Void lore broken down
Ok, I tried to reorganize Void lore and I’ll explain why it made sense to me.
I re-read Malz’s bio carefully and realized that the short story I had read about him long ago was actually pretty similar to it. Perhaps it was the same thing all this time and I was imagining the wrong stuff. I think there was a slight difference though, but I would not trust my own memory over it (I think that there was mention of a “nightmare” in the other story). But the bio is definitely more trustworthy than my memory.
In short, gifted with powers of prophecy, Malz goes to Icathia after listening to the voices only he could hear and then goes insane once he reaches his destination. The voice who beckoned him takes control over him. (I made the mistale of thinking that he was insane before he went to Icathia.)
Cho, even if released before Malz, is said to have been summoned when something dark stirred in Icathia to pervert the rituals of the League. That* thing* could have been the entity that ordered Malz to go to the League. It’s still in the Void, but is using Malz as a puppet to do its bidding. So, Malz would go to the IoW to corrupt Summoners, pervert the rituals and summon Void creatures. Why I think this way is because of the in-game lines of Void-related characters (e.g: “Summoner, your darkness beckons”). In other words, summoning needs to be perverted to summon creatures of the Void.
We know that powerful magic drew the creatures of the Void away in Cho’s lore. I admit, it’s pretty vague now that I look at it again. It does not say that Summoners were the ones who sealed them away nor does it say how Void creatures found a way to Runeterra. But! The summoning rituals of the League had to be corrupted to allow the presence of Cho. Logically, that would mean that Summoners had to summon them in the past as well to allow their presence. Also, in Kog’s lore, the voice that possessed Malz used him to summon Kog’Maw.
When the prophet Malzahar was reborn in Icathia, he was led there by an ominous voice which thereafter anchored itself to his psyche. From within, this voice bestowed upon him terrible purpose, and though Malzahar was no longer tormented by its call, the voice did not cease its unrelenting summons. This baleful beacon's gentle flicker - now fastened to Runeterra - drew forth a putrid beast that ambled across a threshold it did not understand, widening a fissure between the spaces which were never meant to meet.
That describes the fissure between dimensions caused by summoning magic. That’s where I get the idea of how summoners can summon Voidborn. The Void influences and uses their powers to do so, just like how it influenced Malz to call upon Kog. Connecting that info to why the voice told Malz to go to the League, and again connecting that to Cho’s bio where it is said that the rituals of the League were being perverted to allow the presence of Cho (influenced by the thing that stirred in Icathia), makes Malzahar’s purpose less muddled. Also, thematics. He is a “prophet” and prophets are tasked with a mission. Gathering Void cultists and summoners to call upon the creatures of the Void is what he was tasked to do, guided by the entity’s orders.
To further support what his purpose is. In the JoJ article where Kass’s daughter was going to be sacrificed to the Void, there’s a description of how Kassadin’s powers work:
“It all happened very fast. Kassadin appeared just like Malzahar said he would. The blast that Kassadin sent toward the Prophet seemed to pull itself to the dagger instead. When it hit, the dagger glowed and cut a hole open into the air. Like lightning, a shadow grabbed the woman and dragged her in. She disappeared! The explosion as the hole closed was what destroyed that power node.”
This shows that Kassadin can infuse any blade with his powers, and that can cut open a rift in time and space. Technically, this is what allows him to Riftwalk. His powers work a bit like the “Subtle Knife” if you get the reference.
Then there’s the dialogue between Kass and Malz:
*"Kassadin: “Malzahar! Get away from her! She is not yours!”
Malzahar: “Brother! Enlightened Walker of the Path! Join us!”
Kassadin: “Don’t patronize me, mage! You threaten the balance! Let her go!”*
Why did Malz abduct Kass’s daughter? And why does he explicitly ask him to join the Void?
If you know what Malzahar’s mission is (coughbring all the creatures of the Void to Runeterracough), then you can figure out why he’s using Kass’s daughter as leverage. Basically, he’s trying to force Kass to use his powers to do the Void’s bidding since he can cut open dimensional portals at will.
The follow up was meh. The two got arrested for fighting to the death in one of the subsequent JoJ articles and that was the end of the story. I guess that’s when the writers left. Also, I’m not sure if Kog was beckoned by Malz or if he set out to save him out of his own free will. Depending on the true intent, it could change the characters’ personality. This can be interpreted in two ways (1) Malz is actually using Kog to lead the Institute towards him to stop the fight or (2) Kog really likes Malz and took it upon himself to save him.
I hope I got the “right” idea that was meant to be expressed. The writing could have been flawed and ambiguous, but this is how I understood the story. I wonder how other people understood it.
