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Everyone Is Immortal

Gold Light·8/2/2018, 12:25:05 AM·4 votes·2,647 views

So one of my biggest gripes in League as of late is that so many characters/races are either immortal or can live for an unspecified number of centuries. For beings like the Ascended or the Freljordian gods, this is fine, but with Nunu's lore update on the horizon, I'm worried that yetis are going to be made into yet another ancient race that live for thousands of years.

Seriously, I get that the game is called "League of Legends," but you don't need to have a ridiculously long lifespan to be considered legendary. The vastaya, the yordles, the Ascended, the Aspects, the ursine... Literally all of these races far outlast humans, and Ornn's lore implies that trolls might be somewhat immortal as well. Of course, we can't forget drakalops lizards like Skaarl, who are immortal AND supposedly "unkillable." This isn't even mentioning all the humans who have found ways to survive for centuries: Lissandra Singed Karma Ryze

Look, all I'm asking is that Riot tries to cut back on the whole immortality thing a bit. Don't say that a character can/has lived for centuries if it adds nothing to their story. I think we can already assume Willump and yetis as a whole are probably going to be immortal when the Nunu update rolls around, because that's just how magical creatures work now, but I'd really like it if the ability to live for ages wasn't so contrived/easy to obtain in Runeterra just because you have magic at your disposal.

15 Comments

Umbral Regent8/2/2018, 12:40:35 AM2 votes

They're not all immortal. They most certainly can die, and all save Lissandra may well be susceptible to old age, depending on some factors.

Lissandra is one of the last remaining Iceborn (if not the last remaining Iceborn), and I can only imagine that the boon of the Frozen Watchers should give one a substantially longer lifespan.

As for Ryze, it's implied that his longevity is tied to the boundless magicks he works to put under wraps, so his extended lifespan is tied to the World Runes - and it may get spent with enough time away from them, should he ever come to a resolution of the problem, like locking them all away in the Petricite Vault, or something else.

Karma, in the strictest sense, is not immortal. They are reincarnated, over and over again - their body still lives, still dies, but their spirit and knowledge move into a new vessel. Darha, the current incarnation of Karma, is not immortalized in a traditional sense - unless you consider the immortality of the soul to count, but that seems to just be a constant in Runeterra, as implied by Illaoi.

As for Singed...I got nothing. He's got too short a bio and nothing really of good detail on him, outside of his participation in the Invasion of Ionia and his turning Warwick into...Warwick, but like his general existence in League's meta, I'd personally say his background and lore should be considered a rare edge case right now, at least until more info comes up.

And as for Nunu and Willump - I'd be surprised if they went the whole "long-lived magical creature" thing with Willump. Or, at least, if they did, it wouldn't be remotely relevant to his character, so if they ever do mention it, it would very likely only be done in passing.

ModKrizonar8/2/2018, 1:47:20 PM2 votes

Master Yi is a true philosopher I think. Every creature is immortal until it dies.

[{quoted}](name=Umbral Regent,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=8dWQ6JQs,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2018-08-02T00:40:35.312+0000)

They're not all immortal. They most certainly can die, and all save Lissandra may well be susceptible to old age, depending on some factors.

What I think is that everyone can claim it, but that doesn't mean it's true. Even the ascended, who claim themselves as gods, to not be mortal, etc, almost every time they open their mouths, are 100% shown as being susceptible to age (Twilight of the Gods) even with flesh shaping magic and are of course killable. Nothing logically is unkillable, even if many warriors and creatures will claim to be.

It's narrator's bias, and it's perfectly fine and can be an interesting part of the story itself, just don't believe everything literally. (for example Zoe indirectly and somewhat directly causes Aurelion to be a liar who talks himself up far too much, which given his personality, is probably true, this actually makes it more interesting imo)

Ebonmaw Dragon8/2/2018, 12:40:08 AM1 votes

As far as i know, nothing in the lore says that Singed has lived for centuries.

RyzeTheSmurfMage8/2/2018, 7:19:47 AM1 votes

Tbh Ryze and Lissandra are extremly powerfull mages Ryze and his magic being indirectly buffed by his exposure to the World Runes and Lissandra being gifted the power of using Dark Ice as well as being immortal by the Watchers themselves. And while Ryze is the most powerfull mage on Runeterra and Lissandra is in top 5 anyways they can still be killed.

SEKAI8/2/2018, 7:21:12 AM1 votes

Singed lived for centuries?

Thought he was just an alchemist.

EDIT: Yeah, I think he is just a normal human in terms of his age.

Wrathof3008/2/2018, 2:38:17 PM1 votes

Xayah and Rakan's story does not benefit from their supposed longer lifespans, however, Ahri's does. The Vastaya are a half-spirit half-human race, and likely have longer lifespans due that connection to the spirit realm/ natural magic on Runeterra. Ahri in particular is from an unspecified tribe with the abilities to feed off of people's souls and memories. I would assume their lifespans vary between the different tribes of the Vastaya.

In a similarly vein the Yordles, they are a race being nature spirits, hence longer lifespans and while (currently) only Poppy and Kled benefit from this, it is much better than had Poppy and Kled found ways to make themselves immortal compared to the fact that it is a natural occurrence for them. The problem only arises when you begin comparing their age brackets as you pointed out with Heimerdinger, and likely Corki who imo should be in and around Kled's age bracket, or at least older than Poppy. Not much is known about Bandle City, it is possible Heimer was one of Piltover founding fathers and perhaps the Yordles are even more advanced than Piltover and Zaun.

While Ryze's extended lifespan is explained to be due to his over exposure to the World Runes, its purpose in his story is to emphasize that there are so many World Runes and they are so scattered, even if you lived 5 times over, you wouldn't be done hiding them all. He's in fact had to re-hide some and even lost one to Brand.

As far as I know, the Ursine have just been stated to transform themselves into Volibear's image, nothing on how long they live.

SSmotzer8/2/2018, 12:35:14 AM1 votes

Well, when an entire faction are zombies and ghosts, when there are gods walking around, when there are magic MacGuffins around every corner, there's nothing wrong with immortals in your story.

Saying Ivern isn't a good character because he is immortal is like saying Gandalf isn't a good character, because he is immortal.

The Iceborn8/2/2018, 2:56:15 PM1 votes

Youre right... Too many champions are immortal or immune to death... If it doesnt add to their story it shouldnt be a thing! However Lissandra is a bad example, she does have a story and her immortality does add to the lore :) And if you think that ascended should be granted immortality why not iceborn? They have been made by just as powerful beings as targonians?

Silly Neeko8/2/2018, 12:39:13 AM1 votes

Thats the biggest thing of why people utilize magic. Even in the Harry potter series there was abnormally old people due to magic.... except that they never died of old age (except aragog but he wasnt a wizard) so we dont know just how long they can actually live based on having magic in their veins alone.

Point is, magic in and of itself is a life force. That is Xayah and Rakans whole thing about why they are trying to protect it so much. Its not just a life force for the world, but also its inhabitants.