This is my first post in a new series where I explain in an easy to grasp way certain league lore. Since it just passed, I decided to do the harrowing first. Let me know what you think, and what other cities/factions you would like to see me do.
It amazes me that no one tries anything to stop it. I understand that the average person has no magical powers, but there are plenty of champions with tons of magic and/or strength (champs in this world have celebrity like status.) The Summoners at the Institute of Justice are pretty much like "Sorry guys, we don't know how to fight this but if you find something hit us up, so yeah, good luck." There hasn't been any knowledge of how to stop it other than if your unlucky enough to cross paths with it, you hope to the gods you can fend it off (if your some rural farmer somewhere, I'll be honest, you're fucked.) But people in the world just seem to turn a blind eye and hope it doesn't happen to them. Sounds like a lot of things in real life right (oh riot.)
I'm about to post a new Factions update set during the Harrowing that partially addresses this.
The Narrative attitude appears to be that nobody cares. That seems to be the trend in the new Runeterra: everyone's off in their own corners, and either unaware or simply apathetic to what happens elsewhere. (If you ask me, that's a bit dull.)
The explanation I'm going with for that Factions update: given that the Mist turns people it kills into undead minions, throwing large numbers of troops at it is a very dangerous idea. Instead, nations that want to:
are more likely to send out a small number of elite troops and Champions to conduct a search-and-destroy operation in conjunction with the local Bilgewater militia. Summoners aren't much use in a straight fight except combined with a Champion, and establishing the link that lets them empower Champions is hard to pull off outside the Fields, but there are likely some of them on the ground as well.
It amazes me that no one tries anything to stop it. I understand that the average person has no magical powers, but there are plenty of champions with tons of magic and/or strength (champs in this world have celebrity like status.) The Summoners at the Institute of Justice are pretty much like "Sorry guys, we don't know how to fight this but if you find something hit us up, so yeah, good luck." There hasn't been any knowledge of how to stop it other than if your unlucky enough to cross paths with it, you hope to the gods you can fend it off (if your some rural farmer somewhere, I'll be honest, you're fucked.) But people in the world just seem to turn a blind eye and hope it doesn't happen to them. Sounds like a lot of things in real life right (oh riot.)
Uhm Institute of war got retconned,so of course they aren't doing anything against it. And they tried already to stop it,the page,where Riot described several harrowings says that one time GP and MF teamed up to defend against it,but in the end,they suffered heavy casualities. In another year someone tried to fight it by summoning a giant sea serpent,but it wasn't enough to stop the harrowing.
"Cho'Gath! Skarner! Malphite! Brand! Nocturne! Maokai! What are you all doing?" Anivia burst in on the lot of them, who were standing on a cliff overlooking Bilgewater.
"Oh?" Cho'Gath grunted through a mouth of popcorn. "Nothing much, just watching the Black Mist roll in."
"WHAT?" Anivia flew in front of the monsters, blocking the view. "Why aren't you helping them? There's people being slaughtered down there!"
"So?" Nocturne snatched the popcorn from Cho'Gath. "What did they ever do for us?"
"THEY'RE LIVING BEINGS!" Anivia barked.
Skarner put a claw on Anivia's wing. "Dear, the Institute of War no longer exists. Kog'Maw ate it. We're spending our Harrowing relaxing, free from all that nonsense. Well, they are. I'm simply here to protest my lore changes."
Cho'Gath sneered. "Skarner, stop breaking those fourth walls. But they're right. Why should we care for them?"
"I guess you're right..." Anivia sighed. "Pass the popcorn."
