Props to Narrative for not killing off the narrator in the Rek'Sai story (or retconning!)
http://i.imgur.com/nYDhZ7K.jpg My dearest Merina, I was afraid that talking about how happy we'd be together would doom me to trope-death for sure. It appears this amulet does in fact work. So far, its protective magics are holding even after a kick-the-dog moment about how I expect to let our impoverished entourage get eaten to buy us time. I'm glad I opted for the expensive narrativium inlay. Just to see what happens, I wonder if I open a sentence like this. … As you know, Meri— Ah. I didn't expect it to spark like that. Well, continuing on.
I was pleasantly surprised that the story didn't end with a ripped-up journal and some dramatic "OH NO IT'S COMING FOR M—" scribble. That trope is getting really overused, and would have been so here. We already know Rek'Sai is scary and eats people, and there are better ways to depict that than having a(nother) random NPC get devoured.
Also, although I'll have to wait until later to dig through the story in more detail, I really like what I saw! It was well written, and the content is intriguing: it introduces this new Champion, while adding some more flavor to Shurima and Noxus. I've been dancing around the need to use words for currency in Factions for a while, e.g., mentioning only a sack of "gold coins" as Ezreal's bonus payment for a penta. Finally, we have a word, securi, for at least Noxian currency. On that note, it's also convenient for us that Narrative is going with a quasi-Roman feel in terms of names ("securi" for "solidi") and so forth; we've been using that theme for a while, e.g. referring to praetorian guards and urban legates. I almost wish they'd have gone for broke and opened the letter with something like "(name) sends greetings to his dear Merina," as a nod to the Roman formula—almost.
To continue an ongoing discussion, this is a great example of a legitimate surprise reveal: it's focused on adding new material to the League universe which builds upon its established foundations, rather than tearing up established story, so it's not particularly problematic that there was no prior discussion. This sort of piece doesn't shock readers with abrupt retcons to established LoL lore, and is also (by the same token) much less likely to mess up community lore like Factions. That lets us, in turn, take this new material as a catalyst, and use it to tell more stories and become further immersed in the universe. For example, someone could go and write a story about the caravans in Shurima, or about Champions fighting some xer'sai.
It's entirely possible I've missed something in my initial skim, but yeah, this looks great. Thanks Narrative!
Update: I've read it through now, and I must say, this is remarkably consistent with established lore. My jimmies are unrustled, and I am able to enjoy this flavorful and exciting story without distraction. As I mentioned, I'm particularly pleased from a Factions perspective that they're doing the whole Roman thing with Noxus. We took a gamble on that—if they'd gone a totally different direction with Noxus, we might be looking at rewriting a ton of our lore now—but it seems to have paid off.
Reddit Link Because I think we should try to get some lore discussion going over there. It's completely taken over by eSports at the moment.
