NOTE: This quest-spoiling atrocity of an article contains spoilers from a variety of quests. If you aren't donning the Quest Point Cape right now, you have no idea what your priorities are right now and need to remedy this simple fact as fast as you can.
The sixth age has really been a game changer for just about every single race upon Gielinor. The pirates, the gnomes, the dwarves, the elves, the humans, the Mahjarrat, the pigs... even the Gods themselves. Whom, we have also discovered, don't really count as a race because they are comprised of basically "elites" from multiple different races. Zamorak is Mahjarrat, Armadyl is Avainsie, Bandos was goblin, Guthix was Naragi, V was Fremennik, and Saradomin is... Teragardian? He's basically a last survivor of that planet. Long story; lots of killing.
Perhaps one of the most dynamic change, however, had happened to the Dragonkin. Originally, they were thought to have been an old ancient overpowered enemy, showcased in the Robert the Strong quest. However, after the events of the While Guthix Sleeps quest and the discovery of the Stone of Jas, it is revealed that there are three dragonkin who were biding their time all along, and were threatening to return. At the time, because of the subtle hints and stories we heard, these were going to be stupidly-powerful creatures that we, as players, would be incredibly hard-pressed to fight.
... now there's 16 of them, and we've already killed a few. One of them by our own hand.
For the longest time, it was established that these creatures were bound, by the Elder God herself, to the Stone to become sort of its protectors, preventing its misuse through punishment of... uh... getting your entire planet destroyed (case and point; Kethsi). This made them both savage and immensely destructive, telling us that the Stone really REALLY should not be used. And then all the Gods come in, vying for the Stone and going, "Hey, let's all use that and fight each other, causing even more destruction!" You can see where I'm going; the whole story is turning into you, one man/woman (?), trying to stop the entire planet from getting destroyed by Gods and Dragonkin alike. A fantastic story of fighting against the odds and the folly of greed!
... but then, that story came to an end in Endgame. In a sudden, surprise development, one of the dragonkin went ahead and destroyed the Stone for us! In a single, incredible move, they freed the Dragonkin from violent savagery and stopped the Gods from abusing its power to destroy everything! Woo, situation resolved! Yay! Go Dragonkin!
The world became peaceful again and everyone lived happily for the grand total of 10 minutes.
Yeah right, if things were going to be that easy, this would be a $30 RPG on Steam. No, this is RuneScape. Things don't just resolve. They advance.
The Elder Gods awaken. Or, are at least proceeding to take years to open their eyes. I don't blame them, they are huge. One of them is Entrana. Like, the island. Just saying. They are threatening to destroy Gielinor and all life everywhere in a Great Revision so they can just start over from scratch (play Halo theme) unless we prove to them that we are worthy to live.
And that's a pretty sweet plot by itself. One at a time, we have to appeal to each Elder God by some miracle feat that would combine the efforts of all the races on Gielinor. Everyone working together; Gods, good guys, bad guys, crazy guys, races and entities of all kinds! Ooh, what an exciting story that would be, struggling to collaborate with creatures that would be otherwise more content at biting your head off.
Seren had gathered everyone together for such an intense collaboration, and even Kerapec himself joined in. Kerapec, the self-proclaimed leader and clearly the alpha of the Dragonkin, having single-handedly created an entire race of his own. Yes, he invented dragons just as an outside-the-box solution to their predicament with the Stone. Dude's got skills. At first, he proposed a plan to help stall the Elder gods and buy us more time, as we just weren't getting along.
But in a sudden twist that one has to expect from Jagex (they turned the hyped-up return of the Fremmenik God V quest into a strictly Dragonkin quest on a whim, just to set an example), turns out Kerapec is absolutely nuts. He is collecting Elder Artifacts to turn the entire planet into a giant bomb to blow up the Elder Gods. And we help him do it.
... yeah. Even unbound by the stone, the Dragonkin are really power-crazy, aren't they? I mean... it IS a viable solution, and by our interactions with Jas, they really do intend to just wipe everyone out on a whim. With Kerapec's idea, we at least have the opportunity (and the means, let's not forget) to just relocate everybody to other planets and let him do his thing. It is a slightly more sensible solution, although really one that should just be a last resort. I mean, we have a chance here to impress our very creators! Let's do it!
But no. Gielinor is our home planet, and despite all the big holes we're knocking into it and the very, VERY haphazard-looking layout it has become over the years, it's still big and beautiful. We wanna save it. So forget the Elder Gods for now and their universe-ending event; they are slow. Let's all go chase Kerapec to this island filled with DINOSAURS and beat the fudge out of the most powerful and Elder Artifact equipped Dragonkin there is! Exciting!
So. After all that, what do I think is going to happen? Well, to start, based on Kerapec's own son's reaction to his plan, I'm fairly certain that some, if not all, of the other dragonkin are not on-board with this plan. If they were, Kerapec would not have needed to utilize trickery and false promises to get what he wanted; he'd have just held us hostage with an army of God-destroyers (RIP Lucien) and forced us to do it. Because, y'know, they're dragonkin. Kind of their thing. I'm pretty sure we're going to be making some close allies with a couple of them. After all, they are right now in the same state as the Mahjarrat; finally freed from an eternity of suffering and self-mutilation. The Mahjarrat have taken to it quite nicely, voicing plans to 'see the world' and 'start afresh', or just to do what they've always wanted but were never really able to (Zemouregal wants Varrock that bad, eh?).
Why do I think that? Because it's good story-telling. If all the dragonkin were with Kerapec and served practically as his lackeys, then they'd stop being their individual characters and instead become a swarm of stereotypes. They may as well be zombies at that point; the most they can do is have different personalities about it, like Team Rocket grunts in the Pokemon games. They all seem to have different backstories and reasons for being evil, but ultimately you're still fighting the same Zubat and Ekans and passing them by.
No, seeing some Dragonkin vye for a peaceful solution, some wandering off on their own thing, some even joining up with us and aiding with reparation; that makes them as a race much more dynamic and substantial, and it provides us with many more opportunities to get to know them. We learn more about the dragonkin, they stop being this unknown, mysterious species and we start piecing together more and more stories about RuneScape's past from all the subtle clues that were given to us. Does this really work? Again, look at the Mahjarrat for a very clear-cut example. Despite being the pitiful last survivors of their once-proud race, they still don't even all serve under the same banner.
As for Kerapec himself... well, I have a feeling it's not going to be a simple "swoop him and stop him" solution. I have a feeling that yet another sudden twist is about to unfold. Something like, Kerapec is down in his base, and we have this epic boss fight with him. Where we collaborate with different heroes and maybe even Gods in this epic all-out war between dragons and... not dragons.
Then, just as he's about to push the trigger of the world bomb, suddenly... oh, I dunno, the Elder God Ful, sensing this threat upon the planet she worked so hard to build, rages Kerapec unto bones in an instant, and freaks out that they were threatened and must wipe the universe. This leaves you, the player, to calm her down by diving into her head like we did Mah in Children of Mah, solving some puzzles, and learning some lore about the Elder Gods themselves. This somehow calms Ful, and we have inadvertently appeased one Elder God at the end of all that.
That's my prediction for the future. Quote me if you want, but if it happens, it's not psychic mysticism. It's just good story-telling.
Until next time,
Cheers, cannoneers!
