Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

What This Game Could Use: True Eldritch Horror

Meep Man·10/9/2016, 5:04:53 PM·8 votes·9,784 views

http://static5.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/5/57845/1504782-behold.jpg

This is an Eldritch Horror.

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Chogath_0.jpg

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/KogMaw_0.jpg

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/5/5f/Vel'Koz_OriginalSkin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160518205027

These are not Eldritch Horrors.

Void creatures are more alien horrors if anything. Currently, this game has a lack of truly nightmarish monsters. We have the undead, other dimension-like monsters, and some deadly creatures, but we don't have any Eldritch Horror in this game. Nautilus stems from this kind of horror, but is a very, VERY human version of this kind of horror. We don't have a monster that is just a mash of body parts, eyes, and just a gross creature in general. We don't have anything that is actually scary, just threatening. Cho'Gath is threatening, Vel'Koz is threatening, even Rek'sai is threatening, but we don't have anything that is ACTUALLY scary. The closest to SCARY in this game is Fiddlesticks, but even he is human-like. Everything that could even remotely be considered horror and not monster movie in this game has human features that makes it not something unknown, and the scariest thing for a human ever to face is the unknown. A monster of the unknown that you wouldn't see in a monster movie is what we need. Something that would truly bring horror to the game. Horror in general is kind of being washed away.

The Shadow Isles

After discovering the Shadow Isles with lore, everything became less scary because we know who they were and that they themselves can have motives in the afterlife. Hecarim is cruel, Thresh is a cliche insane torture guy, Kalista was a brave warrior who got the short end of the stick, and Mordekaiser was and still is a barbarian king. Everyone in the Shadow Isles became undead humans with a goal to either empower or defeat the Black Mist. They are all threatening, but none are scary. You wouldn't think of scary when you think Shadow Isles, you think violent and dangerous. Not a bad thing, but they aren't scary.

The Void

Aliens and monsters are from here basically. Every one of them just seems to be out of a monster movie, and that's not bad. It just isn't scary. Vel'Koz is straight out of a space, science fiction monster movie. Kog'Maw is the perfect suburban monster. Cho'Gath is from a Godzilla movie. Rek'sai is straight out of Tremors, and Kha'Zix is almost without a doubt inspired from Alien from Alien vs Predator due to his relationship with Rengar. They are all out of monster movies! Sure, if you were in their face, they would be scary. Truly terrifying actually. However, you don't get shivers thinking about them. You just think, "Wouldn't want to run into a creature like that!"

Eldritch Horror

This is a realm almost completely unexplored for the lore team. Eldritch Horror has an amazing cult following and often has endless potential for story telling, unexpected plot, and, most importantly here, truly horrifying creatures. The corruption that naturally comes with Eldritch monsters is straight out of the nightmares of any human on the planet. Unknown creatures that just boggle the mind with their appearance and defy the laws of time and space. Their all powerful, yet at the same time fragile thing they got going is just truly magnificent ground that hasn't been explored in Runeterra yet.

To summarize, we need more scary monsters. Scary monsters are something that really aren't in the game yet and something that would be really cool to explore in the lore. I know we already have so many angles of villains in the lore, but the thing is Eldritch monsters aren't necessarily villains! Sure, they are definitely not WITH mankind, but they aren't WITH anyone. Not even each other! Eldritch Horror is like if you mixed Chaotic Evil with True Neutral and then made it horrifying! They are horrors without any flag to carry but their own and I (and many others) would really like it if this area of characters was explored by Riot. We have yet to have any evil celestial beings and this would be the perfect place to get inspiration from. The first evil celestial should be an Eldritch horror, period.

36 Comments

Sharjo10/9/2016, 5:22:18 PM7 votes

AurelionSol "The depths of space crawl with terrible entities. Pray they ignore this world."

Rebonack10/10/2016, 2:27:37 AM3 votes

I would be rather keen on the idea that the Void itself is an eldritch realm of madness.

The Voidborn and voidlings would be, in effect, mere shadows of the things that lurk there. Physical manifestations of creatures that can not and must not ever exist in a sane universe. It would be something that could be addressed nicely in Lore, but making an actual eldritch abomination champion would be difficult, if not impossible.

The whole hook of the cosmic horror genre is a complete and utter loss of agency. You are insignificant and utterly powerless in the face of the creeping terrors clawing at the threshold of reality. That sort of feeling is quite difficult to get right in a game like League, which focuses strongly on empowerment and personal agency through your champion.

Abyssphere10/9/2016, 5:59:13 PM3 votes

Not happening. I don't think they can make the concept satisfying without it being inappropriate for the game's rating, so I think monster movie/spooky ghost is about as far as we're going with scary champion concepts.

CamilIe Toe10/9/2016, 6:35:45 PM2 votes

One of the many reasons i crave more Dark Star skins with a fitting VO. DS Thresh's VO comes pretty close to something i would call a "Eldritch Horror", only his body is too humanoid ( Rito pls more Dark Star skins).

Lines like "We are the death of hope.", "I am the herald of realitys end.", " "Not even gods dare look within." and "We shall hunt you to the ends of creation." are what is truly alien to us, we can hardly grasp concepts like these. Perhaps only percieve him (Giant, purple humanoid alien) because our minds simply cannot grasp his true form (Check this TV trope out).

I guess u dont want to go in the direction of Warhammer 40K ? I mean we allready have Graham McNeill so there would be the perfect Candidate to give us something like a C'tan or Chaos God. If we want to take baby steps and have a Champion that would fit in the power range of the others we can start with something like a Chaos Spawn (Im not sure if posting pictures would get me banned) or a Herald of the above named C'tan/Chaos God .

GreenLore10/9/2016, 5:45:59 PM2 votes

I think there are a few problems with getting eldritch horror into this game,I'm not saying it is impossible,but it certainly makes it more dificult: 1.Eldritch horror is usually unimaginably horryfying,which pretty much means we'll only ever see parts of it,but can never fully grasp its true form.So making an eldritch horror champion is going to be difficult,because the champion itself is only a part of the whole.

2.Eldritch horrors are usually extremely overpowering.Humans are pretty much nothing compared to them and their utter hopelesness against these beings is part of the horror,so it could be difficult to integrate eldritch horrors into the lore.

3.If said horror looks too disturbing it might actually cause real life problems,like a higher rating in certain regions.

That being said,I do want to see an eldritch horror within the game. To be fair there are already a few eldritch-horror elements in the lore,the void as a whole seems sentient,so even though the individual voidborn are "merely" monsters,the void as a whole might qualify as an eldritch horror. Then there are the watchers,I mean they are extremely mysterious and powerful beings that do look more eldritch than any voidborn http://abload.de/img/wp_20151231_001lupji.jpg but considering that they were seemingly defeated by getting tossed into a hole they might be more like powerful monsters.

If we'd get an eldritch horror as a champion then I guess it would either be a powerful spirit(a horrific counterpart to bard?),a being from outer space(as Aurelion says "The depths of space crawl with terrible entities. Pray they ignore this world.") or the ocean(as its not really uncommon to associate eldritch horrors with the deep sea)

Oleandervine10/10/2016, 5:27:34 PM2 votes

The Dark Star skins are supposed to be Eldritch Horror.

Trolosaurus10/11/2016, 12:47:08 AM2 votes

Once again I dip into Dark Souls

http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Dark-Souls/Charge_manus.jpg

I'd love to see someone like Manus in League

Ruin Lance10/11/2016, 2:40:44 AM2 votes

having an eldritch champion isn't very fitting for league imo.

it's not very scary to play as an eldritch horror

Tesla Effect10/10/2016, 5:25:06 PM1 votes

We only saw a small amount of Void individuals being shown in Runeterra....we know nothing about what lies inside the Void itself.

TricolorStar10/9/2016, 5:10:55 PM1 votes

Although we don't have many Eldritch horror champions are the roster, we do have lots of Eldritch ones in general. Bard, Kindred, Illaoi's Nagakaborous, Aurelion Sol, and Yorick's Maiden of the Mist to name a few.

The Whamboozler10/10/2016, 7:25:37 PM1 votes

I love me some lovecraft plenty... and I would be totally fine with eldritch horrors in the game.

EXCEPT... they will quickly become less scary once they're understood. Once they're statted, they're not scary. It's hard to take this cosmic being that sits apart from time seriously when some new player is using it and feeding a Teemo while they rage in chat about it.

More eldritch horrors in the STORY? Sure. A playable one? Nah. Illaoi is a good idea for this. An agent of some unspeakable thing. They kinda dropped the ball with her (She summons tentacles for god's sake! Why isn't she more of a lovecraft reference!?) but the idea is good. A deranged cultist or a hideous monster who speaks of bigger, scarier, unknowable "things" that they serve. Malzahar was a good example of this too, except that the void is basically alien bug world and kinda understood now... so.... yeah.

But yeah, I agree with you for the most part OP, but that kinda shit needs to be handled smartly, not just thrown into the ring as a pile of mismatches parts and called a champion. That would ruin it.

BobaFlautist10/10/2016, 7:43:44 PM1 votes

Idea: make a Malzahar equivalent for an old god. Malzahar was a human prophet who stared too long into the void, now he's an insane, twisted shell of a man that spreads corruption and brings unfathomable horror to all he targets (his e and ult are basically "Show them the horror of the beyond and they take damage because they can't handle it).

In fact, he's already pretty damn close. But basically, don't try to make an Eldritch horror into a champion, make a man or woman that strayed to close to one I to s champion. This also helps maintain the scale, an ordinary human that has been infected with madness and corruption of the eldritch being able to go toe-to-toe with physical gods really gives you a sense of just what that horro rmight be.