In this chapter, we're going to be introduced to Zaros. Believe it or not, he's not evil, even if he is the god of darkness. And yes, one of the heroes is a Zarosian. I believe that someone questioned whether one of the heroes would be one. The answer is yes.
I figure maybe I'll include elves that are followers of Zaros as well. That would be an interesting chance of pace, wouldn't it?
Chapter 2: Dark Is Not Evil
At the Varrock tavern, a man with brown hair with a goatee was drinking beer. He was dressed in yellow with a short-sleeved shirt and pants, but also had a feathered helm signifying his choice of god.
Wallace had received a message from Armadyl that he had been chosen as a hero. An Armadylean hero that is. He had brown hair. Apparently he wanted someone to help him bring peace to the world.
He knew that Armadyl's followers all seemed to be birds. Well, most of them. Some of them happened to be human, like he was.
He did show animosity towards Zamorak for what he had (admittedly not deliberately) done to his people, but he didn't seem to want to start wars with other gods.
However, he wasn't sure why he had been chosen. He was the type of person who wouldn't get into a fight with someone else. That's why he never entered the wilderness.
Granted, not a lot of people entered the wilderness to begin with. It was a place where people could do anything that they wanted regardless of the consequences.
It was home to thieves, kidnappers, and murderers.
Not only that, but there were monsters living there. Including the Chaos Elemental and the King Black Dragon. Not monsters that rookie adventurers should face.
Despite his peaceful nature, he did have experience as an archer.
Nearby there was a lady who for some strange reason had long blue hair. Her name was Crystal...which was pretty appropriate considering she was a Serenist.
She was dressed in leather armor that had been dyed teal courtesy of Aggie, including shoulder pads. Apparently, she happened to be an archer like he was. Presumably she was a Serenist she was also a peaceful person.
In her case, she had been chosen by Seren to be one of her heroes, likely because she happened to be fond of light. She felt comfortable in its presence.
Perhaps she wanted someone to restore her. Last time she had checked, she had been shattered into pieces. It was going to take a lot of glue to put her back together again.
There was also a barbarian woman in the tavern. It was a bit strange that she wasn't in the Barbarian Village, which was left of Varrock. Compared to the citizens of Varrock, they weren't nearly as civilized.
She was wearing a brown tube top that exposed her belly button and shorts. She also had a purple marking on her forehead. She also had brown boots. She was blonde, like Gareth.
She was rather attractive.
Crystal decided to warn Wallace not to do anything that would make her angry.
"You might not want to make her mad...she looks as if she has superhuman strength..." noted Crystal. There were some people in Runescape that had that, though there were also races that were stronger than normal humans on average, such as ogres.
Wallace accidentally spilled beer on the barbarian woman.
"Uh-oh..." said Crystal.
The barbarian woman turned towards him.
Wallace backed away.
However, she continued walking towards him.
He thought about what to do.
"I, uh, like your hair. I also think you look pretty! And I think you have a cute face!"
Unfortunately, this didn't seem to work.
She still approached them.
Wallace gulped.
However, instead of attacking him, she gave him a hug.
"Aren't you sweet..." said the barbarian woman.
Wallace had a hard time breathing.
"I guess she's not as fierce as she looks..." noted Crystal.
"The name's Erica." She left her barbaric village because she had been a tad more civilized than the rest of them. She didn't quite fit in with the crowd, it seemed.
Shortly afterwards, she had been chosen by Zaros to be one of his heroes.
Why was she chosen? For starters, she happened to like darkness.
It assisted her with hunting, after all.
"Wait, don't people consider you to be evil?" asked Erica. There seemed to be a lot of Saradominists to be frightened of him.
The same applied to Zamorakians, though this might have been in part due to the fact that Zamorak himself had decided to backstab him.
"That's a misconception. People assume I'm evil because I'm made of darkness, but that's not actually true. I've done good things for Gielinor, though I will admit that I have made mistakes when I attempted to rule over Senntisten. Rest assured, that I will not be making the same mistakes."
"I see..." answered Erica.
"So, will you be my hero? I won't blame you if you refuse...I will admit that compared to other gods, I am rather foreign. But I do hope that people will get to know me and not assume that I am evil." explained Zaros.
He wasn't any more evil than Seren was, he wagered. Though he would admit that he didn't act like his sister Seren did. She was the goddess of light.
Erica decided to do so.
Perhaps people misjudged Zaros.
Though she wondered why Zamorak had ever decided to betray him.
Surely he had a reason, right? It didn't seem like he would betray his master simply for power. If he wanted power, he could just search for the Stone Of Jas and empower himself with it like Saradomin did.
That, and he could have picked a better god to do so. At the time, Zaros was much more powerful than Zamorak was. He'd be better off choosing Saradomin or Armadyl, or even Bandos.
Though she had been a barbarian, she didn't support Bandos's ideals...other than being strong, of course.
Meanwhile, Circe wondered if Zamorak had defeated Zaros for good.
If Zaros were to somehow return, Zamorak would be in a lot of trouble.
Perhaps Zaros would want revenge.
Or perhaps Seren would return. Zamorak blamed her for the death of his people.
Granted, the Mahjarrat didn't exactly seem to mind sacrificing each other...but perhaps Zamorak did.
Why did she impersonate Mah, anyway?
Surely there had to be a reason for it.
That was what Crystal would like to know.
"For some strange reason I haven't found much regarding Zaros in the history books..." noted Wallace. He was starting to wonder if Zaros even existed.
"That's because everyone seems to think he's an evil god." noted Erica. Admittedly, he was a conqueror of land, but that wasn't quite the same as being evil.
To her knowledge, Zaros did not oppress the lands that he ruled over.
"Although...I heard that there were bandits in Al Kharid who still worship him." noted Wallace. They didn't seem too fond of Saradominists or Zamorakians.
Armadyleans probably would be welcome to visit their camp though. Zaros seemed to respect him.
On the subject of Zaros, at least one of his followers was greatly feared as well. Her name happened to be Nex. Apparently, even the gods happened to be frightened of her as well.
Considering how powerful she was, perhaps they had a good reason for it. She could use magic extremely well, even without the assistance of the four mages that always seemed to be with her.
Personally he wondered where she was. Like Zaros. it seemed that she had vanished off the face of Gielinor.
Where exactly did she go?
Azzanadra had also gone missing as well. And despite his name, he was actually male.
Erica wondered where they had all gone as well.
As Erica left the tavern, she encountered Gareth.
"You better not be trying to loot the city..." said Gareth.
"What, you think I'm going to loot the city because I'm a barbarian?" asked Erica.
"Well..." answered the man.
"Relax, I didn't come here to do that." answered the barbarian.
"Alright." nodded the man. Perhaps he shouldn't judge people before getting to know them. Perhaps that was Saradomin's weakness...as well as that of his followers.
As with Lumbridge, it seemed that Saradomin was the god that everyone in Varrock seemed to worship.
However, there also seemed to be a Zamorakian altar in the city as well.
There seemed to be a man at the altar.
Hopefully he wasn't evil.
Otherwise, Varrock could be in trouble.
Meanwhile, Aspen decided to visit Taverley.
It seemed that a lot of people there happened to worship Guthix.
However, it seemed that it had trouble with trolls.
In fact, rumor had it that the trolls were plotting another attack.
Though the trolls were Bandosian in nature (which would indicate that they valued strength above intellect), they seemed to be capable of performing organized attacks.
Perhaps Aspen should decide to defend the village.
As it turned out, Erica was visiting the village as well.
There happened to be a tavern there so she decided to try out the alcoholic beverages.
She happened to like beer.
At that very moment, the trolls attacked.
Fortunately, it seemed that these trolls weren't particularly strong.
Aspen fired an earth spell and a troll collapsed.
"Me can't lose to puny human!" exclaimed one of the trolls.
Erica stabbed another troll with a spear.
"Ooh! That smarts!" shouted the troll.
"If you didn't want to be attacked, maybe you shouldn't have attacked Taverley." noted Erica.
Rumor had it that the city used to be for members but it all changed one day.
She wasn't sure what that meant though.
Free players still couldn't help that poor kid get his ball back from the witch though. That mean old witch that worshiped Zamorak.
Aspen noticed that Erica seemed to have the mark of Zaros on her skin.
Well, Guthix and Zaros were similar gods.
Zaros seemed to have slightly different goals than he did though.
Eventually, the general himself showed up.
His name was Morningstar.
"I'll crush this puny village! You humans are no match for me!" shouted Morningstar.
"We'll see about that." stated Erica.
Erica stabbed Morningstar with her spear.
Morningstar grimaced and attempted to punch the heroine.
However, Erica was too quick for him.
"Perhaps Zaros saw potential in her..." noted Aspen.
It was plausible that Guthix had seen potential in him.
Fortunately, it seemed that the Burthope guardsmen had decided to help them.
It was a good thing, as Morningstar was kind of huge.
They shot cannonballs at Morningstar.
The troll screamed and thrashed around.
He stomped on one of the cannons, breaking it.
"Darn it! They don't come cheap!" exclaimed the man. It cost 750000 pieces of gold per cannon.
Aspen evaded the attack and shot more earth spells at him.
Although, perhaps he should be using water spells instead.
Morningstar collapsed.
It seemed that he had drawn his last breath.
Everyone cheered in victory.
The trolls apparently realized that they had been beaten, because they had decided to retreat.
However, in the process, they left behind a baby troll.
He wondered where everyone was going.
Erica looked around to see if anyone was coming for him.
However, it seemed that the trolls didn't seem interested in picking him up.
Shrugging, Erica decided to do so.
"Mama?" asked the baby troll.
Erica giggled.
"He thinks I'm his mother!" exclaimed Erica.
"Aren't trolls dangerous?" asked Aspen.
"Don't humans come in all forms of morality?" questioned the young woman.
Aspen noted that did make sense.
Perhaps that was the same with trolls. Perhaps some trolls were less vicious than others.
Likewise, perhaps some ogres were smarter than others. Rumor had it that some of them were shamen and were smarter than other ogres.
He hadn't actually met one though. He didn't feel like visiting the ogre city Gu'tanoth. It might be dangerous.
The baby troll was hungry.
Shrugging, Erica decided to give him some chicken.
"Wait, does that mean his name is going to be Chicken? I heard that trolls get their names from the first thing that they try to eat." noted Aspen.
"Me like chicken!" exclaimed the baby troll.
Erica shrugged.
Fortunately, the baby troll, while carnivorous, didn't seem interested in hurting anyone.
Perhaps Erica was right about it.
Since the village seemed to be safe, Aspen decided to leave it be.
There seemed to be a lot of fish on sale. It made sense since Catherby was nearby.
However, to get there you had to climb White Wolf Mountain.
The wolves weren't exactly friendly. If you approached them, chances are they would bite you.
Although, he noted to himself that he was good at summoning. Perhaps he could tame animals.
Meanwhile, Circe discovered that three cultists were attempting to sacrifice a young mage by the name of Ilona.
She wondered why they would want to do that.
Unsurprisingly, she was more terrified than an imp being chased by an icyene.
Presumably, she happened to be a virgin.
They seemed excited about opening the tomb of Dragnith Nurn.
However, in order to do so, they needed a human sacrifice.
Reese noticed her.
"You there! You appear to be a Zamorakian! How would you like to open the tomb of Dragnith Nurn?" asked Reese.
"Why should I?" asked Circe.
"So we can use his power." explained Caitlin.
"Yeah...use his power..." noted Kayle.
To be honest, he wasn't sure if that was a good idea.
Ilona was crying.
Shrugging, Circe decided to play along.
Reese took Ilona to the catacombs entrance.
"So...why are we sacrificing this wizard trainee?" asked Circe. Was it really necessarily?
"Once we've opened the catacombs, we can use Dragnith Nurn's power to take over Lumbridge." said Reese..
"Why would we want to do that?" asked Circe.
"So we can use his power to take over Lumbridge!" exclaimed Reese.
"Now why would we do that?" inquired the mage. Things seemed peaceful.
"It's sickening! Have you noticed how peaceful it is? Something has to be done about it!" shouted the man.
"I don't know, it seems fine to me..." noted Circe.
Granted, it seemed that it was a Saradominist community, but that was about it.
"Are you saying...you're a Saradominist?" asked Reese.
He figured that one of them might try to stop the sacrifice from being performed. Saradominists and Zamorakians were never the best of friends.
"What? I'm not Sarad-"
"Die!" shouted the deranged man.
Unfortunately for Reese, this wasn't exactly a fair fight. He was a warrior, but Circe was a mage.
Reese wondered if he thought this through. Then again, he did believe that Circe was a Saradominist in disguise, despite the mark of Zamorak on her hand.
Circe blasted him with a fire spell.
"Aargh!" exclaimed Reese.
Reese scratched her cheek in retaliation.
However, being a mage meant that she had a defense bonus against warriors. It seemed that they had magic designed specifically to counter warriors.
She blasted him with another spell.
Reese drew his last breath.
Suddenly, the catacombs opened.
"Huh. I guess we won't have to sacrifice this girl after all." noted Circe.
She untied her.
"Thank you for saving me!" exclaimed Ilona.
However, she noticed the mark of Zamorak on Circe's hand.
"Wait, you're a Zamorakian?" asked Ilona.
"Technically..." answered Circe.
"I thought you were the ones that burned down the old Wizard's Tower..." explained the trainee.
"Why would we want to do that? I like being a wizard..." questioned Circe.
Ilona noted perhaps it was rather strange that the Zamorakians would burn down the first wizard's tower for no reason.
Anyways, she was grateful that Circe had saved her life.
She decided to leave.
Kayle and Caitlin showed up shortly afterwards.
"What happened?" asked Kayle.
"Reese thought I was a Saradominist...even though I was a Zamorakian. I had no choice but to slay him..." noted Circe.
Caitlin seemed rather upset.
However, Kayle didn't seem too phased.
"He was kind of psychopathic..." noted Kayle.
Caitlin wondered what she would do without him.
Well, perhaps she could stop attempting to sacrifice innocents for power.
Something told her that the Duke of Lumbridge wouldn't be happy about that.
The two of them decided to leave.
Circe wondered if she should try to obtain Dragnith Nurn's power.
Then again, power could potentially corrupt her.
For now, she decided to leave the catacombs.
Maybe she could feel good about what she had done.
That's our other three heroes. I figured I wouldn't stop at three and I would go with six instead. And yes, each of them has their own god. I figured it would be possible for a character who was a Zamorakian to be a hero since being chaotic isn't evil in itself. Of course, it's debatable whether Zamorak is actually evil or not. He's a rather complex character.
I find it appropriate that Erica has taken a liking to Wallace considering that Zaros has a great deal of respect for Armadyl. I think part of the reason why she's not so barbaric is because she was chosen by Zaros. Zaros wished for vampires to be civilized. Unfortunately, Lord Drakan wouldn't have that. That's why he teamed up with Zamorak. Unlike Zamorak, I can't say that I sympathize with him at all.
Maybe Erica can summon Bandosians? Technically, she's Zarosian but she's no less weak than an ogre is. I'll let you decide whether she's as strong as an ourg though. You know, the race General Graardor is a part of.
Reese sure jumped to conclusions, didn't he? Well, he's gone now.