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2018 Lore Tournament - 10th December: The Cage vs. The Shadow Door

RiotBioluminescence·12/10/2018, 9:30:15 PM·20 votes·16,980 views

[Edit] Wowzers that was close! The Cage juuuuust won out but it was neck and neck the whole way. Super cool.

#2018 Lore Tournament: Day 5 Welcome to day 5 of the 2018 Lore Tournament!

After a run of Noxian aggression, facing off against beautiful dangers in the jungle, beautiful dangers in the depths of Shurima, and beautiful dangers in a port town in Ionia, we encounter some significantly more malicious and insidious dangers...

This lovely Monday has us rubbing shoulders with some of the most horrific of League characters - who's hearts (such as they are) are filled with hate and ill will towards all of humanity. So turn the lights on, hug your pets, and join me in this great unsettling.

https://i.imgur.com/PjTfvqV.jpg[/img] The Cage by Odin Shafer Unable to breathe, unable to move, the unstoppable will of Aatrox rages against his situation. ##vs https://i.imgur.com/X1MpMIV.jpg[/img] The Shadow Door by Ian St. Martin Abel asks for another bedtime story from his father, Celwyn; a story to keep the monsters away.

S P O O P Y and no mistake. I'm having a lot of fun re-reading these - and I hope you folks are too. Every one the brain-baby of a lovely writer person who hoped to give us another little window into the world of Runeterra. Cue cheesy phrase and I beg forgiveness in advance, but I want so many of these stories (all of them?) to win. They all have their place, their purpose, and their need.

Ahem. Enough of that - fight brain-babies! FIGHT!

34 Comments

Terozu12/10/2018, 10:16:56 PM12 votes

Nocturne's story was fucking chilling to me, when the twist came in I was really fucking freaked out, so theres my vote. Once again its losing but w/e.

Blood Magicks12/10/2018, 9:37:07 PM9 votes

In the absence of the Noxus bias there is... The Darkin bias.

I am powerless, probably because I feel they are otherwise equally good.

Cetri12/10/2018, 10:07:15 PM8 votes

This is one of the ones I wasn't looking forward to, because I love both of these stories so much. The Cage is really good at putting us in Aatrox's shoes (sheath?) to the degree that I can almost feel the crushing suffocation he endures in his prison. The Shadow Door, meanwhile, excels in visually describing the horrors of Nocturne's torturous terrors, and builds an atmosphere of utter dread on part with some of the greatest horror stories.

Ultimately I'm gonna give it to The Shadow Door, but it's damn close.

QMighty12/10/2018, 11:14:01 PM6 votes

Nocturne's story was bone-chilling, it really brought a super-old champ into current lore in a really effective way.

HonestJohnTheCon12/10/2018, 10:05:21 PM4 votes

This will be a close one.

Fishing Boat12/11/2018, 4:42:00 AM3 votes

I loved both of them but the Aatrox story felt more real and visceral, with the nocturne story seeming like "all in a day's work for nocturne". Part of it is that I don't really know what to make of the last lines of that story, it's really vague. Aatrox feels less like a one-off horror story and more like an accurate description of all of his rage and pain and fury and pride and self-pity, a man who once thought himself a god. This was a hard choice though.

d00mface12/11/2018, 3:26:47 AM3 votes

Oof this is looking tight. My vote goes to The Cage though. Not just because I love new Aatrox and am biased towards anything with him in it, buuuut also because I really love how well they portrayed the claustrophobic feeling that comes with being trapped in a small space. Imagine being stuck in Aatrox's position, unable to move or even breathe? What a scary and horrible situation. It reminds me of all those horror stories of people getting stuck in caves they're exploring or people being buried alive... I don't have claustrophobia per say, but this story definitely touched upon my fears when I put it in a real world context like that (being buried alive, although unlikely to happen, is still one of my biggest fears!) And for that it gets my vote!

Warlord Dienekes12/11/2018, 12:13:28 AM2 votes

Shadow Door has my vote. But it’s close.

They’re both very good. But Cage looses points for the silly mental image I get of a common soldier finding Aatrox’s 20 ft monster of a sword and thinking “Yeah, I can use this.”

Doctor Dyment12/11/2018, 6:38:14 AM2 votes

The Shadow Door wins out for me due to it's ability to describe a nightmare well. Regular happenings that suddenly and without warning take a turn into absolute mind bending horror that defies all logic and reality. The Cage is very well written too and describes the suffocation of being in an overly tight space very nicely, but I do very much enjoy when dreams and nightmares are described well in a written medium, so my vote goes to The Shadow Door.

Falrein12/10/2018, 9:38:00 PM2 votes

The Shadow Door was creepy. I liked it. Really. I like The Cage too, but Nocturne's story was really strong, and it really struck me, and I got freaked out when I read it. I'm definitely voting for that one!

Necro Warrior8712/11/2018, 3:14:21 PM2 votes

Lordy, I knew this would be neck-and-neck when I first saw it on the bracket. Shadow Door is creepy af, but the Cage actually just makes me feel depressed for Aatrox, the very idea of not being able to breath sounds horrifying to me.

Eleshakai12/11/2018, 5:32:24 PM1 votes

hey look - a contest that doesn't involve noxus, and it's a fairly split vote.

The bias is ridiculous lol...

But the Shadow Door was such a good story.

Spideraxe12/10/2018, 9:46:09 PM1 votes

God this is a hard choice but i think i have to go with the shadow door because Nocturne went from someone who was released and literally 0 lore content since to sp00py shadow king of league. And hot take, i think the untapped shadow magic is more interesting then the darkin

Camille Ferrøs12/10/2018, 9:45:37 PM1 votes

Feelsbad not being able to vote... T_T

DiminishedV12/10/2018, 11:25:56 PM1 votes

Though I'm not a huge fan of where Aatrox's character went overall, The Cage does a good job of showing how got there while also showing some vulnerability that goes a long way toward making him more complex, so The Cage will get my vote on those grounds.

Sir Poodle12/11/2018, 3:10:12 AM1 votes

OK then, at time of writing, apparently my vote broke a 53-53 tie to 54-53 in favor of The Shadow Door.

Really, they're both great stories.

NotaRobot100612/10/2018, 9:50:31 PM1 votes

I've gotta go with The Cage because it confirmed my suspicions about what happens to people when you trap their souls inside weapons.

And thus reinforces my point that Targon made the Darkin even worse than they already were, 'cause odds are they'll be a lot more desperate and a lot less willing to listen to reason after a few hundred years of that.