Marches & the reconquest of Varrock

Varrock fell. Lumbridge holds. The reconquest is how the realm takes it back - 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 pushes into one district of Fallen Varrock. 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 already fighting on PvP 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 war-supply meter and is never called off for empty stores. (The war-supply meter is spent only by the paid command ladder - 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).
• Marches can fail. Ten knights alone are often driven back - the realm learns to march with them.

The command ladder above the march is unchanged: March (anyone) → Raid (Lord) → Campaign (Minister) → Conquest (King) - see The War explained.

The district map - ::districts

Fallen Varrock is split into four districts: the Slums, the Old Market, the East Quarter and the Museum Quarter. Each has a persistent pressure meter that won marches fill. Fill it and the district BREAKS - the occupiers' grip fails, announced realm-wide.

Broken districts matter beyond bragging rights: each one weakens Varrock's garrison for the commanders, shaving 10% off the kill quota of any campaign or conquest on the city. When all four are broken, the Palace road lies open - the stage for the King's conquest.

Check the map any time with ::districts.

Grand Marches & the Wardens

Every 8th march is a GRAND MARCH: a bigger column, a louder muster call, and a real target - the district's Warden, a boss-tier defender waiting at the district's heart. 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.

Commendations - your service record

Commendations are the war's service token, paid on every won march, 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 is run by a named 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 deep-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).