Jagex are polling a new Master difficulty secret and mysterious quest, but let's figure out what it actually is.

Let's go over what we already know :

• The new quest is part of a quest series, as we can guess from this quote by Ayiza : " But what if those two details (region and quest series) are the ones we're specifically trying to be secret about, regardless of our new approach? " Why be secret if it's a standalone quest?
• The skill requirements are insanely high in frankly strange skills, they are 69 Agility, 64 Thieving and 56 Hunter. Without counting Song of the elves these are the highest skill requirements for all three skills.
• The quest ends in a final boss that can then be repeatedly battled as a regular boss for some good loot, kind of like Vorkath. Specifically tough, they call the repeated bossfight a "phantom version" of the boss.
• This is the full summary of the quest from the poll blog : "This quest is obviously so mysterious that the very title is a mystery – and the enigma doesn’t stop there. Our story begins with a murder, and there’s no shortage of suspects – in fact, you’re one of them! To discover the truth, you’ll need to form an unlikely alliance to uncover the true killer and discern their motive" From this we can discern a few things : first off the location of the quest is a friendly one, with a huge cast of friendly characters and some less friendly ones, that you'll have to befriend to find the killer. Secondly this quest cannot take place in an "active" scenario. The story of the myreque, for example, is currently not a good fit as it's much too intense (everyone just got killed).

Now to go over our candidates for the quest series that are possible, divided in a few categories

• Unlikely candidates
  • Monkey madness series, elf series and dragon slayer series : lumping them together as they all basically finished with their respective grandmaster quests.
  • Dorgeshuun series : Mods have shown interest in bringing in "the chosen commander" the quest finale from Rs3. It'd be a bit weird for them to suddenly do a 180
  • Kharidian desert series : they've just added beneath cursed sands and ToA, i doubt they want to continue it right now
  • Mahjarrat series : due to the disconnected status between the quests of this series, there is no cast of characters and a murder mystery wouldnt be possible
  • Fairytale series and Myreque (vampyre) series : these both clearly wouldnt fit the vibe of a murder mystery. Fairytale is a war story and we left off preparing for the attack to reclaim zanaris. Myreque is a tragedy and we left off with mostly everyone dead or near dead.
  • Penguin series : this currently only has 1 quest, and as a result it doesnt have enough established characters to pull off this new quest
  • Demon Slayer series : this isn't a real series don't act like it is
• "This would make no sense but i guess they could do that" candidates
  • Troll series : there's no clear direction or threat right now, and troll vocabulary would make the quest miserable
  • Pirate series : I dont know how they would shift from zombie pirates to a murder mystery
  • Order of wizards (this is rune mysteries and temple of the eye for those unaware) : again, how do you make the fight against the abyss a mystery?
  • Miscellania : Silly tone wouldnt fit, and there is no evil force left in this series.
• Likely candidates
  • Temple knight series
  • Camelot series
  • Fremmenik series
  • Great Kourend series

As you can see, we're left with 4 candidates. Let's analyze the weaker ones.

Fremmenik and Great Kourend are already at a disadvantage since they've gotten post-2007 quests. They both fill our main criteria : An imminent threat, (Ragnarok and the return of Xeric), and a large cast of characters. The key words that make me think it won't be either of these two are "unlikely alliance" Both series have very clear antagonists but they don't have secondary evils. In these scenarios, who would be your unlikely ally? I dont think anyone fits the bill. Still, I wanna make it clear, I could still see both hapening.

This leaves us with 2 strong candidates.

The camelot quest series has multiple things going for it , including a quest litteraly called Murder mystery, but i do think where it falters is at the antagonist phase. Morgan faye and her son can definitely organize a murder, but could they leave us with a powerful boss to refight for hours until we get a baby morgan faye to crawl around behind us? I don't think so.

This leaves us with our only candidate, the winner of this competition :

The temple knight series!

The sea slugs are extremely dangerous and the Mother Mallum or any powerful creature possessed by a sea slug would make for an awesome boss. The mind control aspect of the slugs leads perfectly into a mystery, where you have no idea who is secretly infected and working for the ennemy. The unlikely alliance that'll let you fight off the sea slugs may surprise you, but it's the black knights in their fortress on Ice mountain. Together, you'll fight off the parasites and claim victory.

But wait......

I forgot all about the vibrant cast of characters....

This series doesnt have a vibrant cast it barely has a single character at all!! This makes no sense!!!

Did you notice?

I didn't mention 2 quest series.

Coming soon to OSRS, the new master quest for your enjoyment......

ELEMENTAL WORK AND BONE MAN III

FIND 150 DIFFERENT TYPES OF BONES

PROCESS EACH ONE IN A FULL RUN OF THE ELEMENTAL WORKSHOP

IF YOU MAKE A SINGLE MISTAKE YOU LOSE THE BONE

BUT YOU MAY ASK? WHAT IS THE MURDER? WHO IS THE UNLIKELY ALLY? WHAT BOSS SHALL WE KILL?

IRRELEVANT.

EMBRACE THE BONE. EMBRACE THE WORKSHOP. BECOME ONE WITH LIFE ITSELF.

So yeah thats my theory for the new quest! What do you guys think?