"I - 1 Year. The Battle of Knife Straits. An armada from Bilgewater, led by Miss Fortune and Captain Gangplank – sailing together under an uneasy truce"
This is lore from the Harrowing, since the reboot of lore.
Was this before the Bilgewater even chronologically? Because GP wouldn't have known who MF was.
Was it after? Because if that were the case, I don't see the threat from the Shadow Isles even bringing the two together.
That Harrowing took place before Burning Tides.
The following is how I understand that it went down: (not a Narrative team Rioter).
Miss Fortune was a well known bounty hunter with ships and crews to her name (that she had hired, welcomed, or tricked into working with her).
Gangplank knew of Miss Fortune and her bounty hunting ways - but Gangplank thought that the bounties on his head were hilarious! HE was the one who could ensure that his bounties were pride of place in the middle of the bounty board - DARING someone to come at him. In his mind, no-one would be stupid enough - and so it added to his legend.
When the Harrowing came, every ship and able seafarer was needed. Every weapon and warm body. Miss Fortune had weapons, ships, and manpower. Gangplank had weapons, ships, manpower, and influence. Of course, Gangplank appearing to need help to fight off the Harrowing would be a sign of weakness, so I like to imagine that he made a great show of 'inviting' people like Miss Fortune and her forces to come along and watch his victory.
Miss Fortune, burning with secret hate for Gangplank, would know how dangerous the Harrowing was, and that it would need every able-bodied soul to fight off.
Because of the terrible danger, Gangplank would have 'generously' invited Miss Fortune to attend. Miss Fortune would have put on her best fake smile, and accepted the invitation.
Because if they didn't - the town they both call home would have been full of nothing but wailing spirits within the week.
He knew who "Miss Fortune" was, as the name is an alias. But he never knew that this Miss Fortune was the daughter of the weapon smith he murdered over a decade ago - to him the name was just the one of another captain that lived on his turf. He had never expected her to actually go against him... although that has changed now as MF is now on a slaughter spree, killing everyone that has ever sailed under his flag.
Once the harrowing is over and GP has gathered some power again Bilgewater will have a civil war that might eradicate the entire town...
That Harrowing was before Burning Tides yes.
No he would've known who MF was; a famous (or infamous from his perspective) bounty hunter who commands a lot of respect in Bilgewater. By the time she made a name for herself in Bilgewater Sarah Fortune was already a long forgotten memory to GP, and he likely wasn't a fan of such a reputable bounty hunter.
They had a truce because they're, by rights, enemies by the very nature of their professions. Gangplank rounded up his gangs while MF probably went and rallied the harbour guard and some fellow bounty-hunter crews.
I don't see how this clashes. You'll have to elaborate further.
In short
Old lore > New lore.
Personally I just ignore the whole harrowing thingy. It felt like a rushed little timeline without any substance attached.
You're right, it feels quite awkward. Gangplank was basically in control of the entirety of Bilgewater and that sentence makes them seem like equals. I'd think Gangplanks whole armada wouldn't get uneasy because one extra ship got added. Already we know there's a monster-hunting fleet that was under Gangplanks control, so even if MF has an impressive ship, it isn't like Gangplank didn't.
Dude, RIOT has long stoped caring about lore. They just make up new lore for events, if that clashes with older lore, they wont even notice, they dont even have a lore team anymore, they basicly make some people just write some stuff the can use for new events and the forget about it.
They do care about the lore, the quality is there, but its not as much as they do for the gameplay aspect of the franchise. While you see patch updates for the game each 2-3 weeks, constant updates, videos about them talking about it, the story update is slow (quality release aside, they are ways to release lore without going full on out like how they do with lore events where they add a bunch of media to make it all visually appealing) lore gets updated each 6-8 months (excluding particular champion releases or full relaunches).
Thats a big difference in the timescale of things. Which is why if Riot would like to fix the "OMG no lore for months" cry out from fans, their best course of action is to have a steady release of lore articles fleshing out the setting, while they prepare the bigger narrative events. Building Bilgewater: A Pirate Renovation article is the best example of articles they should be releasing more often. But instead of just talking about a recent event they did, have the articles talk about even the smallest things of the world, like: objects in day to day life, jobs, cultural aspects, flora & fauna....
The articles themselves dont have to be something super long, just steady trickle of lore updated in the same interval as the game is.
If The Harrowing gets stronger every year and Bilgewater is in conflict with itself, how are they going to hold off the next Harrowing?
