Bandos

Bandos, also known as the Big High War God, was the god of war. A very powerful, aggressive, sadistic and strategic entity, known for defeating many large armies by himself, he demanded worship and unquestioned obedience. His followers' main trait is strength if not high numbers, at the cost of intelligence, making them valuable warriors who would listen to him blindly. He did not usually care if most of his armies were wiped out - he fought solely for the sake of battle and would enjoy the bloodshed, provided that he retained enough troops to fight for him, as was most evident during the God Wars. He could get extremely angry when everything did not go as he wanted it to or when he was defied, as proven by his struggles to reclaim the Dorgeshuun goblin tribe for himself or his blind rage after the God Wars. The former made Bandos a key antagonist in the Dorgeshuun quest series.

Having first set foot on Gielinor in the Second Age, he was the patron god of the brutish and unintelligent races such as goblins, trolls, ogres, and orks, most of whom he took with him from their realm Yu'biusk, though Bandos himself is of greater intellect, and it should be noted some of his followers were once much more intelligent, and have only gradually lost their intelligence since he left Gielinor in the Third Age. Some followers, mostly goblins, refer to him as the Big High War God (with the exception of priests on holy days, although goblins native to RuneScape do not take this rule to heart). He was almost completely forgotten by the humans of Gielinor due to his disappearance after the God Wars until his battle against Armadyl in the early Sixth Age, which ended with his death. Bandos was rather large and strong, this fearsome appearance contributing to his prowess in battle.

The earliest mention of him is on Yu'biusk, where he arrived prior to RuneScape's Second Age and turned it into a hellish plane torn asunder by war. He brought some of his followers to RuneScape, where they participated in the God Wars, much to Bandos' pleasure. After being banished at the end of the war, the furious god returned to Yu'biusk, which he completely destroyed in his rage. Afterwards, he turned his attention back to his remaining followers on Gielinor, and formed a plan to return. This plan nearly succeeded towards the end of the Fifth Age when Bandos possessed his 'Chosen Commander' and brought a powerful avatar of himself to the world, but it was thwarted, causing him to lose a considerable portion of his power. Several months after the death of Guthix, Bandos returned to Gielinor, with the same intentions as before - to rule Gielinor by himself and invoke massive war. He nearly immediately engaged in a large-scale-battle with Armadyl, which he lost due to overconfidence, and the fact that he lost massive amounts of power, resulting in his demise.

Personality and Beliefs
Bandos was quite egotistic and manipulative, as well as sadistic. Most beings who know of him, including other gods, viewed him as barbaric and brutish because of how he treats his followers, whom he views as disposable without remorse. Many of his followers are unintelligent and have been bred to follow him blindly from birth. Bandos found pleasure in his followers fighting in war scenarios set up by himself. He was an outright immoral god and enjoyed sending his followers into battles they could not win purely for his own amusement.

Bandos desired Gielinor to be under his control for it to be torn by war until it would be rent asunder as a "monument to his glory". If a battle or war was impeded or went out of bounds, however, Bandos would get infuriated and attempt to restore his source of fun, however possible. Likewise, defiance would invoke the war god's rage, with him often going as far as to demand worship, seeing that he considered his followers to be his rightful property. He has already demonstrated the former with the plane of Yu'biusk as well as his own homeworld and his goal for Gielinor was for it to be turned into a similar "playground" of perpetual warfare with him as the sole ruler. Bandos was convinced that the strong deserve to rule over the weak, viewing himself as the only being strong enough to do so, having defeated his entire race in combat. According to him, power to reign only exists to those with the strength to possess it, namely himself. He has shown to believe that only the strong are allowed to think for themselves and the weak only serve to exist as mindless, living weapons for the strong. Bandos claimed that he will reward his followers if they become strong enough to capture his attention, as he did with General Graardor, Zarador, Davosi and Crush, whom he granted high positions in his army, although few have ever achieved this. Many of his war scenarios seemed to be designed to make his followers strong as long as they can survive, although they rarely did, much to his pleasure. Additionally, he did not care for the well-being of his followers although this obvious fact seems to elude them, with the exception of the Dorgeshuun goblin tribe. Bandos also enjoyed mocking gods and other beings he perceived to be weaker than himself, but held no grudges against beings that fairly defeated him in a fight.

Various aspects of Bandos' personality can be seen in the holidays instated by him, such as Bandos Is Great Day, the Mandatory Annual Axe-Fighting Tournament and Death of the Weak Week. Other holidays include Victory in Gu'tanoth Day and the Festival of the Fire-Raining Weapons.

Bandos's philosophy can be seen by how he has treated the goblins. As the weakest of the Yu'biuskian races Bandos did not believe that they deserve to think for themselves. In fact it is a commandment in their holy book, which is filled with Bandosian propaganda. He viewed the goblins and other races as rightfully his and his attempt to reclaim the Dorgeshuun tribe was his effort to re-establish this authority. The defeat of his avatar in the Fifth Age has gained him respect for the adventurer who aided in doing so as they proved strong enough to stand against him. The defeat by mortals also angered him immensely and therefore he entered the battle with Armadyl with too much determination and overconfidence, not realising that he had lost much of his power with the destruction of his pendant. This mistake ultimately led to his death.

To other gods, Bandos appeared to be fully open about his beliefs and did not try to hide behind a façade of benevolence, although he had always deceived his followers, especially the weaker goblins. For instance, he told Grubfoot that he would send his 'Chosen Commander' to lead goblins into peace, when in actuality he planned to use her to create another war. He told Hopespear that fallen warriors would return to Yu'biusk, which is not only false, but Yu'biusk had also been completely destroyed by the time he made the claim. Nevertheless, he ironically viewed the other gods as hypocrites, stating that they are pretending to be something they are not. When he gave Hopespear the false dream in an effort to stop the Battle of the Plain of Mud, Bandos provided the goblins his holy commandments, which they still obey. These are as follows:


 * Not to run from battle. Cowards must die!
 * Not to show mercy. Merciful must die!
 * Not to doubt Big High War God. Doubters must die!
 * Not to make own plans. Thinkers must die!

Followers
Bandos has one of the greatest populations of followers in all of RuneScape. Most of his followers are depicted as ugly and bad-tempered beings with low intelligence, although many of them are not inherently unintelligent, and many intelligent races have served him in the past. It is mainly their lack of mental acumen, dispersed numbers, and disorganisation which has prevented them from causing serious problems for the rest of the world. It is notable that Bandos actually bred a few of his followers for specific purposes. Some examples of this would be that he bred a special breed of ogres for jungle survival, now known as Jogres. He also bred Mogres, ogres adapted to surviving underwater. He has also attempted to recruit other races such as humans, dwarves and demons, but has only been marginally successful. His followers include:

Goblins
The goblins make up the lowest ranks of Bandos' troops. Despite this, they are one of the more intelligent of the Bandosian races, although very few modern day goblins exhibit this intelligence, as their commandments tell them not to think for themselves. Originally from the realm of Yu'biusk, Bandos took the goblins and made them into soldiers of war before engulfing their realm in battle. One of the twelve tribes, the Dorgeshuun, later defied him. The surface goblins eventually began fighting each other, but Bandos intervened when he saw how many goblins had died, remembering his mistakes on Yu'Biusk. He gave the goblins the promise of sending a Chosen Commander, and later used this as part of his plan to reconquer the Dorgeshuun, but this failed. Goblins are small, green-skinned and hunchbacked. They use various weapons in combat.

Ogres
The history of the ogres remains largely unknown, aside from the fact that they originated in Yu'biusk. They inhabit the Feldip Hills and are known to have enslaved the skavids, and attempted a genocide of the goblin race during the Feldip Hills Civil War. They are currently at war with Yanille. Ogres are large, fat and generally lacking mental acuity and forethought due to thousands of years of breeding by Bandos. Most of the male ogres live in their city of Gu'Tanoth in the north, while most of the female ogresses and ogre children live in Oo'glog in the south. Some ogres, such as those in Gu'Tanoth, are intelligent enough to speak perfect English, while others, such as Rantz, can't even pronounce the most basic words correctly. They usually don't wear clothes and eat rocks. They fight with clubs, maces or their hands, but they do seem to have powerful shamans which use magic. Variations include jungle ogres, marine ogres, skeletal ogres and zombie ogres.

Hobgoblins
Hobgoblins appear to be a different breed of goblin. They have tusks, brown/green skin, and sometimes fight with spears. However, hobgoblins appear to be of lower intelligence than regular goblins, although there is a fairly intelligent hobgoblin geomancer in service of the Mahjarrat Bilrach, who keeps a diary of sorts and has built a shrine to Bandos. Hobgoblins are described as hardy but highly mobile soldiers.



Orks
Orks are brutal and aggressive, but slightly more intelligent, soldiers from Yu'biusk. They were some of Bandos' most valued soldiers during the God Wars. Armies of orks are known to exist at Orks Rift. The notorious Fairy Mafia used these orks to take over Zanaris, but they were defeated when the Fairy Godfather was sucked into the rift and died. Some orks can still be found in the God Wars Dungeon today. Orks are dark green and often tusked. They seem to prefer large axes and maces and heavy plate armour and helms, although staves and bows are not unheard of.

Ourgs
Ourgs are enormous ork-like giants - they were the single most powerful units in his army, but the God Wars and the subsequent wars on Yu'biusk drove them to near-extinction. The most prominent of the ourgs known to have survived are General Graardor, and Zarador, but there are a small handful of others. Ourgs are huge and yellow, not looking dissimilar from ogres. They seem to like wearing heavy armour and terrifying decorations such as skulls. Ourgs can use weapons, but the blow of their fists is enough to kill several troops. Ourgs are one of the more intelligent of Bandos' followers, with some individuals capable of inventing technology and speaking proper English.

Cyclopes
Cyclopes and cyclossi are large, one-eyed eaters of humans, native to the Wushanko Isles. Virtually nothing about them is known, except they originate from the island of Cyclosis. Currently, several cyclopes can be found in the Warriors' Guild, the God Wars Dungeon and one in Ardougne Zoo. Bandos presumably travelled to the Wushanko Isles to recruit them for use in the God Wars, although those outside the God Wars Dungeon have likely since forgotten him. Cyclopes are very tall and their body parts are disproportionate to each other; for example, their legs appear much smaller than would be expected with such a large torso. Cyclossi are described as cyclopes' 'big brothers' and these are often adorned with scary masks.

Trolls
Trolls are the least intelligent of all races to follow Bandos. They are the only known race to have followed Bandos not native to Yu'biusk, save the small group of humans and cyclopes. Nowadays, any trace of their service to Bandos is nowhere to be found, for they do not worship him and have forgotten about his existence without him present in Gielinor to remind them. While they have a civilisation of sorts, it is incredibly primitive and they are not even familiar with inventions such as the wheel. There are several kinds of trolls, mountain trolls being the most common. These look like rocky monsters and live in mountain communities. In addition, there are river, ice and sea trolls. Trolls are very bulky, but powerful, using large clubs or warhammers in battle. New-born trolls are named after the first thing they attempt to eat.

Other
Other followers of Bandos include some humans, as well as the extinct fayrgs and raurgs, who were a product of him crossbreeding ourgs with other Yu'biuskian species.

Trivia

 * According to the granite mace's examine text, Bandos' preferred weapon is the mace. He also wields a mace during the Origins of Gielinor video, as Bandos avatar and at his concept art. The vengeful god even states in his Ultimatum that "he should smash every Dorgeshuun goblin beneath his holy mace.", implying that the mace would be Bandos's weapon of choice in combat. This idea is further supported during the second World Event, when he wields his mace while sitting on his throne. In addition, Armadyl smashes Bandos' head with the mace, possibly to rub in the fact that he was defeated by his own weapon.
 * Bandos shares a voice actor with The Raptor.