Background

The finale of the Elder God Wars Story, Extinction, has just arrived. Today we're going to be sitting down with part of the team who built this quest, Mod Jack and Mod Shrike. We’ll be discussing the wind down of the Elder God Wars story and the process behind making one of RuneScape’s biggest quests.

JMod Introductions

• Introduce yourself and give the listeners a brief description of what you do at Jagex.
• For players who haven’t played the quests in the Elder God Wars storyline or are returning, in a couple sentences, how did this all start and where are we now?

The Elder God Wars as a Living Story

• When we sat down with you, Jack, last year we talked about the decision to make the Elder God Wars focused heavily on story instead of just being a PvM experience. There’s real character development, twists and turns for both the characters and story but importantly, it felt like a war. Arriving at the end, would you say that the whole game approach worked well?

• Potential follow-up: What was your favourite part of how it worked?
• Will this be a hallmark of how the story is handled going forward?

• With this story arc touching not only quests but bosses and even skilling updates, does this help get players, even new players, involved in the story?
• One of the analogies that we’ve discussed throughout this quest storyline is that it feels like we’re watching movies. This has come up because when people hear about quests they’ll think about a fetch quest (which we’ve had in the past and other MMOs do exclusively) or something so expansive that it’s hard to get into easily. Why is this storyline different and what do you have to say to someone who doesn’t normally do quests, are they going to have an easier time getting into this storyline?
• This project is a big deal to so many people, but how do you plan the quest out in such a way that after we’ve finished the quest (and storyline), we all leave satisfied and feel there was a compelling ending?

• Potential follow-up: Which lessons/results are you going to take with you?

Building Extinction

• To unpack the starting point of the previous question, what makes a quest grandmaster?

• Potential follow-up: This felt like a unique grandmaster because there were no skill level requirements on this quest. Obviously there were others like City of Senntisten that had requirements, what was the reasoning to just have quest requirements?

• When writing a quest like Extinction, where do you start? A storyboard, key narrative points that need to be solved, or do you just write the dialog?
• How much time went into the development of this quest?

• With that amount of development time, how do you make a case for content that should be somewhere in the area of 3 hours to do versus something that is repeatable like a boss or new training method.

• In preparing for this episode and our episode last week, I began making a list of the loose ends (there’s a lot). Without going into spoilers right now, what are the biggest plot points that Extinction needed to resolve?

BREAK: Wrap Segment

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Extinction: Lore Diggers

• The eggs and their immediate hatching has been the focus since City of Senntisten. There are still a lot of plot points hanging. Are you pleased with where we are at and the number of plot points that are still open?

• Potential follow-up: How did you determine which should be tied up and which should be left for future content?

• When it comes to all things Erebus related: Zaros (Saradomin’s crown, Mah’s core, etc.), Tony, residents of Erebus and entities like Vos, are there any of these you can comment on today that might be seeing resolution in the short to medium term?
• Our focus over the last year or so has largely been focused on the fronts, it felt like we were on the frontline, we didn’t get to see it, but what do you imagine the offscreen ending of fighting in Senntisten looking like when Saradomin and Armadyl unleashed their power?
• For gameplay reasons we have to be able to go back to Senntisten to fight Kerapac, the Glacor, Croesus, and Zuk, plus the eggs are still there. Can those fights be thought of as being in the past now, what’s the best way to think of this?
• The past year or so has provided so many opportunities for dynamic changes in the characters. We saw Zaros taken off the table, Azzanadra became a god, Seren started to be creepy in the egg dialog, Zamorak shook the box in Eye of Het, and Seren came full circle in Extinction. Whose character arc are you most pleased with?
• We leave the quest learning that one of the last things Zaros told him was, “do as you wish” which signifies how much Zaros cared but Azzanadra’s actions also speak loudly because he chose something very unique. What was Azzanadra thinking in his mind at the end of the quest and how extensive is the agency he’s gained since ascension?

Q&A

Question from Alaska

Who was your favourite character to write dialogue for in this quest?

Question from Shiro Shana

With many elder artefacts destroyed or MIA, are there any future plans for featuring the elder artefacts? And, could the situation get worse now that a shadow leviathan has crossed the breach?

Question from Probably Writing

Was directly fighting/defeating Seren ever in the cards? What was the thought process on letting her live?

Question from Denniz

A lot of discussion has been made on the post quest rewards, specifically the Iaia skilling. What is the reasoning for timegating post-quest skilling content through anachronia resources instead of having all activities available from the start? Are you looking at changing them at all?

Question from Derp

In the Epic of Hebe (excerpt 5), it is suggested that Hebe died in some far-away jungle, and that her pet lion Anax guards her grave to this day. How does she just turn up at the start of the quest with little introduction and/or explanation regarding her supposed death? Additionally, was it intentional that players would connect Anax to the Shaikahan?

Question from LocalScrew

To what degree are the elder newborns affected by Iaia? How much weaker are they?

Question from Jakir

How many shadow leviathans are there out there and did Zaros move/activate the shadow breach?

De-Escalation

• Saradomin’s daughter Adrasteia was first mentioned in Endgame, she is in many ways the opposite of the others in that she’s a brand new character. What does she think of Saradomin and is there anything you can tell us about her background?

• Potential follow-up: How did you choose Adrasteia and Moia? Was there an option for anyone else?

• With the introduction of Saradomin’s daughter, Moia playing a role in this quest, and what I remember as discussions to return to a more traditional storyline, I think it’s only fair to ask about Zamorak and what he’s been up to since Eye of Het. What should the lore hounds among us know as we move on from Extinction?
• With Extinction wrapping up a storyline going back to 2019 and some players wanting a return to a more traditional story, how do we de-escalate now? If the World Guardian has saved the universe, how do they go back to a normal life? Or will it be normal?

• Potential follow-up: Do we (the players) want a “normal” life? Or will we be thinking back to “the good old times of the elder god wars”?

• On the same de-escalation angle, our soul as World Guardian is still very interesting. We’ve confronted gods and we’ve confronted the makers of the universe, can we de-escalate being the World Guardian?
• Some folks on our production team, in particular Earth, are very adamant that the light and shadow voices are Sliske, despite Seren explicitly saying it’s not Sliske. Is it or is it not Sliske?
• With that, can we trust Seren when she promises to keep the young ones there on Iaia?
• At the end of the quest, we know the eggs have hatched on Iaia, is it safe to assume it looks a lot like Freneskae now?
• Is there anything you want to tease about what comes next?

Mod Jack’s Pick of the Week: Arkham Horror the Card Game

Show Data

• Episode Title: Plotting Extinction
• Teaser: We sit down with Mod Jack and Mod Shrike, part of the team behind Extinction, RuneScape’s newest Grandmaster quest. Focusing on Extinction itself and the Elder God Wars as a living story we unpack what went into building this chapter ending quest.
• Recorded Date: April 5, 2022
• Release Date: April 6, 2022
• Hosts: Shane and Tanis with Special Guests Mod Jack and Mod Shrike
• Duration: 1:47:42
• Editing Notes: Trim out original short ending, shuffle end segment.