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2018 Lore Tournament - 21st December: Where Icathia once stood vs The Dreaming Pool

LordRedStone Nr1·12/21/2018, 2:54:47 PM·13 votes·12,351 views

6th December: Frozen Hearts vs An Explorer's Journey 7th December: The Black Powder Plot vs Human Blood 8th December: The Girl Who Came Back vs At the Edge of the World 9th December: Leaving Weh'Le vs Art is Life 10th December: The Cage vs The Shadow Door 11th December: Stone Cold vs Hunter of Shadows 12th December: Stains on a Name vs The Monster of Kalduga Outpost 13th December: The Dreaming Pool vs The Curator's Gambit 14th December: Then, Teeth vs Frozen Hearts (winner from 6th December) 15th December: The True and Ghastly Tale of the Beast of Boleham Tower vs The Black Powder Plot (winner from 7th December) 16th December: The Principles of Strength vs At the Edge of the World (winner from 8th December) 17th December: Confessions of a Broken Blade vs Art is Life (winner from 9th December) 18th December: A Different Hunger vs The Cage (winner from 10th December) 19th December: Twilight of the Gods vs Stone Cold (winner from 11th December) 20th December: The Eye in the Abyss vs Stains on a Name (winner from 12th December) 21st December: Where Icathia once stood vs The Dreaming Pool (winner from 13th of December) 22nd December: From the Ashes vs Frozen Hearts (winner from 14th December) 23rd December: Whom does the Desert know? vs The True and Ghastly Tale of the Beast of Boleham Tower (winner from 15th December) 24th December: QUARTER FINAL: The Principles of Strength (winner from 16th December) vs Art is Life (winner from 17th December) 25th December: QUARTER FINAL: The Cage (winner from 18th December) vs Twilight of the Gods (winner from 19th December) 26th December: QUARTER FINAL: The Eye in the Abyss (winner from 20th December) vs Where Icatia once stood (winner from 21st December) 27th December: QUARTER FINAL: From the Ashes (winner from 22nd December) vs The True and Ghastly Tale of the Beast of Boleham Tower (winner from 23rd December) 28th December: SEMI-FINAL: <winner from 24th December> vs <winner from 25th December> 29th December: SEMI-FINAL: <winner from 26th December> vs <winner from 27th December> 30th December: FINAL: <winner from 28th December> vs <winner from 29th December>

#2018 Lore Tournament: Day 16 Today, both of our stories focus on war and destruction of two different nations. The first, Where Icathia Once Stood, tells the story of how Icathia opened up a rift to the Void in order to defeat the Shurimans. The second, The Dreaming Pool, shows how a vastaya who allied with the Noxians ended up releasing Syndra, who had been sleeping throughout all her homeland's war.

Where Icathia once stood by Graham McNeill Axamuk, a Kohari warrior of Icathia, recounts how he and his companions, Saijax and Colgrim, stood with the city against the might of the Shuriman army and their Ascended warriors. Icathia has a plan to use a devastating weapon that will wipe out the Shurimans entirely, Ascended and all. Yet little do they know of the unimaginable terrors they are about to unleash on Runeterra...

##vs

The Dreaming Pool by Anthony Reynolds Kalan, a Noxian-allied vastaya, is tasked with guarding the fortress of Fae'lor, the titular Dreaming Pool it houses, and the one trapped inside it, Syndra. A pair of siblings named Okin and Sirik lead an Ionian hunting party to Fae'lor to kill the sleeping threat posed by the Dark Sovereign for good. Syndra herself dreams again and again about her traumatic childhood, but when unfamiliar figures start to appear before her eyes, something feels off, and she begins to awaken...

[EDIT] Voting is finished, thanks to 71 total votes, this is huge! Icathia murders the Dreaming Pool with 48 to 23 votes.

13 Comments

Robertsmash12/21/2018, 4:11:34 PM9 votes

RIP Dreaming Pool

Falrein12/21/2018, 3:27:17 PM2 votes

That's your cue Syndra :'(

I liked Where Icathia Once Stood... But not as much as The Dreaming Pool. I am not a hardcore fan of Shurima & Icathia. I spent so much time reading Syndra's story to build up theories and thoughts. And I'm sure I could still build up some with Soraka's lore update. Soooo... My vote goes to The Dreaming Pool. Ant in Oz nailed it.

Naalith12/21/2018, 9:15:53 PM2 votes

This is the first super competitive poll in my opinion and while I love The Dreaming Pool, tragically Where Icathia Once Stood is just... too damn good. From the descriptions of the god-warriors to the disintegration of minds and sanity around the Void, it's just too damn good. I will be interested to see next time on this one with The Eye in the Abyss vs Where Icathia Once Stood though, I'm honestly not entirely decided on that matchup.

Fishing Boat12/22/2018, 12:08:03 AM1 votes

The number of moving parts in Dreaming Pool was actually very impressive, compared to my expectations of a Syndra story. It had her backstory from the dream and where it all began, it had rebels and duty-bound guardians in a party that had internal conflicts of interest, it had a traitor with a really interesting and compelling backstory, some noxians, and it had the spirit of Ionia binding this magical terror so that she could not exert her uncontrolled rage and hatred, coming together to make a surprisingly smooth story with all these elements, and creating a cliffhanger while Syndra decides what to do next.

However, the rebellion of a nation, the army of Ascended, the horror of the void unleashed, the vile hubris of Icathia... Such massive elements crashed together and broke open an ancient tale that so many of us have been dying to uncover.

I think I have to feed this one to the void.