53 Comments

Calling Clouds5 votes

That was my first thought. She looks very much like Pantheon and the spear protruding from her stomach may lend itself to the idea that she was betrayed by her own forces in battle.

IMTOOJUICY14 votes

Maybe Pantheon accidentally chucked a spear into the back of an ally... then blamed it on lag.

Valaran Nara4 votes

All I know is, this girl has serious amnesia and multiple personality disorder. Don't believe me, here's her VO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TTS8gMhvRw

Dreamspitter2 votes

All I know is, this girl has serious amnesia and multiple personality disorder. Don't believe me, here's her VO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TTS8gMhvRw

"We began as one."

"We.....I...."

"We are one now."

I kind of think it's similar to a Grande Menos being a "Hollow" formed from many thousands of other hollows. Except in this case in exchange for revenge, it takes the soul of the person who wanted it and adds it to the collective.

"Do not forsake us as he did."

So....who is he?

Sharjo2 votes

So who is he you ask?

well we don't know for certain yet.

I'd say it's likely she's either refering to the Ruined King or to her murderer. I think her murderer was Hecarim, but that's just me.

LordHippoman3 votes

"Ferocious Warrior" Killed in combat, wields a spear, seems to have been impaled by spears as well.

I think it's a strong theory. Good eye.

Dreamspitter1 votes

"Ferocious Warrior" Killed in combat, wields a spear, seems to have been impaled by spears as well.

I think it's a strong theory. Good eye.

In client lore story says

""Kalista is an eternal spirit of retribution, who possesses a cold-burning hatred for all betrayers, deceivers, and traitors.

#In life, she was a legendary warrior, but while trying to avert tragedy she was betrayed and slain* by those she trusted most*. Now, she is an undying entity that can be invoked to exact vengeance, but only at great cost: the supplicant’s soul becomes forfeit, bound to her for eternity"

Interesting. Unfortunately without a Sion style mistake we wont get full story early.

Solideus3 votes

Maybe Hecarim Hecarim betrayed Kalista? He was shrouded in mist, but we don't know what his story of betrayal is.

Some theorize that he betrayed Mordekaiser, but the altar quote is "Mordekaiser is not to be trusted, Hecarim!", which suggest it would be the other way around.

Centaurs are similarly inspired by Greek mythology as Kalista's amazonian themes. (Maybe they are both related to a Targon from ages past? People vs. (now extinct-) centaurs?)

Hecarim uses a polearm, which is similar to a spear. He is similarly suggested to not remember his former life much ("Remember who you once were, Hecarim!"), but maybe they knew each other when they were alive? Hecarim is pretty old though, so Kalista would have to be too.

If she wants revenge on Hecarim that might be her ulterior motivation for her getting so busy with vengeance. Their shared Shadow Isles affiliation or Hecarim's relation to the Black Mist (as he leapt out of it in the cinematic) might then be an obstacle to her at the moment.

P.S. It's interesting that Kalista seem to be familiar with the story of the Ruined King, almost as if she knew of him in life. I wonder what the implications of that are?

Diahane3 votes

I thought this too because of the Greek name and apparel, but reading her quotes when buying item 3153 made me doubt :

"Once, he was a noble king, until grief overcame his reason." "In the end, it was not his blade that stole our lives." "As once it symbolized hope, so now shall it incite despair!"

So, since I do think she has to do with Rakkor, I'm inclined to bet on some retcon tying things together? Or maybe the Rakkor thing was her start point and then in development they saw her as more befitting of the Shadow Isles.

Diana x Me3 votes

Alright, I have been examining rakkor style of armor and weaponry by cross examine pictures and trying to see if the same style is incorporated. I can say for sure that she is not from Rakkor. Her armor is way too complex in its design. They use single sheets of metal to create their armor and their plates do not often overlap. They stick to only a few colors to where as her armor uses many. She does not use strip plating like the Romans or single plating like the Greeks. They also made their weapons to be simple but, effective nothing overtly fancy like gut hooks. I just don't see enough Greco-Roman.

Dreamspitter1 votes

Alright, I have been examining rakkor style of armor and weaponry by cross examine pictures and trying to see if the same style is incorporated. I can say for sure that she is not from Rakkor. Her armor is way too complex in its design. They use single sheets of metal to create their armor and their plates do not often overlap. They stick to only a few colors to where as her armor uses many. She does not use strip plating like the Romans or single plating like the Greeks. They also made their weapons to be simple but, effective nothing overtly fancy like gut hooks. I just don't see enough Greco-Roman.

Then there is the fact that the Reds actually dont like Pantheon being a straight meme/rip from 300. Rather than having tropes, he is a trope.

They said they wanted him to feel "more Runeterran" but there's no telling when his VU will come, nor exactly what he will come out looking like.

BUT if it does turn out that Kallista is from the same culture, she would be a guide for what a Pantheon VU might come out like (with the understanding she is far, far older).

GreenLore2 votes

She does look like it,but I think it might also be just coincidence. However looking at the black mist in the video,she may have been a rakkor who was claimed by the shadow isles,which would be indeed awesome(because so far we've only had champs from the shadow isles who willingly joined them or lived there before)

Dreamspitter1 votes

She does look like it,but I think it might also be just coincidence. However looking at the black mist in the video,she may have been a rakkor who was claimed by the shadow isles,which would be indeed awesome(because so far we've only had champs from the shadow isles who willingly joined them or lived there before)

Wasnt Yorrick an incident?

And Elise too?

Kareaux1 votes

I think Elise wasn't an incident, she willingly became what she is.

Arbitron3 votes

I think Elise wasn't an incident, she willingly became what she is.

Do you mean accident? Normally I would be pretty sure but both you and op said incident instead.

Kareaux1 votes

Well you're making me doubt. You're probably right, it should be accident.

GreenLore1 votes

yorick is a bit weird,he seems to have died a natural death and then suddenly reappeared on the shadow isles. In the end it doesn't look like he really got caught and killed by them.

And elise willingly joined them,just like karthus

NeoJusteBelmont2 votes

If this is true, then it could be coincidental that Riot read my idea about a Targon champion that was supposed to be Pantheon's rival and then claimed by Shadow Isles. But it looks like they just missed out my latter idea where Diana rescued the champion, causing the latter to pledge loyalty to Diana and her cause for the Moon.

Diana. Forever alone.

EDIT: Never mind. The VO seems to have her speak with Karthus and Lissandra. Probably the ones covered in Black Mist during the Harrowing.

MrBuffington2 votes

She's getting a bloodmoon skin; I thought that was specifically for Ionians

Dreamspitter1 votes

She's getting a bloodmoon skin; I thought that was specifically for Ionians

Skin-Canon is not the same as restricting skins to a nation. Albeit, currently we only have Shen and Akali as bloodmoon examples/

MrBuffington1 votes

I might be wrong, but I think blood moon is a bit of an exception, since it's a show that Shen and Akali put on in the lore, not just some random skin set.

Diahane1 votes

I might be wrong, but I think blood moon is a bit of an exception, since it's a show that Shen and Akali put on in the lore, not just some random skin set.

But, you know, retcons and the game being separated from the lore etc...

MrBuffington1 votes

That has nothing to do with this though; the retcon was about the IoW, this is a traditional Ionian event (bloodmoon, that is). Like, Diana can have a lunar goddess skin because that makes sense with her thematically (moon stuff), and doesn't actually have any ties to the lore. Bloodmoon is an isolated part of Ionian tradition, from what I understand. I've seen people bring up bloodmoon skins for non-Ionian champs and Reds will tell them it doesn't work because Bloodmoon is Ionian.

Diahane1 votes

That has nothing to do with this though; the retcon was about the IoW, this is a traditional Ionian event (bloodmoon, that is). Like, Diana can have a lunar goddess skin because that makes sense with her thematically (moon stuff), and doesn't actually have any ties to the lore. Bloodmoon is an isolated part of Ionian tradition, from what I understand. I've seen people bring up bloodmoon skins for non-Ionian champs and Reds will tell them it doesn't work because Bloodmoon is Ionian.

What I meant is: they retconned what literally gave the name to the game, what could stop them from erasing the cited show from lore and having the related skins to be just skins like most of the others? I don't mean they're doing it or will do it, but it would be the last of the lore's misadventures.

MrBuffington1 votes

I mean it's possible? Then again they still have faction-based skin lines, like commando or crimson elite. I'd say it's a really stupid move if they go and do that, I don't see why they would; this is established lore within a faction, which is something they've stated they want to explore more of; that's one of their reasons why they retconned the league in the first place (not saying the reason is good or bad, just saying that's what i've heard from them. Sorry if I come across a bit...snappy. I'm so sick of lore retcon discussions). They don't retcon lore randomly or on a whim, they have some sort of directedness in it (again, you can argue about the validity of all that or whatever, I really don't care)

bloodmoon seems like a cool ionian bit of culture that they'd want to keep. it's like them getting rid of the solari or something, it's just weird and random, pretty much completely counters what they were trying to do with the retcon in the first place (explore the other areas of runeterra).

EDIT: well, I have my lore a bit backwards, bloodmoon is a show put on after the noxus-ionian war, but it tells a traditional story. Not sure if the costumes were also traditional, but how it worked in my mind is that Kalista is an ancient Ionian warrior that was betrayed, but she had something to do either with the original story bloodmoon is based off of, or she performed it herself many years ago.

EDIT2: new announcement has an Ionian fleet sinking due to the harrowing 33 years ago (I'm assuming that's how it works), I would guess this is where Kalista comes from.

Kareaux2 votes

I was thinking she was from Mount Targon but yeah, the announcement with the Ionian Fleet kinda starting it all made me think she was probably from Ionia.

Diahane1 votes

I mean it's possible? Then again they still have faction-based skin lines, like commando or crimson elite. I'd say it's a really stupid move if they go and do that, I don't see why they would; this is established lore within a faction, which is something they've stated they want to explore more of; that's one of their reasons why they retconned the league in the first place (not saying the reason is good or bad, just saying that's what i've heard from them. Sorry if I come across a bit...snappy. I'm so sick of lore retcon discussions). They don't retcon lore randomly or on a whim, they have some sort of directedness in it (again, you can argue about the validity of all that or whatever, I really don't care)

Don't worry, I've had enough of retcon's discussions myself, so I perfectly understand xD Nevertheless, the problem with a retcon, in general, is just this: done once for something (in this case for the very thing that gave the game its name), they could conceptually do it for anything. In this case, given how huge the retcon they pulled out was, this would come as really a minor thing too, with respect to the IoW erasure. You are right saying this wouldn't make sense with their stated intentions, but I do not trust them enough to adhere to those strictly. The reason being that they stated they wanted to preserve the core of retconned characters, but I've seen a very different Xerath's background story. Also, I've seen narrative say that champions were summoner's puppets, which is against their very own old lore, as explained in some JoJ issues. I don't want to argue about this two latter points as to why I don't trust them, I just wanted to expose why it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if things were this way. I perfectly understand some people may disagree on the "not changing champions' core" thing or the other example, no need to argue back if you're tired of this kind of discussion, you can just tell me you don't agree and I'll understand =P

bloodmoon seems like a cool ionian bit of culture that they'd want to keep. it's like them getting rid of the solari or something, it's just weird and random, pretty much completely counters what they were trying to do with the retcon in the first place (explore the other areas of runeterra).

I agree it would be pretty arbitrary, but what has been not in the retcon? I could argue

EDIT: well, I have my lore a bit backwards, bloodmoon is a show put on after the noxus-ionian war, but it tells a traditional story. Not sure if the costumes were also traditional, but how it worked in my mind is that Kalista is an ancient Ionian warrior that was betrayed, but she had something to do either with the original story bloodmoon is based off of, or she performed it herself many years ago.

EDIT2: new announcement has an Ionian fleet sinking due to the harrowing 33 years ago (I'm assuming that's how it works), I would guess this is where Kalista comes from.

It could be, but I can't see her as Ionian in her design, plus if it was so her betrayer would probably be an npc. Besides, she has a quote saying she remembers the Shadow Isles and another one for "this land was once so beautiful" (or something like that) that, if I'm not mistaken, is something the altar on Twisted Treeline says too. Also, she makes references to the Ruined King: why would she if she was a Ionian caught by an already existing Black Mist, which is probably the result of things going horribly wrong in the Shadow Isles?

MrBuffington2 votes

Yea, I'm pretty spent as far as retcon discussions; I've had this discussion several times with many other people on many other threads, most times it comes up people (not you specifically) just come across as whiny and I just don't care to try to talk with them. I will agree, though, that the Xerath lore was strangely off-character in a few respects.

As far as Kalista, the story I've invented in my head is that she was one of the Ionians that was killed in the fleet 33 years ago, betrayed by someone, which is why her design is a bit different than other modern Ionians; she has an older style of armor (and in all honesty, we don't really have any soldier-type Ionians, most are champions from tribes or martial artists. The closest we have is Xin Zhao, whose armor might have stronger Demacia influences. Either way, she seems fairly similar in design to Xin Zhao, especially his or J4's Warring Kingdom's skins, just more spooky).

Either way, we'll probably find out more when she gets released

Diahane1 votes

Yea, I'm pretty spent as far as retcon discussions; I've had this discussion several times with many other people on many other threads, most times it comes up people (not you specifically) just come across as whiny and I just don't care to try to talk with them. I will agree, though, that the Xerath lore was strangely off-character in a few respects.

As far as Kalista, the story I've invented in my head is that she was one of the Ionians that was killed in the fleet 33 years ago, betrayed by someone, which is why her design is a bit different than other modern Ionians; she has an older style of armor (and in all honesty, we don't really have any soldier-type Ionians, most are champions from tribes or martial artists. The closest we have is Xin Zhao, whose armor might have stronger Demacia influences. Either way, she seems fairly similar in design to Xin Zhao, especially his or J4's Warring Kingdom's skins, just more spooky).

Either way, we'll probably find out more when she gets released

Yep, we should await her release, we don't have as of now a clear idea of what should be deemed Ionian in terms of design and names, so it may as well be as you say - though I'm pretty confident on her being a Shadow Isles's important figure who tried to stop the Ruined King from committing his grave mistake.

catraven1 votes

She's getting a bloodmoon skin; I thought that was specifically for Ionians

cmon man....firefighter trist :P ....

Diana x Me2 votes

Also I find it interesting how Varus and Kalista have a relatable title. Arrow of Retribution and Spear of Vengeance. Are we going to hear about the Sword of Demacles next?

cshakes1 votes

Actually, Kalista must be related to Brand, the Burning Vengeance

Dreamspitter1 votes

Actually, Kalista must be related to Brand, the Burning Vengeance

0.o

NeoJusteBelmont2 votes

I just read the wikia's Skins and Trivia and it seems that Kallista's name is derived from a Greek myth figure, Callisto.

And isn't it Targon's thing to base designs from Greek/Roman myths?

Valaran Nara4 votes

I just read the wikia's Skins and Trivia and it seems that Kallista's name is derived from a Greek myth figure, Callisto.

And isn't it Targon's thing to base designs from Greek/Roman myths?

Kalista was stabbed in the back. She's linked to Mt. Targon. Solari massacred the Lunari !!!

#HALFLIFE3CONFIRMED!

Diana x Me3 votes

I just read the wikia's Skins and Trivia and it seems that Kallista's name is derived from a Greek myth figure, Callisto.

And isn't it Targon's thing to base designs from Greek/Roman myths?

It borrows from multiple places. Diana's sword is Egyptian and Solari architecture relates to Byzantine as are some of it's armor and styles.

Also remember the name Leona has no Greek or Roman story behind it. It just means Lion In Latin and is feminine version of the name leon.

You have a fair point but, we should not jump to conclusions so soon.

But I think I'm going to stand by my theory. (:

TeemoHunter13371 votes

she has a lot of hate for varus and betrayal in her VO

did she give varus the power?

Dreamspitter1 votes

she has a lot of hate for varus and betrayal in her VO

did she give varus the power?

Not likely.

Diana x Me1 votes

I don't see the connection between Pantheon. I see like Ionian almost like an ancient Xin zhao. Look at the style of the spear head and her helm. Look at the ponytail hairstyle it's seen multiple times in Ionias champs, its loose flowing and it's also very dark another Ionian feature. I am almost positive she is from Ionia.

Ariel the Cruel1 votes

Mount Targon is the Parrot's territory. She doesn't have nearly enough armor to qualify.

Diana x Me1 votes

So she is related to the ruined king then. Cool. I'm actually pretty happy they are delving further into this.

GreenLore1 votes

Now that we've got her voice over I doubt that she is from the rakkor,as she makes no mention about them and seems to remember the ruined king before he turned the shadow isles into a land of the dead.

Dreamspitter1 votes

Now that we've got her voice over I doubt that she is from the rakkor,as she makes no mention about them and seems to remember the ruined king before he turned the shadow isles into a land of the dead.

Also remember she refers to herself as "We" ("We were one once."), and is an amalgamation of all spirits that accepted the black spear. The price of their vengeances was to be bound to her forever.

Diana x Me1 votes

[deleted]

Diahane1 votes

Now that we've got her voice over I doubt that she is from the rakkor,as she makes no mention about them and seems to remember the ruined king before he turned the shadow isles into a land of the dead.

Also remember she refers to herself as "We" ("We were one once."), and is an amalgamation of all spirits that accepted the black spear. The price of their vengeances was to be bound to her forever.

Gospel of Mark 5:9 " Legion is my name. There are many of us."

Although, I know many of you are not believers but, I thought it would be fitting. Because he also calls himself we. Anyway if you wish to know more then read on. If not stop here.

Basically their Is a man who dwelled in the tombs and he was possessed by many demons. People had frequently tried to restrain him and bound him with chains and shackles. But he would just pull apart the chains and shatter the shackles and no one was strong enough to stop him, so he would basically do whatever he wanted. Jesus came off a boat from across the sea ( the place they are at is called Gerasenes.) So he came to Jesus basically saying why do you torment with your presence as the demon was filled with rage and hate. ( im not exactly sure where the demons came from) Anyway long story short he sent the demons into a herd of several thousand swine who ran off a cliff into the sea.

Yeah, I thought of the "I am legion, for we are many" reference too, but I think it got so common and trite over time that even if it was the case it comes more as a trivia than as anything concrete. (I don't want to demean your contribution to the discussion, of course! I'm just expressing my opinion on this reference becoming a bit cliched ><)

DevilishMetal1 votes

If she is, it supplements my theory.

junglerboy161 votes

I would guess yes based solely on her appearance.

Tentacle Love1 votes

I get the impression from her voice quotes that she says "we" referring to her and her soul-bound. And she just gets used to saying "we" a lot, and needs to correct herself at least once. Not like that's a big deal.

Kinda like when a champ says "let's go blow 'em up!" The word "let's" is short for "let us." It doesn't imply that they're suffering from multiple personality disorder, it just means that they're on a team, like all champions are, all the time. unless there are a LOT of people who disconnected that is.

More from Story, Art, & Sound

More by Dreamspitter