The Wilderness Swarm

= Introduction =

The Wilderness Swarm is an army of mindless drones, which wonders the Wilderness attacking and destroying anything it comes across. Up till now, it has remained in the Wilderness, and any respawning drones automatically return to the main Swarm, but certain drones have been detaching into scout parties that randomly explore the rest of Gielinor. They resemble players in appearance, and cannot be spoken to or examined like NPCs.

= History =

It is impossible to tell, but the Swarm may be caused by floods of new players appearing and bots being banned. "Ghosts" are known to appear, so therefore it is logical the Swarm is a build up of these "ghosts" that created a glitch that caused them to appear permenantly. The Swarm was first reported around June 2009, and since then has grown larger, more powerful and much more dangerous than it was at first.

The Clans unite
In September 2009, the Clan Guild began to realise the swarm was a real threat, and organised an army to attack. It called up clans to drop all current hostilities, kit up, and destroy the Swarm, which at the time was only two hundred or so strong. The Clans agreed, united, and marched up into the Wilderness on the new World 264. (It had been predicted that the swarm, which frequently changed worlds, would come here next.) The Clan alliance walked north, expecting a pushover, and became a large crowd next to the Bone Wall at the north.

The Swarm arrives
However, when the Swarm arrived, it took the Clans completely by surprise. They had expected to see a large group of drones wielding only wooden shields and bronze swords, but instead found an army of well-equipped warriors. Unbeknownst to them, the drones picked up whatever was dropped by their targets, and had amassed a collection of armour from bronze to rune and even dragon. Worse, the Swarm appeared right in the middle of the Clan's base. This was what ultimately lost the Clans the battle: they had forgotten to all wear the same Team Capes. The started to attack, but found they were attacking each other. Within minutes the battle had become a disorganised killing frenzy, rapidly being won by the Swarm.

The Swarm gains the advantage
As drops can only be claimed by the victor, the supplies necessary for the clans (such as runes and food) were rapidly diminishing, being horded by battle-addled Clan members. Although the entire battle lasted just over an hour, the first quarter saw huge numbers of warriors dying. Although they were respawning as fast as they could, it takes time to get from Lumbridge or Falador to the north Wilderness, and even longer if you stop to try and get supplies. The thousand-strong clan alliance had lost nearly three hundred by the 20-minute mark, and reinforcements were taking too long.

The Clans pull back
It should be noted that the Swarm says utter nonsense at times, and scarily realistic speech at other times - it is regular to hear "KILL!", "DIE!", and "NEVER SURRENDER!". As such, the chatboxes of Clan members were getting dangerously full, disrupting the chain of command. As players were relying on the chatbox for commands, and the Clan Chat system could only host so many members, confusion erupted. Some tried to retreat, others called for an attack. Gradually, however, the all pulled back to the north east ruins, to restock and resupply, and to get their strength back.

The Swarm administers the death blow
Unfortunately, whilst trapped in the ruins, the Swarm managed to find them. Although the Clan players fought valiantly, they knew that is was far too late. And yet it still took thirty minutes of thick fighting to extinguish the last players. When the last warriors finally fell to the drones, it appeared the Swarm had been greatly weakened. The Clans agreed that a second attack should be made, with as many people as possible and a more efficient communication system. However, they did not know that their attack had only strengthened the Swarm further. Ghostly copies of fallen warriors had begun to appear on random worlds, and they slowly joined back together. The Swarm had, much to everyone's dismay, not doubled, not tripled, but Quadrupled in size.