Do you ever get a hankering to bust out the fancy robes, grab a staff, and venture out into the wild with a gaggle of your friends? Well, good news! Religious war is back in a big way, in Old School RuneScape.
This battle is being waged by players, organically throwing themselves into danger en masse through community-organised events advertised on social media. The most popular faction as of writing are the followers of Saradomin, whose followers are donning brown robes, air staves, and packing their inventories full of cooked lobster before wading into battle.
Over the weekend, players gathered at the Edgeville monastery before running out into the Wilderness. This stretch of land is a PvP zone, meaning these players were at risk of being killed by less-faithful denizens of Gielinor. They then besieged the Revenant Caves, a hotspot for PvP ganking and the source of valuable Rev weapons (of which I am still dry).
The pilgrimage ended at the chaos temple, which the followers of Saradomin claimed as their own. Another raid is planned this weekend on world 331, and an open invitation to anyone keen to take part has been thrown out onto the internet.
This next attempt is sure to be a touch more interesting, as an opposing faction has revealed themselves. A call to action to followers of Zamorak, demon-allied baddies with slick red robes, has been made. They will be attempting to defend the chaos temple, promising a big clash at the climax of this event.
Here’s a fun fact: in the lore of RuneScape, a battle between the gods is the narrative core of the MMO, with gods including Zamorak and Saradomin dukingit out in the God Wars. There’s a big dungeon in-game in which this clash lives on, and it’s the reason why the Wilderness is as ruined and dangerous as it is today. So these player raids do fit nicely within the flowing story.
There is no in-game reward for taking part in this, the gear you could take off players taking part sells for cheap on the Grand Exchange player market, and rich XP drops will not thrust you towards maxing your character. Instead, this is a good ‘ol fashioned RP event hosted by passionate players. It’s the juice that makes MMORPGs so special, a bit of harmless fun where you can have a laugh with people around the world.
