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Short Stories: Kalista - Invocation

RiotAnt in Oz·11/20/2014, 3:29:55 PM·58 votes·26,612 views

Hey guys, We are still running into some tech issues with putting up our new Champ stories where we want them to live going forward – on the website's champ info pages. However, we didn’t want this to mean Kalista’s story didn’t go out with her launch… so, we are putting her story up here on Boards for now. We hope you like it! Cheers!

Invocation

The sword-wife stood amid the burnt out ruin of her home. Everything and everyone that mattered to her was gone, and she was filled with fathomless grief... and hate. Hate was now all that compelled her.

She saw again the smile on his face as he gave the order. He was meant to be their protector, but he’d spat upon his vows. Hers was not the only family shattered by the oath-breaker.

The desire to go after him was strong. She wanted nothing more than to plant her sword in his chest and watch the life drain from his eyes... but she knew she would never be able to get close enough to him. He was guarded day and night, and she was but one warrior. She would never be able to fight her way through his battalion alone. Such a death would serve no purpose.

She took a shuddering breath, knowing there was no coming back.

A crude effigy of a man, formed of sticks and twine, lay upon a fire-blackened dresser. Its body was wrapped in a scrap of cloth torn from the cloak of the betrayer. She’d pried it from her husband's dead grasp. Alongside it was a hammer and three rusted nails.

She gathered everything up and moved to the threshold. The door itself was gone, smashed to splinters in the attack. Beyond, lit by moonlight, lay the empty, darkened fields.

Reaching up, the sword-wife pressed the stick-effigy to the hardwood lintel.

“I invoke thee, Lady of Vengeance,” she said, her voice low, trembling with the depth of her fury. “From beyond the veil, hear my plea. Come forth. Let justice be done.”

She readied her hammer and the first of the nails.

“I name my betrayer once,” she said, and spoke his name aloud. As she did so, she placed the tip of the first nail to the chest of the stick-figure. With a single strike, she hammered it in deep, pinning it to the hardwood door frame.

The sword-wife shivered. The room had become markedly colder. Or had she imagined it?

“I name him twice,” she said, and she did so, hammering the second nail alongside the first.

Her gaze dropped, and she jolted in shock. A dark figure stood out in the moonlit field, a hundred yards in the distance. It was utterly motionless. Breathing quicker, the sword-wife returned her attention to the unfinished task.

“I name him thrice,” she said, speaking again the name of the murderer of her husband and children, before hammering home the final nail.

An ancient spirit of vengeance stood before her, filling the doorway, and the sword-wife staggered back, gasping involuntarily.

The otherworldly being was clad in archaic armor, her flesh translucent and glowing with spectral un-light. Black Mist coiled around her like a living shroud.

With a squeal of tortured metal, the spectral figure drew forth the blackened spear protruding from her breastplate — the ancient weapon that had ended her life.

She threw it to the ground before the sword-wife. No words were spoken; there was no need. The sword-wife knew what was being offered to her — vengeance — and knew its terrible cost: her soul.

The spirit watched on, her face impassive and her eyes burning with an unrelenting cold fury, as the sword-wife picked up the treacherous weapon.

“I pledge myself to vengeance,” said the sword-wife, her voice quivering. She reversed the spear, aiming the tip inward, towards her heart. “I pledge it with my blood. I pledge it with my soul.”

She paused. Her husband would have pleaded for her to turn away from this path. He would have begged her not to condemn her soul with this course of action. A moment of doubt gnawed at her. The undying specter watched on.

The sword-wife’s eyes narrowed as she thought of her husband lying dead, cut down by swords and axes. She thought again of her children, sprawled upon the ground, and her resolve hardened like a cold stone in her heart. Her grip tightened upon the spear.

“Help me,” she implored, her decision made. “Please, help me kill him.”

She rammed the spear into her chest, driving it in deep.

The sword-wife’s eyes widened and she dropped to her knees. She tried to speak, but only blood bubbled from her lips.

The ghostly apparition watched her die, her expression impassive.

As the last of the lifeblood ran from her body, the shade of the sword-wife climbed to her feet. She looked down at her insubstantial hands in wonder, then at her own corpse lying dead-eyed in a growing pool of blood upon the floor. The shade’s expression hardened, and a ghostly sword appeared in her hand.

An ethereal tether, little more than a wisp of light, linked the newly formed shade to the avenging spirit she had summoned. Through their bond, the sword-wife saw her differently, glimpsing the noble warrior she had been in life: tall and proud, her armor gleaming. Her posture was confident, yet without arrogance; a born leader, a born soldier. This was a commander that the sword-wife would have willingly bled for.

Behind the spirit’s anger, she sensed her empathy — recognition of their shared pain of betrayal.

“Your cause is our cause,” said Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance. Her voice was grave cold. “We walk the path of vengeance as one, now.”

The sword-wife nodded.

With that, the avenging spirit and the shade of the sword-wife stepped into the darkness and were gone.

120 Comments

Final GirI11/20/2014, 3:36:05 PM32 votes

Wow! This is beautiful! Thank you for the time on this! Great work! I do have to ask though, what compelled you to go with this point of view for the story? From the point of view of a stranger, rather then from Kalista herself. It's really good, don't get me wrong, just a question is all :) Keep up the great work!

Andre53711/20/2014, 4:41:33 PM22 votes

It was great from a narrative standpoint, but it really didn't tel us anything about Kalista besides how to call her, she interacts so little that we can't even see her personality, how she actually helps you, and so far Kalista seems to have nothing to do with the Harrowing or the videos or any of the other recent lore, as she does not seem to care about the pseudo invasion that the Black Mist . At all. She feels like a very one dimencional character who only does revenge, and nothing else. And this feels like the lore of the Sword-Wife, not Kalista's; not 'cause of the POV, (Gnar's lore has Rengar at POV but still features mainly Gnar) but because she is a secondary character in her own lore.

Blackwindy11/20/2014, 4:32:15 PM17 votes

However, this is not Kalistas lore, this a short story about a woman who got her whole family killed and summoned Kalista. We found out nothing about Kalistas life and her real lore. Rito pls give some real lore.

DG Ashabel11/20/2014, 9:08:48 PM16 votes

Boring and disappointing. While the writing isn't bad, it falls on telling rather than showing far too often. It spends so much time on explaining how this nameless character feels about Kalista while also revealing very little, if anything, about the titular character herself. A short story like this should serve as a character's portrait, but instead it feels more like a prologue to a dark fantasy movie.

I still don't know who Kalista is, why she looks the way she does, why she's dressed the way she is. All I know is that people sometimes kill themselves in exchange for Kalista killing someone else in their name, which reduces her to a horror trope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmVLX2cLKQk

Unfortunately, this also comes out mere days after Dawngate developers revealed the last bit of their unreleased content - the character Rezen, who is possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance. Compared to his quiet grace and the way his empathy and gentleness only temper his lack of mercy, Kalista is unconvincing.

In the past, people often commented that the biggest problem with the retcon is that League's champions are often shallow stereotypes who need the League's environment and opportunity for interaction to bring out their interesting sides. I'm sad that Kalista seems to prove that point.

CupcakeTrap11/20/2014, 4:33:56 PM14 votes

Thanks for posting this up while the tech issues are sorted out!

I like Kalista's concept, and this is by no means a poorly written story. This was probably the highlight for me:

A crude effigy of a man, formed of sticks and twine, lay upon a fire-blackened dresser. Its body was wrapped in a scrap of cloth torn from the cloak of the betrayer. She’d pried it from her husband's dead grasp. Alongside it was a hammer and three rusted nails.

Somehow, it was the mention of the dresser that got me. It's so mundane as to be almost out of place, but it humanizes the character and the setting.

Still, and I do mean this constructively, the story as a whole didn't really draw me in. I feel like it would benefit from, say, something more about how the POV character came to know about Kalista, and a more condensed summation of the ritual itself. Or maybe just fast-forward to the part where Kalista kills the "oath-breaker", and put this in as a preface? Might this not be a time when "telling" is better than "showing"—might it not be more impactful to get this character's story as Kalista takes vengeance?

Or maybe just more dialogue between Kalista and the POV character? There's something to be said for her communicating entirely through "yo, there's my spear, take it or leave it", but I think there's material there. Maybe Kalista relives her own pledge of vengeance each time someone invokes her—showing her connecting with this character could be illuminating. The closest we came to that was the bit about seeing how Kalista looked in life, and then there's this:

Behind the spirit’s anger, she sensed her empathy — recognition of their shared pain of betrayal.

which felt (and I apologize for the cliche) rather more "tell" than "show".

I think this might benefit from some revision. I hesitate to write too bluntly, not least because some people will assume I'm just "raging at Narrative", but…the story just felt quite bland, like it was exactly what I was expecting.

Melancholy Exile11/20/2014, 7:05:51 PM13 votes

As has been said by many others before me, I think a real issue with this piece is that it isn't Kalista's story. I read this extract and it makes me want to know more about this unnamed woman and the conspicuously unnamed villain who brought ruin on her life. It makes me want to understand more about the ground-level Runeterrans and what leads them to put their faith in the dark and merciless things that lurk in the shadows - where these superstitions come from.

It doesn't interest me in Kalista. She's just ... there.

Chortle11/20/2014, 4:20:02 PM13 votes

This was so easy to imagine! It honestly made me love kalista 100x more.

The summoning ritual ghost archetype is fckn sweet

Hellioning11/21/2014, 7:44:28 AM13 votes

It's technically proficient, but...it doesn't tell us anything. Kalista's barely even IN it. I don't know more about Kalista than before I read it; I thought the swordmaiden WAS Kalista until she showed up, but nope.

This is just an expanded version of that three sentence lore. There's absolutely nothing interesting, nothing that tells us about her as a person/ghost/entity/whatever. It's just 'you summon Kalista and this is what happened' and I could already tell that from playing with her once.

Can I get some actual backstory? Or anything about her personality besides 'I AM VENGEANCE!' Like, right now, she's a DotA character. Literally, there's a hero called Vengeful Spirit. If you just printed out a list of lines from each character, you'd be hard pressed to guess which is which. But what I mean by 'DotA character' is that she doesn't feel like a real person who exists. Almost all of her lines are focused around a single theme and variations upon that theme, and we have nothing from her lore to disprove that.

There are some brief hints in her VO that she's an actual person who things have actually happened to, but they're not addressed at all in this piece. Can we get more about that, and less about 'KALISTA IS ANGRY'?

Squarefighter11/20/2014, 4:07:29 PM10 votes

I loved the Azir and Xerath stories, and this is no different. Great job Rito!

Dotintheparadox11/20/2014, 8:21:31 PM10 votes

#Stillnoreasonforretcon

Sneak Dog11/20/2014, 4:28:18 PM9 votes

Well written, enjoyable to read, though in the end Kallista still feels one-dimensional. She's a spirit of vengeance and that's about it.

Destínum11/20/2014, 4:09:09 PM8 votes

Nice job! Just wondering though, what exactly do you mean by "sword-wife"?

SkyblazeHydraX311/21/2014, 12:24:44 AM7 votes

This.... is "meh" in my opinion. I wanna learn about KALISTA, not how people see her nowadays. And unlike Gnar, Kalista has a definitive and very strongly teased backstory. I really, REALLY hope there's more to her backstory incoming, otherwise this is just really disappointing.

On its own as a story it's not bad at all though, it was a good read actually. But as lore? Yeah, not so much.

DwarvenGiant11/20/2014, 3:52:25 PM7 votes

Great work, I love these short stories! Keep it up with them! ;D

Shoken11/20/2014, 6:57:17 PM6 votes

What's the point of this. Really. Why does she have spears in her body? How did she become what she is? Why is she so obsessed with betrayers? How did she know the Ruined King?

The story explains nothing of this and even if well-written, is just not enough. It's hard to believe that in 3-4 months you STILL haven't been able to put a few lines in a website because of "tech issues". That might sound harsh but it's because i expect great things from your Riot, and sometimes you just don't shine.

Diahane11/21/2014, 3:05:42 PM6 votes

I express my most complete agreement with CupCakesTrap and Philomelle, perhaps by now my most upvoted users on the boards.

I'd add my little contribution citing something I posted in another thread about this story: «It doesn't really explore Kalista as a character. Adopting the POV of the sword-wife who takes the oath, we're left with just someone telling about her, describing her through someone else's eyes. We don't get to know anything about Kalista which we didn't know before and since those information are already covered in the short in-client summary, there's no real reason to expand on them in such a way, as opposed to, for instance, the same story approached from Kalista's POV (or told by a third-person omniscient narrator), showing us what she feels about herself, how betrayal disgusts her, her pain and the empathy she has with those who take the oath. That's showcasing the character. The current story and the video are, again, more of a teaser for a marketable product. This is to say, we can't just be confident they'll get better, we must point out to them with feedback when they approach things the wrong way. IoW or no IoW it doesn't matter, the new content as of now wouldn't be shackled by it in any way, the problem is in the narrative approach and it's a much deeper one, independent of the setting. You could have the coolest and most original fantasy setting ever as a basis, if you build on it in the way they did for Shurima, the Harrowing and Kalista, you won't still get anything interesting from a sole narrative POV. And since it was them choosing to separate the game from the story, I'd expect them to strive to give a narrative product measuring up with narrative standards. If they were not about worldwide known characters of the most played game in the world, no one would ever publish a product made of short stories such as the ones they delivered. I mean no offence with this, but I wouldn't ever follow their story if I wasn't hooked to the game and that means that the story doesn't stand on its own, which is a most serious matter if they meant for it to do so.»

CupcakeTrap11/21/2014, 5:03:32 PM6 votes

The key to magically losing all skills and agency in my own story so I can be a better damsel in distress, amirite.

Don't worry; your death will empower your father to become a stronger leader. Somethingsomething blood, red roses.

(I actually think Riot suffers more from an obsession with giving characters agency than a tendency to take it away. It's a problem, because loss of agency is an important part of the human condition, and a potentially powerful story element. Like Veigar: his story is fundamentally a victim story. But that gives it extra pathos.)

brusque11/20/2014, 6:25:07 PM6 votes

This story is really eloquently written and has great syllabic texture. It begs more questions than it answers though, especially when matched against the teasers released for Kalista.

I especially love the implicit stories it's waiting for us ask. Is Kalista a champion, or something like a higher power greater than "humans"? In Valoran we have human characters like Lucian who have families. In Lucian's story, however, he is the champion. Thresh is the champion. Not Senna. In this story, the sword-wife just seems to be an average person calling on higher powers (you can't really deny the vodoo Fiddlesticks reference here -- is this suggesting that Fiddlesticks is also this astral cosmic vodoo thing?). Is this story suggesting that Kalista is being "called upon" for her magic, or uh ... summoned, maybe?

There is also this theme of possession and Kalista often talks between "we" and "I" in her lines in-game, so perhaps she "becomes" people like the sword-wife who call on her and give them her souls. Maybe in a way Kalista is the sword-wife and so this lore is kind of about a piece of her? If the lore is designed to raise curiosity and to inspire prying for more info, this definitely delivers.

Rafael Merlo11/24/2014, 8:47:12 AM5 votes

This is not Kalista Lore; she barely appears in it. Seriously you did the Great Retcon for this? Utterly disappointing C'mon, it's not bad-written, it's just... Not about her. You've missed the point by a huge margin. Listen more to your players. This thread discussing possibilities of a League Judgement for Kalista is way more entertaining in terms of actual Lore-Knoledge than this post. Wheck, even in her Q&A we got to know more than here. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/pQYv1KEk-what-would-kalistas-judgment-be-like

#Guys. Please listen to your community. We will not stop from being Summoners in the League of Legends just because you don't want the main foundation of this game to exist.

YFiddler11/20/2014, 11:50:55 PM4 votes

Wow that Video accompaning the story looks marvelous! And also the story itself is well written and certanly intriguing, but at the same time maybe a bit too bland, since it is just too relatable. That concept of calling a name three times to summon her is interesting, but not a new idea. It is rather well known through the legend of the "Bloody Marry". Also I think these tendencies to make the champions relatable by adding some sort of emotional investment of the champion into his lore is becomig too much.

I can not help but feel like there is a certain tendency to give even evil champions a good side. The lore states that Kalista feels empathy for those who seek vengeance for betrayal. She doesnt need to feed on them, she just happens to have shared a similar fate and now wants to bring all those who betrayed others to justice. It might be a twisted way of justice with no clear winners, but its clearly a emotionally motivated action.

When you released Azir, we had a lore change for another pair of evil guys, Xerath and Renekton. Even they were originially kind of well meaning. Xerath was a victim of the shuriman circumstances, being a slave and longing for freedom. He even felt sorry shortly before he took the power of Ascension from Azir. And Renekton, the so called butcher of the sands, was once a noble hero who sacrificed his sanity for the shuriman people by dragging the now corrupted Xerath into the tomb. Even Sion, a undead battleram, seems to have a emotional side, piting himself, wanting his memories and his old life back. All of these champions, though seemingly evil, have a moralic complexity to them that I do not think of as appealing.

I long for a really evil champion, who is just violent and brutal because he can. Not for the fun that it brings, like Jinx, but because he really likes to kill and plunder, destroy and ravage.

The closest things we have in terms of such attitudes are propably Vladimir and maybe Darius, but even he has a softer side, shown through him caring for his little brother when they were orphaned. Another example would propably be Brand. But none of these seem to fit that archetype of the evil madman with overwhelming physical presence. Not even Mundo does kill for the sake of violence, but to experiment, similar to Warwick and Singed, scientists in their own right. Maybe the Void champs can be seen as killing machines, but they are but animals, existing only to feed on prey and set free in a new world. They hardly choose to do what they do.

So instead of making all of the new releases characters who struggle with their past and their emotions, I would welcome more extreme stances. We got a huge roster of champions and it would be a shame if the underlying tones of each lore would be similar.

Chromatic Eagle11/21/2014, 12:51:12 AM4 votes

By itself, the story isn't bad. You might be getting some criticism about a female character literally being called sword-wife(which isn't totally unfair IMO), but that could've been ok if we learned she was Kallista. That is what I was expecting, or Kallista being LoL's Legion. The story tells me what she is, but the video already did that. Why tell two similar stories? SHOW us WHO she is. How did she know the Ruined King? Who betrayed her? Why or how did she become the Spirirt of Vengeance? What's her connection to the rest of the Shadow Isle champions?

Work on creating dialogue between characters in a story. In some ways, it could be better than a character monologuing, though that has its place as well.

Boswick11/21/2014, 4:33:55 PM3 votes

Soooo this is great and all, but whats stopping you guys from posting the Ezreal/Rammus/Amumu lores on the forums like this? I understand you guys are having tech issues with the site (although two months to fix a database issue sure seems like a long time... ) but you guys have left these champions completely hanging for long enough now. If the longer lores aren't finished, just say so.

Lahrst11/20/2014, 10:03:19 PM1 votes

So does kalista hate graves cause he betrayed TF