Mordekaiser's Thematics and his Ult

turkeyBACON·2/20/2015, 1:10:38 AM·14 votes·2,706 views

Since Morde is on the PBE for some ability tweaks, I think it might be a good time to talk about the visuals for his ult: Children of the Grave.

Morde the Master of Metal, the paladin of pain, fueled by your and his own agony, for no discernible reason steals your soul and makes your ghost do his bidding. It makes barely any sense.

Can I propose that instead of Morde's spectral head floating above the enemy and then eventually making a ghost that when he casts his ult, It instead slowly but surely begins to encase you in fragmented bits of armor. They fuse with your body until you're completely covered and made a unwilling metalic pawn against your allies. Gameplay-wise it functions exactly the same but visually it fits his story, abilities, and overall theme of metal and pain much better.

14 Comments

Helmight2/20/2015, 2:25:39 AM6 votes

I actually really like this idea, but at the same time Morde does have some kind of connection with draining people's souls because of his passive and Siphon of Destruction, so it's not like his ult is ENTIRELY uncharacteristic. I agree that they could do more to make him feel like a spellcaster, but since they're shoving him into the bruiser niche anyways they may as well remove his death-y affects and replace them with metal ones.

GhostOfShrimpmas2/20/2015, 6:26:03 AM3 votes

His current lore literally has him stealing someone's soul and forcing it to do his bidding. With his lore as it is now, he's presented as more of a necromancer or dark mage than a Master of Metal.

Which is, of course, appalling, since there's nothing more metal than his intended playstyle. But yes, his visuals are crap.

Rinky Dinky2/20/2015, 9:27:45 AM2 votes

You obviously do not even know who or what Mordekaiser is. as a champion or thematically.

Michel4ngel02/20/2015, 11:57:25 AM1 votes

I love this :) However, i think Morde just needs a complete Visual Update. When i read about him being a "paladin of pain", i imagine someone like Sauron from LotR or guy in daedric armor from Skyrim: http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130815191502/lotr/images/0/01/Sauron_copy.jpg http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111119214229/elderscrolls/images/archive/2/26/20111209055251!Daedric_Armor_(Skyrim).jpg

Darude Manstorm6/23/2015, 6:01:29 AM1 votes

This is one of the very few times where old morde's lore would explain better than his new.

Stars Shaper6/23/2015, 7:56:42 AM1 votes

First of all, they implied with the first paragraph that VFX can include also the body of the champion (see Xerath). Meaning that the first question should be: Is Mordekaiser going to feel more.. spectral or any different himself after the VFX?

If you see the cone of Syphon of Destruction is one of the things getting changed but rather than metal you can see spectral smokish things coming from underground. Now, I really love the "Master of Metal" title and I don't want it to be shadowed by the new SI feeling. But that means that our beloved Mordekaiser could be expanded into a hybrid spectral armored being having in his kit both thematics.

Decrit6/23/2015, 9:20:22 AM1 votes

Actually more than a mage or else, he looks like a Black Guard focused on soulstealing rather necromancy as whole. Sure thing, all those metal-bound VFX clash with his personality and lore. I believe he could be still called "master of metal" and having an overall metalley appearance if rather than only metal shards he had metal shards coated with soul shard aura , like having shards of solid metal with an haunted appearance, as if he shattered the enemy soul, solidified and made it part of his armor, that is in fact what he should do with his passive!

I don' t like the "encasing" stuff, since is very noisy particle-wise, but having it follow the aforementioned proposal and have it be a metal statue with an haunting aura would still be hella cool, i think. Like, instead of picking soul shards he manages to steal the soul as whole and make his metal minion.

spartanfoks2/20/2015, 5:06:10 AM1 votes

As much as I love Morde, I have to agree that all of his abilities have almost pitiful visual effects. He's a very old champion, so it makes sense, but there's been no visual love besides the ones that every old champ got, model texture updates.

If they made his kit look as sinister as his lore attempts to draw him as, Riot might have to add new sound effects, like his ult would have bells, or something in reference to death.

I think Riot was too obsessed with him being a metal-head, and sort of let his aesthetic fall flat. I agree that he needs new visuals, for almost everything.

GreenLore2/20/2015, 11:01:08 AM1 votes

He is the evil overlord mixed with metal abilities.

Stealing your soul is part of his evil-overlord-identity,while his standard abilities are part of his metal identity.

I think however that it could be possible to mix his ult with his metal-expert-thing. Like they could make it so that Morde imprisons the soul of his enemy in a metallic replica of his enemy,but I think that would take a lot of extra work.