A Good Death - A Story about Magga and Kindred

Sharjo·Sep 23, 2015·52 votes·15,947 views

A story was just released and it involves Kindred! Take a gander folks!

81 Comments

A Superb VillainSep 23, 201512 votes

By meeting death she avoided death.

Also interesting to note the theme of acting, plays, and drama. Kindred is a dual entity that share masks, one is emotional, the other stoic.

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/drama-masks-sketch-22499899.jpg

What a fascinating coincidence.

RiotFauxSchizzleSep 23, 201524 votes

Glad you caught this. The twin masks have always been the essential part of the champ to me. I want them to hang on my wall and creep me out the rest of my life.

RalanrSep 23, 20151 votes

Any room on that boat?

A Superb VillainSep 23, 20158 votes

Duality seems to be just as much a theme for Kindred as death. To be honest, I fully expect Kindred's masks to be available as merchandise, so your desire is quite possible. I cannot say I share it, however; death, however polite or entertaining, is not something I wish to greet on a regular basis.

Ariel the CruelSep 24, 20151 votes

Would it be possible to get that second drawing as a computer background? The one showing the pillars?

333lomSep 23, 201510 votes

So much for Kindred being only a fairytale. It looks like Magga saw them in person - I doubt she had imagined it all. Lamb and Wolf aren't the real Death bringers, they're more of a symbolic departure of a soul. Logical. The bandits killed the poor troupers, while Kindred "hunted them", i.e. just taking their souls, acting out their deaths, depending on the type of their deaths. I'm very sorry for those two and their unborn child. No concrete city-state was mentioned in order to create the feeling that Kindred is a legend in the entire world. Riot is avoiding setting in stone almost all of major places since they said they want to make everything perfect before cementing it.

SharjoSep 23, 20153 votes

Well the fairytale is Runeterran perspective on Lamb and Wolf/Ina and Ani/Farya and Wolyo. The reality is far beyond them.

333lomSep 23, 20151 votes

I meant as in, Kindred aren't an "empty" fairytale. Yes?

SharjoSep 23, 20152 votes

Yeah totally. My bad on missing your meaning there man!

SpecterVonBarenSep 23, 20152 votes

I'm thinking that while they aren't the death bringers, it could be that they hunt the souls of those that die to send them to oblivion/afterlife/reincarnation.

333lomSep 25, 20151 votes

Sure. It could be possible.

Tesla EffectSep 23, 20156 votes

"In the West, I am Ina to his Ani. In the East, Farya to his Wolyo. But we are Kindred everywhere. I am always Lamb to Wolf, and he is always Wolf to Lamb.", a very interesting quote.

GenoXxSep 23, 20151 votes

Ina and Ani are definitely Ionian

Tesla EffectSep 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Ina and Ani are definitely Ionian

But that would mean Ionia is in the west, even tho it was sorta in the east when we saw the Bilgewater map.

AbrahamBaconhamSep 23, 20151 votes

I wonder... If you just kept going west, would you eventually hit Ionia?

Tesla EffectSep 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

I wonder... If you just kept going west, would you eventually hit Ionia?

Depends on what they refer to West and East. Where is Valoran and surrounding islands in conjunction with the worlds meridian and equator ?

FosterTheChampsSep 24, 20156 votes

I'm not going to lie, that writing is a little cringe worthy. The plot's fine and all, but someone spent way too much time scanning over a thesaurus. It's also just too tedious to have a different word for "said" every time someone says something. They need to be careful of writing too much fluff into their stories.

MarbelaraSep 24, 20152 votes

It's actually much less purple prose than you think. It's just stylized writing. The story has/is supposed to have an 'old' feel to it because of it.

Then again, if you're not used to reading this sort of thing, it may be a bit sudden.

FosterTheChampsSep 24, 20151 votes

{quoted}

It's actually much less purple prose than you think. It's just stylized writing. The story has/is supposed to have an 'old' feel to it because of it.

Then again, if you're not used to reading this sort of thing, it may be a bit sudden.

Well you see, I AM very used to reading "old" text. As a fourth year English/creative writing student at university , I've studied texts from just about every era. Fluff is still fluff. The safest way to approach an "older" styled writing is not in presentation of the actual prose, but in the context and dialogue. Shakespeare can be dramatic and "fluffy" because it's a play, its dialogue is meant to be preformed. Prose should not be fluffed in this manner. Even older texts from the medieval ages (which I have a certain affinity for) are some of the least fluffy texts I have ever read, because they were mostly written by monks. Of course, none of this historical context matters because (surprise) Runeterra isn't a real place.

BUT, just saying "well it's fictional language it can be as fluffy as it wants" is a weak excuse for sub-par writing. (No offense to the author(s). I'd love to workshop things like this someday).

Tesla EffectSep 23, 20152 votes

Sharjo, the God of quick lore sightings.

SharjoSep 23, 20156 votes

Sharjo, the God of seeing Moobeat post anything lore related and snapping up the opportunity to alert the boards!

Rito StaffSep 23, 20152 votes

How come no one is talking about what happened T.T I'm figuring you don't want to spoil so I made a new thread just to ask about it, if anyone would enlighten me :|

SharjoSep 23, 20152 votes

Well what's confusing you?

Rito StaffSep 23, 20152 votes

The whole paragraph, "(...)All she felt was a sharp pain in her chest." and the line after that.

Was her death the real show? (Some sort of cult doing or whatever)

EDIT: Or, they were in fact there to kill her, and that whole scene was her Lamb death... hm I thought she hadn't died to the bandits :|

SharjoSep 23, 201526 votes

The second part of the story's set some time after the first part where she meets Kindred, and from what I understand Magga died in stage there, presumably due to age, illness or a heart attack. The sharp pain is indicative of an arrow through her chest, so she presumably accepted her death and went willingly with Kindred.

ViashinoWizardSep 23, 20151 votes

Metaphorically, yes. Literally, I think it's supposed to be a heart attack.

RiotRiotJaredanSep 23, 201518 votes

Sharjo, on the ball as usual!

SharjoSep 23, 20159 votes

I feel vindicated, being praised in such a lordly manner.

http://i.imgur.com/yLKM7tC.png

TurquoiseYoshiSep 23, 20151 votes

sad airhorns for Magga

AuroramancerSep 24, 20153 votes

Would you care to answer a question about the preview video of Lamb and Wolf talking to one another?

When Lamb told Wolf "there once was a pale man with dark hair", was Lamb the pale man's body and Wolf the pale man's dark hair? Is this why Wolf is like an intangible shadow trail, kind of like dark hair? When the man "split himself in two with an axe", did "he" go about this by cutting his hair, bringing about Lamb and Wolf?

xFrostKnightxSep 24, 20151 votes

People confuse the body as the origin of kindred. But it's just a prince who accepted death.

As for their lines, it's likely a emphasis of that mans/things being. Part light (pale skin) part darkness (dark hair).

There was no balance, it was purely half/half. Loneliness split him in half, but they were not alone because wolf has a piece of lamb (the mask - light/pale skin) and lamb has a piece of wolf (mask - darkness/dark hair).

This is what I think it meant by "not alone". It fits the ying-yang theme, that there's no balance (happiness in this cause) without the other. (The black/white dots in the opposite spots on the ying-yang symbol just like kindreds swapped masks.

Ps: I don't think he literally cut himself with an axe, I think it's metaphorically speaking to let you know he became two.

AuroramancerSep 25, 20151 votes

Well yeah, I don't literally think he cut himself with an axe either.

However, just in the way that Wolf is a representation of death that chases you and takes you by force, and Lamb is the representation of death that you accept, surely then this "pale man with dark hair who was very lonely" was the principality of death without certain conditions.

And so, this "avatar" of death without certain conditions, is a pale man with dark hair. So, the avatar of death being lonely, split itself into two beings, each one representing one of two ways in which living things die.

Just as Lamb and Wolf's actions can be represented by certain things, like Lamb with her bow and arrow, or Wolf with his chasing and biting, so the death avatar could have cut his hair to split into Lamb and Wolf.

Chromatic EagleSep 23, 20152 votes

Still a little sad that there's no champion interaction, or a current timeline, or a mention of city states and their politics, but I like the story.

RalanrSep 23, 20153 votes

Actually, the fact that they don't mention current city states tells us a lot. Noxus and Demacia are pretty big things after all.

Tesla EffectSep 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Actually, the fact that they don't mention current city states tells us a lot. Noxus and Demacia are pretty big things after all.

Because they arent city states. Besides Piltover and Zaun, no other nation has been addressed as a city state after the retcon. They even got the titles of Empires and Kingdoms, so the small world is getting larger. Plus their is the Protectorates thing, which may as well be the name for all the territories ether Noxus or Demacia control.

RalanrSep 23, 20151 votes

Yeah that is my bad. I'm not really fresh on the proper terminology of territories.

XulsigaeSep 23, 20152 votes

I was a bit puzzled by the attitudes of Lamb and Wolf towards Magga and others. On one hand, they don't seem to do the actual killing and are more like being present at death to bear the soul away, like Death in Sandman or Discworld. But, on the other hand they seem to take a sort of delight in the actual deaths and express a desire to hunt and terrify. So are they involved and do the killing, or are they detached and only bear the soul away after it has been freed?

Additionally, even though there were details added to the world of Valoran that were quite nice, the lack of connection with any champions or places we are familiar with makes it hard to connect or care about the story (at least for me). Until Kindred has interactions with other champions canonically, I don't really find much added to the overarching lore. It's too isolated for my taste. I hope more connections are added soon. That's just my opinion of course. It's not a bad story. It does show more about the character of Kindred.

Amélie CauchemarSep 23, 20157 votes

{quoted}

I was a bit puzzled by the attitudes of Lamb and Wolf towards Magga and others. On one hand, they don't seem to do the actual killing and are more like being present at death to bear the soul away, like Death in Sandman or Discworld. But, on the other hand they seem to take a sort of delight in the actual deaths and express a desire to hunt and terrify. So are they involved and do the killing, or are they detached and only bear the soul away after it has been freed?

They do the killings. What it is though, most people do not "comprehend" Lamb and Wolf. Thus, their attacks appear as other things. Lamb and Wolf only appear when they want you to see them.

The bandits that killed everyone in a violent way very well could have been Wolf attacking them in a violent manner whereas the heart attack Maggra experienced was an arrow through the chest and to the human eye looks like a heart attack.

Even if you look at the login screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0qOpSoP7Vg

Notice she has no quiver, and the arrow that penetrates the king is wispy and spiritual. It's pretty safe to say her arrows don't even leave marks on the physical body. And, if you look at the screen there's a weird distortion that shows like someone is peering into a different realm to notice them. ((notice that where the echos stop, Wolf's body disappears))

As for Kindred's behavior towards Maggra.

I think what you were experiencing was something called "the cross roads" She stumbled upon death and was at a point at her life where her next decision very well could have been her death. She was technically "already dead" and thus Kindred appeared for her. If she'd have ran away a bandit would have found her and killed her ((wolf)) but she did not run away, and ruined the balance of things.

Thus, Kindred became intrigued as Maggra incidentally changed her fate by staring death in the eye. Thus, Kindred gave Maggra the option to choose her own death as a reward, and also because she played along to Lamb's game and "entertained her with conversation." Thus, Lamb personally gave Maggra a long life and a quick, easy death much later in life while she was doing what she loved, and completely distracted. She even mentioned "when" she was going to kill Maggra. "We enjoy your shows, and we will continue to watch them until we meet again))

Also, you can tell Wolf was the result of the camp being destroyed ((he passed OVER Maggra, going the direction Maggra CAME from))

tl;dr we perceive what they do to us on a different level, because our mind cannot comprehend them unless they allow us to.

wanderer of timeSep 24, 20151 votes

You seem to forget that there were dead bandits next to the playwright.

Amélie CauchemarSep 24, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=wanderer of time,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=0Otrq9Ry,comment-id=000f00000000,timestamp=2015-09-24T02:48:00.454+0000)

You seem to forget that there were dead bandits next to the playwright.

And that means what? Just because some of the bandits died doesn't mean anything really llol.

SolideusSep 23, 20151 votes

An interesting choice not to mention any factions when describing geopgraphy; maybe they want to avoid detracting from the central story. I'm curious to what faction the protectorates mentioned are affiliated, though.

SharjoSep 23, 20153 votes

Given the fact that in the story they mention "With the twin threats of plague and war on the tongues of those in the neighbouring protectorates, death dramas were all the rage", I'd assume the location sits where Kaladoun would've been on the old map; between the territories of the Kingdom of Demacia and the Noxian Empire. Course I'm just throwing out hypothesis.

333lomSep 23, 20151 votes

Perhaps the timeframe in Valoran was also changed, pushing it back to the time of the Rune Wars? Who knows if they're even called that way now.

SharjoSep 23, 20152 votes

Well it depends. The first and second parts of this story are potentially decades apart, but given the ambiguity of who the King and Queen are this could be set at any time. I feel like this might be Jarvan III and Lady Spiritmight, so a more modern occurence, but I dunno.

333lomSep 23, 20152 votes

Yeah the second part is a bit harder to place on a timeline, the only certain thing that can be said abut it is that it happened several decades after the first one. I looked at the first part. Just the description of tensions akin to war between two factions led me to believe that happened during one of the Rune Wars.

SharjoSep 23, 20151 votes

Potentially. Though I am really curious about what they mean by plague, in a manner of who's suffering from plague? Where is this? I feel like that's an important question.

Tesla EffectSep 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Potentially. Though I am really curious about what they mean by plague, in a manner of who's suffering from plague? Where is this? I feel like that's an important question.

Possibly Zauns influence no doubt, War thing is probably Noxus.

GreenLoreSep 23, 20154 votes

Well later on Magga performs in front of a king and a queen,which could hint at this being demacia,the only other city states with kings are the shadow isles(this story could take place in the past,so it wouldn't be impossible) and the freljord(though I dunno if Ashe becoming the "queen of the freljord" is still canon and I kinda doubt that the freljordans have theatres like that)

It could of course also be a country on a different continent that is never going to be important.

Tesla EffectSep 23, 20152 votes

{quoted}

An interesting choice not to mention any factions when describing geopgraphy; maybe they want to avoid detracting from the central story. I'm curious to what faction the protectorates mentioned are affiliated, though.

Protectorates, seems like Demacian controlled areas. They can just as well place Piltover city in its protectorate, like Needlebrook or Jandelle.