My thoughts on Ornn's fork and spade

http://hasagi.gg/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Ornn-2.jpg

There are theories circulating that Ornn's fork is Fizz's trident and his spade is the same one that Yorick uses, and I can see why. It would be cool and besides, why would Riot mention them if it weren't important? The Law of Conservation of Detail; every given detail is important, and since Riot is the sole distributor of the game's lore, that isn't an unreasonable attitude to adopt. During Kayn's AMA, a Rioter admitted that a previous post by another Rioter saying that Kayn has a crush on Zed was intended as a joke, but it was already too late and people had taken it at face value (including myself). Rightly, someone told the Rioter that wasn't cool for the reason I previously mentioned.

But upon examination of the lines and crosschecking with established lore, I'm inclined to disagree with the theories (edit: the spade theory, anyway). I'm not saying that they're wrong and I will not fault anyone for believing them, for my evidence isn't foolproof. Let's examine the lines:

Ornn . . . threw his spade as far to the west as he could. Where it landed, no one knows, and its fate is lost to darkness.

The mention about darkness and the fact that it is a spade make it easy to assume that it's the spade that Yorick uses. However, the text explicitly says that Ornn threw his spade west. As I understand it, and I'm pretty confident that it's still true, the Freljord is the northernmost part of Valoran. Already, if Ornn threw it west, it would probably end up in the sea. Furthermore, the Shadow Isles are just southeast of Bilgewater (according to the following map released around Burning Tides if I recall correctly, which definitely falls into the new regime of lore), which is not only south of Freljord, but also located in the east, which we know from the map of central Valoran during the recent Piltover event. However, in hindsight, the northern bit might not hurt as much as I thought after ruminating on the second theory some more, with the insinuation/possibility that the fork drifted south—but we'll get to that.

https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/2/26/Shadow_Isles_Black_Mist.png/revision/latest?cb=20170219101605 https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/3/37/Runeterra_Map_01.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170308222904

(And yes, while the map points to the Freljord in a westward fashion, which would make it seem unreliable, I think it's merely that the coastline gradually slopes northwestern to the Freljord and the map just doesn't show it, and there is a light upward curve to the arrow to support this idea.)

I won't rule out the possibility that Ornn threw the spade so hard that it went around the world (he is a demigod), but said possibility feels slim. There is still more evidence against the theory. According to Lissandra in her ARAM monologue (who, I will admit, might be bluffing), the Three Sisters predated the fall of Shurima, which happened millennia ago. While I can't find any lore giving an estimate of how long ago the Ruination was, I have the feeling that Shurima predates the disaster, putting even more time between Ornn casting aside his spade and the Ruination. Therefore, the Blessed Isles were not yet corrupted by darkness. Moreover, Yorick's lore did not make any mention of his spade being special. This is the only mention of a spade of any type in his lore:

Every monk carried a spade as a symbol of their duty to conduct proper burial rite . . .

Moving onto the fork-turned-trident (which does have a lot more going for it, I will admit now halfway through this post; now I feel silly, but I'm going to continue anyway), let's read the line that mentions it:

Then he turned east and threw his favorite eating fork as far as he could. It landed in the Great Sea. Some say, later, a mer-king found a powerful trident at the sea-bottom, and still uses it to rule his kingdom.

I already mentioned that Bilgewater lies in the eastern ocean, where Fizz comes from. He is still associated with Bilgewater, but he wasn't mentioned in Burning Tides to the extent of my knowledge (and thank goodness, he would've clashed with the gritty vibe they were going for), correct me if I'm wrong. When I set out to make this thread, I misinterpreted (my bad; and here I am, saying people aren't paying enough attention to the text) that Ornn threw the fork westward as well, which debunked the theory in my head. But upon reading the text again and highlighting the direction he threw it for everyone _else _ to read and weep, I realized that my mistake. Oops. So this second theory actually has more merit to it. When I still believed that the theory was wrong, I used the last bit, that the king still uses the trident today, to strengthen my claim; clearly, it had nothing to do with Fizz's kingdom, since everyone but him had disappeared. Even after realizing my error, I still thought the two might not have a connection, with the king still ruling his kingdom. But then I remembered the very thing I've been reminding people whenever the Tales of Ornn are brought up: they are told from the perspective of an in-universe narrator (specifically a Freljordian) and thus subject to bias (which might explain the portrayal of Anivia and Volibear), interpretation (did Ornn really bring snow to the Freljord?), and a lack of knowledge (the tales aren't told from the usual third-person, matter-of-factly way that Riot uses in their full lores). While the narrator may have heard of Fizz's merfolk and their king that wields a trident, she may not know what has befallen Fizz's people (since it was relatively recent and the only person who would really know is Fizz) and thus, believes that the king still rules with his trident, which is really a fork. I don't know about you, but I find that funny; gotta love the trope of people stumbling upon a powerful artifact, only for that artifact to be mundane to its original owner. In fact, I thought this was more evidence that the fork couldn't be Fizz's trident; I dismissed it as a joke. I thought the fork was introduced at the same time as the spade just to set up a punchline later. But look who's the fool now: me. And you can't take my title from me.

Hmm. Well, I originally titled the thread "I don't think Ornn's spade and fork are significant", but basic reading comprehension destroyed my basis for half my argument, so yeah, had to change it. I'm now willing to believe that Ornn's fork is the trident that Fizz, though I do want to point out what a weird fork that thing would be (the circular design is what gets me), but Ornn himself admits that he's made some weird stuff, e.g. a harpoon made of a mountain and a world tree. However, the spade is a much harder argument. I do wonder if it will pop up again, but as it stands, I don't think it ties into any previous lore.

Thank you for your time.