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What kind of lore do you hope to see when Mordekaiser releases?

Naalith·3/25/2019, 7:21:39 PM·7 votes·8,644 views

The Shadow Isles is one of my favorite regions, but is a region that I feel has been neglected over the last few years. While the lore drought could be worse (peace be upon Bandle City), the last time we've really seen anything from the Isles was in 2016 with Yorick's rework. This is in stark contrast to some other regions which not only were updated multiple times, but were referenced in other region stories. With that being said, here are my hopes for the update and I hope you share yours.

  1. A more clear idea of what the Ruined King has done since the Ruination, how he relates to Mordekaiser, and if there are multiple factions on the Isles or just Mordekaiser's legion and a few single rebels like Yorick and Maokai. I've always speculated that the Ruined King is probably the most powerful undead due to his direct part in the Ruination, but is likely to have become depressed and is locked away by Mordekaiser who siphons his power. Just a theory, but a theory created in the absence of any information which is the issue.

  2. Either a direct appearance of the Kindred or a heavily implied presence of them in a scene. Kindred is the enforcer of death and after someone dies their reaping is an absolute certainty. However, with the Isles continually growing the number of undead and going against nature as a result, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kindred take more direct action. How would they react to Yorick, would they let him live or make a pact? I'd also love to see Kindred be an antagonist in a Mordekaiser or Karthus story, true death is perhaps what those characters would fear most if anything.

  3. A Harrowing event in a place other than Bilgewater. We've heard in the past that an undead assault can happen anytime anywhere on Runeterra, but Bilgewater is the only place we've seen this happen. It makes sense because they're physically close to the Isles and the lack of centralized government and seemingly high poverty leads to easy kills to grow the Mist, but it seems like people in other regions are unaware the undead even exist. It's hinted that Swain knows of the Isles, but it seems like with an active and growing threat that can strike anywhere, word should get around.

  4. A flashback story of the Blessed Isles. Now that the longer stories are common with lore updates, I'd love to see a more fleshed out story taking place in the Blessed Isles. Maybe it will be Yorick reminiscing from the present, which will also move his story forward or maybe it'll be a new cast of non-gameplay characters. Maybe it could be present day Mordekaiser interrogating a soul about the use of some magical artifacts in the vault, giving us insight on how and why the Isles became a sanction for deadly artifacts. Who knows, maybe Morde has a World Rune in there.

That's my main list. The fact that there's a server somewhere out there with a near feature complete Mordekaiser update and a boat load of lore waiting to be released gets me hyped. If speculation is true, the next champion with Bandle City stories is also being kept secure somewhere. Riot pls.

20 Comments

Warlord Rhinark3/26/2019, 7:47:43 AM3 votes

I want them to explain how Mordekaiser is so damn big.

In his short story, he's described as a giant of a man, but it makes me question if he was also this big in life, or his armor somehow increased in size following his resurrection.

Hopefully, this can also explain why Sion and Urgot (big bois who also come from Eastern Valoran) is so big as well, as there's no way humans can seemingly be this big by birth alone.

NotaRobot10063/25/2019, 8:15:21 PM3 votes

I'm so overwhelmed with hype just thinking about the VGU that the only answer I can think of to "What lore do you want to see?" is "a lot of it."

That being said, I agree it'd be neat to see Kindred show up. But I'm not sure if either Morde or Karthus would fear them. Karthus seems to see true death as a slightly less good version of undeath, but doesn't hate it outright. For him, death's the equivalent of getting a silver medal. Yeah, you could do better, but at least you're not alive.

And then Mordekaiser admitting to anyone, himself included, that he fears anything doesn't sound like a Morde thing to do. I see him as less fearful of the Kindred and more spiteful toward them for getting in his way.

Agent Corgi3/26/2019, 12:42:23 AM2 votes

Personally I would like to know the following about Mordekaiser;

  • His life before becoming an Undead Revenant, when he was a Brutal Warlord that ruled with an Iron Fist.
  • The Immortal Bastion & Mordekaiser's ties to that location in Noxus
RyzeTheSmurfMage3/26/2019, 7:11:26 AM2 votes

Morde leading his undead army upon Noxus and fking destroying them for a while. Morde fighting with Ruined King to gain complete control over the Black Mist in order to be able to invade other nations across the sea. Morde being Sauron-like and destroying entire armies with his mace and necromancy

thefatlazycat3/25/2019, 8:10:30 PM2 votes

The most recent Malicious Metal leak depicts five large lacerations on Morde's left collar plate, I really want to know who did that, and if there are any other signs of wear in his new design, I like the idea of Maoki having tried to stop him during his rise to power and dealing that damage before needing to flee, unable to kill him. Besides that I really want to see him taunting and jeering other champions, especially those from Noxus or the Shadow Isles (naybe less hostile towards those like hecarim, karthus, and kalista but you get the idea). Although right now I'm mainly just hoping that his kit stays faithful to the whole 'Immobile high-sustain, high-damage lane bully ap bruiser' thing

Oleandervine3/25/2019, 8:48:49 PM2 votes

{quoted}

The Shadow Isles is one of my favorite regions, but is a region that I feel has been neglected over the last few years. While the lore drought could be worse (peace be upon Bandle City), the last time we've really seen anything from the Isles was in 2016 with Yorick's rework. This is in stark contrast to some other regions which not only were updated multiple times, but were referenced in other region stories. With that being said, here are my hopes for the update and I hope you share yours.

  1. A more clear idea of what the Ruined King has done since the Ruination, how he relates to Mordekaiser, and if there are multiple factions on the Isles or just Mordekaiser's legion and a few single rebels like Yorick and Maokai. I've always speculated that the Ruined King is probably the most powerful undead due to his direct part in the Ruination, but is likely to have become depressed and is locked away by Mordekaiser who siphons his power. Just a theory, but a theory created in the absence of any information which is the issue.

I don't think the Ruined King should be expanded on after he caused the formation of the Black Mist. He's a myth in the current lore, and honestly works much better that way. Not knowing some things about certain characters lends them more power in terms of how they stand in the world, and lends them a more epic nature. This is something that the Narrative team at Riot does not understand very well, because they have a tendency to over-explain things to death. The Ruined King is a strong mythic figure who started a horrible catastrophe, and being a being who's whispered about and heralded for the horrendous tragedy he caused makes him an imposing figure. I like not knowing what happened to him, where he went, or what he's up to now. That kind of information tarnishes the story told about him. If Mordekaiser becomes the Ruined King, I'll be pretty pissed.

As for Mordekaiser's relationship to the undead, his current lore paints him as not being the be-all-end-all entity on the Isles, just one of the few undead capable of sentience because his form of undeath was something he did to himself using dark magics and unrelated to the Mists. We know (according to his current lore) that he's subjugating the lesser undead into an army of his own, but that has some flaws because the Isle's undead are bound to the Mists. There are other entities on the Isles though, like Vilemaw, so it's not without its share of resistant forces that are vying for control over the mindless dead. Mordekaiser is probably the most organized of the lot, and the most capable of going on the mainland and raising his own undead to march across Runeterra to reclaim the Bastion after using the Isles' undead to kill a few folks to get him started. The Isles to him are a means to an end, not his end goal.

  1. Either a direct appearance of the Kindred or a heavily implied presence of them in a scene. Kindred is the enforcer of death and after someone dies their reaping is an absolute certainty. However, with the Isles continually growing the number of undead and going against nature as a result, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kindred take more direct action. How would they react to Yorick, would they let him live or make a pact? I'd also love to see Kindred be an antagonist in a Mordekaiser or Karthus story, true death is perhaps what those characters would fear most if anything.

Eh, I don't think Kindred taking a heavy role in the Shadow Isles is a good arc to follow. Kindred already has lines for their hatred of the undead, and that's enough of their intervention in the Shadow Isles. Perhaps some lines pertaining to how the Black Mist traps the spirits from meeting the Kindred would be sufficient to explain why the Kindred can't touch the Isles, but to inject them as an enemy is just bleh. It's puts too much of a heroic spin on the Kindred, and makes them too much of a protagonist character, when they are very much a side character god who is omnipresent. It interferes too much with the mythos that the Kindred is wrapped in, and humanizes them way too much. Yorick is the "hero" of the Shadow Isles story, along with Maokai. Not the Kindred. They're just an irritated deity.

  1. A Harrowing event in a place other than Bilgewater. We've heard in the past that an undead assault can happen anytime anywhere on Runeterra, but Bilgewater is the only place we've seen this happen. It makes sense because they're physically close to the Isles and the lack of centralized government and seemingly high poverty leads to easy kills to grow the Mist, but it seems like people in other regions are unaware the undead even exist. It's hinted that Swain knows of the Isles, but it seems like with an active and growing threat that can strike anywhere, word should get around.

I personally believe the line where Riot told us the Harrowing can happen anywhere was a bit of bullshit that doesn't fit with the narrative of the Isles. It makes no sense that anywhere on the map can simply spawn a cloud of the Black Mist for the undead to spew forth form. Everything we've been told of the Mist is that it originates in one place, and grows, waxing and waning like the tide. It makes ZERO sense why it would suddenly spawn in the middle of Demcia or Shurima, when they're not in any kind of proximity to the Isles. I could see the Mist possibly making it as far as the lower islands of Ionia over the seas, or the shores of Kumungu, but that's it. Making it conjure up anywhere it damn well pleases is just a deus ex machina.

And of course Swain knows about it, he's got a demon of secrets with him, and he sends fleets all over the world conquering new lands. He would have noticed the Isles at some point and tried to conquer them, only to have his fleets swallowed by the undead.

  1. A flashback story of the Blessed Isles. Now that the longer stories are common with lore updates, I'd love to see a more fleshed out story taking place in the Blessed Isles. Maybe it will be Yorick reminiscing from the present, which will also move his story forward or maybe it'll be a new cast of non-gameplay characters. Maybe it could be present day Mordekaiser interrogating a soul about the use of some magical artifacts in the vault, giving us insight on how and why the Isles became a sanction for deadly artifacts. Who knows, maybe Morde has a World Rune in there.

I mean, I could see some background on the Blessed Isles, but again, this is something that narratively speaking I don't see as necessary beyond what we got in Yorick's and Thresh's lore. Why do we need to see the Blessed Isles? We know it was an island where a scholarly sect of monks lived in near nirvanha, protecting a very powerful font of water with strong healing properties. We also know that they scoured the world, taking evil artifacts and storing them away on the island so that they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, since they had a mystical veil shielding the island from the rest of the world. What more do we possibly need to know about the place? I don't think there's anything left to learn that would contribute something meaningful to our knowledge of the place.

What would be more interesting is knowing exactly where the Ruined King hailed from, when he was alive. We know it was mainland, and that Kalista and Hecarim were serving under him. Yet we don't have any kind of understanding as to what kind of kingdom he ruled, or where it was on the map. Was he Icathian? Shuriman? Proto-Demacian? Targonian? This is information that would actually serve the myth of the Ruined King and several champions, unlike an expanded backstory on the Blessed Isles.

Crow Nebula3/25/2019, 8:34:54 PM1 votes

All I hope for is all I ever hope for with League's lore: for it to make sense.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

QMighty3/26/2019, 4:29:32 PM1 votes

I wonder how much MM knows about the lore we're getting...

Wordson1x3/28/2019, 2:49:34 PM1 votes

What if we got a lore event not just a vs event about an attack on The Shadow Isles.

Darius Strada3/28/2019, 2:58:07 PM1 votes

2 Words - Pure Evil.

No sad tragic backstory. Pure, unadultered Evil. He just looked up to the sky and said "Fuck it. I'm gonna conquer all of this by any means necessary. No price too big to pay. No one is gonna stop and he who dares try it will become my personal sex/torture slave."

huhndog3/28/2019, 2:59:30 PM1 votes

I actually really like his lore right now. Hope they keep it and add an additional story from his perspective