Amascut

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WandererDemi-goddess
Amascut
Released26 April 2005 (Update)
MembersYes
RaceFeline
QuestIcthlarin's Little Helper
LocationJaltevas Pyramid
League regionDesert Desert✓
GenderFemale
ExamineA demi-goddess with a penchant for destruction.
Advanced data
NPC ID11591

Amascut (Jagex pronunciation: AH-mass-cut), also known as "The Devourer", is the demi-goddess of destruction,[1] formerly the goddess of rebirth, and one of the four major gods of the Menaphite Pantheon. Amascut is the creation of Elidinis and Tumeken and sister of Icthlarin.

She appears in the Icthlarin's Little Helper quest, disguised as a wanderer near a tent north of Sophanem. She is extremely fearful of cats, shown by her reaction to the player's cat. After the quest is completed, she disappears and can no longer be found at her tent. During Beneath Cursed Sands and Into the Tombs, it is revealed that Amascut has been manipulating the Pharaoh of Menaphos, seeking powerful weapons, and has captured the minor deities of the Menaphite Pantheon, all in an effort to ascend to true godhood.

Deity info

Amascut
Alignment Destruction (Rebirth; prior to becoming the Devourer)
Symbol
Aspect Feline
Colour(s) Jade, Red

History

Origin

Amascut was presumably created in the early Second Age by the gods Tumeken and Elidinis, who arrived on Gielinor after Guthix went to sleep and new gods began to set foot on the world. Together with the other gods of the Menaphite Pantheon, Amascut helped establish and rule the Kharidian Empire, one of the most prosperous areas on Gielinor at the time.

Kharidian–Zarosian War

During the Second Age, the peace of the Kharidian Empire was threatened when the god Zaros sought to expand his already vast empire into Menaphite territory, beginning a long and bloody conflict known as the Kharidian–Zarosian War or the "Great War" by the Menaphites. Amascut and the rest of the Pantheon fought to defend the Empire, but even combined they struggled to resist the might of the Empty Lord, and slowly but surely more ground was lost to the invaders.[2]

Eventually, as the situation began to become particularly dire, Icthlarin realised that they alone could not turn the tide of battle, and resolved to find allies who could. Leaving Gielinor, Icthlarin and Amascut eventually came upon the war-torn world of Freneskae, home of the powerful and near-immortal race known as the Mahjarrat. Here, Icthlarin was able to convince a number of them to join him and help bring an end to the Zarosian incursion.[3]

With the Mahjarrat in tow, Icthlarin and Amascut returned to Gielinor. Almost immediately, the tide of the war began to change as the Mahjarrat — dubbed the "Stern Judges of Icthlarin" by the Kharidian defenders — quickly started decimating Zaros' forces. For the first time since the war began, the Kharidians were on the offensive.[4]

Ultimately, the Kharidian army and its Mahjarrat allies, under the leadership of Icthlarin were able to successfully expel the Zarosians from the land. Peace, albeit a temporary one, had returned to the land. This peace, however, would not last, as the Mahjarrat were convinced by one of their own to betray the Menaphite Pantheon and join Zaros.[5]

Becoming the Devourer

After the events of the Kharidian–Zarosian War, Amascut began to change: supposedly the disturbing display of the Mahjarrat pushed her towards madness, and she began devouring the souls that she was supposed to guide to rebirth. Amascut declared herself as "The Devourer", intent on feasting upon the souls of the deceased and reaping destruction upon the land, in direct opposition to her brother and the rest of the Pantheon, whom she now held with great contempt. Icthlarin and Amascut have been locked in a rivalry ever since.

Sometime after her metamorphosis, Amascut began to destroy her own temples and clergy. In response, her followers, including Neite — then one of Amascut's chief priestesses — rose up against her, casting a curse that trapped her in a human form, along with preventing her from assembling willing disciples.[6] Amascut, however, retaliated with a curse of her own, binding her priests in her own form, dooming them to walk the world as cats, which she in turn grew deathly afraid of.[7]

Icthlarin, seeking to protect Neite and the others from his sister's wrath, appointed the Sphinx as the guardian of feline kind, safeguarding them against the agents of the Devourer in return for eternal life.[8]

Amascut's insanity would cause great problems for Icthlarin, as in addition to causing troubles on the surface, she had created beasts to prowl the underworld, eager for souls to devour. This meant that escorting and guarding souls through the underworld took up more of Icthlarin's time, and meant that he would not always be successful, with many souls being devoured by Amascut's beasts. Icthlarin's role now consumes so much of his time that he has little time to devote to what happens on the surface, only interfering when he absolutely must.

God Wars

For reasons unknown, there are little records of Amascut's participation in the God Wars despite major battles having been fought in the Kharidian region, which had become a desert as a result. Uzer and Ullek fell to the demons Thammaron and Balfrug respectively, while other settlements such as Sophanem, Menaphos, and Nardah survived. Exactly why she missed such an opportunity to cause destruction is not known, but she laid low during the Wars, only emerging after they were settled with the Edicts of Guthix.

Recent activities

The adventurer's first encounter with Amascut, disguised as a humble wanderer.

In the year 169 of the Fifth Age, Amascut sought to obtain the soul of Klenter, a former High Priest of Icthlarin. To this end, Amascut disguised herself as a wanderer, hypnotised a passing adventurer, and ordered them to infiltrate his tomb and steal one of his canopic jars. This act of depravity, however, did not go unnoticed by the god of the dead, prompting Icthlarin himself to appear before his sister's latest tool and relinquish the Devourer's hold over them, thus denying Amascut Klenter's soul. Having been foiled, she quickly disappears.

Excavation of the Necropolis

After the events of Contact!, the Kharidian spy Maisa contacts the adventurer regarding some suspicious activity in the Necropolis ruins on the peninsula south of Sophanem. Maisa's initial report follows the mysterious disappearance of an alarming number of Menaphite citizens, which led to a breach of the quarantine on the city of Menaphos. After the adventurer's initial investigation, it is revealed that the missing Menaphites had been hypnotized by Amascut and were being forced to excavate the Jaltevas Pyramid within the Necropolis. Further investigations in Ullek by the adventurer revealed that Amascut had control over the Pharaoh of Menaphos and the remnants of the Sect of Scabaras. In the Ruins of Ullek, the spirit of Mehhar, son of Osmumten, informed the adventurer of an incantation that has the ability to break Amascut's hypnotic trance. Using this incantation, the adventurer freed the High Priest of Scabaras from Amascut's control, who then informed them of her plan.

Seeking the Wardens

Amascut and Akkha conspiring against Het — one of Amascut's many ploys on her pursuit of divinity.

Amascut's scheme revolved around the quarantining of Menaphos by using the Scabarites as her agents, while she used her influence over the Pharaoh for unknown reasons, as well as searching for a pair of legendary weapons. These weapons were the Wardens — two ancient, massive automatons built by Tumeken himself:[9] one imbued with his divine essence, and the other with that of his wife Elidinis.[10] When the Kharidian–Zarosian War ended with Tumeken's sacrifice, Pharaoh Osmumten was tasked by Elidinis to hide the weapons the gods had used and given them in order to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. Some of these weapons would be buried with him in the Jaltevas Pyramid, including the Wardens.[11]

Amascut sought the Wardens in order to use them as the catalyst for her ascension to godhood, as they have the ability to drain and transfer divine energy between beings.[12][13] In order to acquire the divine energy necessary to ascend to godhood, Amascut spent many centuries capturing and imprisoning the lesser deities of the Menaphite Pantheon through various deceptive means.[14]

The first god she captured was Scabaras, having done so after learning of a dawn scarab named Kephri who longed for children in order to preserve her race and knowledge. Kephri willingly worked with Amascut in exchange for children even smarter than herself.[15] Amascut granted Kephri's wish by exploiting a loophole — Amascut gave Kephri children with the intelligence of a common locust, and then destroyed Kephri's mind completely, thus making her children smarter than her. As Kephri's consciousness faded away, she called for Scabaras, who answered her call and was quickly captured.[16]

Amascut learned of a large, prosperous baboon tribe led by Ba-Ba who longed to keep her family intact,[17] as she saw her scion as a lazy and arrogant ruler who would likely bring ruin to the tribe she once led.[18] Amascut promised Ba-Ba a way to rule over her tribe forever, which the matriarch quickly accepted; upon doing so, Amascut killed Ba-Ba and her entire tribe, reviving them as undead thralls. Amascut then used her new army to capture Apmeken.[19]

With the influence of Neite's curse starting to diminish, groups of individuals dedicated to the Devourer slowly began to appear.[20] When the warrior Akkha joined one of them — a cult known as the Children of Rebirth, which dedicated itself to Amascut's original form, they planned to commit mass suicide so that they could be reborn in a perfect form.[21] However, with the goddess of rebirth long gone, the ritual called out to the Devourer instead. Amascut would find Akkha as the sole survivor, his poison having failed to kill him and leaving him on the edge of death. She quickly sealed him in a sarcophagus, trapping him in a tormented state of life and death and used him to lure Het in, due to Akkha having previously dedicated himself to Het. [22] The warrior, angered at his former god's apparent abandonment, quickly overwhelmed Het, allowing Amascut to capture him.[23]

Amascut also learned of a very strong and gluttonous crocodile named Zebak, who had abandoned Crondis' values of resourcefulness in order to survive.[24] He willingly worked with Amascut to capture Crondis in exchange for never going hungry again, which he believed to mean an endless supply of food.[25] However, Amascut cursed him instead, causing everything he ate to turn into dust. She would also prevent him from dying of natural causes, thus putting him in a state of perpetual torment and starvation.[26]

Now, with the Menaphite Pantheon captured, Amascut brought them to Osmumten's tomb within the Jaltevas Pyramid to begin her plans.[27]

The adventurer and Maisa, now aware of Amascut's plans, quickly moved to the tomb to free the lesser deities. Inside the tomb, the adventurer successfully freed them from Amascut's control after defeating their guardians. Though weakened and unable to directly confront Amascut, they were able to help open the entryway to the lower level of the tomb where the Wardens were.[28][29]

In the lower levels, the adventurer confronted Amascut, who claimed that the Wardens have already strengthened her,[30] before activating them to dispose of the player and teleporting away to an unknown location. Through a great battle, the adventurer managed to defeat the Wardens, who were consumed by a large, black phantom of unknown origin.

Dialogue

This article on an NPC has an associated dialogue page.
Click here for a transcript of possible conversations with this NPC.Expression error: Unrecognised word "span".

Affiliated items

Gallery

  • Concept art of Amascut, by Mod Jerv.
    Concept art of Amascut, by Mod Jerv.
  • Some early ideation sketches of Amascut, by Mod Jerv.
    Some early ideation sketches of Amascut, by Mod Jerv.

References

  1. ^ Sphinx in Icthlarin's Little Helper. Old School RuneScape. "[Player: The Devourer?] She's the very incarnation of destruction."
  2. ^ Mehhar in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "During the great war, our forces were decimated by the servants of the Ruinous Powers."
  3. ^ Mehhar in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "To turn the tide, Icthlarin and Amascut sought powerful allies to aid us. They found them far from here, in a place beyond this world. A powerful race of faceless ones. They became Icthlarin's Stern Judges."
  4. ^ Mehhar in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "The armies of the Ruinous Powers were far stronger than our own. That was until Icthlarin's Stern Judges joined the fray. Thanks to them, the war was seemingly won."
  5. ^ Mehhar in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "Among the Stern Judges, there was a serpent. After my father [Osmumten] became Pharaoh, this serpent convinced the others to abandon us."
  6. ^ Neite. Old School RuneScape. "The last of her priestesses gathered and cursed her.[...]Our curse trapped her in a human form, limiting her power. We also cursed her to never be willing worshipped again, though I fear that curse has started to wane."
  7. ^ Neite. Old School RuneScape. "Unfortunately, she also cast a spell of her own, condemning us to an eternity of walking Gielinor in her form.[...]There are fewer of us priestesses left now, but we still hold enough power to be quite the problem for her."
  8. ^ Sphinx in Icthlarin's Little Helper. Old School RuneScape. "Cats play a significant role in the religion of this area, particularly when it comes to guarding the dead from the Devourer.[...]The Devourer is terrified of cats for reasons I will not explain. However, her followers, although few in number, are not. I ensure the survival of cats. For this service, Icthlarin grants me eternal life."
  9. ^ "The wardens". Old School RuneScape. "In war, great weapons can turn the tide against even the strongest foes, and legend has long spoken of Tumeken using a powerful staff to build two such weapons."
  10. ^ "The wardens". Old School RuneScape. "In truth, referring to Tumeken's creations as 'weapons' does them no justice. They are in fact two ancient automatons, built to embody Tumeken and Elidinis themselves and seemingly imbued with their divine essence."
  11. ^ Mehhar in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "When the war was over, my father was tasked with hiding those weapons, lest they fall into nefarious hands. Two of them were buried with him."
  12. ^ Mehhar in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "The weapons in my father's tomb can be used to drain a being of divine energy and transfer that energy to another. If used correctly, they would grant the Devourer true godhood."
  13. ^ High Priest of Scabaras in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "The four of them [Apmeken, Crondis, Het, and Scabaras] all came from Tumeken himself. Their power is his power. If she claims that power as her own, she will become a true goddess..."
  14. ^ High Priest of Scabaras in Beneath Cursed Sands. Old School RuneScape. "We helped her capture them. It took many lifetimes, but she was able to fool them all."
  15. ^ "Scabaras' capture". Old School RuneScape. "Fearing for the end of her race, Kephri longed for children to pass on her knowledge. The Devourer learnt of her desires and a pact was soon made. In return for her help, the Devourer would revive her race, making Kephri children even smarter than herself."
  16. ^ "Scabaras' capture". Old School RuneScape. "By warping another race of scarabs, the Devourer granted Kephri her children as promised, but they had no more intelligence than a common locust. However, the Devourer had promised children even smarter than Kephri herself, and that was a vow she intended to keep. She bound Kephri and destroyed her mind, leaving nothing more than a husk. As Kephri's consciousness faded away, she called for Scabaras, who answered her call and was quickly captured."
  17. ^ "Apmeken's capture". Old School RuneScape. "In life, Ba-Ba's troop dominated a large area of the Kharidian Desert, thriving under her watchful eye. Yet nothing lasts forever, and age was quickly catching up to Ba-Ba."
  18. ^ "Apmeken's capture". Old School RuneScape. "Although a natural part of life, Ba-Ba could not accept her mortality. This fear was not born out of selfishness - her concern was for her troop. Upon her death, Ba-Ba's daughter would have become matriarch, but she was lazy and arrogant. Ba-Ba did not consider her a worthy successor and longed to continue ruling herself."
  19. ^ "Apmeken's capture". Old School RuneScape. "Learning of Ba-Ba's desires, the Devourer promised her a way to rule her troop forever. Believing there to be no other option, Ba-Ba agreed. Ever the deceiver, the Devourer's true plan soon became clear. With a single spell, she killed Ba-Ba and her entire troop, only to reanimate them all together. With her new army, the Devourer had no difficulties in capturing Apmeken."
  20. ^ "Het's capture". Old School RuneScape. "It is said that long ago, the Devourer was cursed never to gain followers. If this curse ever existed is hard to say, but if it did, its effectiveness seems to have diminished over the years. While few in number, there are those who truly pledge themselves to the Devourer and all her destructive ways."
  21. ^ "Het's capture". Old School RuneScape. "The Children of Rebirth was a cult of former warriors dedicated to the Devourer's original form, Amascut - the goddess of rebirth. They were firm in their belief that they must achieve a perfect death, so that Amascut would allow them to be reborn in perfected form. When the day of their supposed rebirth came, they performed a ritual to Amascut and poisoned themselves in her name."
  22. ^ "Het's capture". Old School RuneScape. "With Amascut long gone, the ritual instead called out to the Devourer and she arrived to find Akkha as the sole survivor among the many dead. His poison had failed, but he was on the verge of death. The Devourer took Akkha and sealed him in a sarcophagus, trapping him between life and death. She then performed a ritual of her own, calling out to Het. While Het almost certainly realised it was a trap, he was unable to ignore the call. Like many of his fellow cultists, Akkha's life prior to the cult was as a soldier dedicated to Het, and so the god felt he had a duty to help his former acolyte."
  23. ^ "Het's capture". Old School RuneScape. "Het arrived expecting to face the Devourer, but was faced with a manifestation of Akkha himself. Fueled by vengeance against the god who had abandoned him, this manifestation gave the Devourer the distraction she needed to capture Het."
  24. ^ "Crondis' capture". Old School RuneScape. "Unable to compete with his rivals in the traditional way, Zebak instead used his ingenuity to lure them into elaborate traps. To begin with, he simply took their food and left them to starve, but over time, his hunger grew. Before long, he started to feast on his victims too. In the end, the once weak crocodile had grown to become the strongest. You'd be forgiven for thinking he might have stopped there, but Zebak's hunger knew no end. As he continued to feast, his food supply ran short."
  25. ^ "Crondis' capture". Old School RuneScape. "In return for his service, the Devourer promised Zebak that he would never go hungry again. Blinded by avarice, he willingly agreed. Together, Zebak and the Devourer lured Crondis to her imprisonment. However, rather than granting the endless supply of food he craved, the Devourer cursed him."
  26. ^ "Crondis' capture". Old School RuneScape. "To a being like Zebak, the curse was a fate worse than death, for it caused every bite of food to turn to dust in his mouth. He longed for death, but the Devourer's curse prevented this as well, binding him to the world of the living."
  27. ^ "Akila's journal". Old School RuneScape. "After we gave her a way in, the true horror of her plans became clear. I had never set eyes on the four lesser deities, but I knew them when I saw them. She had them all. She took them into the tomb, along with a selection of ghastly beasts."
  28. ^ Apmeken in Into the Tombs. Old School RuneScape. "We've been able to open the way for you! I wish we could help you down there, but we're still too weak."
  29. ^ Het in Into the Tombs. Old School RuneScape. "We have opened the way for you, my friend. Any other day, I would have joined you in the fight against Amascut, but this one is up to you. Go now, and show her the error of her ways!"
  30. ^ Amascut in Into the Tombs. Old School RuneScape. "My plan has only just begun! Even with this setback, those pathetic fragments of my father have still given me ample power. My strength is absolute!"
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