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Embrace Progress! Ask the Machine Herald Anything

shuile··2 votes·949 views

Flighterist here. Recently started playing LoL, and was immediately captivated by the lore. Read through all the Journals of Justice, Champion bios, etc. In my opinion, Viktor has the best and most detailed background by far. I've always loved mad scientists in fiction, be it a video game, a book, or a movie. There's something about this dude in a lab coat calling up war drones and automated turrets while cackling as his doomsday device winds up in the background, ya know? But lots of times, not enough reason is given for the why. Why did this guy want to blow up the USA? Because he's a mad scientist. Why did that dude attempt to give nukes to ISIS? Mad scientist. Why'd those researchers build and try to use a continent-killer bomb? Because science.

Viktor's story is much more than that. His bio isn't even that long, but it manages to contain an origin story fit for 2 sci-fi novels. Once, just a techmaturgical prodigy who, through toil and and endurance, managed to build a Blitzcrank goddamn sentient robot, something WE haven't managed to do yet, and we've got supercomputers. We've all had that moment of crowning achievement: getting your crush to go to prom with you, buying that house you've always dreamt of living in, etc. And then Professor Stanwick comes in, and pulls an Edison on Viktor.

Viktor's pretty much Tesla if Tesla had gone on a tech-fueled vendetta when Edison stole his lightbulb.

So Viktor decides to prove to everyone that it was HE who had built Blitzcrank. How? The courts had presumably already declared Stanwick the victor(pun pun pun pun), so the only way to prove you can do something is by doing it. In this case, on yourself. Somewhere down the road, Viktor realised how awesome it was to be made of metal, never get tired, and having a third arm that shoots death rays. As a result, he gives up on Blitzcrank, and sets off to show the world the wonders of science and techmaturgical engineering. And from his point of view, he is a savior, a messiah of sorts, who had discovered the wonders of replacing flesh with steel. Embrace progress! Praise the coming of the Glorious Evolution!

And remember, this is Zaun. Orphans and those way too far under the poverty line are rampant. To them, Viktor must really have been like a messiah. Imagine if Ekko hadn't created his timewinder machine. He'd still be this homeless street vagrant in Zaun. If you've seen Ekko's trailer or his webcomic, in Zaun there are apparently people who go out of their way to kill random homeless kids for the lulz. You're bullied, hungry, constantly in danger. Along comes Viktor, a man(not really anymore) who tells you he can remake you, give you so much more. And unlike the other mad scientists of Zaun who want to test their magic mutagen/ experimental brain surgery/ newfound body modifications on you, Viktor guarantees you a successful "evolution" because he himself is an example of it. Meanwhile the other Zaunite techmaturgists really will just end up poisoning you because they didn't dare try their test tubes full of glowing green gloop on themselves.

Months pass. Viktor has remade, EVOLVED many willing acolytes. And the acolytes all praise him for being the Great Mechanical Herald and spout Glorious Evolution propaganda. As a result, everyone thinks Viktor brainwashed them. But see it from those remade Zaunite street kids' points of view: Mechdude comes by, says he can help you out of your life of begging for scraps and getting knifed in the dark. You accept, and holy ****! You're a mechdude/ mechdudette now too! The rich fat guy who liked to entertain himself throwing bread crumbs at you and your friends as you prostrated yourselves on the ground despite the humiliation can't laugh at you anymore, because he knows if he does you will laser-arm him. The gangs that beat the crap out of you before now back away when you deploy your hand-mounted cutter saws. You are safe. OF COURSE you are going to act like a brainwashed slave to Viktor! He saved you! He is the Machine Herald to you!

But sadly, now everyone thinks Viktor's a revenge-bent asshole who brainwashes people into letting him turn them into "monsters." Not to say Viktor's not revenge-bent anyways: if he ever met Professor Stanwick again, the Professor's not going to survive the encounter.

Viktor's awesome but misunderstood, is what I'm saying here. Recently I've been roleplaying during matches a lot when I play as him. Just found out LoL has Roleplay boards...

So, now that I've provided a lore-supported, expanded background full of emotional intrigue and techmaturgical drama, who wants to ask Viktor some questions?

Also a poll, because I want to know the community's thoughts on Viktor.

Also, interactive storyline possible?

11 Comments

Vistha Kai1 votes

Flighterist here. Recently started playing LoL, and was immediately captivated by the lore. Read through all the Journals of Justice, Champion bios, etc.

Did you know: nothing is canon in this game?

shuile1 votes

Flighterist: I did my best to expand on the stuff the game's champion bios and other lore...

Viktor You are flawed. Did you know, I could rebuild you to perfection? gestures to operating table at center of laboratory Do not fear this. Embrace progress!

Do you agree to the surgery? (Y/N)

Vistha Kai2 votes

Freaking yes, I do. My nose is killing me for years now.

PS. Apparently Ekko has a family. The more you know.

shuile1 votes

Flighterist: Ekko has a family? The lore made him out to be a Zaunite street orphan...

Viktor I have replaced your respiratory system with a set of far more efficient medical respiratory units. You no longer have to worry about your nasal problems, as you no longer have a nose. Enjoy your upgrade. Should you seek further enlightenment, I could show you the full glory of the Evolution. You could use an extra arm. Viktor turns away, rinsing surgical tools attached to spider-leg-like arms which protrude from his torso at a nearby spigot

a nearby set of mechanical doors grate, exposing portions of the lab to the dirty yellow Zaun sunlight

Viktor waves his third arm at the door, gesturing for you to leave

Do you leave, or seek further modifications and become an acolyte of the Glorious Evolution?

(leave/stay)

Vistha Kai1 votes

No, thank you. That will be all for now, dr Viktor.

Have you ever considered upgrading Satan Teemo ?

shuile1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Vistha Kai,realm=EUNE,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=V6n2ZU2y,comment-id=00000000000000000000,timestamp=2015-06-03T19:10:58.384+0000)

No, thank you. That will be all for now, dr Viktor.

Have you ever considered upgrading Satan Teemo ?

Viktor Ah, the little yordle scout... I had encountered him on the Fields of Justice multiple times. His combat style intrigued me, and I offered him the chance to participate in the Glorious Evolution. Like most other misinformed persons who believe I brainwash and subjugate those I evolve, he declined rather forcibly. No matter. The Glorious Evolution is coming.

I would like to have had a chance to upgrade his skin... Active camouflage so that he is always invisible would have made him an even greater force on the Fields of Justice. Not that it matters to me- blowgun darts cannot penetrate my flesh of steel and techmaturgical alloys.

The Anagram King1 votes

Heimerdinger "Dear Viktor, how do I be as smart as you? I already got 1 more arm and what do now?"

shuile1 votes

Flighterist: By 1 more arm I assume you mean the mechanical claw that pops out of his afro.

Viktor It is not the arm which matters. You have modified yourself for greater physical utility, yes, but your mind... could be so much advanced if you replaced your skull with a armoured braincase and changed out those inefficient chemical-electrical nervous systems for a wholly electrical one, as I have done. To reach the pinnacle of existence, you must join the Glorious Evolution! Only when you are truly as much a machine as a man or yordle can you hope to reach the intellectual and physical ascension you seek!

...I could replace your eyes with hextech multi-range scanners which link to your mind that I developed myself in this very lab... You could perceive so much more than just reflected light. Infrared. Gamma and X-rays. All the spectrums of light both visible and invisible, or at least invisible to obsolete fleshlings such as yourself.

You could see so much more.

You yourself are a scientist, Heimerdinger. Surely you, unlike those uneducated Luddites, understand that metal is perfection?

Do you agree to the surgery? (Y/N)

The Anagram King1 votes

Heimerdinger Hrm. I'm not sure, Viktor - You aren't mad that I made a cooler version of your arm, are you? Look at the bombs I can throw with it!

I don't want you taking my greatest invention away from me. Until recently, I never got picked for basketball.

shuile1 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Anagram King,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=V6n2ZU2y,comment-id=000100000000,timestamp=2015-06-04T23:46:24.757+0000)

Heimerdinger Hrm. I'm not sure, Viktor - You aren't mad that I made a cooler version of your arm, are you? Look at the bombs I can throw with it!

I don't want you taking my greatest invention away from me. Until recently, I never got picked for basketball.

Viktor Your head-mounted manipulator barely counts as an arm, Heimerdinger. It is a miniature multi-jointed construction claw at most. Excellent for lobbing explosives, but it lacks the grace and finesse of my back-mounted arm.

I will not patronize you. You too are a scientist, so surely you must realize why your headclaw is inferior? Less agile, less deft, less useful? If only you would join the Glorious Evolution! Having integrated your arm fully into your body, controlling it with your will instead of through such primitive things like buttons and levers, your new arm could throw five electron grenades in many different tangential directions, even lob them with a spin so that they curve back towards your enemies right when they thought your bombs were going to miss! And yet, despite knowing that flesh is positively Jurassic by comparison to the perfection of metal, you choose stagnation as well!

Of all the unbelievers out there, Heimerdinger, you infuriate me the most.

shuile1 votes

[today is a slow day for the online ask-anything page Viktor had put up in the hopes of meeting new adherents to the Glorious Evolution] [with not much else to do, Viktor turns his attention to a side project he had shelved for just such a time when he would be bored] [selecting the correct file from one of the many cabinets within his lab, Viktor spreads out diagrams and blueprints]

[to the untrained eye of unscientific laymen, the diagrams would have just been so much technobabble, but any skilled techmaturgist would have immediately realized the telltale signs of Zaunite scientific insanity] [today, with nothing else to occupy him, Viktor would create his first Battlecast Poro] [if Battlecast Poros don't win over the hearts of nonbelievers all over Valoran, nothing would] [with this in mind, Viktor lowered the power setting on his arm laser to that of a laser welder, picked up 2 pieces of Battlecast metals, and immersed himself in technomaturgical madness]

"FOR SCIENCE," ground out Viktor's synthetic voice as he carved out the Battlecast Poro's tonguepiece.

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