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So let's talk Mordekaiser's lore...

Vartius·2/14/2018, 6:59:56 PM·1 votes·1,671 views

(Warning: This post is quite nitpicky and rambly. I will put a tl;dr at the end) The current lore of our dear Huekaiser is... Special. I recently wrote a lengthy comment about it on some Morde-related thread. It was so lengthy, in fact, that I decided to expand on it a little and make it into a full post. Mordekaiser's lore is very much like the champion it involves – It's fun... and fundamentally flawed. If given any deeper thought it falls apart, it fails in its main tasks:

  • Making Mordekaiser a badass villain
  • Painting Mordekaiser as a character

Lets start with the first one. How does it fail at making him a badass villain? Both the main part of his lore and his short story try to put Mordekaiser into situations, where his power can easily be displayed, however it does so in, perhaps, the worst way possible – By first, unintentionally, making him incompetent (that and also using tons of cliches). First big example of that appears in this fragment:

Having assumed the mantle of the Iron Revenant, Mordekaiser's nightmarish reign of darkness lasted many centuries. Several times he was seemingly slain during this period, yet always he returned, brought back by the power of his soul-bound liches.

The goal of this fragment is to show just how long he has reigned and how potent is his resurection ritual. The issue with that? How did Mordekaiser die so many times? He supposedly ruled the lands throughout his life and then another centuries of his unlife. How does someone with supposed immense strength, magic, and battle experience die so many times? Is he the worst general to have ever existed? Because if he ruled for entire centuries, probably waging war throughout the entire time, shouldn't he already KNOW how to command his troops? Shouldn't he know every move in a strategist playbook? Actually – shouldn't he be the one WRITING THE PLAYBOOK? If he's that incompetent at commanding armies, how did he gain rule in the first place? (actually more on that later...) And if he didn't die after being defeated in battle, then how? It couldn't have been assassination attempts, because as we know from parts of his short story, he doesn't even budge from arrows to his neck, giant swords to his side and his heart – he seems impervious to any damage that doesn't literally crack him open (Or rather his armor) and rip apart.

This fragment, instead of showing how he is an eternal threat to the world, paints Mordekaiser as an incompetent leader, who somehow manages to die, despite being nearly invulnerable.

The secong biggest example of Mordekaiser's incompetence is pretty much the entirety of his short story, Shadows Of Damnation. Mordekaiser, once again - someone with centuries of battle experience, powerful mage and great warrior, fights some unnamed demacian knight... And said knight manages to stick his giant sword into Mordekaiser twice! before Morde finishes him off. Of course, once again, the scene is meant to show just how powerful Mordekaiser is – how injuries like that mean nothing to this iron behemot...! … Why did he allow that to happen though? Couldn't he block those attacks? Sure, they weren't dangerous to him, but still – taking no damage is always better than getting hit, if the fight didn't require Morde to be stricken in order to kill the knight in a hit for hit exchange. And if it did require Mordekaiser to be hit, does it mean that a random demacian knight is just as skillful of a fighter as Mordekaiser is? And if it was indeed him literally ALLOWING himself to be struck, why is there no mention of that in the story? It would, of course, be another cliché – showing the dominance over your opponent by willingly taking hits – but that cliché would still be better than incompetence on Mordekaiser's part. There are many more fragments like that, but this is already getting far too rambly at this point, so I will just add this one more detail that cropped up recently. In LeBlanc's updated lore it is noted that Mordekaiser took the lands after they were ravaged by the Darkin invasion... Cool. He seized the opportunity and took lands for his own... But that means that his conquest is far less impressive than it seemed at first. He only took what was already broken. (And I guess that explains how he gained rule in the first place, despite apparently being an awful commander)

Now the second part. One of the strong points of Mordekaiser's lore is just how grand it is – it shows him during a span of centuries, maybe even millenias. However, that has one, huge drawback. It fails to give him any character. Due to his history's size, we only get descriptions of his actions, certain events that happened during his unlife-time – and that leaves out any psychological depth. It doesn't even give a reason Why? Why does he conquer? What drives him? What is his motivation? What even is his ultimate goal? Who is he as a person? What is he like? Is Mordekaiser even his real name? I am not saying that Mordekaiser should be one of those sympathetic villains or have some tragic past that makes him do all these things... But since when only morally grey characters can have interesting personalities, motivations and goals? Mordekaiser can be evil and still be a well-written character, yet his story doesn't even attempt that. The only personality trait that is mentioned so far in his story is paranoid, when it comes to his bones... And that doesn't speak too highly of him either. Paranoid doesn't really scream badass, rather it gives an impression of a coward. I feel like if Morde's lore is meant to ever be fulfilling, this must be adressed, even more than the first point.

Of course, his lore isn't all-bad. It has great potential to drive the story forward – he has room for improvement and creates possibility for interesting events and interactions. The issue is that currently he is left in the dust and nothing indicates that anything is coming his way. His rework is still far away and after Noxus lore was updated and he saw barely any mention, there is not much left that could expand on his story. Still, I look forward to seeing how it all pans out, where his lore is headed and whether or not his personality will be expanded upon... That's it from me...

Tl;dr Mordekaiser's lore in it's current state is meh. He's supposed to be badass, yet he seems far more incompetent than powerful. Furthermore his story doesn't in any way tell us who Mordekaiser actually is as a person. (Goal, motivation, personality)

Also Riots hates Morde. https://i.imgur.com/hrkuA8M.png

6 Comments

Chromatic Eagle2/14/2018, 7:45:01 PM5 votes

Do you need to know who he is as a person? I feel like that’s irrelevant.

Johnny El Rojo2/14/2018, 9:38:35 PM4 votes

I don't think that the times he falled and got defeated diminish his menace or his capability as a general. I think those moments just ilustrate how even while being a dark lord with vast resources and armies, he liked to take the lead of his troops from the front lines. Even if you are the best estrategist in the world, and a skilled warrior, you are going to get "killed" in battle by a opponent that either is better than you, or simply had a lucky shot. And again, why whould he care about being "killed" or defeated in combat if he knows that he is getting back no matter what? To me, it's obvious that he just enjoys the fragor of the battle, and the exciment of conquest. His short story makes it clear from the moment he sees a worthy opponent and gives the order to his legions to stand down so he can take him personally.

Mahavishnu734/27/2018, 5:07:28 PM1 votes

The short about the attack on the Demacian town also lacks any context that I can remember. Why the hell did Mordekaiser attack it in the first place?

I hope they really make a huge scale lore update when they update Morde's lore. He's such an epic character that it seems like information concerning the life of Mordekaiser should also concern entire nations and geographical regions. In my opinion, his VGU should coincide with with a lore update where he regains some level of dominion in present day Runeterra, rather than just being some boogyman who used to be badass. I'm kinda on the fence about whether he should be written more as an unfeeling force of nature (walking manifesteation of pure death, domination, and subjugation), or a more complex villain with thoughts and feelings. Either way, his lore just needs to be fleshed out (excuse the pun) with solid storytelling that makes sense and tells a coherent story.

Here's some stuff I'd love for them to address: -Did he have any magic before his death, and if so, where did it come from? -What's the story behind Nightfall? Any weapon with a name deserves a damn good story of its own. -Is he bound TO or bound BY his armor? -What is his relation to the Black Mists? Are his necromantic powers related? -Did he or his liches have a hand in the Ruination, or was that just a great stroke of luck for him? -What's he been doing since the Ruination? -If I understand it right, Udyr's lore talks about Lissandra and a coming darkness. Could that be related to Mordekaiser's pending resurgence?