Shadow Isles Short Lores

TerraRising·10/8/2014, 7:54:03 PM·6 votes·2,842 views

Here are the new short lore stories

(Copied from Surrender@20)

Elise

Elise's entrancing beauty and grace conceal the pitiless, black heart of a deadly predator. With ruthless cunning, she lures the unsuspecting with promises of favor from the spider god. Having exchanged her humanity to become something far more sinister, Elise sacrifices the innocent to maintain her power and seemingly eternal youth. No one can fathom how many have been caught in her web, slain to feed her insatiable hunger.

Evelynn

Swift and lethal, Evelynn is one of the most deadly - and expensive - assassins in all of Runeterra. Able to merge with the shadows at will, she patiently stalks her prey, waiting for the right moment to strike. While Evelynn is clearly not entirely human, and her heritage remains unclear, it is believed that she hails from the Shadow Isles - though her link with that tortured realm remains shrouded in mystery.

Hecarim

Hecarim is a towering, armored specter whose name is whispered fearfully across the length and breadth of Runeterra. He patrols the Shadow Isles, running down anyone foolish enough to set foot upon its cursed soil. As the vanguard of undeath, Hecarim rides forth from the Black Mist, laughing mockingly as he tramples the living beneath his iron-shod hooves.

Karthus

Karthus is a harbinger of oblivion, zealously devoted to the beauty and clarity of death. Even in his youth, he was utterly obsessed with mortality, growing ever more relentless in the pursuit of his dark desires. Yearning to be one with death itself, Karthus journeyed to the Shadow Isles and willingly offered himself to undeath. Karthus transformed into the Deathsinger, a dread lich existing solely to deliver the blessed gift of annihilation.

Maokai

Maokai was bound to a gnarled tree by the dark magic that transformed the Shadow Isles. The once-peaceful nature spirit is now a corruption of his former self. Infused with power that he never asked for, he has become a destructive force, sundering his enemies with wild magic and crushing limbs. Maokai continues to wander Valoran, seeking the means to bring life back to his forest home.

Mordekaiser

The vicious wraith Mordekaiser is among the most terrifying and hateful of spirits that haunt the Shadow Isles. Entombed in ancient armor, the Master of Metal is said to be the first of the unliving, a revenant who existed even before the Shadow Isles were wrought. His twisted soul thrives on his own suffering, as well as the anguish he inflicts upon others. Those who dare face Mordekaiser in battle risk a horrific curse: he enslaves his victims' souls to become instruments of destruction.

Thresh

Thresh is a sadistic, spectral reaper who relishes tormenting the living and the dead. Once a jailer who mercilessly brutalized all under his charge, Thresh was hanged from his own chains by the prisoners he had tortured. With his vicious essence unbound, the Chain Warden roams Runeterra in search of prey. He derives twisted joy from slowly breaking the minds of his most defiant victims, before trapping their souls within the sickly green light of his lantern.

Yorick

A terrifying and tragic figure, Yorick is a ghoulish being that exists on the edge of mortality. Some say he was the last of his family line, dying without an heir to continue its legacy, and that he is cursed to continue to his family's duty even after death. Wielding the twisted shovel he bore in life, he continues his macabre work, endlessly digging and filling graves upon the haunted Shadow Isles.

47 Comments

DG Ashabel10/8/2014, 8:31:55 PM11 votes

Hecarim His new lore has gone full Skarner. He's turned from the political representative of Shadow Isles who works to advance their agenda on the main continent into a random horsedude who runs around on his island and kills people. It's a mighty shame. I loved my pony more when he was a full-fledged character, not a random raid boss.

Elise They went way too "RAR EVIL SPIDER MONSTER" here. Yes, she's that, but she is also a charismatic cult leader and has been rumored to be a part of the Black Rose. They basically downplayed every aspect of her that isn't "wow so spider much evil very kill".

Karthus The same complaint as above. His new dialogue in-game is very elegant, almost poetic. The lore makes him sound like a random life-hating lich and makes him look more boring than he actually is.

Yorick is kinda... boring. I don't feel any hook in his lore and it skips from one thought to another several times. It's not terrible, but it's not very interesting either.

Overall, these aren't awful, but if the narrative team really expects these tidbits to foster people's interest in longer lore entries, boy are they in trouble.

CupcakeTrap10/9/2014, 12:08:15 AM10 votes

Maokai was bound to a gnarled tree by the dark magic that transformed the Shadow Isles. The once-peaceful nature spirit is now a corruption of his former self. Infused with power that he never asked for, he has become a destructive force, sundering his enemies with wild magic and crushing limbs. Maokai continues to wander Valoran, seeking the means to bring life back to his forest home.

Riot complained that it felt weird ending bios with "and so they came to the League of Legends to pursue this goal." Apparently, "wandering Valoran in search of ______" doesn't give them the same discomfort. There's a lot of it about.

No, no, don't have Maokai go to the League and try to find allies to help him retake part of the Isles, or to find arcane secrets that he might be able to use to restore his forest: just have him "wander Valoran".

Ark Angel HFB10/8/2014, 11:29:04 PM7 votes

Is no one going to talk about the massive change to Maokai!!!

Now he was a spirit all along.

This is a massive change to character origin. Do you guys really think they will keep his character intact?

Maokai never wanted to bring life BACK to his forest... he wanted to return to being a normal tree. This is a complete character assassination!!!

People WAKE UP.

I was in the Role Play event held by Riot that brought Maokai into the league... this is a complete departure from his original character!!!

Him being a tree means that he was always used to being in one place and well... being a tree.

Nature spirit is a whole other ill defined thing... If it was a thinking reasoning thing then it even more undermines the current Moakai.

See his old lore he HATES that he is alive, he has tried to kill himself and he can't even do that. The magic that brought him to life is so twisted he can't even kill himself to find peace. The magic just keeps bringing him back to life. "I would end this burden, but it always returns."

Further more the most central thing about the character, the fact that he is a walking warning against wild magics is gone, or down played to the point that it might as well not be there.

Old Maokai didn't want to really restore himself so much as end the act of living as a thinking creature.

New Maokai is literal a spirit trapped in something... It could have been a tire... or a rock... and oh god I think I know what they are going to do to maplhite. T_T

PhoenixSlayer1310/8/2014, 7:59:55 PM6 votes

Well... they mostly seem to be in line with their respective champion's full lores. Nothing like "Ezreal is embarrassed by becoming a celebrity" at least.

TerraRising10/8/2014, 8:04:56 PM6 votes

I'm curious if any of these had to be changed because of how badly received the Shurima ones were.

I mean, I sincerely doubt it given how much Narrative appears to care about our opinions, despite Rioters protests to the contrary.

LordHippoman10/8/2014, 8:54:15 PM6 votes

Kinda sad they didn't mention Elise's spider cult. That's my favorite thing about her.

Ulric Greatsword10/9/2014, 10:46:59 PM5 votes

Gangplank "Look at what crawled out of the plot holes!"

Melancholy Exile10/8/2014, 8:44:27 PM5 votes

Evelynn

Swift and lethal, **Evelynn is one of the most deadly - and expensive - assassins in all of Runeterra.** Able to merge with the shadows at will, she patiently stalks her prey, waiting for the right moment to strike. While Evelynn is clearly not entirely human, and her heritage remains unclear, it is believed that she hails from the Shadow Isles - though her link with that tortured realm remains shrouded in mystery.

I'm not saying there couldn't be an interesting story in this, but how exactly does one contract Evelynn and what does she really need money for?

Jakethenight10/8/2014, 8:15:46 PM4 votes

Shadow Isles got Shurima'd.

Irongrinder10/9/2014, 5:20:54 AM4 votes

Confusion. I was under the impression that the changed lore for the Shurima characters were placeholders for upcoming, better stories. Moreover, most of the reaction to it was negative, at least in my experience--shorter and shallower was not better.

And with the claims that Riot's listening to our feedback...and then they're changing lore that never needed to be changed in the first place...

God, am I disappointed.

Sneak Dog10/8/2014, 9:41:06 PM4 votes

Hecarim is an angry undead centaur guarding the shadow isles. Yorick is an undead grave-digger. Mordekaiser is a wraith in an armor enslaving souls.

I am not exactly into it yet. Especially Hecarim, what happened to him that he now just tramples people on the Shadow Isles? What kind of lazy boring thing is that to do? He makes the shadow isles sound like some location you hear off at the start of an rpg and you know you'll get there 3/4th into it and Hecarim is just galloping back and forth over the shores, awaiting your arrival.

While I also mentioned Yorick/Mordekaiser, I do think these are their characters were you to briefly describe them. They just don't sound very interesting in this format.

Dotintheparadox10/10/2014, 6:01:34 PM3 votes

Mordekaiser "Desolation is coming."

Ultîma10/9/2014, 4:24:29 PM2 votes

After reading through these, I have to admit those particular short bios are not nearly as cringe-inducing as their past attempts. The characters are summarized thematically in an accurate manner that doesn't betray their old stories. I even feel that Mordekaiser previously had a much weaker, nebulous story that seems a bit more reinforced by the idea that he's a soul-enslaving wraith. Evelynn has always been out of place and I don't think they really attempted to transform her in a better character yet. Hopefully she is headed for a lore-retcon because the idea that one can even hire a shadow-dominatrix-assassin from a land of spirits and undead tests my suspension of disbelief even in the rules of this world.

TL;DR; Sad to see long stories go, that being said the short bios are done in a tasteful manner.

Stars Shaper10/9/2014, 7:02:51 AM2 votes

Mordekaiser

The vicious wraith Mordekaiser is among the most terrifying and hateful of spirits that haunt the Shadow Isles. Entombed in ancient armor, the Master of Metal is said to be the first of the unliving, a revenant who existed even before the Shadow Isles were wrought. His twisted soul thrives on his own suffering, as well as the anguish he inflicts upon others. Those who dare face Mordekaiser in battle risk a horrific curse: he enslaves his victims' souls to become instruments of destruction.

Surely better than what they've done with Shurima, I would have liked to see a mention about how Mordekaiser 's purpose in existence was different than the will of the Shadow Islands.

If this is a preview of a Shadow Isels event then I'm all up for it :) Harrowing and Shadow Iselnds looks like a nice theme couple.