Karthus: Lore discussion
After Zaun's stories I grew hungry for more so I was re-reading Lich's lore yesterday and I have to say that his story could be a masterpiece if there was more explanation behind his actions than his obsession but lore still gives us some interesting points (keep in mind that this is my interpretation I might be in error feel free to leave feedback I'm open minded):
- Karthus is the most merciful Shadow Isles being and actually acts like a good guy of this domain It is heavily implied that he has by no means bad intentions. He wants to bring immortality to people, he wants to free them from pain, from weaknesses and limits of flesh, he wants to see people experience existence without fear and bad emotions. The merciful part is that Requiem is totally painless. I like the description of feeling of what is it like being hit by Requiem: painless, quick death it's just like removing you from your body. You may say "wow how merciful of him killing without inflicting pain" but keep in mind that being brutally murdered by Thresh via torture and then be tortured eternally after death or being beaten to pieces by Numero Uno Hue Hue Guy and then be enslaved by him is another option on Shadow Isles.
- He doesn't share philosophical views with other powerful entities of Shadow Isles actually he opposes them. He opposes enslaving of the dead that Mordekaiser does, he tells Thresh that dead must walk free and not be tormented, he wants people to be fully informed before they die instead of being tricked and lied as Elise does. And seems like he doesn't like Morde at all as he mocks him: "A shell of flesh or a shell of metal? Both ring hollow."
- He has no lust for power, he isn't doing any of these things for his own amusement, he isn't a psychopath he just genuinely believes that he brings salvation to mortals (as death in most scenarios is quite painful without proper medical support and medical knowledge in Runeterra is probably low). When he kills people he comforts them with his singing before bringing them painless and swift death.
In my opinion while most Shadow Isles entities are cruel, sadistic and are just pure evil A holes Karthus is something different. I think that he is morally gray (I've seen people aligning him as Chaotic Good but the issue is that he "frees" people against their will). His perception of flesh, viewing it as weakness and source of bad emotions is pretty similar to that of Viktor's. Viktor's solution is replacing flesh with mechanical parts while Karthus wants to free soul from that chokehold and let it be not limited by anything.
What are your thought guys? Also I'm sorry for my bad English I hope it wasn't as bad as I think.