Great Invasion

This article or section contains information from RuneScape: The Gift of Guthix. It is generally considered canon, unless contradicted in-game, in which case the game takes precedence.

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The Great Invasion
Gunnarsgrunn, where the crusaders' descendants live today.
Beginning				42
End				62, Fifth Age
Place				Asgarnia, Kandarin, Entrana, Karamja, Wilderness, Kharidian Desert, Menaphos and Misthalin
Outcome				Fremennik Clan reunited, Barbarian Village settlement discovered, the loss of the Ice Altar records.
Combatants
Fremenniks clan warriors					Asgarnia, Wizards, Kandarin, Imcando Dwarves, Misthalin, White Knights, Kinshra
Commanders
Gunnar					King Raddallin, Grand Master Perior, Sanafin Vazlin,
Casualties
Death of Countless Fremennik, Gunnar included.					Destruction of various Rune Altars, cities, and near extinction of the Imcando Dwarves.
Other wars
Previous war				Fremennik Schism
Next war				None

The Great Invasion was an attempted conquest of the mainland led by the Fremennik warlord Gunnar Vljarsson of the Wolf Clan, which lasted from the year 42 to 62 of the Fifth Age. The Invasion originated in various Fremennik clan leaders' conquered by Gunnar, who believed they were Guthix's chosen warrior to destroy the runecrafting altars. He was fuelled by vengeance after the death of Zorya, a Guardian of Guthix, who he incorrectly believed was killed by their old friend Ilme. As time passed, it was believed that the clan leaders rallied support by appealing to the Fremennik belief that runecrafting belonged to the gods and urged their people to stop the "heretics" creating runes. For this reason, the Invasion is sometimes considered a "crusade" by most.

History

Background

The Discovery of Runes Essence

In the early days of the Fifth Age, a Rune Essence Mine - a former resting place of the Stone of Jas - was discovered by the Fremennik of Rellekka. In it, they discovered the Guardian of Guthix, Zorya, who was left alone by the people of the Province. Some time later, a wizard of Green Order, Endel had travelled to Relleka with his young apprentice Azris and a scribe Ilme, disguising themselves as members of the Moon Clan, to pass by as one of the Fremennik in order to investigate the rumour of a possible Rune Cache. It was here, where Azris and Ilme had met the young Gunnar, who befriended Ilme. Gunnar would show her the location of the Essence, where Zoyra would greet her, having foreseen her arrival and path set before her.

He allowed her and her master to gather runes with the Wizards, with Viljar's approval, the chieftain of Relleka at the time. They reported back to King Raddallin, who, while was not happy to hear there was no cache of runes, did believe the news to be beneficial, as they could use the essence to craft runes to win over the remaining rebel tribes within Asgarnia and cease Misthalin's assault.

The remains of the Earth Altar, which fell into disrepair following the Invasion.

The Spread of Runecrafting

Several years passed, as the discovery of the Rune Essence mine had provided a great discovery to the Wizards, allowing them to start crafting runes through altars that were across Gielinor, for over the decades, Asgarnia had used this practice to start forming alliance with the Imcando dwarves that resides in Camdozaal, Misthalin, the Kharidian Desert and Kandarin, who used the runes to fight against Hazeel, with aid from Asgarnia. The practice of Runecrafting was still discovering other altars across Gielinor.

The Deception Revealed.

During one of the cold winters, actual members of the Moon Clan had travelled to Relleka, to inform their brethren of the deception they have fallen for. This annoyed Viljar, as they did not care about the lie, but more that the truth was revealed, and no plan was made to stop the outsiders from continuing their collection of Rune Essence. Gunnar led the Leader of the Moon Clan to the mine, where Zorya admitted to be aware of the lie, having no care for it, only that the essence was meant for the world once more. Despite the Moon Clan debate, they left, warning young Gunnar of trouble in the future. Gunnar would reveal to Ilme what he knew through letters.

Ilme would later travel to Relleka as part of a small group consisting of Zanmaron, Valzin, and Kinshra knights to find Gunnar and attempt to rectify the situation.

However, this would only cause greater escalation as Ilme found Gunnar confronting Zorya, angry at being deceived. Zorya was not happy with this confrontation, as the young adult had his weapon drawn. Ilme and Zorya attempted to calm him down, but an argument broke loose, only to be quickly interrupted by a demon that was summoned out of nowhere. The battle against it led to the death of Zorya by Gunnar's axe. Both sides blamed each other: Gunnar blamed his former friend to have summoned a demon and struck Zorya, making Gunnar accidentally kill the Guardian, while Ilme believed Gunnar summoned the demon, and killed the Guardian by mistake.

Start of the Unification

After killing his Father, Gunnar became the new Chieftain of the Wolf Clan, where he would proclaim to his people that he had seen Guthix's will, believing that his father's death was a sign from the sleeping god that he is meant to lead the Fremennik to a greater victory — to avenge the dead Guardian Zorya and free Gielinor from its future doom. His plan: destroy the rune altars to keep magic out of the hands of mortals, as Guthix intended. With this plan in motion, Gunnar started his campaign by conquering other clans or recruiting them to his cause.

Crusade Against Magic

While Asgarnia had started to prepare, asking for aid amongst their allies to protect the altars, a team had been dispatched to aid Ardougne's wizard, who believed to have located the Death Altar. This was their first target. Having their warriors attack the kingdom of Ardougne, riding on top of mammoths and wolves, the tribes would have the upper hand in this assault, showing their arsenal of explosives and other weapons to rival the mages. This forced the Wizards, Kinshra, White Knights and warriors of Ardougne to retreat, giving the Fremennik victory over their enemies. While they were not able to destroy the Death Altar (due to the Temple of Light's defences), this event showed the strength of the Fremennik.

Gunnar used his knowledge of Ilme's story, everything she told him: he remembered and used this knowledge to locate each altar, from Entrana to the Wilderness, and started destroying altars that were unable to be protected by Asgarnia's forces. This also spread Asgarnia's army thin, having to aid other cities, protect the altars and fight against the Fremennik to prevent them from attacking other settlements and cities.

The End of the Invasion

During the final years of the invasion, Gunnar had heard that the rune altars were being repaired, making his crusade seem useless. He decided to attack the heart of it all — the Wizards' Tower and their storage of Rune essence. He planned to stage two different assaults: one to Falador, and another at the Wizard's Tower. This plan was revealed to Asgarnia by Thyra, Gunnar's daughter, who betrayed her father after not only exiling her for attempting to leave his crusade but preventing her from leaving with her children. King Raddalin would agree to send the Kinshra to the Wizard's Tower but kept the White Knights in Falador to defend it from the attackers. This was where Gunnar had his final stand.

During this time, the Imcando Dwarves had fought against the Fremennik, who were breaching their walls. It was here, during this time, when the great city of Camdozaal had fallen and the Imcando were nearly extinguished.

Assaulting the tower in a suicidal attempt to destroy it with the rune essence, Gunnar fought for his life, only to be bested by Ilme, who fought to protect the tower. Gunnar's body was transported back to the Fremennik. The war did not end quickly but it slowly died down. The village of Gunnarsgrunn was founded shortly after, where those who agreed to settle down somewhere with Gunnar resides, and his descendants.

A display found in Varrock Museum describing the Invasion.

Today, over 100 years later, the Fremennik's descendants continue to live peacefully in their village near the River Lum. Despite Runecrafting's continued use, the tribe has yet to take further action, suggesting that their views have become less conflicting with their neighbours; some tribe members have even begun to live in cities such as Varrock.

Legends

The list below are stories stated about the invasion by others.

• It is believed that the Fremennik experienced terrible droughts. Crops were failing and they struggled to feed everyone. Over time, many people came to believe that this was a punishment sent by the gods, and that Runecrafting was to blame for the gods' anger. The Fremennik clan leaders of the time had been looking for an opportunity to increase their land holdings, so they preyed on this fear. They rallied the commoners by claiming that the gods were angry at the "blasphemous" magical practices of the "heretics", the Runecrafters, thus giving them justification to expand and gain the land they craved. This call for expansion eventually materialised under the Fremennik warlord Gunnar. Gunnar, intent on stopping Runecrafting entirely, led a massive military force into the largely unclaimed woodlands south of the Fremennik Province, where the emerging nation of Kandarin was just beginning to solidify under the city of Ardougne.
• It is believed that the Invasion ended due to the fall of the Wizard Tower.
• It was believed that Gunnar died of old age in Gunnargrunn.

Trivia

• This event is popularly known by the unofficial name "The Runecrafting Crusades". In fact, all references to the event as a "crusade", e.g. the RuneScape novels by T.S. Church, are found after its use as the original name of this wiki article.
  • The real-world Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns led by Christians in their efforts to reclaim the Holy Land. Although they occur in a similar time period, the Runecrafting Crusades as a whole are not extremely similar to their real-world counterparts in terms of motivation or execution.
• Prior to the invasion, it is known that all the altar were in a broken condition before the great invasion, as revealed in the RuneScape - The Gift of Guthix. It is speculated that it is a result of the God Wars.
  • There are several speculations to their condition, one is that the God Wars is responsible, another is time; as the altars are stated to have been lost due to destroyed records, as hinted in the book.

See also

• Fremennik
• Runecrafting
• Gunnarsgrunn