Marches - the realm's warband

Varrock fell. Lumbridge holds. The war is fought out of the Last Free City against the camps, roads and ruins the enemy holds - and unlike campaigns and conquests, you don't need rank or coin to fight in it. This is the beginner's door into the war.

Marches - the free warband

Roughly every half hour the Knight-Captain musters a march: a column of Knights of Lumbridge that sets out from the castle and strikes one target from the realm's list of hostile ground. The muster call is announced ~5 minutes ahead, and any player can fight beside the column - walk with it from the gate, or type ::march to rally straight to it (you'll be asked to confirm if the column is fighting on wilderness ground).

• Marches are free to join and launch automatically every cycle, no matter what - they keep the war moving even on a quiet server, so the early game never stalls. A march costs the realm nothing: it never touches the Realm Supplies stockpile and is never called off for empty stores. (Realm Supplies are spent only by the commanders' campaigns and conquests; see Supplying the war.)
• A won march pays every fighter a share of the pooled spoils by contribution, plus 1-3 Commendations (see below) and War Effort.
• Marches can fail. Ten knights alone are often driven back - the realm learns to march with them.

The command ladder above the march: March (anyone) → Operation (Lord) → Campaign (Minister) → Conquest (King) - see The War explained. Rank only ever gates starting a war; joining one is open to every citizen.

The targets - ::marches

The Knight-Captain picks each march's target from the realm's board of hostile ground. Ordinary marches strike camps, roads and frontier threats; serious penetration into Fallen Varrock is reserved for campaigns, conquests and the story.

::marches shows the board, which target is mustering or under attack, and when the next march sets out. The list grows as the war spreads (Port Sarim's docks and the deep-wilderness bandit camp are next). The "wilderness" flag on a target is read live from the PvP map, so it stays right if the wilderness boundary moves.

The Southern Watch. The stone circle on the Varrock outskirts is also the realm's forward post, raised in First Reclamation: a standard, three Knights of Lumbridge and a Field Quartermaster stand there for everyone, and the quest's Reclamation Column is a story-called Grand March on this very target. The road around it stays a march target - the enemy lines still stage through the circle when a column is on it, and the garrison fights them.

Grand Marches & the Wardens

Every 8th march is a GRAND MARCH: a bigger column, a louder muster call, and a real target - one of the grand-eligible positions above, held by its Warden, a boss-tier defender waiting at the rally point. Bring friends.

When a Warden falls, his Warden's embers pay out to the players who fought him: guaranteed for the top damage dealer, rolled at 1 in 3 for everyone else. Embers are tradeable, and they are the only source of the war-forge's helm tier. If the Grand March is driven back, the Warden lives - and the realm is told his embers stay cold in the enemy's grip.

Lord operations - ::operation <target>

A Lord or higher may sponsor a march of their own on any target: ::operation bandit_hideout. It is coin-funded (500,000 - the Lord's contribution to the war; not refunded), never spends Realm Supplies, and is just as public as the scheduled march - any soldier rallies to it with ::march. Win it and the sponsor takes the commander's tithe from the spoils (::claim) on top of their fighter's share.

Commendations - your service record

Commendations are the war's service token, paid on every won march, operation, campaign or conquest, scaled by your contribution (marches pay up to 3, campaigns up to 6, conquests up to 10). Two rules:

1. They cannot be traded. No coin buys another soldier's service record - this is the one ingredient of max gear you must earn yourself.
2. They're spent at the Royal Smith, where the realm's best gear is made.

The wanted captains - ::bounties

Each district of Fallen Varrock is run by a named rogue captain on a long respawn - Karn the Red (the Slums), Silas the Hollow (the Old Market), Vex of the Row (the East Quarter) and Grimjaw (the Museum Quarter). Killing one pays a 100,000 coin bounty straight to your bank, 2 Commendations and 25 War Effort - and rolls the captain's signature weapon at 1 in 15:

Their streets are wilderness PvP ground - the risk is the content. Captain kills also count toward the Recruiting Sergeant's rogue-hunting milestones: every 10 / 50 / 250 / 1,000 rogue-family kills pays an escalating bounty (::rogues to check your tally).