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Factions Lore Discussion: The Harrowing

CupcakeTrap·11/11/2014, 6:02:04 AM·3 votes·1,708 views

https://leaguefactions.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/pumkinhead-fiddlesticks-e1415048557848.jpg

Link: http://leaguefactions.net/2014/11/10/lore-discussion-the-harrowing/

Here's a thread for discussing the Harrowing in the context of the Factions universe—which is basically just the League of Legends universe with the zany and unorthodox addition of a "League of Legends", if you can fathom such a peculiar concept.

Summoner Dreamspitter made the following post elsewhere:

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=3452447#post3452447

Each calendar year, the celestial bodies of Runeterra align in a particular astronomical event. This lengthy occasion - beginning with a partial eclipse on the 18th of October and culminating in a full solar eclipse on the 31st of October - is of one of the most significant holidays in Valoran. The alignment occurs annually around the time of the harvest, and is known as the Harrowing due to its dusky setting. For obvious reasons, the occasion is marked by superstitions surrounding the world's dark denizens, creepy crawlies, and things that generally go bump in the night.

While rural folks still believe that this is a time of great foreboding, most of Valoran has taken to commemorating the Harrowing through a bit of good, clean fun. Citizens of the city-states don monstrous costumes and exchange holiday sweets with one another as part of the revelry. Large costume parties, where patrons wear either light or dark costumes (with the intention of either warding off or confusing evil) are quite popular, and those of opposite colors are encouraged to exchange gifts with one another. However they're celebrating, all across Valoran, spirits are as high as the night is long.

I hadn't seen this particular snippet before, but I basically tried to harmonize this sort of Halloween/Thanksgiving vibe with the Black Mists in this lore update for Factions. (That was a 5-minute throwaway lore update, intended mostly just to give context to the video; I'm drafting something more involved now.) Granted, based on the latest Black Mists stuff, it sounds like Narrative is going for something a bit less subtle and a bit more like an annual alien invasion—I'm thinking in particular of Bilgewater sailing a fleet out to fight the Black Mists—but overall it seems reasonable that spooky times would bring everyone together for feasts.

One particular point of emphasis in my version: all-night parties, because going to sleep at night is a chancy proposition during the Harrowing, especially for Summoners and Champions who've taken lives in their respective lines of work.

So, what other ideas do people have for mixing the Black Mist material into the fan League universe?

14 Comments

Rextreff11/11/2014, 6:23:09 AM4 votes

There should be black mist cappuccinos

AbiwonKenabi11/11/2014, 2:33:50 PM2 votes

inb4 Cupcake starts raging about the change in location of the Shadow Isles in relation to Bilgewater. Our map of Valoran is wrong now.

Regarding the Harrowing, it obviously reflects ye olde beliefs of spirits being more active this time of year, and thus particular actions had to be taken to ward them off from the living or perhaps to show respect for them. This is easily translatable to the Black Mist, which is a physical manifestation of this idea: spirits of the dead drifting from their most concentrated place, the Shadow Isles. I'd say the Shadow Isles are strongest during the Harrowing, when celestial bodies empower them and they have the power to do more spooby stuff.

Seeing as Bilgewater has a careful record of every disaster during this time of year, it seems the Black Mist attempts to strengthen its ranks during the Harrowing, but runs out of steam when the Harrowing ends and their extra power fades, resulting in a vague catastrophe that has no real purpose. But every year it happens, so with each passing year--and each disaster--the Mist comes back stronger, taking more people with it. What they plan to do with all these spirits is hard to say. Shadow Isles doesn't seem like a place intent to take over the world entirely; once the living are gone, the dead are at their population limit. I'd say a more likely explanation is it started with a single soul, one mysterious power, and it returned to take revenge on the living, and every year it returns with its new allies--the dead from the year before. That's how I see it anyways.

What does this mean for Factions? Well, I'd say the Shadow Isles are strongest during this time, and it'd be really cool if they get some sort of bonus, military or otherwise, for maybe that week (or the week after, if you are running late cough cough). Another option is to have some sort of "Black Mist" conflict, similar to the Void matches towards the end of Hextech Revolution. I really enjoyed those matches and its always cool seeing a specific event translate into the game. A TT Hexakill match would have been even cooler (in fact I'm a big advocate of having Featured Game Modes incorporated into the story somehow, even if only for a short time). It would be a cool yearly tradition that Factions could hype up with the Shadow Isles having a match during the Harrowing every year.

Those are my thoughts on it.

Ethereal31111/12/2014, 6:37:31 PM2 votes

Been thinking about the Black Mist for a while, and here is what I've come up with.

The Mist is a magically conducting body, and, considering its Shadow Isle origin, carries a portion of energy directly from the Shadow Isles. The Mist itself is subject to any physical laws like any other heavy fog, but its conductivity allows for arcane entities to mingle inside the cloud completely undetectable. Most are harmless, but any arcane interactions ripple throughout the Mist's entirety, dragging massive attention to the phenomena from any predatory entities that would otherwise only be found in the Isles' magically hyper-active zones, letting the otherwise isolated beings prey on any trespassers with even the slightest magical aptitude. As all humans have a bare minimum of a magical signature, it is heavily advised not to enter the Mist under any circumstance, as even if one were to exit the Mist within a few seconds, the attention attracted could very well poison the immediate area for extended days as whatever beings investigate what dared trespass in their domain. Bargaining with these entities is also heavily advised against, as most if not all of these entities have no concept of attaining mutuality with anything but themselves. Even the entities with any notable intelligence rarely take notice in small disturbances, and the only way to communicate them would be to generate enough magic to be noticed by local forces to even the Institute of War itself. Attempted communication is a heavy crime, but that has not stopped countless cults and madmen from their attempts, which have often ended with quarantines followed by thorough cleansing of the infected area to prevent further entities from taking interest. The Black Mist is a veritable blight on Valoran's harmony and should otherwise be considered a hostile entity whose containment would have been priority without the constant political bickering of the six major nations.

Thoughts?