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Shadow Isles Lore Dive

Meep Man·9/10/2015, 6:36:18 PM·9 votes·7,544 views

http://cdn.leagueoflegends.com/apollo/content/inkinesss/ink_isles.jpg Drawn by Inkiness We all know the Shadow Isles as the place where basically ever single form of undead in Runeterra goes correct? But how did it end up that way? Lets dive into that shall we?

item 3153 The Ruined King and His Reasons The thing most known for the origin of the Shadow Isles is that a king that ruled there cracked open the barrier of life and death. The question: why? Well, we have a reason and a tool. The reason he cracked it open was grief. As stated by Kalista, "Once, he was a noble king, until grief overcame his reason. In the end, it was not his blade that stole our lives." This shows two things. One, he was overcome with grief and it was not directly him who destroyed the Shadow Isles. First, we will look at the grief. There is no canon answer, but the most likely reason is death. The death of a family member specifically. A king needs an heir/queen so when they died, he resorted to forbidden ways to bring them back. Necromancy. Now, who did this? There is only one Shadow Isles champion who is stated in their lore to have existed before the Shadow Isles: Mordekaiser. Mordekaiser enslaves souls upon them dying AND he was the first undead. He is the prime suspect as the causation for the curse of the Shadow Isles. While the fate of the Ruined King is unknown, it says his blade was not the one who doomed them in the end. Mordekaiser tricked the king into plaguing his land and most likely stole the soul of the king. So, now Mordekaiser is the "king" of the Shadow Isles and most of it's souls.

Mordekaiser Mordekaiser Our king in shining armor, Mordekaiser brought the undead curse to the isles. Beyond that he is actually little more. His goal is so simple (to bring torture to souls) that he has little depth past that. Maybe you could look into how he came to be, but thats too far from canon due to lack of information. What I will do here is back up my theory with a couple quote or two. "Mordekaiser is not to be trusted, Hecarim!" Spoken to Hecarim in the Twisted Treeline, this leads us to believe Hecarim lost his sanity upon going undead and now serves Mordekaiser. However, a select few of the spirits rebelled and they know the truth. They are warning Hecarim to come back to his senses and stop Mordekaiser from killing all of Valoran. "You give the dead purpose, Mordekaiser. I give them meaning." Spoken by Karthus to Mordekaiser. This further proves Mordekaiser is the king of the undead. He gives them purpose, a leader to serve, willingly or not. "I serve you because I must, Mordekaiser." Spoken by the alter in TT to Mordekaiser. This shows that some souls know what Mordekaiser have done and only serve him because they are imprisoned. Some things to also note are the countless quotes of if Mordekaiser is imprisoned as well. This may mean forces of old trapped Mordekaiser in the suit of armor to contain his power. He might be even more powerful than what is shown. He might be the Xerath of the Shadow Isles.

Kalista Kalista From now on, these will be smaller since Mordekaiser and Kalista are the most developed, but Kalista is filled with mystery. Kalista was betrayed and her lore is limited from there until more interactions come into place. Who was she betrayed by? She isn't rivals with any other Shadow Isles champion so they are for the most part ruled out. Perhaps she really was just killed by her soldiers in a war? How did her soul get bound then? Was she raging war against the undead plague and her allies became undead and killed her? Who knows, but she was betrayed and became undead afterwards, meaning her betrayal happened during or after the Shadow Isles plague. She could have risen from the grave, yes. However, I'm not sure on that and no one is, so we cannot know.

Hecarim Hecarim There is little on Hecarim except that he was most likely a great general of the Shadow Isles. He now serves Mordekaiser due to his insanity and enslaved soul. Many other spirits know he is the key to rebelling, but he just won't listen. "You are but the herald, Hecarim. Remember who you truly serve." Spoken by Karthus to Hecarim. This shows he is now Mordekaiser's general and Karthus is reminding him to ignore the cries from the rebelling spirits. "Remember who you once were, Hecarim!" Spoken to Hecarim in TT. The rebelling ghosts want him to lead their charge, but his insanity is just too far gone. But wait? Why are some spirits insane and some aren't?

Thresh Thresh That's right, Thresh. The rebellion of the prisoners was the true undoing of the Shadow Isles. Because of Thresh dying, he became Mordekaiser's main man for making the Shadow Isles become broken, insane, and serve Mordekaiser. "There are few things as invigorating as taking a mind apart, piece by piece."

Karthus Karthus "You are but the herald, Hecarim. Remember who you truly serve." Karthus freely serves Mordekaiser as, more than likely, an adviser. Karthus knows the most of all of the citizens of the Shadow Isles about life outside of the Shadow Isles, except Elise, but she's probably not in this mumbo jumbo. Karthus is that adviser in the movies that everyone hates because they think they are all big and bad due to the protection their alliance gives them. However, Karthus is pretty dangerous, but still because of the Shadow Isles. Never the less, he loves the dead, so he didn't have to be tortured to serve the Shadow Isles.

Yorick Yorick Yorick's role in all of this will likely be made much more clear after his relaunch. However, for now, he supposedly serves the Shadow Isles by making use of the dead there. While it's uncertain if he sets them free when their soul is fully torn apart, their souls are still torn apart. As I said once before, if Mordekaiser gets the soul, Yorick gets the body. He makes their undead bodies serve him. Hey, at least the Shadow Isles aren't wasteful! On a more serious note, Yorick seeks to release himself from the grip of the isles by meeting his quota. However, that is likely a lie just to give him hope and make him continue to serve. Alas, poor Yorick.

Elise Elise Elise is a strange one. She is likely entirely there because Vilemaw is there and no other reason. She probably cares less about the king and his minions. However, they probably serve sort of a business partnership. When Vilemaw kills them, the isles get their soul. Killing Elise would stop this business so she is just... there. Vilemaw probably came when the dead came, similar to how spiders come to broken down shacks.

Evelynn Evelynn While there actually isn't any solid stuff besides her lore saying she MIGHT be from the Shadow Isles, I thought she should be included here. If she does serve the isles, she likely just kills them in the Shadow Isles, similar to Elise, and is like "Here, have a soul and a body." That's it. We don't know much else. Too much mystery. She hardly has any interactions either.

Nautilus Nautilus I decided to include this here. Thresh has interactions with Nautilus, so it can be believed Thresh is the one who dragged Nautilus down. However, Nautilus somehow escaped the isles and is hiding in Bilgewater most likely. This could be the reason the Shadow Isles picked Bilgewater as it's first target.

If anyone else has anything to contribute, post it below so I may include it. Feel free to discuss below as well, of course.

EDITED IN SECTIONS

Nocturne Nocturne Boomerangbro What does Nocturne have to do with the Shadow Isles? In the old lore he was manifested there, but where did he come from? Boomerangbro, a fellow forumer, opened my eyes to a possibility. What if Nocturne was the nightmare of the Ruined King? He lived inside his mind, driving the king mad with grief, eventually causing him to resort to evil doings. Nocturne might as well be the root cause of the Shadow Isles in the end. When the Shadow Isles took over, he was released from the mind of Ruined King, giving him life and a new purpose: bring a true nightmare to Runeterra. This is all just speculation, but it is good enough that it might be true.

Maokai Maokai Chespin2013 and Morgra Maokai, basically the leader of nature within the Shadow Isles, saw the isles being ripped apart by the undead plague. His lore is pretty self-explained, but there is a few things to wonder. In his lore, it says he raged at the reckless sorcerers that ruined his home. Maokai, in his rage, might have killed the last of the humans alive from the plague. It also says he has the last spark of life from the isles, meaning he is directly at odds with Mordekaiser and Hecarim and the lot.

Fiddlesticks Fiddlesticks Chespin2013 While Fiddlesticks' lore currently points to him being from an entirely different plane of existence, the lore retcon may change that. He could become a revenant that cleans up the "leftovers" of the Shadow Isles. Somewhat of a guardian of stolen land. His crows would certinaly be good... recyclers. A living sign of "This is the Shadow Isles land." A scarecrow to scare away the living instead of crows.

10 Comments

Chespin20139/10/2015, 9:39:57 PM2 votes

I think champions like Fiddlesticks Maokai Shaco should probably get a mention here. We know that Maokai is from the shadow isles and such but Shaco and Fiddlesticks don't have much lore I would assume they could also have some sort of connection to the shadow isles. Fiddlesticks is the Harbinger of Doom so I can definitely see him rallying the cry with Hecarim into bilgewater with his murderous crows reeking havoc and such. Since according to the lore Fiddlesticks doesn't necessarily exist since he was tied to the whole summoners and institute of war he really needs to be updated. As for Shaco there's a lot of theories on who or what he is and where he comes from. Some say he is a demon, a serial killer, or some sort of magical being from the glade the place where lulu went too. Hell for all we know he could of have been the ruined kings jester that betrayed him and khalista makes some sense if you think about it really. I mean Shaco is all about double crossing people and a fanatic for mass confusion both tied into his gameplay and his lore. I really want more lore updates from riot because the lore really intrigues me because it is so unique especially the shadow isles since its such a mystery.

GenoXx9/10/2015, 7:01:49 PM1 votes

I just want to say, Bilgewater is closer to the Isle more than anywhere else.

Any, this is really well thought out. I had my theories about the shadow Isles which is pretty close to urs. Only I did not think the morde is the king and the former king is undead, still calling shots. But Mordes ability to control dead souls is one thing.

How ever, how would you put the fact that Morde personally rode the Harrowing as a general. He did destroy one of the ports which is now haunted. This leads me to think he isnt the king. Because Kings don't usually walk out on the battle field front line. So this doesn't give me the idea he's the king.

Spizzle90009/10/2015, 7:21:33 PM1 votes

This is some deep stuff. I like it!

Boomerangbro9/10/2015, 8:07:02 PM1 votes

Have you ever thought about it. Nocturne is said to be the nightmare of an "entity" in eternal slumber. The lore never specifies where he's from though. Could it be that he is the nightmare of the ruined king brought to life by forces on the shadow isles. I mean, he is pretty undead and evil.

Morgra9/11/2015, 12:40:04 AM1 votes

I'd like to point out, that although this is theorycrafting (who doesn't like the theorycraft) according to the LoLWiki, Hecarim doesn't remember who he was in life and he doesn't care. Also, Hecarim is the only Shadow Isles champion that was fogged out over on Kalistas initial teaser, signifying that he had betrayed someone at one point. You might also want to add Maokai onto this list because his lore was redone and he is attached to the Shadow Isles, seeking to return it to its former self.

I'll edit this in a little while, just need a train of though :P.

Edit: "Mordekaiser and Hecarim know each other, and are stated to have similar beliefs, but disagree when it comes to how they achieve their goals." If Hecarim is an enslaved soul by Mordekaiser, then technically wouldn't he have no ability to go against/disagree with him? Using the Warcraft Franchise, The Nerubian kin, Anub'arak, fought against the undead, inevitably died during the war and was raised and started slaughtering his kinsmen, but he had no choice to. He does have an opinion on it and hates the Lich King for forcing him to do so, but has no choice but to serve. Going from Mordekaisers lore (albeit it was changed to the shorter one) he killed someone for not giving him the information he wanted and raised him to get the info out of him. If Hecarim has the ability to disagree with Mordekaiser and go against him in his own regard, he's not really enslaved (at least to Morde), is he?