Lore with Nor': The Dragon Riders (prologue)

Hello clan mates this is Lore with Nor' back for some more lore talk. If you are observant, you may have noticed that this topic was a little late, given the weekly day is on a Friday. I, however, intentionally put it off a day due to another weekly event; Runescape's behind the scenes, which happens on late-Friday to Saturday. I wanted to be able to see some of these behind the scenes, those that center themselves around lore-rich topics, and be able to create a more detailed account on lore, given the most up to date info.

And of course this week's behind the scenes gave a little more insight to the next grandmaster quest One of a Kind, where you finally get to meet face-to-face with the dragon riders, or at least one of them.

But first a little history about the dragon riders. Not to be confused with the dragonkin (although given the behind the scenes, they'll both be reptilian), the proper name is actually the Ilujanka, or lizardmen, and are a noble race with the ability to tame large creatures. They originally lived in another plane (as most everything does) and lived peacefully with beasts known as gurhs. However, trouble in paradice befell as they became infertile and unable to reproduce (also like the dragonkin). Then the Empty Lord Zaros promised them fertility should they join his cause in Gielenor.
High with hopes, they relocated to Gielenor and acquainted themselves with the closest beings to the gurhs; the dragons, which gave them their title as dragon riders.

They were fierce in battle, and dangerously loyal to Zaros. But as Zaros prolonged their fertility for after the war, their numbers continue to dwindle more and more, to the point where five remained; Morvannon, Apropos, Balustan, Ablenkian, and Hannibus.In this further desperation, they agreed to aid Zamorak, at then a mortal general of Zaros, in his ultimate betrayal, lending Morvannon and Apropos as bodyguards. After the betrayal, and after Zamorak returned from his banishment, the dragonriders were found traitorus by both sides and were hunted down. Morvannon and Apropos were either eaten by hellhounds or murdered by vampires (respectively) of Zamorak's side, while Balustan and Ablenkian were torn by ripper deamons of Zaros's side.

Hannibus excaped the onslaught with his acquainted dragon (none other than the King Black Dragon himself) and found himself in that cave, where he wrote the book Last Riders. This book, dropped by the King Black Dragon on a rare occasion, has all of this recorded in its pages, and almost serves as the soul proof of existence of the dragon riders, as it was though that (at least to me) that Hannibus died peacefully in that cave, and that the dragon riders were gone from Gielenor forever.

But we know now that this scenario is no longer the case anymore, don't we? We now know that Hannibus did in fact survive the whole ordeal, and is the One of a Kind that is centered in this new quest. Apparently, you shall uncover this grim truth to him, and aid him in making his desicion on what to do about it. So what does that entail? Well, given his history with both factions, he could go against them in vengeance of what they did or didn't do to his already doomed race. Or rather, let bygones be bygones and rejoin either faction in hopes of forgiveness (which I doubt). He could conclude that his race wasn't meant to be, and pass away in a heart wrenching death that seals the fate of his race, or desperately find anything, ANYTHING, to bring them back. It's hard to see a happy outcome to this, even though Mod Mark implied that there would be a more heartwarming option.

We Will find out soon enough. As I write this before logging in to runescape, it could be as soon as today, or if not the next few days, that we see this new quest in the game.
Also, this is a prologue, and the conclusion will be posted about after the quest completion, therefore I won't be able to post the second part until i finish the quest myself. Same goes for the other new quest, Fate of the Gods (which I will do another prologue topic next week about, warming you guys up to Zaros   ) As the behind the scenes people say, this is a lore-packed month, and I hope that I am able to keep up.

But until next week, Cya Laters.