A Reconstitution of Kassadin's and Malzahar's Lore
From the guy who brought you his insights into LoL lore:
... comes yet another post! And this one's a doozy... WARNING! TL;DR AHEAD!
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121115192233/borderlands/images/8/85/687787450.jpg I’M BACK, YOU SONS OF WITCHES. BACK TO STUN YOU WITH ANOTHER ROUND OF LORE MUSINGS, FEATURING KASSY AND MALZ THIS TIME AROUND. THIS ONE’S PRETTY MUCH A RECONSTITUTION OF KASSADIN’S AND MALZAHAR’S LORE, USING POST-RETCON LORE AND RECYCLING SOME OF THE GOOD OL’ STUFF. REMEMBER, I OVERTHINK EVERYTHING, SO SOMEHOW THIS BECOMES A COHERENT STORY IN MY HEAD.
Where this all started...
In the (discontinued) Journal of Justice, Volume 1, Issue 14, an article details a confrontation between Malzahar and Kassadin in Zaun. According to witnesses, Kassadin attempted to save a young woman from being sacrificed by Malzahar. After the girl was dragged into a portal of Malzahar’s making, the portal closed explosively, causing a major power blackout in the city. Kassadin was forced to flee thereafter, having been deemed responsible for the blackout. On its own, the whole affair doesn’t seem that interesting. Seems like filler, just to show that Kassadin and Malzahar do clash outside the ring. Until the Zaunite Security Supervisors spills their “initial investigation has suggested that this woman may, in fact, be Kassadin’s daughter.”
WOAH THERE! Malzahar sacrificed Kassadin’s daughter? That’s freaking dark! And it got sidelined into a Journal of Justice? Well, “sidelined” is incorrect; Journal of Justice was the best place for it, really. Still, that’s character changing! We know that from Lucian losing Senna to Thresh. So Kassadin doesn’t just oppose Malzahar because they’re naturally at odds. He has a vendetta, a personal relationship! There’s so much more to tap into with that. There’s so much more to tap into with that than “of opposing factions/ideals”.
The Journal of Justice may be defunct, but that’s a story that has to survive. There’s potential in that, there are places to go; why not exploit it? Yes, you can argue that was the case with the whole old lore, but I see nothing in this story piece that confounds Riot’s new vision of Valoran. Oh boo hoo, they just want to give us three sentences each per champion for lore! Now quiet.
How that can be modernized to the new lore...
Alright, let’s say we preserve the integral piece of that whole schtick: Malzahar sacrifices Kassadin’s daughter, giving Kassadin a personal reason to thrawt him. That’d mean it would be best integrated into Kassadin’s normal lore, which would change it up some. Kassadin’s lore says he was a seeker of forbidden knowledge, which lead him to explore Icathia. But where is Icathia?
According to Malzahar’s own lore, the few people who believed Icathia ever existed were “certain that the sands had devoured whatever remained”. Now, we know that Malzahar is Shuriman since his own lore literally opens with, “Many men have gone mad beneath the glare of the Shurima sun”. Since Malzahar journeyed into the desert and found Icathia, we can deduce that Icathia is somewhere in Shurima. Shurima’s a pretty big place, if the post-retcon Shurima lore is anything to go by, so I can believe that. Riot has even told us that the Voidborn, who enter Valoran via Icathia, are tied to Shurima. Rek’Sai’s supplement lore makes it abundantly clear that Rek’Sai and the lesser Xer’Sai stalk the southern desert. According to the Tahm Kench Q&A too, almost all the names given to the Voidborn are ancient Shuriman in origin. Everything about the Void leads back to Shurima, it seems.
Icathia being in Shurima also provides a place of origin for Kassadin. How’s that? We can take from Kassadin’s lore, of him being a “seeker of forbidden knowledge”, that he’s explored before and often. What better place to find lost knowledge and history than Shurima? Ezreal explores there all the time. Cassiopeia and Sivir’s post-retcon lore shows that even Noxians have taken interest in unearthing Shurima’s ruins. Plus, if Icathia is indeed somewhere in Shurima, where else would Kassadin find those ancient texts that lead him there? And according to Sivir’s post-retcon lore, the nomadic Shurimans commonly practice tomb robbing. Bam, bam, bam, bam, BAM! Drop Kassadin into Shurima with his daughter, and he’ll be gold!
Here's what I (over)thought
Now let’s set Kassadin and Malzahar on a collision course! Because, like I said earlier, Kassadin’s daughter has to be sacrificed! Instead of Malzahar already being insane and just dropping in and stealing Kassadin’s little girl, why don’t we make their relationship a bit more… intimate.
Now, we’re about to enter the DANGER ZONE, people, where I REALLY start to overthink things. This is the bit where my brain tries to make a justification for everything! Hold onto your buffs, because this train of thought’s going to be a bumpy ride!
Kassadin’s in-game passive is called Void Stone. I don’t see where it actually comes from, but I assume it’s a stone Kassadin keeps on his person. His updated passive icon does show that it indeed refers to a stone. It’s never touched upon in his lore, but like I said, I’m going to overthink it! I believe Kassadin found the Void Stone while exploring a ruin. He hadn’t seen anything like it, so he starts asking around to see if anyone could identify it.
Meanwhile, Malzahar is having his visions. His gift of foresight, according to his lore, was unrefined. Perhaps his visions always came to pass, but he could err or misinterpret them. I take this to mean that his visions always came to pass, but he could err or misinterpret them, so he doesn’t always know what they mean. But his dreams inexplicably draw him to Kassadin… and the stone.
The two meet and converse as fellow Shurimans, and Malzahar tries to explain his dreams. The two discover that they share a mutual interest in old Shurima, and talk of how harsh life is in the present. Malzahar eventually interprets the name “Icathia” from his dreams, and takes it to mean that the Void Stone is somehow connected to the mythical city. Kassadin is skeptical at first, but Malzahar insists that if his visions had pointed them toward the city, they are meant to find it. Indeed, if the legends of Icathia were indeed true, the city’s treasures could change their lives. Kassadin yielded, and began searching for Icathia’s existence with Malzahar’s aid.
Fast forward to the trio (Kassadin’s daughter included) finding Icathia. Kassadin and Malzahar have developed a sort of bond, united in commonality. As they came closer to finding the city, Malzahar’s visions began troubling him. Flashes of the land beset by monstrous beings raced in his head. Yes, they troubled him greatly. The three learn much in the dead city, especially pertaining to something called the Void and of ancient monstrosities once pushed back from Valoran, and of their inevitable return…Yadda yadda yadda, I’ll skip to the juicy bits.
Malzahar suddenly makes a grab at Kassadin’s daughter. Kassadin hastily asks Malzahar what he’s doing. Malzahar spills that he’s been plagued with visions of the Voidborn invading Valoran. He insists that his visions led them to Icathia for a purpose, and it couldn’t be to stop the Voidborn’s invasion. What could two mortal men do to stop a world of monstrosities? The other option is that they’re meant to help the Voidborn. His visions always end up true, so if the Voidborn are coming, there’s no stopping it. Malzahar uses the Void Stone to tear open a rift into the Void and Kassadin tries to stop him. They lock hands over the stone and the rift fluctuates, enveloping them in a blast.
When Kassadin awakens, he finds himself… elsewhere. A place out of places, surreal yet terrifying. He doesn’t feel right. There’s something off in everything around him; something’s missing, but he can’t tell what. There’s just a void where it should be. Pretty much imagine the Fade from Dragon Age: Inquisition, especially the opening. His daughter is nowhere to be seen, but Malzahar comes to nearby. When he tries to confront Malzahar, Kassadin hears something. Somethings. Scuttling, stamping, clicking, whirring, grinding. Kassadin spots the rift through which he and Malzahar came through. Creatures draw into view, unspeakable things. They seemingly ignore Malzahar, who insists Kassadin again to accept the inevitable, now that he’s seen with his own eyes what the future will bring. Malzahar hands Kassadin the Void Stone in a gesture of goodwill. Kassadin takes it… and decks Malzahar. Damning himself for it, Kassadin makes for the rift without his daughter. The Voidborn give chase, but Kassadin escapes through the rift, which closes behind him.
Once he put distance between him and Icathia, he had the time to notice that he had changed, mutated more like. The Void had changed him; his skin looked different, felt different. Everything felt different. And something felt missing. His chest felt empty. He couldn’t forget what Malzahar had said either, about how they couldn’t stop the Voidborn. Malzahar was right that two men couldn’t fight against that… you’d need more than that. A small part of him had died in the Void the moment he ran to escape, but now he felt a new purpose. He had to protect Valoran’s people; he couldn’t allow what happened to him happen to anyone else. Malzahar… Kassadin trusted him, yet now his daughter was gone, lost to some eldritch nightmare. Malzahar would pay. And he will stop the Voidborn at any cost. He had lost the one thing that mattered to him; what else had he to lose?
Thereafter, Kassadin and Malzahar have been at odds. Malzahar reemerged in time, altered as Kassadin had been, a prophet of the Void. Somehow he had gathered a following, fellow nihilists or more likely beguiled souls. But Kassadin had been gathering strength too. His newfound abilities grew easier to use with each passing day, and he had turned to his closest friends and contacts and shared his story. It is hearsay to most, but some haven’t forgotten his young girl’s smile. They feared what’d await their own families if they did not act. So began Malzahar and Kassadin’s war...
EDIT: I've been told that the daughter, one of the central pieces of my ramble, falls short in significance. This was not my intention. But Kassadin's daughter should be a centerpiece of his relationship with Malzahar; I just can't explain it to satisfactory. If you can come up with a better way to integrate her, good on you!
