Undead Wilds

The Undead Wilds of the Shadow Isles are the remains of a once spiritually rich ecosystem on the Blessed Isles.

Lore
An area once teeming with natural magic and life, it has since been twisted and rotted into grotesque imitations of the original entities inhabiting it.

Other Related Champions

 * seeks to end the Isles' undead abominations.
 * seeks to purify the Shadow Isles and its denizens.

Birth of the Blessed Isles


Long before the Ruination, a chain of islands that would one day be called the Blessed Isles erupted from deep beneath the ocean. With its creation, the nature spirit was taking the form of a treant.

Maokai wandered the isles in search of life, until on a hilly isle covered in soft, rich soil, Maokai sensed boundless magic deep beneath the ground. He plunged his roots into a spring of magical, life-giving water and drank deeply. From this potent liquid, he grew hundreds of saplings and planted them across the islands. Soon the land was shawled with wonderous flora, all steeped in wondrous magic. Nature spirits were drawn to the lavish vegetation, and animals reveled in the fertile greenery.

When humans from an ancient culture expanding westward eventually came to the islands, they formed an enlightened and rich society of scholars devoted to studying the world’s mysteries. Though Maokai was wary of their presence, he saw their respect for the deep magic within the woods and occasionally revealed himself directly to those he trusted and blessed them with knowledge of the verdant isles, – even revealing the Waters of Life.

From Grief to Ruin


"Once, he was a noble king, until grief overcame his reason. In the end, it was not his blade that stole our lives." -

"The powers that govern life and death are not to be trifled with. The Shattered Crown is a king's reward for defying the shadows' embrace. I believe we are meant to ponder mortality through poetry and verse, not enslave it to our will." - Ionian storyteller

In an empire that none now recall, resided  a proud general and niece of the king. She lived by a strict code of honor, serving the throne with utmost loyalty. When the king enemies sent an assassin to slay him, Kalista saved his life.

But her act brouth the venom of the blade into the queen. The greatest priests and surgeons were summoned, but none could draw the poison from her body. The king dispatched Kalista in search of a cure. , who had recently become the commander of the Iron order though a gruesome betrayal known only to himself, taking Kalista place at her ausence.

Kalista traveled far, consulting learned scholars, hermits and mystics… but to no avail. Finally, she learned of the  Blessed Isles and set sail on one last voyage of hope.

The guardians of the capital city Helia saw the purity of Kalista’s intent, and parted the mists to allow her safe passage. She begged them to heal the queen, the masters of the city agreed. While the queen lived, she could be healed on the Waters of Life. Kalista was given a talisman that would allow her to return to Helia unaided, but was warned against sharing this knowledge with any other.

Mad with grief the king raged at those he believed were trying to separate him from his dying wife, dispatching Hecarim to quell dissent throughout the kingdom. The Iron Order burned towns and villages. Hundreds were put to the sword.

When the queen died, Hecarim chose to sour the king’s grief into hatred, seekingto lead the Iron Order into foreign lands. He would avenge her death, while earning yet more dark renown for himself.

But before they could ride out, Kalista returned. Due to his madness, the king locked himself in his tower with the queen’s festering corpse. When he learned of Kalista’s return, he demanded to know what she had found. She admitted that the cure she had found would be of no use. The king would not believe this, and condemned Kalista as a traitor to the crown.

Intrigued by what he had heard, Hecarim visited her cell, and they spoke of the pale mists that protected the islands from all invaders… and also of the inhabitants’ immense wealth, including the legendary Waters of Life.

Knowing only Kalista could lead them there, Hecarim eventually persuaded her to guide the king’s fleet through the veil that concealed the Blessed Isles arguing that if they traveled to the isles her uncle could finally find peace. Hesitantly, Kalista agreed.

And so the king set out with a flotilla of his fastest ships. However, when they were met by Helia masters, they were not allowed pass. Death, they insisted, was final. To cheat it would be to break the natural order of the world.

The king flew into a fevered rage, and commanded Kalista to slay the guardians. She refused, and called on Hecarim to stand with her… but instead he drove his spear through her armored back.

The Iron Order joined him, piercing Kalista’s body a dozen times more as she fell. A brutal melee erupted, with those devoted to Kalista fighting against Hecarim’s knights, but their numbers were too few. As she watched her warriors die, Kalista swore vengeance with her final breath. Hecarim then ordered his knights to ransack the city, looting its vaults of arcane treasures. Amid the chaos, a agreed to grant the king access to the Waters of Life—but not even this distracted Hecarim from the revelry of bloodshed, and so it was that the Ruination of the Blessed Isles would take him almost completely by surprise.

The King brought the corpse of his wife to the sacred well, but when the queen returned to life she was a horror of decayed meat and maggot-ridden flesh who begged to be allowed to die once more. Repulsed at what he had done to his beloved wife, the king enacted a spell to end their lives and bind them together for all eternity. His conjuration was successful, but unwittingly empowered by the many potent magical artifacts stored on the island, its power was increased a hundredfold.

A blastwave of magical force tore across Helia, shattering every last building and leaving the fragments suspended in searing un-light. In its wake came the Black Mist, a billowing hurricane that dragged every living creature it touched into its shrieking, roiling embrace. Hecarim tried to rally the Iron Order, hoping to make it back to their ships, but the mist claimed them one by one as they fled.

When Hecaren was taken by the mist, he and his mighty steed were fused into a monstrous, spectral abomination that reflected the darkness in Hecarim’s heart—a brazen creature of fury and spite, at one with the Black Mist and yet utterly enslaved by it.

The Undead Rebirth
The cataclysmic event had reached the order's citadel and turned everyone inside into wretched undead. While others screamed in agony, reveled in the ruin. He rose from this cataclysm as a spectral abomination, but unlike many who have passed into the shadow world, Thresh did not lose his identity. Rather, his penchant for cruel torture and ability to discern weakness was only heightened. He relished the chance to continue his cruelty without fear of reprisal, unfettered by the limits of mortality. As a wraith, Thresh could torment the living and the dead endlessly, delighting in their despair before claiming their soul for an eternity of suffering.

Even Kalista herself was not spared from undeath. When next Kalista opened her eyes, they were filled with the dark power of unnatural magic. She had no idea what had transpired and tried to cling to those fragmented memories of Hecarim’s monstrous betrayal, they have slowly faded in all the centuries since, and all that now remains is a thirst for revenge burning in Kalista’s ruined chest. She has become a specter, a figure of macabre folklore, often invoked by those who have suffered similar treacheries.

These wretched spirits are subsumed into hers, to pay the ultimate price—becoming one with the Spear of Vengeance.

Twisted Treant
When the ruination struck, Maokai plunged his roots deep into the ground and drank of the Waters of Life. Before the cursed water reached him, Maokai withdrew his roots. He howled in rage as the sacred reservoir he had entrusted to men was fully corrupted – the spiraling coils churning underwater until nothing pure remained.

Moments later, Maokai watched in helpless agony as all he knew twisted into wretched shades. His fury grew; the great beauty he had cultivated from tiny saplings fell to ruin in an instant at the careless hand of man.

The Black Mist coiled around Maokai. His body shuddered and contorted into a mass of gnarled roots and tangled branches as the mist leached life from him. But Maokai’s heartwood was saturated with the precious waters of life, saving him from the terrible fate of undeath.

Maokai realized the force of his blows could shatter the cursed spirit to dust. He flew at the breathless shapes in a frenzy, but hundreds more overwhelmed him, and eventually he was forced to retreat.

Now Maokai fights with furious vengeance against the Fallen. Some days, Maokai subdues the mist and its deathless spirits, breaking their hold on a grove of trees or a small thicket. Though new life has not bloomed in such cursed soil for an age, Maokai strives to carve havens, however temporary, free from regret and decay.

He was once tempted to try and escape the nightmare of the isles. But he knew he couldnt left the Isles, for as long as Maokai continues to fight, hope remains, for steeped within his heartwood are the uncorrupted waters of life, the last remaining chance of restoring the isles. If the land returns to its joyous state, Maokai, too, will shed his twisted form. The nature spirit brought life to these isles long ago, and he refuses to rest until the isles bloom once more.

Locations

 * Twisted Treeline: The Twisted Treeline is located somewhere in the Shadow Isles. It forrested area houses to spirit altars and lair of the.

Fallen
Souls claimed by the Black Mist are known to some as the Fallen. While usually corporeal, they can be harmed with the right tool, such as magic, silver, or even sunlight.

Nightbloom
Nightbloom is a rare flame-red petaled flower native to the. It is virtually extinct except for a few who bushes that are cared for in garden in his mansion in Noxus. On the Blessed Isles they blossomed on the evening of the summer solstice. By morning the flowers wilted, leaving only blackened petals, not to be seen again until the following year. But for one night, they illuminated the forest with blazing crimson. If the flowers petals are plucked the remaining petals immediately curl inwards, the stem bending away as if it can express fear.

Treants
Treants are are a fusion of nature spirits (or any sapient species) and plantlife. One such species was the Omikayalan God-Willow, which essence was later transferred to the Freljordian warrior. Other example is, a nature spirit fused with the plantlife and natural magicks of the Blessed Isles.

Media
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