In the wake of Aatrox's VGU: The aftermath of the Darkin Wars and the Rise of the Revenant
Ah, VGU's. Probably my favorite kind of content we've been given in the recent years. What's better than seeing old archetypes and character concepts be brought up to modern standards by not only improving their visual qualities and gameplay, but, more important for this sub-board, also having their voice over and lore updated to fit their new place in the world of Runeterra.
Aatrox in particular really captured my interest, mostly through something very specific: How his change in backstory and lore changed his character from a more Puppet-Master kind of personality that has no real motivations of his own and rather dwells in the shadows, to a character of his own, with his own set of ideals, morals and of course; ambitions.
It's something that really got me thinking, and you guessed it, actually made me try wrapping my head around how the release might actually influence a very specific future one.
I am of course talking about Mordekaiser.
Mordekaiser is, despite him being extremely outdated, a very important player in the League of Legends timeline. He is featured in several other lore pieces, be it just vaguely or otherwise, since his Rise and Fall were extremely crucial to shaping the world after the Darkin wars.
Which brings me to the main topic of this thread, which is analyzing what world birthed the man we now know as Mordekaiser and if, or rather how, his more "force-of nature" personality could be expanded upon in a similar vein as Aatrox's did.
Picture this: A world ravaged by the Darkin Wars; A conflict that might have spelled the death of all mortal life if it wasn't for Targon's trickery that bound the warmongers to sentient weapons, sealing them away so that they may never wage their destructive conquest over Runeterra.
Once green fields would have been rendered to muddy trenches, overflowing with the blood of countless men and women who stood against the Darkin. But they are gone, leaving the world to recover...
But what they also leave is a Power Vacuum I imagine the world directly after this conflict as something akin to what you'd see in "Mad Max". The world is inhabited by several smaller war bands who fight for the basic resources and their survival, no bigger ambition that to survive in a post apocalyptic world that is only now trying to recover from the scars inflicted on it by such a massive war.
Strength and cunning is valued more than gold as Warlords fight for territories, clashing and wiping out weaker tribes.
It is a world dominated by death and the struggle to become** the one on the top of the pile.**
Sound familiar? It's Mordekaiser's philosophy.
Let's take a look into the mind of the man who would come to reign over Runeterra with a literal Iron Fist: Mordekaiser is one of countless other Warlords battling over territories in an attempt to survive. But he seeks more than just basic survival as he is surrounded by death.
His subjects wither and die, succumbing to disease, to battle, to very life itself. His family, those he might have held dear in life, are taken from him by death, ripped out of his arms by machinations he is not master of.
He sees the Wolf and the Lamb at every turn, watching them reap his soldiers, his foes, his comrades, his loved ones. It is in this moment that the Iron Will is forged that will lead to Mordekaiser surrendering his life to undeath
Why? It's easy. Because he seeks to defy even Death itself. It is the greatest foe of all in the aftermath of the darkin war. Dying is an every day occurrence in his world, where survival is often measured by the strength to subjugate your every foe. And as Beric Dondarrion put it: Death is the Enemy
Be it out of madness, of sheer pride or otherworldly ambition, Mordekaiser sought to conquer even Death itself, to defy both the gnashing Jaws of Wolf and Lamb's swift Arrows.
To be the one who would make the very thing that dominated his world his slave. In a way, the Title Riot tried to give him was fitting; The Lord of Death Only that Mordekaiser would only seek to conquer death and eradicate its presence in his Kingdom.
He would see it as his right to rule: He who masters death, masters life. Ambition that would make him regard himself as the one true Emperor who would reign over the kingdom of the damned.
His contempt for the living would only be matched by his disdain for lesser undead. In his eyes, only those who willingly walk the path of undeath are worthy to stand side by side with him. Mortals are still slaves to their own mortality and will succumb to death, while those lesser thralls are just mere apparitions bound between life and death with no motivations of their own. For he chose this fate, and he would see it to the end.
But what would that mean for Mordekaiser's character? Well, it is easy, it's not to make him redeemable in any way, he would still be the Warlord who sought to enslave the whole world, bringing undeath to all.
But it would give him reason to do so beyond "Well, I do so because I can." Mordekaiser's creed should have been a direct consequence of the world that birthed him.
He saw that all the battles the Warbands waged against each others would be meaningless in the face of the one foe that reaped them all. And he would seek to dominate even Death.
In terms of characterization, he should be extremely confident and actually be really prideful. He would be the one standing at the top, and he would see everyone else as beneath him, beyond the strength to master the very thing that would end their miserable existence.
"My dream; One nation...under me."
"Whenever I die, Death feels a flicker of fear."
"It is hard to have a heart when you've stopped so many others."
"The question isn't 'who's going to let me'; it's 'who's going to stop me'."
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/242332223317999618/458976690924683264/mordep2.JPG
In a way, making Mordekaiser a character of his own rather than your stereotypical Bad guy for the sake of being evil is going to be something Riot will have a real challenge with. His current place in the lore is pretty much confirmed to be the conquering force that seeks to once again rule over his old territories but the motivation to do so is something Riot still has a lot of creative freedom with.
Be it because his ambition and pride didn't allow him to be simply beaten by something as simple as death itself or some other event in his past that lead him to seek conquest eternal, I'm excited to see what Riot might have in store for him in hopefully the near future.
"I am iron. My blood is nothing but ferrous liquid. When I bleed I reek of rust. It is Iron that fills my heart and sits in my veins. And what is Iron, really, unless it is forged? And my foes provide me with the fiery hate that will temper this metal."
! From my perspective morde should remain a bad guy , with much better characterization of course...
