Archaeology may very well be my favorite skill in all of Runescape. It seems to have been created by Jagex entirely as a vehicle to deliver some legitimately interesting and well-done lore in the form of a skill, while still giving worthwhile rewards (even if my godawful luck means that I’ll never get any piece of the Inquisitor’s Staff or the Spear of Annihilation).

However, there is nothing new under the sun, and Archaeology is no exception-- each of the major digsites draws from real-world history, mythology, and literature in order to form its own mythos. As I’m progressing through this skill, I’m going to write up an analysis of each area.

First off is the Infernal Source, because with only 68 Archaeology needed to complete the central mysteries, it is by far the easiest. There are three major inspirations here:

1) Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Inferno is a major part of the European Literary Canon. Written by Dante Alighieri as the first part of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno details Dante’s descent into the nine circles of Hell with the poet Virgil as his guide. To massively oversimplify a genuinely great read, it’’s 50% Dante dunking on his political and religious rivals-- including a scene in Canto IX, where he states that the still-alive Pope Boniface VIII literally has a seat saved for him in the Circle of Fraud-- 25% meditation on the human condition, and 25% Dante meeting various historical and mythological figures. Overly Sarcastic Productions did a great video series on the entire comedy that you should look at.

There are several references to the Inferno in the Infernal Source-- first is the name of the faction you’re investigating, the Order of Dis. Yes, the obvious pun of the “Dis Order” worshipping the god of Chaos Zamorak is present, but more than that, every circle of hell from six onwards is part of the hellish city of Dis. From the 6th circle onwards, those who acted out of malice rather than passively sinning--though this goes to show how different the ideas of sin were in the 1300s, as lust, gluttony and greed are considered passive sins for some reason. Sins that are punished within the walls of Dis include blasphemy, fortune-telling, suicide, wrath, thievery, and all sorts of unpleasant things that I don’t want to describe for fear of getting banned, including a rather large no-no involving a certain Prophet in the 8th circle of Fraud.

The second part is the Malebranche, which literally means ‘Evil Claws’-- this is why the mystery associated with them is called ‘Contract Claws’. These demons appear in Cantos XXI-XXIII, and force politicians to stay perpetually drowning in a lake of boiling pitch. All of the gargoyles you encounter in the Source itself are named for the Malebranche (with the exception of Ophiuchus, who is named after the controversial 13th Zodiac sign), though it’s not 100% accurate. Malacoda, who is found through the Scorpio portal, is stated to be the leader of the Malebranche in the Inferno, but his role is just as big as the others in the Infernal Source-- though it may still be indirectly represented by the fact that he has the largest Zodiac number at 8. Some scholars have speculated that the names of the Malebranche in the Inferno were based on families that Dante has quarreled with, but if this is the case, then the families have largely been lost to history.

Thirdly is the shape of the source itself-- a few maps of Hell as it appears in the Inferno have been made, and they all share a funnel shape, with the circles growing smaller as one gets down towards the bottom. In the 9th circle, at the very center and bottom of hell, is Satan himself, trapped in ice. Yes, ice-- the bottom of hell is very cold, and reserved for traitors. Similarly, Dagon is trapped in the bottom-most circle of a funnel-shaped series of stone circles.

Fourthly a piece of special research you get in the Infernal Source is entitled ‘Abandon All Hope’, which is part of the now-iconic inscription over the gates of Hell in the Inferno: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” This research leads to the conclusion that it’s located beneath the Wilderness Volcano, which might be another reference-- see the next point for that.

Finally, at level 81 Archeology, you get to unlock the Animal Trophies excavation hotspot, which allows you to excavate three different animal trophies-- a larupia head, a she-wolf head, and a lion head. A lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf appear at the start of the Divine Comedy, where they accost Dante at the base of a mountain called Mount Delectable. The larupia stands in for the Leopard here.

Side note: One of the items you get from here is the Pandemonium tapestry. Pandemonium, literally meaning ‘the place of all demons’, is a term first recorded in John Milton’s Paradise Lost as the name of the capital of Hell, where Lucifer and thousands of other demons concoct a plan to make Adam and Eve commit Original Sin. There are some kickass paintings of it.

Can you tell I’m an English Major?

2) Tabletop Games

This is admittedly a lesser influence than the Divine Comedy, but it still bears mentioning.

In the Infernal Source, you’ll find an imp called Mephisto, who is constantly being trapped by a binding spell brought about as a result of a malfunction while he and his friends were playing a game called “Luncheons and Flagons”. Obviously, this is a reference to Dungeons and Dragons, but there’s a far deeper cut than that.

You may be familiar with the Satanic Panic of the 1980s-- during the early days of tabletop gaming, it was believed that some players became unable to distinguish reality from the fantasy of the games they were playing. This is largely due to the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III from Michigan State University in 1979-- he played D&D, but the media decided to make that the main factor in his disappearance, and subsequent suicide the following year. The group Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (B.A.D.D. for short) outright accused D&D of being a recruitment tool for satanic cults, along with heavy metal, television, and freaking day cares. Tom Hanks’s acting career was launched in part due to his starring role in the film Mazes and Monsters, which was adapted from a novel based on the Egbert case.

Mephisto’s role in giving you the infernal dice to stabilize the Chaos Portals, in addition to his fairly explicit D&D reference, may be a nod to the former allegations of demon worship leveled against D&D.

Then there’s the Chaos Star artifact, which is needed to start the Dagon Bye mystery. It’s been around since the 1960s, but its most notable use is in Warhammer 40,000. In Warhammer 40K, the Chaos Star is a symbol of… well, Chaos. Admittedly, I don’t know much about Warhammer (anything that describes itself as ‘grimdark’ immediately makes me back away cautiously) so I can’t make much claim as to understanding it, but the servants of Chaos are largely daemons. If anyone can provide a better perspective, say so in the comments and I'll edit it in.

3) H.P. Lovecraft

Jagex seems to really love Lovecraft as an influence-- between Xau-Tak’s elite dungeon trilogy, the various evil cults (Lovecraft essentially made ‘evil cult’ a default antagonist in literature) and the sadly incomplete Sea Slug quest line (Salt in the Wound is not canon and I will hear nothing to the contrary) it’s surprising that Jagex hasn’t outright tried and license Call of Cthulhu for their own purposes.

The most obvious reference here is Dagon, but surprisingly, it’s a far deeper cut than that-- Dagon was a Mesopotamian god of grain and fertility, who is mentioned a few times in the Hebrew Bible, particularly as part of the story of the Ark of the Covenant, where a statue in his image is found prostrated before the Ark after it is captured and brought to Ashdod. Dagon is also mentioned in the story of Samson in Judges 16, where he is captured and brought to a temple of Dagon before praying to God for strength, upon which he brings down the temple on the heads of the Philistines.

More contemporary sources conflate Dagon as a demon, including the Infernal Names of the Satanic Bible and a few D&D sourcebooks. Two factors are more interesting, however.

Firstly is the means by which Dagon is imprisoned-- the Hydra Gate. In The Shadow over Innsmouth, Lovecraft mentions a figure known as Mother Hydra as being Dagon’s Consort. Her exact nature is unknown, though she is notable as being the final boss of the 2006 game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. So essentially, Hydra is keeping her husband trapped there. Somewhat appropriate for a female-led order.

Secondly is the fact that he’s held by a cult specifically calling itself an Order. A major organization associated with Dagon, mentioned in Shadow Over Innsmouth and more recently playing a role in the game The Sinking City is the Esoteric Order of Dagon. The Order of Dis might be seen as Esoteric, so…

Conclusion

Overall, it’s clear that Jagex put a lot of thought into the Infernal Source, and some of the cuts made-- especially with regards to Inferno-- are incredibly deep and border on what Tv Tripes would call a Genius Bonus. While I’ve only unlocked three of the five archaeology sites (though Stormguard Citadel is on the horizon) I can tell that all of them have had a great amount of care and effort put into them. If this post takes off, I’ll try to cover the other sites as I progress through them, because man oh man I cannot wait to talk about Kharid-et.

If you know of any other references or influences to the site, comment them below and I'll work them into this post.

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