Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Does Into the Abyss affect Nautilus?

A Superb Villain·10/7/2017, 9:56:16 PM·7 votes·1,568 views

With the release of Nami's comic we were essentially given confirmation that the darkness threatening the Marai is the Void, whereas before it was just some unknown malevolence. Since we have this confirmation, it calls to mind another champion that was affected by a "darkness" in the depths, our very own big daddy Nautilus. I ask, to those who care, is his transformation a product of exposure to the Void?

There are a small number of issues concerning this inquiry. First is the design of Nautilus himself. We have numerous examples of Void corruption in canon and skins. Rift Herald is a mutated scuttle crab, Kassadin is a corrupted human, as is Malzahar. Void Fizz and Void Illaoi are non-canon but still fall under the same design principle as other types of Void corruption, particularly later designs, like the Rift Herald.

Nautilus looks nothing like a Void corrupted human. This is likely due to the fact that Nautilus was conceptualized before the Void had a concrete design. This brings up further complications because what he should look like would have no resemblance to how he does now. Presently, he's just a very big mutated thing in a diving suit that was also mutated, possibly becoming the suit. Therein lies much of his charm as a character and a champion; Nautilus is a big, burly monster that looks like the very iconic image of a classical diving suit.

An alternative - that quite a few have considered ever since Burning Tides - is that Nautilus was corrupted by the Black Mist, not the Void. His aesthetic doesn't quite match that of a Shadow Isles champion, but he does bear a startling resemblance to Mordekaiser, a prominent figure of the Shadow Isles and Immortal Bastion.

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Mordekaiser_0.jpg http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Nautilus_0.jpg

This falls apart given the nature of the Black Mist and the Shadow Isles, particularly how they ensnare victims as eternal slaves, since Nautilus not only moves outside the Black Mist, but has actually fought off a Harrowing. By himself.

All that being said, how does the release of Into the Abyss affect Nautilus? Does it encourage the possibility of him being Void corrupted despite inconsistencies? Or does it have no real impact on his origins?

15 Comments

Whyte Lyon10/7/2017, 10:31:02 PM6 votes

Does "Into the Abyss" affect Nautilus?

Not when Nami's story takes place on the opposite end of the world and there's no known breach in or around the Serpent Isles. Seems that until there is actual evidence to the contrary, I would think it's safe to conclude the Void was not involved.

I will say this, 3 years has been a long time to wait for a Nautilus LU. There better be a significant change to his background and (if necessary) a VO update to justify this needlessly long hiatus. If I had to guess, Nautilus will be another emissary for Nagakabouros.

DariusDemiurge10/7/2017, 10:01:30 PM3 votes

Mordekaiser didn't make the shadow isles though, the ruined king in kalista's story "made" the blessed isles into the shadow isles.

Placentas10/8/2017, 11:24:34 PM2 votes

Honestly I feel like having him be corrupted by the void or whatever is a bit of a cop out. I'd like more void lore, but I don't really want everything tying to it or having to do with it necessarily.

Wrathof30010/7/2017, 10:32:22 PM1 votes

Ikr my "darkness in the abyss = darkness that attacked Nautilus =new underwater threat" theory DEstroyed. However, I doubt that Nautilus will be retconned to have been infected by the Void, but that depends on how Riot fleshes out Void corruption, Malzahar and Kassadin got powers, but then we have people like Jax.

This falls apart given the nature of the Black Mist and the Shadow Isles, particularly how they ensnare victims as eternal slaves, since Nautilus not only moves outside the Black Mist, but has actually fought off a Harrowing. By himself.

I don't think this canon anymore, and the Mist doesn't enslave you if you're powerful enough in some aspect, example Mordekaiser Thresh (he sort of embraced it and he got powers) Karthus (his desire to be an undead, allowed for him to obtain powers from the Mist without being bound to it per se). So I think it's fair game for the Shadow Isles too, you should have made a poll, Nautilus : Void corrupt; Black Mist corrupt; his own thing.

His own thing - could result in literally any conceivable theory. I'd push for these 2: #Nautilus spirit of lost Divers and #Nautilus demon of the depths.

Johnny El Rojo10/8/2017, 12:58:10 PM1 votes

Mordekaiser doesn't actually look like a Shadow Isles inhabitant, since he was an undead long before the isles became what they are now. So, the comparisson with Nautilus doesn't make many sense to me. You say Nautilus doesn't look like a void creature. But if you think about it, not either Kassadin . But basically, because he wears an armor. Just like Nautilus does. I wouldn't be surprised that he looked like a complete void creature under the armor. Also, the gloving yellow eyes are also in common with Kassadin .

But for the other side, Nautilus live in the complete opposite side of the continent to the tribe of Nami , so maybe the void infection her region suffers isn't present in the seas near Bilgewater. (The have enough to deal with the Black Mist, if you ask me.)

GreenLore10/8/2017, 8:24:20 PM1 votes

This falls apart given the nature of the Black Mist and the Shadow Isles, particularly how they ensnare victims as eternal slaves, since Nautilus not only moves outside the Black Mist, but has actually fought off a Harrowing. By himself.

Well I think that isn't actually a big problem. It could be easily explained with Naut not getting completely corrupted by the mist,either because his suit protected him to some extend or because he wasn't in the mist for too long. And the undead were likely focused on nauts crew and didn't bother to check under water,so no one took care to kill nautilus.