A place for Cho'Gath in the new lore with Volibear?
The new volibear/udyr lore was scrumptious. I loved it so much. So of course my passion for finding a place to put Cho'Gath was reignited. Even prior to the story I had quite liked the idea of Cho as an enemy to Volibear.
But on to justification/theorycrafting :)
Why are the Ursine lands forbidden? This comment (https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/dkqamrhA-ashe-warmother-comic-nr-3-feedback-and-character-discussion-contains-spoilers?comment=0005) suggests it may be something more than just the appetite of the Ursine.
We know from the recent lore release that the Volibear is injured, unwhole. He needs to be “reborn,” and he’s doing something with those he kills and enslaving a legion of spirit walkers to do it. I believe that his current shape, “the thousand-pierced bear” is actually an avatar he is using whilst he regains his old strength and reforges his spirit body. Something has happened to him. But what could hurt a god?
Sure, he’s battled Ornn. But the ram was seeming mighty spry for somebody who put down a spirit god. It just doesn’t seem realistic that Ornn would be able to so thoroughly mess up his brother without being deleted in return.
This is a hole that Cho’Gath can fill. The true adversary to the Bear: a cruel, intelligent Voidborn. Hateful of life. Fat on its own success. A titan who sought to devour the very spirits of the land, to prove itself greater than even the gods of this world.
It can work so well! Volibear is injured. Cho’Gath is currently nowhere to be seen in the lore. Could the thing that the Ursine are keeping under wraps be the remains of a colossal Voidborn? A corpse buried beneath the permafrost at the heart of a storm fuelled by the great bear himself, not to be disturbed? One that isn’t as dead as the ursine might believe?
Imagine:
The earth quakes rhythmically. A monster is walking through the forest, leaving a trail of death and the taint of the Void behind it. The treeline doesn’t even reach its waist. Hateful, purple eyes glare at the world before it. Pale sinew covered by hardened, chitinous layers, their metallic appearance rust-red. The glow of its bloated heart has bored holes through it, giving its body a similar appearance to termite-eaten wood.
To Cho’Gath, the air is thick with the stink of magic. He knows he’s getting closer to a real meal. Perhaps he would devour their phoenix, deprive them of their symbol of hope. It was a pleasant thought.
Black clouds swirl to life overhead as a colossal, white bear materializes mid-stride, fur crackling with lightning. As Volibear slams into his foe he roars a brutal battlecry, his words garbled by his own fury. He rains heavy blows down on the Voidborn monstrosity, cleaving its thick armor. Bolts of lightning illuminate the battle, scorching the earth and the spirit-god’s struggling foe.
The sight from a distance is one of terror. A whirling maelstrom tears trees from the earth, the combat within obscured by a combination of snow, dirt, and splintered forest. Lightning strikes, revealing a freeze frame of two colossal shadows locked in combat. A flare of purple light from within reveals another.
The world around them is being torn apart. Great chunks of earth are torn up and thrown, lightning blasts craters into the landscape. A burst of noxious purple energy drains the life from all nearby things, hundreds of souls at a time.
Volibear is the stronger of the two. Striking two blows for every one he receives. But the light revealed in the monster’s wounds inflicts scorching agony, and its hide seems to be slowly stitching itself shut even as he tears new holes in it. His own injuries stick.
The two part, for but a moment. Cho’Gath’s body heaves. Sickening laughter. His mandibles part as he speaks a language so old that few aside from the ancient bear would understand it. A taunt, a promise that Volibear was just the first of many.
Volibear’s eyes ignite with lightning, electricity pours from his mouth as he charges, burying his massive paw in the chest of the monstrosity. Cho’Gath clamps his jaws down on the god’s shoulder. Chitin and fur are dislodged and whisked away by the winds.
As Cho’Gath sinks his teeth deeper into Volibears body, the bear feels oblivion itself gnawing at him. Cho’Gath is healing faster now, growing larger. A sickening glee in his eyes as he watches what should be the first of these petty gods to fall before him.
The thought is interrupted by a spear the length of a wolfship embedding itself in his neck, sending him reeling. Cho’Gath turns to face the new threat, and barely catches a glimpse of crystalline wings before Volibear is on him once more. The entire area is engulfed in a blizzard of mythological proportions, spears of ice rain down on the monster like hail. In a titanic show of power, the Volibear tears limbs off the pretender in a frenzy before heaving its torso from its legs.
The abandoned body parts crumble like ash as the ravaged upper half screams its defiance, promising vengeance in a twisted parody of the old tongue. The earth shatters beneath its weight as it is forced downward. The blizzard and storm rapidly burying it beneath the debris of the now-bare section of forest.
Volibear stumbles, his form losing its cohesion, electricity arcing from within. Anivia hardens the ground above the monster into a permafrost, once-fertile soil contaminated with millions of granules of true ice.
A buried adversary, and evidence of Volibear’s great defeat, lies at the heart of Ursine territory. The battle left Volibear with lasting damage. He works tirelessly and cruelly to regain what he has lost.
Now that the Ursine have been pulled into the conflict between the Avarosans and the Winter’s Claw, the blighted permafrost remains under lighter watch.
And a hunger stirs within.
Possible? Too ridiculous? Your thoughts are appreciated!
I'll also toss on a Cho'Gath I drew so the thread looks prettier <3
's rival should be 
. Malph being Runeterra's natural defense or answer to the Void (Earth vs Invader) while giving both champs a much needed place in the lore. It also leaves more room for the freljord story to breathe, and an opening for development of Anivia and the Seal Sister.
