Darlene ChaniMaya Postma

Tasogaryn (Taso, Tas) started playing RuneScape in the mid-2000s. RuneScape was one of the first games Taso could play online with friends. Although everyone Taso knows IRL has stopped playing RuneScape, she continues to stays involved in the community.

When RuneScape first came out, Taso did not have home access to video games or a computer. Taso rode her bike to the library to play RuneScape in the computer lab. One library card unlocked 60 minutes of internet a day, which was not enough to keep up with other players. Taso went so far as to encourage friends to lend her their library cards to extend her RuneScape play time.

1. Name History
2. Community Origins
3. Membership & Sal’s Realm of RuneScape
4. RuneFest 2019
5. Recent Events
6. Recent Goals & Further Reading

I’m playing RS content 20 years behind for the thrill. Subscribe to help me unlock Elf Cities and curses in 2023.

Name History

Despite popular belief, Tasogaryn is not a misspelling of Targaryen, a ruling dynasty from HBO’s Games of Thrones. Please refer to the diagram below:

The nickname “Taso” has grown on Tasogaryn over the years. Taso initially wished to be called Tas. This resulted in players nicknaming her “Tassies” or “Tassets.” Eventually, she accepted Taso an alternative.

Middle school Taso was extremely badass and owned an English/Japanese dictionary. In this dictionary, “tasogare”meant “dusk” or “twilight.” Tasogaryn’s name is based on a transliteration of the Japanese word たそが (tasogare).

Community Origins

Online forum roleplaying is a beloved pastime enjoyed by writers of all ages, skill levels, and genre expression. It is an exercise of creative masochism best summarized as collaborative storytelling.

In the mid-2000s, most online communities had forums, and many forums had roleplaying sections. Taso was an active forum roleplayer on websites like Neopets, Armor Games, and the RuneScape roleplay forums.

In the RuneScape roleplaying forums, Taso played Satora Tasogaryn (Original Character, Do Not Steal). Satora was a half-elf who wielded twin katanas (one smoked black, the other silver). She had a stupid backstory, but a sick winged skeleton horse with red eyes. She pretty much wore this cloak:

Anyway, Satora Tasogaryn owned the Dragonfire Inn, a Medieval fantasy magic tavern setting. Players would create a character and visit the tavern and explore the story world. As Game Master (GM), Taso narrated and moderated the action.

At the time, a RuneScape forum thread had a finite number of posts. Each Dragonfire Inn thread attracted enough roleplayers to max replies. When the posts were full, replies were disabled. Taso would the story before post cap, create the new thread, and move players over.

Across 3-4 full threads, chaos was visited upon guests, villains, criminals, and heroes at the inn. The Inn was destroyed and renamed (Dragonflame, Dragonclaw, etc) with each thread. A few players would look forward to and seek out each new iteration of the story.

Taso does not remember much more about this. The threads long ago went to the 50-page monster*. DJ Slim (just Slim?) is the only player name Taso can recall from this time. Taso moved on to other storytelling websites.

*If your thread dropped past page 50 in the RuneScape roleplaying forum, it would get eaten. Meaning, the forums kept only 50 pages of history, and if your thread sucked and dropped, it would be deleted. The 50-Page Monster was a cold arbiter of content justice.

Membership & Sal’s Realm of RuneScape

Taso was f2p for many years, with sporadic months of membership. Taso first bought recurring membership in 2012. Around that time or earlier, she joined the community Sal’s Realm of RuneScape.

Sal’s Realm is responsible for Taso’s best memories of RuneScape. Taso played Pest Control, Castle Wars, Soul Wars, Clan Wars, and more with members of Sal’s Realm. She attended her first Bandos mass, and made long-lasting friendships among the clan chat. Other Sal’s Realm highlights not related to minigames or bossing include organizing clan members to dress in weird cosmetics to harmlessly prank, bewilder, or delight unsuspecting players.

RuneFest 2019

Taso attended RuneFest 2019. It was a life goal of hers to go. It became one of the happiest, best experiences of her life. She made friends she has connected with since, and hopes to see again in the future. Taso dressed as a demon and will probably regret sharing this pic of herself.

Taso got to meet new and old friends at RuneFest. Taso’s tldr review of RuneFest: expensive for what it is, but worth it if you love RuneScape, and can afford it. 

Recent Events

Tasogaryn was an early mobile alpha user (Android and iOS). She has written about RuneScape’s Steam release as a great lockdown pasttime. Taso believes RuneScape will save the world. However, Taso has been disappointed about diversity representation by Jagex in its developer and community directs.

Taso has written about how unapproachable and intimidating RuneScape can seem to new, returning, or casual players. For years, Taso’s relationship with the game was tumultuous. She would log in, click around, bankstand, rage, then log for several months.

She bought Premier membership in hopes this would jump-start her return to consistent play. Instead, it turned into a nostalgia payment to Jagex.

In 2023, Tasogaryn started playing regularly again thanks to the welcoming Sal’s Realm Discord community! After years of saying “hi” once every few months in Discord, then vanishing, Taso decided to stick around and strike up convos. She found herself among a great group of gamers.

Recent Goals & Further Reading

Taso’s contrarian, contradictory nature has made the game much harder to play at times than it needs to be. As a result, this bio does not have a typical accolades, milestones, or accomplishments section.

Despite playing the game for many years, Taso:

• Is not maxed
• Hasn’t done most quests
• no curses
• no elf cities
• Only recently unlocked Ancient Magic (Desert Treasure)
• Only raised range past 35 in the last few years (Taso was wronged by a range user in the wild and swore off shooting little sticks in the game, instead swearing by cold hard magic and hitting people with swords).
• Taso will never, ever write down her Underground Pass route
• Despite being in Sal’s Realm clan chat for over a decade, Taso is not an official member of the clan. ((Taso never liked the brown Sal’s Realm clan cape, instead making her own clan with a purple and white flower cape (If Sal’s Realm changed their cape to something prettier, she’d join, just saying))

2023 Updates:

• Coming Soon!

Taso has much of the game yet to play…. and wants you to join her!

Taso will be tackling Elf Cities and curses this year! You can also find Taso at oddsoul.medium.com, or chanimaya.substack.com

Taso owes a lot to the RuneScape community members who have been patient with her impatience. Thank you to anyone who has answered her questions about the game when she’s mad. Thanks everyone who has welcomed her back the first time… the second time, the third time, and so on. 🙂

Darlene is a San Francisc-based writer who writes about grief, motorcycles, video games, and much more.