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Then, the strangers Icthlarin and Amascut appeared and told us of a world with weaklings, assaulted by an implacable foe. They needed the help of beings as mighty as we, and in return offered us places of great respect and influence. This prompted a debate - the greatest I had seen in my short life - about whether to stay or to go. The sides were evenly matched in number, but with both Temekel and Azzanadra in favour of leaving, the subsequent violence left Salisard dead and Abrogal atop the marker stone. I do not know what Icthlarin thought of this, but his companion Amascut seemed dismayed by our ways and walked out of our village towards the volcano. We did not see her again.

With the matter agreed, the Mahjarrat tribe made preparation for travel and gathered up our meagre belongings. Before we were finished, a great bellowing roar came from the volcano. I do not know if it was Mother Mah, but I cannot imagine what else it could have been. Great rocks began falling onto the village, shaken loose from above, and there was no time to consider the Ritual of Enervation. We had no choice but to evacuate immediately, and fled with Icthlarin to his world. None of us ever returned to our homeland.

So, an encounter with a possible Elder God and abandonment.
Full transcript here

It is almost 7pm in London and the podcast still isn't uploaded to podbean. fff

Well, such stuff happens when you lay off part of your community management team. A link to this week's Behind the Scenes hasn't even been posted to twitter yet.

Missing, Presumed Death is an upcoming quest involving Amascut's brother and fellow death god Icthlarin and the mahjarrat (and god killer) Sliske. Well, anyhow, on the podcast spoiler thread for us sorry sacks who couldn't listen in to the live podcast (for fuck's sake, the podcast is done over a fansite's internet radio service and not runescape's own website what the fuck) a summary was posted:

( bullet point summary and my thoughts )

Fanon is still saying that Sliske is solely responsible for Amascut's crazy. Kinda like Amascut was Sliske's revenge on/greatest troll of Icthlarin? I dunno, it seems a bit too much like fridging Amascut to develop Icthlarin's character to me. Plus other things :-S

Locations

The Lion's Mouth -The last standing temple to Amascut, it will get destroyed in this plot. It features a massive monumental statue of her and from the looks of the head, it isn't the same design as the statue in the Uzer Mastaba.

Surprisingly, the Lion's Mouth is directly west of Uzer on the world map. I was expecting it to be further south. Of course, the game map is a highly compressed version of reality, so it could be to the south.

Quotes

"Who question Big High War God die asking more questions."

Yay! Canon! Accessible canon!

I have complained in the past that one of the most important sources on Amascut's backstory was inaccessible to me since, well, I am too cheap to pay for a runescape membership especially since I don't give myself the time to actually play the game. So I have been relying on other players to bring that aspect of canon to me.

I am talking specifically about Neite, a cat that wanders around Sophanem, and after A Tail of Two Cats, the world. She's important to Amascut's backstory because she was one of Amascut's last chief priestesses and she was present at Amascut's 'fall'. Anyway, some kind soul has posted Neite's dialog during A Tail of Two Cats on the wikia, so here it is incase the copyright bugaboo revisits the wikia and causes the deletion of the dialog and transcript pages.

( Neite )

So, the curses that Amascut's priestesses put on her are: Her name is forgotten, any corporeal form that she wears will eventually reject her, and she will never have willing worshippers. Her deeds will be remembered, though. However, it seems that Amascut has overcome these handicaps, as the people of the desert remember both her deeds and her name and she does have a few willing minions who are under no illusion about who she is. This may also be her motivation for her actions during Stolen Hearts and Diamond in the Rough. But who knows until more desert centered canon comes out.

Here I note that Neite is another name for Nit, the Egyptian goddess of the primordial waters, war, hunting, and weaving. She also protects the bodies of fallen warriors, much like Amascut was supposed to, and kind of what Neite and all cats in Runescape are supposed to do, at least against Amascut. Neite was sometimes depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, simular to Sekhmet, another war goddess, and of course Amascut herself, who is probably Sekhmet inspired. Neite seems to be a creative war goddess, where Sekhmet is a destructive war godess, though.

It's funny how the names of Egyptian dieties come up in Runescape. Heru and Apep have shown up as Amascut's lackeys, and Khnum (Egyptian Niete's consort, one of them at least) was contracted by Amascut (in her Lady Keli guise [which some players insist is a reference to Kali]) to kidnap Prince Ali in Stolen Hearts. Heru, ironically, is another name for Horus, who is probably the inspiration for Tumeken, Amascut's father. Or maybe Tumeken is Ra inspired. Who knows, the superficial difference between Ra and Horus seems to be how primordial Ra is and some players speculate that Tumeken may be one of the Elder Gods for his ability to father and create gods, something that the other gods haven't done (save for Elidinis, Amascut and Icthlarin's mother, technically)

Researching the Egyptian Neite and her primordial-ness made me think of Kali and the primordial-ness attributed to her, as the goddess of time, destroyer of all things, or the inaccessable Durga. And the weaving and creativity and warriorish-ness of Neite reminded me of Athena, another crafty warrior goddess. These goddesses of the hunt and warrior goddesses are neat, but they always seem to be wrapped up in so much mystery. It makes me wonder what was happening with the Indo-Europeans at the time of the Æsuric-Devic split. That seems like a magical time in the history of humanity, almost. If only I had a time machine.

Of course, these are not goddesses of marriage, or women who settled down, so, INSTANT MYSTERY!

Anyway, the change of heart with regard to potential copyright violation by the runescape wikia editors has also led to the dialog of the dead slayer master Catolax to be written up as well, and it contains the following Amascut related canon.

( Catolax )

This bit specifically justifies that area of effect aura of ignorance that I have written Amascut as wearing. And I wrote it in without knowing this particular part of canon. Yay me! Of course, there are clues about it. The player knows who Amascut is and what she is and what she has done, and that Sumona is just a disguise. But the player forgets all that when he is talking to Sumona, even over long distances through the Slayer Gems or the NPC Contact Spell. Such is the power that she possesses.

Note that the game's devs love playing with the idea of perspectives and the filters people will put on reality, so no NPC wil ever know or tell the absolute capital T TRUTH.

Now that the Stolen Hearts/Diamond in the Rough quest has stewed in the brains of the people who pay attention to Runescape's desert lore, there are some things about Amascut that keep coming up in discussions about her.

--Her psychic abilities. OR Oh boy, Amascut just keeps on coming up with excuses for me to run wild and godmod with her.

In the quest, she shows a tremendous ability and willingness to just compel others to do what she wants. This runs to full-on mind control to get some thugs who were demanding extra pay from her to fight the protagonists to death for free to getting the player character to toss her a diamond despite the objections of the player and the other two protagonists. This time, not even the slightest suggestion that Amascut hypnotized anyone was given, unlike what happened in the Icthlarin's Little Helper quest. Furthermore, it is suggested that Amascut mindwipes the player after the events of Smoking Kills, making the player forget Amascut and Sumona are the same person. Either that or the player character is stupid or just doesn't give a damn.

-- The true nature of the curse on Amascut. OR I've been playing her wrong.

So the mind control thing brings up a dialog with Amascut's former head priestess, now the immortal cat Niete. Before, the talk was that Amascut's priestesses cursed Amascut with the inability to take physical form.

Uh, no. Just no. Because she walks around in physical form all the time.

Back then I couldn't verify this because I didn't have the prerequisites to even speak with Niete. I still don't.

Now, the consensus is that Amascut's priestesses cursed Amascut with the inability to posses people.

What.

I suppose possession and mind control may be meant to be different things, but the end result is pretty much the same. Making this odder still is that Amascut's objective, at least one of them, in the Hearts/Diamonds quest, is to steal a diamond which also routinely possesses people.

--Amascut's plots and plans. OR maybe I am playing her right anyway.
Amascut loves convoluted plans. Her actions don't make sense otherwise. She is willing and able to eliminate and control anyone she wants, yet... Either she is playing a long term game of 11-dimensional chess or she is the luckiest psychotic ever. Either way, even though she engages in overt shows of power, she doesn't use her power to solve every problem. In a way, she encourages destruction, but doesn't seem too willing to cause destruction on her own. It is a group participation thing!

--Loophole abuse
So, big deal, the Edicts of Guthix prevents deities from directly interacting with the world. Exception... Amascut, Icthlarin, and other minor desert deities. This was confirmed by one of the lore writers. There is some speculation that the end result of the desert quests might be the elevation of Amascut from minor goddess to potential combatant in a second God War.

And the second God War may well be coming. Lore writers have also confirmed that the major gods will be returning, along with the ever looming threat of Zaros. Some extra ones may show up as well. It sounds to me like a whole new game and gameworld, but who knows.

Ok, so The Firemaker's Curse is a quest that has almost no combat requirements and no prerequisite quests. The only combat requirement is level 74 Constitution. My guess is that since the maximum damage Char can inflict is based on a percentage of your own hitpoints (if other players' observations can be trusted), then that requirement is there just so Char won't seem like a total wimp when she hits you.

Ok, so it is Constitution. You can't raise your constitution level without fighting and killing things. Not easily anyhow. There is Soul Wars. In fact, a friend of mine was doing exactly that. Max hitpoints but no other combat stats. A punching bag that can't hit back, basically. So it isn't like people with no combat experience at all can get the prereqs for the quest. Even at Soul wars, you are watching people kill each other unless you and a group of friends regularly hold private tea parties there. Even so, people weren't going into this quest expecting combat, but surprise! You have to defeat Char at the end of the quest.

Char, however, has been made very easy to defeat. She is tall, she is leggy, she is lithe, she is an agile dancer. YET SHE IS SO SLOW. She is that video game boss that walks toward you menacingly and slowly, and is impossible to beat until you figure out the trick to defeating her. Also if you are stupid enough to let her get near you, she'll punch you real hard and stomp the shit out of you. Yeah, that boss.

Ugh.

So, she has fire related powers and oddly, weaknesses. WTF. So first the powers she actually uses in the fight...

Okay Char, what the fuck, lumbering slowly toward your opponent is not a fire related power.

But she does occasionally throw out a spark. Red sparks snuff out fires they pass over. Blue, orange, and green sparks are actually a detriment to her if they get caught in one of the players fires. More on this later. The sparks will veer toward the player and explode on contact, causing minor amount of dammage. Her only real fire related offense is only used when she is at less than half health. WALLS OF FIRE! WITH GAPS SO THAT YOU CAN USE TO ESCAPE THE BURNING AAAAURRGH FUCK. So many tropes. So many gorram tropes.

So, onto her fire related weaknesses. Earlier in the quest, the player is given a can of pitch to light fires. The special thing about these fires, though, is that they act as pathing blockers for the player because pitch fires are just that awesome. So, the weirdness about the fires is related to the pitch fires the player can light during the boss fight since Char is such a slow lumbering brute that can't even toss fireballs at you. Or maybe won't. The more fires the player lights, the weaker Char's attacks will be and the stronger the player's attacks are. The weapon used does not matter. One could light 10 fires and whack away 1010 of Char's hit points with a rubber chicken. But, the optimum weapons are darts and throwing knives, since their overall attack speeds are the highest in the game and they can be thrown from far away. Additionally, those sparks that come out of Char can occasionally get caught in one of the player's fires. The yellow ones increase the damage the player can deal for 10 seconds, the green ones will randomly restore the player's hitpoints, and the blue ones will slow Char down even further if one of the players attacks land in 10 seconds.

ALL is not lost for poor Char, though. The red sparks extinguish the player's flames, Char can stamp out fires, and fires eventually go out on their own. Plus, she got that Rage mode I was talking about in my last post. It makes her invulnerable for a time and increases the damage that she can do.

But the player can wait for her to cool down or just lure her into a pool of water to cool her down immediately.

Dammit Char.

Well, she might have been playing a game with the player, like she was before the final boss battle. Guess which one of your party members I have possessed before another member of your party is murdered! MWAHAHAHA.

A nightmare mode for the final boss battle can be easily be imagined. Char could actually move around with the agility she is suppossed to have. She could set her own fires to strengthen herself while stomping the player's fires out. Or maybe not, since both her fires and the players would be pathing blockers. She could toss out actual fireballs and not just sparks. She could summon up the "pets" that appeared in the fourth roomo of the cave.

Come on, Char, come on. You are supposed to be a bad ass. You had sexy times with the god of power. At least that's what Zaros' alighnment seem to be at the moment.

Oh well, it gives me some ideas about what Amascut can do, especially in regards to to the upcoming plot in the Half-Lifeverse. I won't do the THIS IS MY TRUE FORM thing, but she can at least send something against the manhacks that are sure to be buzzing about. Glienorian magic will cause them to shake themselves to pieces anyhow, but what the hell.

The Firemaker's Curse at Runescape.com and at Wikia.com

Oh dear.

So, the new folklore attached to the new quest, The Firemaker's Curse, has been released into the wild.

This may necessitate some thinking and revising on my part. Especially since so far, Amascut's complexion (at least in her human guise) is very similar to that of Char, one of the characters introduced in the new Lore, and the complexion of most of her race (the Auspah, perhaps?).

"The dancer’s the last of her race, if Zaros is to be believed. You’d like her story: full of brigands, massacre and tragedy," said Zamorak, gesturing towards the stage. A dancer, brown-skinned and with hair that undulated like a blanket of fire, cartwheeled.

That, and the fact that Char's racial abilities seem to be something akin to firebending and that so far, Amascut has shows a strong preference toward fire magic makes me wonder.

The thing is that Char becomes some sort of firefiend by the end, which may be a racial ability of the ?Auspah. From the sounds of the lore, though, it is something unprecedented. It also might be a case of freaky shit going on. After all, Perjour, who was acting as the narrator for much of the lore, was having his thoughts and fears magically written into two separate books, except for a brief period where Char takes over as narrator. In an odd bit of meta, the lore is actually supposed to be an excerpt from one of those books.

It also contains loads of dialogue from Zamorak and Thammaron. This is good, since the only other source of Zamorak dialogue so far has been the God Letters and perhaps Arrav's lore. It is also revealed that Enakhra was in the habit of building temples, so her temple in the Kharidian Desert to Zamorak is not the only one she has built. No dialogue from her, though.

Since Viggora was with the party and since he is most likely an ordinary human with a short lifespan, I place this very near (~15 years) the date of Zamorak's betrayal of Zaros. We already see Zamorak and his allies successfully hiding information from Zaros, even though Perjour was sent to accompany the party as Zaros' eyes and ears. The supposed purpose was to collect Char after her transformation and claim her for Zaros' army.

Given how late in the Second Age this occurred, I can safely say that Amascut had already been binded and depowered by her priests. Nex is probably already fighting for Zaros. I somehow doubt that Char becomes Nex later on, but who knows. The quest itself hasn't been released, so it may reveal more. What is known is that a malevolent spirit is involved, and it might be Char.

I have to wonder where the ?Auspah come from. Brown skin=Tropical latitudes? Perhaps the Kharid? They could have ventured north with the Mehkmet tribe. Why did Amascut decide (or why was she forced) to look like an ?Auspah?

neat stuffin game books.

http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/My_notes#Ancient_page
http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Scabarites_Notes

History articles available at the wiki that may be pertinent.

The Fifth Age or the Age of Man/Modern Age - 169 years
The Fourth Age or the Age of Mortals - 2000 years
The Third Age or the God Wars - 4000 years
The Second Age, part of which was the Golden Age Of Zaros, The Age of the Mahjarrat, (possible date for Evil Chicken's birth/creation), and the Madness of Amascut. - 2000 years
The First Age Age of Creation, Arrival of the Mahjarrat - 4000 years


The Kingdom of Asgarnia
The History of Asgarnia
Kinshra or Order of the Black Knights
Order of the White Knights
Order of the Temple Knights

The Kingdom of Misthalin
Misthalin's Breadbasket Region
History of Varrock
Senntisten
Note: The Emirate of Al Kharid is independent of and in a cold war with the Menaphite nation. The people of Al Kharid consist of a blend of immigrants from Lumbridge and the native Mehkmet tribes.

Cave Canum in Morytania. Built on the ruins of Kharyll by werewolvesin early Third Age. Invaded by Lord Drakan in the Fall of Hallowvale. Abandoned in the late Third Age. Became part of The Lordship of the North Coast in the late Fourth Age. Canifis built on the site of Cave Canum in year 23 of the Fifth Age either by werewolves or by humans of the Lordship that were turned into werewolves by Drakan.
Related: Hallowglade

Myriad and beautiful were the creatures and civilizations of the early ages of the world [...] shaped lovingly o'er the millennia by the creative mind of Guthix. Of the more delicate races there is now no trace, and almost no memory, save for the Light Creatures, the last sorry remnants of that age.