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Can people turn to undead if they want? (Kindred-Karthus related theory)

Fasmodey·9/16/2015, 7:43:59 PM·1 votes·1,775 views

" Embracing life means accepting death. "

It's what Lamb is saying. So if you don't embrace the life, you can't accept death neither. You become a entity who is between living and dead.

If a person who wants to throw off his life kill himself does he turn to an undead? I don't think it always happen for the order that's because there will be always people who want to suicide and I think it is valid for Runeterra too, so it requires a lot more things. But it's still responsible reason to get it to case. That's the substance can make strong my theory:

Karthus always wanted to embrace death and hated than his life since childhood. He always thought about how dying would be awesome, seeing himself as corpse would be a pleasure. He even made a fake funeral for understanding and feeling this moment but it caused him to become isolated by his people. Then he wanted to die in Shadow Isles, but with some undisclosed case he became a lich, a type of undead.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's the only way to become undead. A curse, a rituel, a powerful entity can turn a living thing to undead I believe. But it can be one of the ways to turn undead.

Sorry for bad english.

6 Comments

Sharjo9/16/2015, 8:58:03 PM2 votes

The actual nature of how undeath works in Runeterra is a big mystery, not only because details are scarce because we have a bunch of different examples:

's curse
's reanimation
Shadow Isles magic

All three are different and bring about by different things and even among the Shadow Isles residents they were all affected in different ways; Kalista and Maokai were transformed by the destruction of the isles, Yorick and Karthus were reanimated later down the line, and Hecarim, Mordekaiser and Thresh are big question marks.

What I'd say in regards to your question is that the Shadow Isles denizens, for the most part, seem to have been transformed by the magic, with it warping their souls and minds. The power of the Shadow Isles can pull the dead back from oblivion, but how much of them actually remains is questionable, as we see many of these champions, not just those from the Shadow Isles, having their memories slowly deteriorate over time, the obvious exception being Maokai, as he was always a powerful spirit, specifically a nature spirit.

Karthus, in giving himself over to the Shadow Isles, was likely transformed while still alive, so he probably didn't actually have a point where he was dead, it would've been alive - dying - undead. How much of the individual's personality and memories are retained might have some correlation as to how much of their physical form endures, how long they've been dead, what the condition of their body and soul are, or a combination of all three of these factors, but it's difficult to say. Going by what I was saying before Karthus would then come in to undeath with very few adverse affects because:

He would've been dead for a very short amount of time
His body would've been in a good condition
His soul wouldn't have been warped by anything particularly nasty until he was re-animated.

Just musing on my part, but given Karthus effectively holds mass to entice the living to die, his method of becoming an undying spectre might be the best way to retain your mental, physical and spiritual integrity.

GreenLore9/16/2015, 9:29:38 PM1 votes

I think it has more to do with the shadow isles themselves and not with the fact that karthus embraced death.