Walkers in the Waste

Pale Mask·10/16/2019, 9:29:49 AM·18 votes·13,304 views

With the reveal of Legends of Runeterra, we've gotten numerous cards that provide some degree of world-building information. In the case of some of them, however, they open up more possibilities than they answer questions. I believe this is the case with the following two cards: They-Who-Endure, and She-Who-Wanders.

https://i.imgur.com/zVJJXme.jpg[/img] https://i.imgur.com/YHjyUHG.jpg[/img]

Originally, the Howling Abyss was the place where the Iceborn cast down their Frozen Watcher masters. In their old incarnation, the Frozen Watchers were a race of cyclopean creatures that dwelt in the Freljord, who possessed powerful magic and gave the Iceborn the gifts of True Ice and immortality, but were betrayed by the Three Sisters and their followers.

However, the Watchers have since been retconned into being significantly more dangerous beings of titanic proportions (the "smaller" specimens among them being the size of mountains). They appear in the form of a mass of eyes and tentacles, though this is, of course, the most basic way to describe them.

So then, what are these?

https://i.imgur.com/QlNio5h.jpg[/img] https://i.imgur.com/0Wft9ks.jpg[/img]

These giant, goat-like(?) beings have been revealed as part of the Freljord deck, and are high-cost, high-power cards that are fueled by the death and destruction of other units. Specifically, They-Who-Endure grow stronger with every creature that dies during the game, whereas She-Who-Wanders has the ability to fire a ray of destruction from "her" ("its"?) eye and instantly kill every other card in play. In the flavor text, looking at them drove one Freljordian mad.

Their appearance is even more suspicious—namely, they strongly resemble the original concepts for the Frozen Watchers:

https://i.imgur.com/q7Rzx5E.jpg[/img] https://i.imgur.com/KMNSwTU.jpg[/img] https://i.imgur.com/lTbtuON.jpg[/img] (they also happen to resemble the statues that decorate the Howling Abyss)

We know that the Watchers are (with all due respect to the impressive size of these creatures) too big and too eldritch to be them, but their looks draw too much from those of the original Frozen Watcher designs for there to be no connection. Are they Freljordian proto-Voidborn, like Vel'Koz? Perhaps they are Freljord-native creatures tainted by the Void? Since the shape of their visage is also prominently displayed among the Frostguard tribe, are they servants (or perhaps the new patrons) of Lissandra and her disciples?

6 Comments

Gapybo10/16/2019, 9:51:39 AM1 votes

Oh wow, is there a place i can see all this new artwork and units?

Camille Ferrøs10/16/2019, 10:01:24 AM1 votes

WAIT hold on... am I dreaming?

Arakadia10/16/2019, 9:02:35 PM1 votes

I suspect they are a new kind of eldritch demi-god style spirit creature based off the old design of the Watchers, because those designs were rather cool. Their resemblance to ARAM map might become a canon part of the lore, but out of universe is just because thats what Watchers used to look like.

serasy10/21/2019, 4:32:33 PM1 votes

anivia calls them "ancient ones" when she interacts with those cards, so i think they are either older than anivia herself or close to her. their deathray looks void-ish but im not sure its the same. they destroy and explode the world and not desintegrate it. also far in the north there is the tribe of shapeshifters that follow the volibear and are just looking like horrible monster between animal and man. the walkers also have somewhat human arms around their shoulders. maybe there is a connection. but honestly. i have no idea what they are or what they will do