Another reimagining of Mordekaiser; A Revenant of Ruin
Look at how I spend my free time, I really have too much time as a University student, oh well
Hello and welcome to yet another Mordekaiser thread dealing with one of the countless different design direction a VGU could take him. As a champion, Mordekaiser is pretty unique in the fact that his whole theme of hulking suit of Metal armour can be explained with a plethora of different backstories and stylistic elements that all provide a unique spin to his character. Last time I tried just upping up his current themes; That of a Undead Conqueror who uses vile magics to empower himself.
But this one is going to be a bit different, instead of focusing on the *Shadow Isle Aesthetic this reforging of sorts uses a rather unique detail about his backstory and just pushes it to the max.
I'm talking about the event that blackened his armour and scorched his bones: His triumphant foes burning his corpse on a great pyre. This ideation takes that element and expands on it, making it a greater part of his character.
So, without further ado;
#Mordekaiser, Revenant of Ruin
https://www2.pic-upload.de/img/35410157/mordr2.jpg
Then, as victory seemed to be in our grasp, he appeared. And the sky cried tears of ash as specks of gray came falling from the skies like early november snow. But they did not herald the coming of winter, oh no, they were of his doing.
And a hundred eyes that had once been filled with the fires of determination had their spark extinguished as the cloak of dark gray ash was lifted off the battlefield. Revealing him.
Clad in a blackened Iron shell, scorched to resemble the porose boulders corroded by saltwater, his gargantuan form would emerge from the torrent of ashen smoke that had tolled of his intervention.
We have been deemed worthy enough to be crushed under his iron boot. And as the battlefield that had once been ravaged by the clashing of foes, the cries of pain, the bloodthirsty hollering of berserkers, of cries of victory, fell silent as a crypt.
Our crypt.
He was just as the tales had described, a monolithic giant of the old world, dying embers gleaming from the cracks on his Iron plate, causing whatever vile soul resided in them to radiate its wicked essence, his mere presence causing the floor beneath him to dry up into gray ash, blood, plant and men decaying as their hazy remains pooled in his outstretched gauntlet.
But as his heavy cloak stirred, its fabric host to smoldering flame, he turned to face us. Slowly, as if time itself trembled at the titan's entrance, Mordekaiser would come to glare down at us.
And a hundred hearts ceased to beat for the moment his gaze fell on us. One eye, resembling a violently burning piece of dark coal, would come to stare at us with disdain, burning behind a darkened visor as the Revenant would take one step towards us.
And the earth itself shook, a wave of dead ash given life by his unholy presence would surge towards us, clinging to our forms like death's tight embrace.
And as we felt doom approach us, we were given the final gift of witnessing the Revenant's bladed mace come crushing down on us. For only dying embers and ash would remain of us...
Ash that would soon cover all living lands, conquest never ending.
https://m.popkey.co/52b271/1xq98.gif
Mordekaiser's appearance would be that of a scorched black armour, but he would not just be dark metal hues, oh no. Everything about him would tell of what kind of revenant he is. He is one of ruin, of ash, of what remains once he swoops over the land like a storm of dust and despair.
His armored shell would be battle worn and still show signs of dying embers glimmering in the cracks. His cloak would not be a thin, sophisticated mantle, but a heavy cloak whose frilly edges were still be smoldering like coal.
But what would be the most haunting feature of Mordekaiser would be his ONE eye, nothing but a burning lump of coal aflame behind his horned visage.
Instead of sickly pale necrotic energies, this mordekaiser's main color scheme would be one of dark grays, blacks and the color of flame; orange and red hues.
Being empowered by the mist did not change him all that much. Imagine current Yorick's spell effects, black, smoky haze, but instead of the blueish hues that make Yorick's effects distinct, Mordekaiser's would be that of fire, of the very thing that scorched his bones and blackened his armour....
But let's go more into that. Mordekaiser would be a Revenant whose resurrection was based on something resembling a phoenix. He found his end in the flames but his resurrection made it the basis of his powers.
As long as people oppose him, he can be resurrected as the ritual that summons his presence back unto Runeterra requires more than just his charred bones but something very specific as well: The ashes of his foes.
Mordekaiser is an Ashen Apparition, he is no longer a man, just a pale imitation of who he was in life. His resurrection stripped him of his humanity and the...thing...that Mordekaiser has become is more akin to a force of nature than a living being. He is the Idea, the human that was Mordekaiser's Will manifested in a wraith that exists solely to see his former self's dream achieved; To conquer all who oppose him, to erect a new empire...In the ashes of the old ones.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2674/9440/products/Embers02_620x.gif?v=1517987776
Tears that would have flowed like the mighty streams of my home had been dried out when I had witnessed them binding my brother to the runic marker that was the cornerstone of this unholy display of sorcery. Tears that would have ran down my pale cheeks would not be my witness tonight as the scene before me was reflected in the hazel orbs of my gaze; watching in horror as the one thing that remained after the accursed revenant's conquest had been brought to an end was taken from me as well.
Flames that had died now, having nothing more to feast on. No wood to satisfy their craving for destruction, leaving only ash in their wake. No mortal flesh to singe, to set ablaze, to render to nothing but dust filling the air... Filling my lungs.
Causing whatever cry that might have given voice to my suffering to be drowned by the overbearing heat and ash-infested air of the monolithic fortress that had been the revenant's lair.
But now this site had become my brother's grave, and soon mine too, for the only thing I had now was anger, hatred for the revenant who had bled my land, taken those who I had loved from me, and now the one thing that might have put an end to his reign would become my downfall.
But before I could give my torment any more thought something stirred on the unholy altar, surrounded by ashen apparitions that were bound to the revenant's bones, each of the pale figures clutching a piece of blackened Iron armour in their cold, dead hands...
The ash of my brother, the one thing that had still made me cling to life, cling to the hope that one day we all might be free of the Revenant, shifted around the darkened bones that had been laid unto the altar...
Eyes widened in horror as the gray remnants of my kin would rise like a stream of blood, climbing through the rising smoke to pool in the middle of a swirling vortex of ashen haze and flickering embers.
Eyes that could not believe what they were witnessing as the ashen remains would condense into something resembling a heart, which would be impossible, for the revenant had none.
A heart, black like its owner, forged by the ashes of the ones that hated him, that opposed him, that sought his destruction. A heartbeat, low and eerie echoed through the chamber as veins of fire would come adorning its burnt exterior.
Another low hum and the air around this unholy apparition condensed, drawn to its vile magic as a shade emerged from the bones of my tormentor, rising to greedily accept the ashen heart formed from his foes' failure. Smoke rose as ash, dust, embers and fire formed the silhouette of what was once a man, rising to its full height as one single lump of coal would rise to adorn the revenant's faceless visage.
The apparition turned to face me and my heart would cease to beat, an inhuman gaze falling unto me as the silence of the chamber was broken by the creaking of metal. First the revenant's blackened cuirass would snap around the shade's ethereal body, encasing its blackened heart with an even darker shell of metal....
One after another, the revenant's metallic form would be reunited with its master, cloaking the apparition into a blackened coat of arms as finally the revenant's cloak of chain and cloth, akin to the torrents of smoke associated with his arrival, would cascade down its broad shoulders.
It shifted, the sound of metal scraping against metal echoing through the crypt as Mordekaiser turned around to face me. And my eyes widened as his burning eye would fall on me, the titan marching towards my bound form as soon enough his shade would envelop me like a messenger of death.
He'd kneel down, like a father who would promise his daughter that everything would be alright and I was graced with the sight of his smoldering eye rolling around empty eye sockets to glare at me from the opposite side of his visor. His presence was overwhelming, a surge akin to the one felt near a great fire, but instead of offering warmth and comfort his aura radiated a feeling of dread, of unnatural heat...of death.
What was nothing than a few moments stretched into eternity before the Revenant spoke. His voice devoid of any humanity, cold, calculating, and utterly terrifying as his sepulcher speech echoed through the chamber.
He raised an Iron gauntlet and I could feel the metal against the smooth flesh of my cheek, causing my skin to crawl at the sensation of warm metal, the feeling of a heartbeat through rough Iron.... "Do not fret child...."
His voice echoed through my skull as I felt my body grow numb...
"You are about to be part of something greater..."
My body failing, my flesh, once pink and filled with life, now gray and peeling off into the air, intent on joining my brother's in the revenant's metallic chest.
"Me."
And as his presence grew too much to bear, my body was rent asunder....
https://78.media.tumblr.com/9951ca2e7e884a48ca5b5269f5514cd6/tumblr_orh7h7ephj1ve5gdao1_500.gif
I hope I painted quite the vivid picture of what kind of character THIS Mordekaiser would be! As always I'm open to feedback and would love to hear your thoughts on the matter!
Mordekaiser has a TON of potential and this is just one of countless directions a VGU could take him!
You may vote on the next theme yourself!
Also, as a litte bonus, here's an older idea for how he could've looked!
https://www2.pic-upload.de/img/35410158/mordr1.jpg
Toodles! MM
