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Bonelords.Whispers of a Mad Conquest – episode 1

by Alire/Lalico

More than two decades ago since their initial appearance in Tibia, the Bonelords have been a source of fascination for many. Known for their not so powerful but extraordinary magical powers, high intellect, and uncanny aptitude for mathematics, these beings have captured the curiosity of Tibians for countless years. Their presence in the game, though elusive, hints at a deeper narrative and whispers numbers to Tibians on their dreams.

Were we talking about Bonelords?…

Since it is way easier to get a drop of water from the desert than get any information or help from Bonelords before they start crazily blinking all their eyes like if we could understand what they are saying, our journey will begin in a location that is as enigmatic as the Bonelords themselves:

the Jakundaf Desert.

This barren expanse is one of the most renowned and mysterious places in Tibia. Known for its vast, desolate landscapes, hidden secrets, and legends.

Countless adventurers, lured by the promise of hidden treasures and answers to unsolved mysteries, have dared to navigate its treacherous subterranean dungeons. Many have risked their lives, and some have even paid the ultimate price of the adventure with death.

Adrenius, a necromancer and priest of the benevolent Fafnar and the two-suns has its own temple located in the desert. He dedicates his life to meditate and contemplate.

Surely he can tell us more information about Jakundaf.

Player: Jakundaf.

Adrenius: The sage Jakundaf has studied the nature of this desert about a generation ago. For this reason, people started to call it Jakundaf desert after a while …

Adrenius: Before Jakundaf, the desert was just known as the wasteland. This desert isn’t a natural one, rather it was created by a magical accident in a long forgotten battle …

Adrenius: Here in the desert, Fafnar’s burning eye is strong and powerful!

It’s interesting how he knows this famous Sage Jakundaf. A true investigator. What would be better than people naming something in your honor and recognizing your hard work!?

How wise was Jakundaf? And more important: WHO IS JAKUNDAF? There are no references to Jakundaf in Tibia. At all!

How popular this person could be among venoreans and no information about him can be found?

For our fortune, Adrenius knows more about him. What a good day to be alive! How lucky we are!

Player: Tower.

Adrenius: The tower was built and inhabited by the great sage Jakundaf himself. It’s a shame that it can be rented nowadays. People have no respect for the past!

How could the only habitable place in the desert look like this? This tower should shine like an oasis in the middle of the desert. But it seems like it spreads darkness instead of light.

An inside look at the Mastermind House

Contrary to what we might think, this tower has nothing interesting at simple view. It’s just a water fountain in the middle of the desert with a bunch of floors and windows.

Interesting how it was built to see. Just like if instead of being a house, it is most likely a watchtower. The ideal place for someone that might hide… something?

Unfortunately, at this point there’s no information we could gather from the house. Or perhaps we aren’t looking at the right place.. Right? … RIGHT? Oh wait. Is that some kind of tunnel!?

At this point there’s nowhere to go but…

A Clueless Adventurer

It is clear that going deep into the desert dungeons is not a wise choice for any adventurer that values his life. Countless threats are buried with sand and spread across the labyrinth. What unknown secrets can it reveal? Everyone knows this desert rewards groups of 4 adventurers with enough level and tenacity to get themselves into the magnificent desert quest room.

Really, there’s nothing new on it. How would you waste your time looking over there? In Wasteland?

It is really imprecise the information we can find about how and when this quest was implemented in the game. Such an easy way to get out with a Green Bag containing 100 Platinum coins, a ring of healing a Magic light wand, an Ankh, and a Protection Amulet. Right?.

Furthermore interesting how people solved it for the first time. Without any kind of spoiler to find the right path without dying and knowing which items need to be placed!.

At this point, I’d recommend you to take a look at the desert quest long path if you want to acquire the best understanding of what is coming next. I’ll just continue assuming you already know all of this.

After finding all the dead adventurer’s notes, finally you can tell someone to get one of the missing pieces to get into Hall of the Lost Doors, where you finally will discover which item should each vocation use:.

Adrenius. Again. He is really interested in knowing which adventurers dared to enter the desert dungeon, and most important knowing how they died and how long their adventure lasted. Why?.

anaso, 41, attacked by mother-bear, 117 days

elaeus, 39, attacked by dragon, 100 days

gadinius, 42, stepped in fire, 83 days

heso, 40, attacked by troll, 66 days

hestus, 38, drank poison, 134 days

A long and not easy research, multiple keys and dialogs… so you can figure out which items each vocation should place for 100 platinum coins. Who cares about the other stuff?

Well, not me. At this point. But let’s go back to an important subject. How deep can you go over the desert dungeon and what other findings could be there?

Perhaps we were not looking at the right place again…

…Right?

Following the Madness Trials…

It is known that Tibia infamous files roaming around the Internet were not useful at all for the mysteriando community. It was supposed to contain all the mechanics about great secrets in Tibia, but if something was clear for me after viewing all these videos about the files, is that there were recent modifications on the Jakundaf desert and other nearby places before making them public. Those changes were minor about maps, actions (scripts), etc. And more than a desperate try to remove evidence, it seemed like a hint for me.

The desert dungeon library is also really interesting, but among all the keys you can get in this zone there’s one special that caught my attention: Panpipes quest

But then I stopped to think: How a quest introduced in the version 6.1 could not be important on the desert dungeon context?

It is important to mention that at some point, Desert quest/dungeon were not made by CipSoft (completely at least) but were a collaboration with Ciryon and Lord Harry, distinguished tibians back in the day. So they would have to somehow implement this either right from the beginning or after the initial release.

We know thanks to other members of the community they were friends, not collaborators. And therefore they worked together.

Also they recently unveiled a small Mystery about Jakundaf, which turned out to be a joke. (Monty Python reference). And it was never intended to be a clue.

Thanks to Elkolorado and Lord Harry for sharing this really cool information with the community!

On the other hand, I don’t really think they have done everything with either 100% freedom or autonomy in terms of creating the content and lore to leave it just being a zone without any connection to the main tibia lore and timeline. If I were in their place where I can contribute to the game I am passionate about, my job would have to be remarkable especially in the RPG sense.

Now, while reading about the 6.1 update something caught my attention:

Rookgaard, the 'Newbie Island’, was expanded to the Northwest (by Knightmare)

Platinum Coin is now accepted as payment by NPCs.

What!? They were created for non trading purposes and without any value? Just like Scarab Coins!

At this point it was not clear enough which relation could the platinum coins have with Knightmare or even tibia mysteries. Neither the power ring. But then I got a little shine of light when digging into the tibia update news:

How could all these rings/amulets be added to the game if they didn’t have a purpose or benefit for players wearing them. Might these be used in the solution of other tibian mysteries?

Well. At this point I was extremely curious about the order of how these items were added in the updates timeline. And it is really interesting all the information we can get if we put everything on a timeline perspective. Let’s watch the timeline (some sprites might be imprecise, but I’ve personally extracted them from the old tibia versions using a windows 98 virtual machine and an old sprite extractor I’ve found on the Internet

Now, there’s nothing I can really tell with text after watching the image. But something is clear: The mad mage and bonelords (beholders) along with Minotaurs and fluids are part of the initial tibia lore. On version 4.0 they were almost ready for the warlocks. In fact, I highly suspect demona might be added with the 4.0 version as well, but either it was not accessible or discovered during the 4.0 version. It’s just a matter of remembering that Carlin city was not needed for accessing demona or the Maze of Lost Souls.

Given that the talons were introduced either on 5.0 or 5.0.1 (I couldn’t get the 5.0 version of the client, unfortunately), it seems like back in the day updates were not random, and they followed a story in-game and lore-wise at least to a certain point.

After seeing everything, I was curious about how Jakundaf (introduced in 6.1) could be connected to such an old update… Well. Say hello to my l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ mad friend

Now you might be wondering if I’m the mad one. And I was doing it as well at some point. Especially because when you see one thing that is not easy to deduct, or it is not how to connect the dots between one topic or zone to another, many questions arise.

Through many hours spent in the desert, one spot was enough to suspect where this great sage jakundaf came from and who he is/was.

What? A talon in the ground? Is there a possibility that someone from Carlin (the only place where talons can be sold). … NO! Someone from DEMONA is researching through the desert dungeon of Jakundaf?

Well. There are very specific mobs you can find in the dungeon. But this time, only three are suspicious:

Necromantic rituals?

Key guardians in a pitt?

I SURELY have seen something like this before … But where? Am I Mad? …

That’s right! Located in Mintwallin. Could this be just a simple coincidence?

Giant Spiders. Demon Skeletons. Cyclops?

Is there a possibility that someone is bringing them over here to perform experiments? Or summoning them? This seems REALLY familiar at this point…

Warlocks were interested in researching talons power. Mad mage (prisoner) has many encrypted books that only “powerful” people can read in his house, located in mintwallin.

Isn’t familiar the set of creatures located in the Mad Mage room and surroundings?

Were those creatures summoned? Or are these teleported/kidnapped to run experiments over them right from plains of havoc?

Well, from a map perspective it is indeed possible.

Couldn’t this be possible that someone is teleporting monsters from the surface?

If this very vague statement is true, how could we prove it? And if POH is somehow connected, where can we find proof?

TIME to go back in the line

In 1998 when one of the biggest updates was introduced to the game, Ghouls, Skeletons and Beholders (bonelords) were introduced together to the game. Somehow they were related to the magic/elements/runes and fluids concepts.

Cyclops were introduced between versions 3.0 or perhaps 4.0 as well but it’s not clear as I couldn’t get any intermediate version.

Given the size of the game at this point of tibian history, it is not crazy to say at that moment everything could be connected somehow, but that’s a statement really hard to prove. Is it?

Thanks to DarkGladir and the community for sharing these awesome old screenshots!

It is really interesting how these monsters are highly related to Tibian popular mysteries.

HEY! Why don’t you guys let Ghouls join the mystery creators game?

Now we start talking about Bonelords

From a long time ago I was suspecting that Rookgaard and mainland were accessible without needing to be teleported lorewise. And this particular image made in these old great days came to my mind:

It is really curious how there are some big mysteries over tibia, but nobody stops to think and ask the following questions:

Why?

Who?

If we can answer these two basic questions, we should be on the other side of understanding.

I wanted to get an explanation on what the sword of fury is doing, and why minotaurs are guarding it.

It is really important to mention that although it has a “Sword of Fury” name, it is just a simple Spike Sword. And besides being the most powerful weapon on rookgaard, there’s nothing special with it.

Well. Now the ghoul can join the game. YAY!

Now, you might be wondering… how?

Right after the 5.1 update, which included the great city of Carlin, demona, warlocks lore, magic web, etc. It caught my attention that the Spike Sword was also introduced on this version.

Guess which content was added next on 5.2?

Rookgaard.

With fascinating stories and quests the only thing needed now was a great mystery. Something that can keep players triggered and active on that isle meant to be forgotten once you reach enough level to reach mainland.

But players would have to wait a little bit longer to have that missing piece of mystery to attract people and avoid being forgotten. And that update would come at version 6.1, And here are the highlights of that release:

1- Platinum coins were not cash.

2- Jakundaf

3- Kazordoon

4- Rookgaard expanded to the north west

NOW we are talking, Mr. Ghoul! Who has the missing sword of fury? — A question I could ask him face to face

From the previous information we can relate really important things:

The first: If the platinum coins were not initially part of the tibian economy, then they were made for another purpose initially.

Second, if at the time when they add the first quest (desert dungeon quest) where they give platinum coins as a reward, it means they want to expose people to this item, and if it is made for another quest or purpose, then this will hide the key at simple sight. Right in front of everyone.

Third, if Jakundaf desert and desert dungeon, kazordoon and rookgaard expansion came together, then they would have to be connected somehow. But there were important updates ongoing before that connection could be clear for us. But for now, we have one important question to ask:

What happened in the Rookgaard Ghoul Room and how is it connected to the Sword of Fury mystery?

Well, if we take a look at the Katana quest entrance, we will find a path flooded with poison fields:

Then we have a lot of human corpses. But were they all really killed by the rotworms?

Now, why is this ghoul trapped behind walls? How? … Who?

And most important, why is there a specific location nearby the ghoul room that makes the Sword of Fury disappear with a conveniently placed teleport in the place?

It is important to keep in mind that there are things that are only possible lore-wise, and there are game mechanics. But are these red sparks when stepping into that hidden switch somehow familiar?

If we imagine playing these old versions of tibia where it was introduced, our options to connect this mystery would be very limited, or inexistent. However, we could go a little bit back to the inception of the mysteries again to get a possible answer.