. We can make Menaphos, no the Whole land of Kharid as it once was. I do not hold your behavior against you, So please put these foolish schemes aside" Came a man's deep and sorrowful voice from all around the area.
"Do not speak my name ghost, your time of ruling has passed. When I gain the link of souls, I will have more power than even those fools Zamorak and Saradomin. No, even Guthix. Understand this spectre, with this power I will bring Menaphos, Kharid, and all of Geilinor under me. So sit there and watch as your daughter does more than you ever could Tumeken!" The woman spoke having calmed herself down somewhat.
"So I can not speak reason into you my daughter?" Came the sad question from all around, as if the entire dimension itself was sighing and preparing for what it must do.
"Reason? Reason? You speak like I am mad and crazy! You are a god like me, Surely you can see beyond such mortal ideas and trappings. This is for the world and myself. You disappoint me. You thought too small, happy just to rule your pitiful desert with Elidinis. I grow tired of your intervention. Begone!" She said as she reached her right hand out towards the diamond that floated above the altar slab.
"I see that there is no hope for you right now. Perhaps you need more time. I will do what I have to do for Kharid once again. Do not hate me for this my beautiful and foolish Daughter" The voice spoke out with a steely determination.
With that, the very dimension began shaking as the diamond lit up with a bright light, as if the very sun was coalescing right in front of them.
Then, before anyone could move a massive explosion enveloped the rocky platform, shattering the altar and the stone. The humans were instantly Vaporized and the woman was smashed with magical force that exceeded her very comprehension. It ate away at her barriers, shattering them and then at her very divine power as she rocketed through the dimension.
"NOOOOOOOO!" She screamed as she felt her divine essence being stripped from her. Then the divine fire was gone, her pain subdued and her power which was almost all gone flickering like a candle.
"Damn you father!" She weakly croaked out as she fell into soft sand, her eyes closing in exhaustion.
In the desert land of Nepthys, home of the elves and shifting sands were various oasis that dotted the desert. Around these, small villages formed where elves that did not live near the rivers or Adyl grew and fell.
One of these elves was Berthyl, a male elf at the age of thirty one. He had long blonde hair colored like sand with light skin. His eyes were light blue and he wore a sand colored shirt and long pants. His boots were also sand colored. In one hand he carried a short spear and in the other a tan satchel. He was out on a hunt for desert goats, as chops sold quite well. Goat horns were also a ingredient in one of the potions the town healer used for things that did not require magic.
He was trudging through the sands that blew in the wind, limiting his vision. He had gone rather far into the desert to where a miniature mountain with large cliffs stood. Various animals would stay in the shade the cliffs provided as an escape from the stinging sands and harsh sun. On his treck, he stopped. To his left, a good ten or so meters was a dark spot in the sands that were blowing. He couldn't make out what it was, but it certainly wasn't sand or a lose stone.
Walking slowly over to it, spear at the ready he came upon a woman. She was barely as tall as him who stood at a decent five foot ten but she was not an elf. She had dark skin and black hair that had sand blown all over it. She wore a purple robe that looked similar to what elven nobles wore and had a crown of gold with red gems.
"Hello!" He spoke out to her, keeping a distance. While she looked to be laying there, it might be a trap. Bandits could be staying nearby waiting for him to help her and then jump out and kidnap him.
The woman laying on the ground did not speak or move, staying completely still. He stepped back and looked around him, taking a moment to do a ten or so meter circle around her, looking out for an ambush. Seeing no one, he tentatively moved back to her and knelt down to shake her shoulder.
Nothing. She did not respond.
He shook her a little more forcefully.
Nothing again.
He shook her once more, a bit to harshly. After all, she was a human and he didn't care much for the comfort of humans. She had been rolled over and he could now see her eyes. They were red except for the black pupils. A very odd trait. However, he had never met a human before so he put that information into the what humans look like part of his head where he kept it there in case he was questioned on what humans look like.
It seemed he would have to call off his hunt for now and bring the human back to the village and perhaps question her on why she was lying there bruised and battered in the desert, far from the safety of the nearest oasis. Of course if she tried to attack him or anything of the sort, he would defend himself and leave her to die. His rational part of his mind attempted to dissuade him from saving her, telling him that whatever situation landed her like that would not bode well for him. Of course he had considered leaving her there, but he couldn't help but think he could find some interesting knowledge from the world outside of the desert.
Information from the world beyond the oasis did not come often. Be it from bandits, desert storms and a lack of interesting things out in the shifting sands in the desert, very few elves from the capital or even the nearby oases came by to share information. Thus it was a small wonder why he chose to rescue the stranded human. As you could probably imagine, information on the outside world could be if nothing else, profitable.
If one was to say how valuable said information was, one would put it with the same value as a month of fine meats, water and a cool awning and shade.
He gently picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. Encumbering him. While he was fairly strong and of considerable resilience, a long walk through the shifting sands with a woman on his shoulders would be a strenuous journey. Putting aside him defending himself or not getting lost, he would need extra water and would trudge slowly, being exposed to more sun than he would be happy to be in. In all forms of the word, he was prey.
And cut. I hope you enjoyed the in introduction.