[Story] The Rise of the Shadow Isles

"In ancient days long past, when Demacia wasn't even the dream of a mighty hero, and Noxus hadn't even become the fever dream of a madman, there existed The First Kingdom. Far across the sea on the Iron Isles a mighty king, and his loyal knights kept the peace in their kingdom. Its glory, and beauty shone like a star upon the oceans. The kingdom was lead by their king, a man of immense strength, but also of honor, and compassion. The king was guarded by many knights, Hecarim, the Horse Lord, lead mighty cavalry across the fields of battle to defend their lands. Kalista, Maiden of Spears, stood at the right hand of the King, defending him from all threats. And Elise, Waver of Prosperity, the king's trusted adviser helped rule the lands with calm, and just advice on the fair treatment of the people. The land was peaceful, and full of happiness, joy, and love for their great king, and his grand knights. However, such peace can never last forever, and though it survived many years, eventually darkness planted its seeds in the land of hope, and prosperity.

 Doubt, and fear slowly spread over the lands, filling every heart with insecurity, and mistrust. The king, searching for a way to save his kingdom, sent out his knights to find the source of this darkness, and destroy it. The knights traveled far, and wide, facing many dangers, and seeing horrible atrocities committed upon their once fair kingdom by its own people no less. Finally they discovered the source of dark power corrupting their kingdom and its people. Kalista cast aside many of her spears, taking up her greatest weapon, an ancient spear forged for her by the king himself, and she rushed at the dark source of power.  She was brought to a halt as magics bound her in place, and her two knight companions, people she had trusted for the whole of her life, Hecarim, and Elise, made a bargain with the dark powers. The doubt in their minds had been turned to greed, the dark powers that they had seen on their travels had not disgusted them, as it had Kalista, no, it had made them greedy, and hungry for such power. The source of darkness asked for a simple show of faith, and Elise, and Hecarim took up Kalista's many spears, and drove them into her back. They slew their ally in cold blood, betraying her for even the barest hint of power, and it was power they received, darkness twisted, and corrupted their forms, granting them appearances to cause terror, and despair, and the power to slay, deceive, and destroy whatever stood in their path. 

 The two warriors, once grand knights of honor, and justice, now only knew wrath, desire, and destruction. They turned their new-found power upon their own kingdom, ravaging the lands back to the castle, and assaulting the ancient walls, walls that had stood for centuries crumbled beneath their dark power, soldiers, battle-hardened and trained for war, fled in terror at their very appearance. The two burst into the throne room, and found the King ready for a fight bearing his ancient metal armor, and mighty mace. He had seen the suffering of his people, and was determined to put a stop to it. The battle shook the very land, the castle crumbled around the three as the king fought wicked beasts that had once been his allies. Yet even with the fate of his kingdom at stake, he hesitated to strike the killing blow against those he had once called friends. It was then that they struck dealing a mortal wound to the king in his moment of hesitation so the king was forced to flee even as his castle collapsed, and the dark knights fled to lick their own wounds,  but they would return, the king knew, so he traveled, his life slowly fading, until he reached the source of darkness that had come to his land. There he found the betrayed, and now dead Kalista. The king wept for the loss of his kingdom, and his trusted knights, and he begged the dark power, begged it to grant him the power to re-build his kingdom, begged the power to bring back his people.

 The darkness answered eagerly, its power burst across the land in a wave of darkness, and shadow, filling every destroyed body with wicked energies, and raising their corpses from the dead, the king had only moments to realize the horror be had wrought with his wish, before the darkness swallowed him, twisting, destroying, and re-making him. Kalista, the first to rise from her death, could only watch in horror as the king she had respected...no, the man she had loved, was twisted into a cruel  beast of steel and suffering. Thus, Mordekaiser was created, and thus, the Iron Isles,  now coated in darkness, and death, became the Shadow Isles." 



 The old man stopped his story, and looked down to the young man, listening eagerly to his every word, sitting on the floor of the quiet inn. "Is that true?!" The boy asked excitedly. The old man laughed, "Perhaps, it is one of many stories about the creation of the Shadow Isles, and the dark powers that stem from there. Whether it is true or not, even an old man like me can't tell! But, it's one of the more interesting stories about the place, so it's the one I'll tell until I find a better one." The young boy jumped up, "You mean find one on your adventures, right?! They say you're the smartest, best adventurer in all of Valoran!" He said excitedly. The old man laughed brightly at the young lad's excitement. "Well, I don't know about all that my boy, I just travel the land, collecting legends, and stories, and trying to see how true they all are. Me and Neisha here managed to get along pretty well." The old man said, patting the enormous crossbow leaned against the table next to him, the weapon at least a full five feet in length, looked more like a slightly small ballista than a crossbow. The boy looked at the weapon with stars in his eyes, "Wooooooow! So it's true then? You're him right?" The old man smiled, giving the boy a conspiratorial wink, "Of course I am lad, you think you could hear this sort of tale from anyone other than Fredregar the Wanderer?"

(This is a story I had kicking around in my brain since Kalista's release, I wrote it today, on my phone, between college classes and emailed it to myself, then pasted it here, and read over it to correct any grammar and spelling mistakes. The story is told with 'Fredregar the Wanderer' as the narrator, telling the story to a young boy. Fredregar is an old D&D character of mine actually, who has become a bit of an in-joke among me and my friends, due to him ending up just about everywhere, in any setting, collecting stories, and legends, and knowledge anywhere he can. I'm thinking about making this into a sort of series, where Fredregar shares stories, and legends about the various areas, and champions in League of Legends. Obviously we know few details about the full lore of the world in League, but there's a ton of opportunity, and since all of the Champions are essentially their own individual legends, interpreted in different ways, I think that this sort of format is one of the better ways to guess, and write about League while still allowing the actual League lore to shine forth.)

(If anyone finds any other grammar, or spelling mistakes, pleas let me know so I can fix them! And hope you enjoyed the story.)