Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Getting in to the Lore: Bilgewater Guide (Unofficialish)

RiotBioluminescence·11/9/2018, 2:01:31 AM·69 votes·23,681 views

https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/images/bilgewater_crest_icon.png Well hi!

I've seen a few players in the past who have become intrigued by the story side of League, and who wonder how to dive in to it. Often the answer we (as the lore-friendly community) give, is simply "Read all of Universe!" which is a little bit hardcore. I want, here to try an experiment in providing a curated 'playlist' of stories and other content that can get a new player up to speed on a particular set of story arcs, in an easy to digest format.

With no further adu, a suggested "How to get into Lore: Bilgewater Edition" list of content.

#BILGEWATER CURATED READING GUIDE Gangplank MissFortune TwistedFate Graves Illaoi Olaf Thresh Lucian Hecarim A gruesome tale of betrayal, murder, revenge, power-vacuums, and a bromance best described as ‘complicated’.
Featuring Gangplank, Miss Fortune, Twisted Fate, Graves, Illaoi, and with special guest stars Olaf, Thresh, Lucian, and Hecarim.

Gangplank Gangplank: Blood in the Water. Short Story. (1 minute.) A quick look at Gangplank in his element - capturing an enemy ship.

TwistedFate Twisted Fate: Double Down. Short Story. (4 minutes.) A high-stakes game of cards gets too rich indeed.

item 3144 Burning Tides Site. Microsite. Lightly illustrated version of Burning Tides, with an 'explorable' super-wide background image with clickable hotspots for more info.

Alternatively, you can read the individual acts on Universe: TwistedFate Graves Gangplank Burning Tides: Act 1 _ Short Story. (16 minutes.)_ On the stinking docks of Bilgewater, two old ‘friends’ bump into each other.

TwistedFate Graves MissFortune Gangplank Burning Tides: Act 2. Short Story. (13 minutes.) The job goes sour, drawing the attention of two very powerful foes.

Graves TwistedFate Gangplank MissFortune Burning Tides: Act 3. Short Story. (16 minutes.) Sacrifices are made and a monster is killed.

Illaoi Gangplank Illaoi: The Burden. Short Story. (11 minutes.) An ex-love needs to be taught a lesson.

Gangplank Burning Tides: Epilogue. Short Story. (3 minutes.) Bilgewater eats itself.

MissFortune Gangplank Miss Fortune: Biography. Short Story. (4 minutes.) The beauty, the legend, the bounty hunter.

MissFortune Miss Fortune: Down Among the Dead Men. Illustrated Short Story. (4 minutes) A wanted man comes to bargain for his brother.

TwistedFate Graves Twisted Fate: Biography. Short Story. (3 minutes.) The immaculately dressed, magically fortunate, card sharp.

Graves TwistedFate Graves: Biography. Short Story. (3 minutes.) Graves has three things - his gun, his cigar, and his stubbornness.

Graves Graves: One Last Shot. Short Story. (3 minutes.) As quiet as a drink with Graves usually goes.

MissFortune Miss Fortune: Surrender. Animation Experiment. (2 minutes.) Just another day on Miss Fortune’s ship.

Olaf MissFortune Lucian Illaoi Thresh Shadow and Fortune: Part 1. Short Story. (18 minutes.) A mugging, a visitor, a funeral, and then the bells toll.

MissFortune Olaf Lucian Shadow and Fortune: Part 2. Short Story. (18 minutes.) The ghosts of the past return, and courage runs dry.

MissFortune Hecarim Lucian Olaf Thresh Shadow and Fortune: Part 3. Short Story. (12 minutes.) In desperation, they all fall back, and a grieving man turns to fury.

Thresh Lucian Illaoi Hecarim Olaf Shadow and Fortune: Part 4. Short Story. (22 minutes.) A fate worse than death, and dawn over the docks.

Illaoi Illaoi: Biography. Short Story. (4 minutes.) The thrice-blessed priestess will hand you your teeth.

Illaoi Trial of the Kraken Priestess. Mini-Game. (2 minutes.) How would you measure up against the great Nagakaborous’s test?

Gangplank Gangplank: Biography. Short Story. (2 minutes.) Brutal, ruthless, and now brought low - the Reaver King himself.

MissFortune Fortune Smiles. Comic. (6 minutes.) In the bloody aftermath, who will rule Bilgewater?

##Bonus! Music to accompany your reading!

Gangplank Captain Gangplank. Login Screen. (2.5 minutes.) Gangplank Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge. Login Screen. (2.5 minutes.) MissFortune Captain Fortune. Login Screen. (1.5 minutes.) TwistedFate Graves Twisted Fate & Graves. Login Screen. (1.5 minutes.) Illaoi Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess. Login Screen. (3 minutes.) item 3144 Bilgewater. Soundcloud Playlist. (18 minutes.)

And that's it for now! That should get you up to speed on one of the story arcs in Runeterra. Let me know if this is at all helpful for easing into the bigger world of League of Legends and some of our more connected storylines! :D

49 Comments

World Ender11/9/2018, 2:04:19 AM16 votes

This is awesome, having all the stories and stuff in one place is really helpful. I hope you'll make more of these!

Malicious Metal11/9/2018, 7:21:48 AM4 votes

This needs to be pinned.

Also, Noxus and its Progenitor next? Pretty please?

Warlord Dienekes11/9/2018, 2:16:56 AM4 votes

Ahh, to Bilgewater. Still the best lore event Riot has ever done.

Stars Shaper11/9/2018, 7:30:14 AM3 votes

I'm deeply sorry for the incoming salt, but I'm going to refer to this thread each time I want to show how freaking much lore/attention Bilgewater/MF has compared to most of other regions/champions. xD

Anyway, good thing to have a place with all the links needed to enjoy a region lore.

RyzeTheSmurfMage11/9/2018, 8:21:45 AM2 votes

If you make more of these can the next one be about Shurima?

The23rdGamer11/9/2018, 2:22:47 PM2 votes

I like this idea. Breaking down League's massive lore into smaller bits so more a more contained story can be digested before expanding on to the next story is certainly going to be appreciated by some, and I say that as someone who just "read the Universe" to figure out how lore went. :P

Albeit earlycomers had the benefit of reading things as they came out and got updated, but that's not really important here.

Yljin11/11/2018, 2:29:29 PM2 votes

It's Bilgewater. Why didn't you say "unoffishal"

6FlagsFunnelCake11/9/2018, 3:49:27 AM2 votes

Oh I like these. Do more!

xxxDogmanxxx11/9/2018, 8:44:35 AM2 votes

As you can probably tell from my 3.5 years unchanged Icon, I am a huge fan of the Black Market Brawlers event of 2015. In my entire time here, I have not changed this icon in remembrance of that event. Please consider bringing it back again.

Gilgayu11/9/2018, 2:23:22 PM1 votes

I really hope Riot employees can answer more of our questions and discussions on boards though, I mean, I mostly only see the Advisor, Herald, and Archivist...

Ifneth11/9/2018, 2:47:04 PM1 votes

Short, curated playlist, right? :D

But thanks, Bio! :)

Ceazaru11/9/2018, 6:11:54 PM1 votes

Bildgewater is fine. I just we could get big events for the other regions.

FlameHalbrdOkido11/10/2018, 9:12:53 AM1 votes

kinda makes me wanna do another one of my field guides for Bilgewater....

Void Kaiju11/10/2018, 1:24:32 PM1 votes

Thank you so much! This is such a useful page to have and I have a few friends I will be sending it to. Is there any relevant Pyke stuff to add to this since he is one of the major players in the current story arc for bilgewater? Or will that wait until we have a few more answers?

YDy2ZkRq0211/11/2018, 4:51:59 PM1 votes

Nice post Bio! Since the "Sea myths"(Pyke, Nautilus, Fizz and TK) were alredy mentioned, I think that GP's bio would be better placed right after Down Among Dead Man and Illaoi's bio(together with the trial minigame) right before Shadow and Foturne, so I'm curious: Why did you place them in those positions? Again, nice post! For a long time I was thinking in something similiar to Shuriman lore, but I never really shared it in a post like this one. Maybe you gave me the motivation to do so...

Hexs Fortune11/11/2018, 9:58:06 PM1 votes

Thanks for posting! You guys keep up the good work!

Story, Art and Sound based Rioters are Challenger tier at their work ;-)

Blue Moon Wolf11/9/2018, 4:00:40 AM1 votes

This is rather helpful, would love to see more of these. I make sure to read through the stories I'm really interested in but some stories are just harder to dive into for various reasons. Nice to get a condensed version :p

Whyte Lyon11/9/2018, 4:04:01 AM1 votes

Wouldnt a great majority who linger to SA&S be the type who's fully equipped at finding these stories, and sufficiently familiar with Bilgewater's content and even any lore. Like I fully support the intention here but is the boards the best place to promote more 'accessible' lore?

The majority of SA&S are the niche circle of already hooked people, we don't really benefit from a thread like this but it's those elsewhere that need this guidance. Yet the thread has a day at best to be discovered, so long as this isn't pined by moderators, which it hasn't so far.

LightningShado11/9/2018, 5:25:58 AM1 votes

Senior Level Designer, eh? Senior Level Designer for WHAT GAME?

Zapzya11/9/2018, 7:44:38 AM1 votes

This is awesome. Keep up the good work Bio.

ltmetal11/9/2018, 9:02:08 AM1 votes

THE MUSIC SUGGESTIONS THO

Camille Ferrøs11/9/2018, 12:05:21 PM1 votes

This is why we love the lore team.

floo11/9/2018, 12:53:16 PM1 votes

"So the scuttlebutt goes"

Gilgayu11/9/2018, 2:21:54 PM1 votes

This is the best thing Riot has done on boards for a long time :)