Two Days in RuneScape
Author unknown (2003)
My hostess in Runescape, Emilsdottir (L with eyepatch), and her friends.
Come, spend some time in the exotic world of Runescape
Emilsdottir, aka Emmy, next to a magic tree.
Smithing is a difficult, but lucrative skill.
One of the Big Head Statues
In the candle shop.
A brawl breaks out in the Barbarian Drinking Hall.
Showing how conversation works in Runescape, Emilsdottir greets a child she helped. Altruistic "questing" is an integral part of the Runescape culture.
Fishing in Catherby.
Fighting a goblin in Lumbridge.
Emilsdottir confers with the Druids near Taverly.
A dwarf recognizes Emilsdottir for her service on their behalf.
Guards recognize her for past service to the Prince of Al Kharid.
Trading in Varrock Square.
Fighting a dark wizard, Delrith in the foreground.
The magnificent unicorns of Runescape.
Emilsdottir stops to chat with old friend and teacher, the Lumbridge Cook.
We stop to watch the duelists near the Lumbridge Well, were everyone respawns.
Emmy fights a scorpion on the way to Brimhaven.
Emilsdottir, and her friends are ready to cook.
The three don their biohazard masks...which they use as pig costumes.
A contemplative moment at the shore of the North Sea near the White Mountain.
Every photojournalist prays that they will be able to capture images of a culture that is rare and unknown--bringing the sights and textures of that culture to the greater world. I was recently able to share two days in the world of Runescape.
As I entered this world, I was transported into a strange land...simultaneously both two and three dimensional. I never did get use to the way that color would warn one that the surface might go up or down, and more than once found myself face-first on the ground with equipment strewn out around me.
My guide for those two days was a multi talented character named Emilsdottir. A friendly little thing, she immediately gave me permission to call her Emmy. She confessed to me that most people sort of falter over her name, and she'd rather be called Emmy than Emil. Although Emmy didn't understand the humor in it, she confessed that her Navigator seemed to think it was hilarious when someone called her "Email" (more about the Navigator later).
Our tour started a bit north of East Ardougne, in the Kingdom of Kandarin. I asked Emmy where she lived, and wistfully she responded "Someday, maybe, The Gower will allow houses. For now, I'm usually moving around in Kandarin." [The Gower is some sort of demigod overseer of Runescape]. When I met up with Emilsdottir, she was working hard on her fletching skills, part of which involves making arrowheads, and preparing to make a trading trip to Varrock. Near the smithy in the Seer's Village, Emmy showed me one of the enigmas of Runescape--the big head statues.
There is a lively economy in Runescape, with many shops in addition to spontaneous trading between residents. The people of Runescape also appear to have very volatile emotions, with brawls and duels starting with no apparent reason. Calling another person "n00b" or "choob" appeared to be a serious, yet frequent insult. I asked Emmy what the terms referred to, and she explained, "Noob, refers to acting stupid like you were newly spawned when you were without much experience and made many mistakes. Choob is someone who appears to be making the choice to act like a noob. The term noob is mostly used by uncreative people. We were all newly spawned at some point in time. Some high levels have navigators that are cruel, they have to insult everyone lower than themselves. But a person has to be REALLY creative to get a good insult going--The Gower watches all and censors conversations heavily."
Communication in this world is odd, with very little in the way of sound. The only sounds are those of some sort of physical action, such as blows during combat, striking hammers, picking plants, etc. Instead, the conversation between people appears above each individuals' head. Private conversations are held through a mechanism called "pm-ing" (psychic messaging?) which Emilsdottir utilized to speak with me at times when she thought the answers to my questions might have been inappropriate for the general populace to see.
We spoke a bit about the relationship between Emilsdottir and her Navigator. There seems to be some sort of symbiotic relationship going on with the people of Runescape. Emilsdottir spoke about her Navigator, a disembodied being without which Emmy was quite literally unable to function. Occasionally Emmy would say "BRB" (be right back), and then stop moving or functioning. I came to understand that during those moments, Emmy's navigator had been unable to assist her, so she just came to a complete stop.
The concept of levels was very confusing to me, I never really did figure it out. The people seemed able to look at one another and tell at least one of their skill levels (I believe it was their overall proficiency at combat). However, other sub-levels remained hidden, and timing the conversation to inquire about another's levels was a cultural talent I could not fathom.
Along our tour we frequently stopped to fish, mine, smith, craft items, and do battle. A couple of people commented on me being a "Null," since evidently I had no visible level. Emmy covered for me by by saying I had a "glitch."
Pick-pocketing and thieving also seemed to be a fairly acceptable trades, and I witnessed Emilsdottir picking the pocket of passersby several times. I came to realize that in Runescape, if you can get it in your backpack, then it's yours.
Back to speaking of battle...make no mistake, Runescape is a confrontational world. Yet, for all the battling going on, it is extremely clean. Bodies spontaneously transmute into a pile of bones and often some other sort of item. What many people called "training" appeared to be a very lucrative business, and added to the bank accounts of many. I asked Emmy where she usually trained, but she paused before saying "I don't want to say...it's not very busy there. If you tell others, it will get busy and I'll have to find somewhere else."
I noticed people talking about PKing and pures, and asked Emmy about it. "I don't know much about pures, or PKing. I don't actively PK. PKing is when one person kills another person out in the wilderness and then claims the stuff in the dead person's bag as theirs. I work too hard for my stuff, I don't want to just waste it. Maybe someday I'll venture out into the wild more, since there are quests out there. Right now I stick to the edges collecting herbs." Evidently, pures focus almost exclusively on their melee combat skills. "My Navigator says pures are pencil headed no-necked hulks--which doesn't make sense to me. We all have the same physiology in Runescape [shrugs]. But I get the idea that Navigator thinks they're wasting their time not developing other skills besides combat--but it's their time to waste."
Most of the people of Runescape are zealous about questing--and are very altruistic about the help they give to strangers they meet. At least three times on our journeys Emilsdottir was recognized for her past heroic deeds.
The spiritual and religious aspects of this world are just as intricate as their skill levels. Three sibling deities seem to be in competition for the attentions of the people of Runescape. The collecting and burying of bones honored Saradomin, fighting and chaos in general was attributed to Zamorak, and the gentler arts of fishing, herblore, etc. were associated with Guthix. In addition, praying and magic play a large role in the life of many people.
We spent the night at the Barbarian Village (well, we stopped there--the sun never sets in Runescape). While drinking ale, eating steaks that spontaneously appeared, and watching the brawls, I asked Emmy which deity she followed. She leaned close and pm'd me "I know the legends about the sibling deities. My Navigator explained about siblings, and how other creatures do not spontaneously spawn in their first form like the people of Runescape. If siblings are from one mother, then I believe that The Mother is the one I should pray to. [she made a snorting sound] Those three, they are always fighting. Their egos are bigger than Runescape itself. I think one day their Mother will come down and say 'U boys, u stop fighting and making trouble for those sweet little peeps!' When that day comes, everything will be wonderful. I won't have to pick up all those ****ing bones and bury them."
The next day we visited the City of Varrock to allow Emilsdottir to do some trading. The square at Varrock rivals the New York Stock exchange, and my head was soon whirling trying to keep up with all the trading going on and flashing colorful conversations.
After Emilsdottir finished her trading, she took me on a quick visit to Lumbridge and Al Kharid. Along the way we passed a stone circle which had been taken over by Dark Wizards. Emmy told me "I killed that delrith once, but those wizards just don't give up. [sigh] It's up to lower levels than me, now." She also took time to show me the Unicorns, which are evidently hunted by some for their horns, and we paused at the farms between Lumbridge and Al Kharid. Sword always at the ready, Emmy killed imps and goblins as we traveled, telling me about what a nuisance the creatures are. "Those goblins are soooo st00pid. They fight over what color their armor will be, but never change the color!"
At Lumby (as the residents call Lumbrige) we visited The Spawning Place. There is no death for the people of Runescape. When they drain their life "hits," they are divested of almost all their goods and then they are respawned (reborn) at the same place in Lumbridge. Nearby, Emmy showed me a group of people dueling--staking items and then fighting over them. "They do it here, because they respawn close by. They don't have to tromp all over again." I asked Emmy if she ever dueled, but she just laughed. "No, not much. Sometimes I kill people if they ask--so they get a quick trip to Lumbridge. Once I did an actual duel--with my friend Isadragonfly. We did it for fun to see what it was like. But for now I've got other skills to work on.. I'd rather go to a drop party and give it away and maybe get better stuff myself."
Our day was drawing to a close, so Emilsdottir hurried me to Port Sarim. Since she was feeling good about her trading, she decided to splurge on boat fare rather than walking back to Ardougne. We made a quick shop in the magic shop there for her to pick up some rune stones, and then boarded the boat for Karamja. Once in Karamja we passed through the banana plantation on our way to Brimhaven ("You can make good gold points picking bananas, but it will bore you to death." Emmy shared). From Brimhaven (which I understood to be a rather unruly village) we took another boat to East Ardougne.
Emilsdottir had "pm'd" a couple of friends, and they were waiting near the docks in East Ardougne. We spent our last few moments together with them happily mugging for the camera, putting on different combinations of outfits made up from their adventurer's gear.
Someday I hope to return to the world of Runescape. I'll be interested in finding out how Emilsdottir fared...did she eventually fight the dragons or ice giants? Will she reach the "old age" of level 100? Will she ever have stars to gaze at or a home? Only time will tell.
This page is written only for fun, by a fan and player of the game Runescape by Jagex Ltd.
