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Karthus' New Lore (Pros and Cons)

Sleepy Psammead·10/28/2015, 7:59:24 AM·27 votes·2,769 views

It's incredibly well-written, so I feel bad for complaining and will take note of the things I like as well as the things that bother me. Karthus' new lore changes two major things I used to love about him. Whether they are for better or for worse is debatable (even if the extraordinary writing quality of the new lore is not):

  1. It makes him SIGNIFICANTLY younger. Old Karthus was the first being ever to willingly become undead--which means he predated Greyor, which means he predated the fall of the Frozen Watchers (which in turn predated the founding of Demacia, Noxus, and even Shurima!) New Karthus was born in Noxus, so obviously he can't be older than Noxus' founding. This change doesn't bother me that much, though--I like the idea of Karthus being the zealous new blood in the Shadow Isles at least as much as I liked the idea of Karthus being ancient and privy to countless secrets long passed from mortal recollection.

  2. HE TAKES PEOPLE AGAINST THEIR WILL! This is a much bigger issue for me, and almost completely ruins what made him my favorite champion for the duration of the period between his June 2014 visual update and the lore update he has just received now. Post-VU Karthus' dialogue and his expanded lore piece "Sermon of the Dead" (which I loved!) both characterized him as a charismatic mass-suicide cult leader, a la Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite IRL. This gave him a unique feel amongst the other Shadows Isles champions, because he doesn't actively enslave people's souls, but instead seduces the fearful and the desperate using kind words and radical ideologies that are driven by his extraordinary force of personality.

Karthus demonstrates his disdain for the methods and motivations of the other Shadow Isles champions in his champion-specific taunts--he wishes for the dead to be free (not tormented by Thresh), and he wishes for his followers to accept his gift in a consensual, fully informed manner (not be tricked/lied to by Elise). The fact that he murders Vionax, the crew of the Darkwill, and the Bilgewater debtor who rowed him to the Shadow Isles--ignoring their active protests!--completely undermines this aspect of his character and makes him significantly less frightening, IMHO. A persuasive person who can convince your loved ones to engage in unthinkably out-of-character self-destructive behaviors of their own free will is much scarier to me than just another soul reaper.

I also miss the uncanny detail of staging his own death in order to observe his funeral, but the new backstory in Noxus is so good that I don't mind its loss much. I love the in-depth look at his relationship with death through childhood and adolescence.

Burning Tides caused several champions involved in its story to experience changes of character. Graves and Twisted Fate put aside their grievances, and Miss Fortune became significantly more bloodthirsty. My hope is that by the end of Shadow and Fortune, Karthus will also experience a change, and the elements of his character that I described in 2) will be renewed (e.g., he will resolve to take only those who are willing to become undead). I am not sure how much of a difference voicing this hope will make, though, since Shadow and Fortune is probably already fully written.

TL;DR: What's the point of being a Deathsinger if your singing doesn't actually convince anybody to accept death?

18 Comments

Wheatloaf10/28/2015, 11:15:15 AM11 votes

I think what we've been seeing recently is Karthus' relationship with the Black Mist. My guess is that he doesn't have a lot of control over where it goes, or who it kills, and so he follows along with it in order the ease the passing of all he can. Of course he would like them to fully accept death, but the time he's given to convince some people is so short...

Just speculation, of course, but this is my take on it.

Craft Zeppelin10/28/2015, 9:02:04 AM5 votes

i really love how his songs and poems are so heart-touching it makes people so moved even after they lost their loved one when he was a mortal, and after death he can make hard-balls sailors burst into tears. So rock here.

Also I really liked the discription of what it feels taking a Requiem in your face. It was sorta weird that it didin't even involve pain, like he just removed you from your body methodically.

Neswii10/28/2015, 8:30:56 AM4 votes

I feel like they had to make him younger to fit into the Blessed Isles/Shadow Isles timeline. If I'm understanding it correctly from the Bio updates:

Mordekaiser hella old. Get resurrected many times with his bones. Builds a citadel which eventually becomes Noxus long after Mordekaiser's remains are locked away on the Blessed Isles.

The King and his army (feat. Kalista and Hecarim) visit the Blessed Isles, chaos insues and the King cast a wicked spell to turn the Isles into the Shadow Isles. So it would have to be somewhat in recent LoL history.

As for the lack of a following and more of an army... I guess he feels like "peace through war" is the way to go?

GreenLore10/29/2015, 9:59:39 AM3 votes

about your first point: uhm that was never the case. Mordekaiser was always said to tbe the first undead,not karthus and given the fact that mordekaiser predates the shadow isles that might be still the case. In the case of karthus it was always unspecified when he died

about the second point: I think that temporaldonuts theory is pretty fitting for that.If karthus wouldn't kill the people,then other shadow isless inhabitants would do it and they would probably do it in a more horrible way than karthus and enslave the new undeads. The melody that karthus sung was appearantly pretty moving as well,causing vionax to cry out of sadness,so I guess that he is actually pretty convincing and vionax was just rather defiant.

Sleepy Psammead10/28/2015, 9:58:49 AM2 votes

Yeah those are both elements of the new lore that I really enjoyed too, Craft Zeppelin. I still wish that it had been on willing victims, though.

ModWulf Helhammer10/28/2015, 8:08:25 AM1 votes

This is the lore he had after his update:

Karthus is a terrible creature who was once a mortal so obsessed with death that he eagerly embraced the gift of undeath. Now in his unlife as a lich, Karthus is closer to his beloved grave than he ever imagined. He commands magic with oblivion as its source, and seeks to bring his grim truth to the rest of the world: only in death does life gain clarity and purpose.

Even as a boy, Karthus was different. There was a darkness within him that could not be denied. The young child clung to the shadows and shunned the company of others. He snuck into the funerals of strangers, and spoke to their tombstones in the cemetery. He sought out corpses of animals to preserve and memorialize them, creating a grim collection of morbid art. Karthus volunteered to tend to the sick and dying, though his intentions were not to help, but to closely witness the passing of those who were beyond help. Ultimately, he went so far as to elaborately stage his death, and he secretly observed his own funeral with intense fascination. When others discovered what Karthus had done, they were so shocked and disturbed that, in a way, he became truly dead to them. Karthus found himself fully rejected by the living.

His isolation only served to fuel his obsession. Karthus delved further into his exploration of death, and became fascinated by the legends of the Shadow Isles. There, it was said, the specters of the deceased continued on in unlife everlasting. Possessed by these tales, he knew he had to discover for himself if they were true. Journeying to those dreaded isles, Karthus soon found himself wandering through the mist, overcome by the surreal beauty of the place. He felt as if he had finally come home. He had always chased the elusive purity of the moment of death, when life passed and in a single instant achieved meaning. Karthus saw that undeath was like that moment, preserved in dread stillness forever. He had discovered his destiny, to cross over the veil and leave the living behind for eternity. Something awoke in the Shadow Isles that day, when Karthus did something no other creature had ever done: he willingly gave his life over to undeath. When he reentered the world, Karthus had become the embodiment of his own obsession. An undying lich with the keys to life and death, he seeks to bring his dark requiem to the world.

"There is no sweeter song than the last breath of the dying." ― Karthus

So in general, not too much different. And his songs do bring people to the dead. His lullabies are what lures people to let him come near and do his death magic on them

EvilMerodach10/31/2015, 11:58:42 AM1 votes

I kinda feel he's had a downward spiral of lore. Went from being master of his marsh and anyone who entered died and joined his army he was building for unknown reasons.

Then around Dominion creation time, he 'died' protected a 'Nexus' for unknown reasons. Seemed weak, definitely weaker than Lich King of the Marshes. And dislike that never being explained.

Then he went to being zombie Huckleberry Finn with his visual update. (Attending his own funeral and whatnot...)

Now he's basically the Jehovah's Witness of the undying. 'Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, DEAAAATHHH??'

Maybe I just liked Jafar-Karthus days too much. He was my main back in season 1.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/disneyvillains/images/e/e0/450px-KH-Jafar.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090709232058

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/f3/Karthus_OriginalSkin_old.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20140529202145

Do you feel a chill?

Audiomancy10/28/2015, 4:26:02 PM1 votes

My personal favorite part of his new lore is the fact that his songs actually comforted people. It kind of makes me imagine a young Karthus going through the streets of Noxus and speaking with an old widow who has just lost her only remaining son. I can picture him talking about how his soul is at peace now and pushing her into the mindset that death can be a comfort, rather than a punishment, to those left behind.

Pikmints10/28/2015, 4:45:42 PM1 votes

What I don't get is why Karthus was so interested in the area between life and death when we already knew the answer.

Nasus: "Between life and death lies immortality."

My original interpretation of Karthus though had it fairly down the middle of your old interpretation and his new form. He would allure people to the notion of death, and upon them being convinced would assist them in making the transition by killing them. Murder is easy, creating loyal believers is more difficult and killing them only makes it so that they either experience the bliss he was talking about or makes it so that they can't turn back.

Fasmodey10/28/2015, 5:27:25 PM1 votes

Karthus looks a bit overpowered imo, can kill living things with a hand move. If I understood right he is nearly (and may be) tier 1 in power level.

CasterGilgamesh10/29/2015, 1:55:40 AM1 votes

i love the new lore my favorite is Kalista even though i love them i from a person on runeterra point view despise Karthus Mordekaiser Thresh Hecarim (go figure) i hate karthus because he imposes his "gift" upon all he finds even when they say no. i hate hecarim since he is a an asshole that made all this happen and i'm ok but still dislike mord since he enslaves souls.thresh is my most hated one since he torments souls. i love kalista because out of all of them she is the least malefic she has to be called and even then its an even trade your soul for vengeance.