The quest Violet is Blue Too had the World Guardian return to the icy hills of the Land of Snow. And now, in the last few days before Christmas, we’ll delve into the lore regarding the Land of Snow and the planet it was once a part of: Renmark.
A world in balance
Our story, as stories regarding RuneScape lore often do, starts with Guthix. As many of you know, Guthix ascended to godhood by stabbing the god Skargaroth in the back with the Elder Sword. Later, Guthix discovered he could use the Elder Sword to cut through the fabric of space and open up gateways to other dimensions, planes and worlds. Guthix spent many years travelling through the universe. One day, he stumbled across Renmark; “a world of divine beauty and fabulous magic”, as Guthix described it.
The world of Renmark was characterized by something extremely unique, something not seen on any other world known to man: it was completely governed by the cycle of the seasons. When the seasons changed, so would the entire landscape and population of the planet. Imaginably, this also means that Renmark was the homeworld of a great variety of species, some of which we’ll mention at a later point.
The ruler of Renmark was a person known by the name of Lumi. In accordance with the cycle of the seasons, there were four aspects of Lumi that each reigned during their respective season: the Queen of Sunrise, the King of Roses, the King of Leaves and the Queen of Snow. However, the residents of Renmark were completely unaware of the change of seasons; consequently, the four aspects of Lumi also did not know of each other’s existence. To each of them individually, there was nothing to Renmark but their seasonal version of it.
In current-day Yeti Town, a book can be found entitled The Queen and The King. It tells the story of the King of Roses, whose name is Nick, and his love of poetry. During summer, he would travel across Renmark, writing poetry and leaving his poems across the world. When summer changed to autumn and autumn to winter, it was instead the Queen of Snow who held power in Renmark. One winter day, she found a poem left behind by the King of Roses, and she promptly fell in love with the author. Despite an extensive search, however, she could not find him. Next winter, she wrote a letter and left it behind in the forest, hoping that the mysterious poet would find it.
In summer, the King of Roses did indeed find the letter, and wrote a letter in reply. Their correspondence continued like this for many years, and all the while they were completely unaware they were both aspects of the same person.
A world divided
When Guthix discovered Renmark, he became aware of the existence of a parasite at the planet’s core: Mur. In his hubris, Guthix thought he could rid Renmark of this parasite by quite literally cutting it away. And although Guthix’ attempt was successful, it also caused the inadvertent destruction of the entire planet. Renmark exploded, and fragments of the planet were scattered across the universe. As the planet split, so did Renmark’s population and the cycle of the seasons. The four seasons were split over four fragments, each fragment now ruled over by its corresponding aspect of Lumi.
Winter materialized as the Land of Snow, ruled by the Queen of Snow. The King of Roses became the ruler of the Land of Glades, the fragment of summer. And although Guthix deeply regrets how things turned out for Renmark, this is the silver lining of the story: the Queen of Snow and the King of Roses now finally existed simultaneously! Their romance would finally blossom as they could now finally meet each other in the flesh. However, there was just one problem: the Queen of Snow is an ice sprite, and therefore she was unable to visit the Land of Glades, as the summer climate would cause her to melt! The King of Roses didn’t hesitate for a second and laid down his crown so that he could join his true love in the Land of Snow. He wasn’t used to the cold climate of the Land of Snow, though, so he would dress in thick red clothes to keep warm. Who’d have thought this article would turn into the origin story of Santa Claus on RuneScape?
The fragment of spring became known as Land of Sunrise, where the Queen of Sunrise wears the crown. The King of Leaves rules over the Land of Harvest, the fragment of autumn. Of these four fragments, only the Land of Snow has so far been visited by the World Guardian. There are two more fragments that the World Guardian has visited, though: the Enchanted Valley and the Land of Holly and Hawthorn.
The Land of Holly and Hawthorn is the fragment with probably the most awkward position in the lore as of now. It was the location of the 2011 Easter event, and it was said to exist on the borders of the Land of Snow and the Land of Sunrise. Supposedly, the Land of Holly and Hawthorn is where the Queen of Snow and Queen of Sunrise battle and pass on the year at the spring and autumn equinox. It is not known how the King of Roses and King of Leaves fit into this, although it is likely that Jagex has pretty much just retconned the lore of this easter event in favour of the current way they want to tell the story of the four seasons, with one ruler for each season.
Probably more familiar to you, though, is the Enchanted Valley, as it featured in the Fairy quest series. More recently, the valley saw some heavy traffic on OSRS’s Trailblazer League, as many players went here in an attempt to get the fabled rune axe. Way, way before Trailblazer League, though, the Enchanted Valley was found not by Guthix, but by the god Saradomin. Saradomin recruited the centaurs and unicorns, two species native to the Enchanted Valley, to join his army. The Enchanted Valley is also the homeworld of stags, and this is the only species in the Valley that hasn’t been seen outside of it. Apart from that, there’s not much else to be said about the Enchanted Valley; if the sequel to Death of Chivalry is ever released, though, it’s practically guaranteed that we’ll visit the Enchanted Valley again, and learn more about the unicorns.
Lastly, you might wonder... what became of Mur? You might think that Mur wouldn’t have been able to survive the explosion of a planet, but Guthix would disagree: he fears that he has “freed corruption from its prison”, and that it has taken roots in the pathways Guthix had opened. There is an interesting resemblance to Xau-Tak here, the danger of corruption spreading throughout the universe. However, we’ll have to await future releases to see if Mur ever rears its head near Gielinor.
That’s it for this installment of Forgotten Lore! To summarize, we’ve learned two things today. The origin story of Santa Claus tells us that winter is an infinitely better season than summer, as you can dress against the cold, but not against the heat! Let this story also serve as a reminder from everyone’s favourite God of Balance to be careful with knives; you never know what corruption you might unleash on the universe.
Direct Relief
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