An undead human known as Ledros
| “ | "The dead feel not the cold." |
—  Kalista
| |
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The Undead are abominable creatures, created when the barrier between life and death is shattered and defiled. They predominantly reside in the 
Shadow Isles, their influence and manifestations reaching other shores. However, there are multiple types of undead that do not originate from The Ruination. Undead can be souls that take physical forms or reanimated beings.
Lore
Undead Champions
Other Related Champions
Akali, Irelia, Karma, Kennen and Yasuo fought with Sion during the second Noxian-Ionian war[1].- Azir was briefly a resurrected undead before he became a Shuriman Ascended.
- Fizz and Miss Fortune encountered Nautilus during one of their voyages.
- Kindred seeks to end the Shadow Isles' undead abominations.
- Lucian and Senna seek to purify the Shadow Isles and its denizens.
- LeBlanc and the Black Rose have multiple connections to the Undead:
- They betrayed Mordekaiser and killed him.
- They reanimated Sion under the Immortal Bastion
- They betrayed
- Sivir was indirectly responsible for the resurrection of Azir to an undead made of sand.
- Swain released Sion from his slumber.
History
Noxian Necromancy
- Main article: Mordekaiser/Background
- Main article: Sion/Background
The first known instance of the birth of an undead was with the warlord 
Sahn-Uzal. After dying and ending up in the afterlife, he was angered to see it was nothing like the stories. In anger, he waited for the day he would return to the pyhiscal realm. And sure enough, the day came when a coven of sorcerers resolved to bring Sahn-Uzal back from the dead. Lacking any flesh or bone, he spurred them to make him stronger than any mortal, binding his spirit-form in dark metal plates wrought in the likeness of his old Indestructible armor. So he rose, Realm of Death a hulking revenant of iron and hate.
After a long reign he would finally be betrayed by his 
closest advisor and 
her followers. This hidden cabal managed to sever the anchors of his soul from his armor, and sealed the empty iron shell away in a secret place. And so, Mordekaiser was cast out of the material realm. However, unbeknownst to anyone, he had planned for this—indeed, it was a pivotal part of his design. Domination and deceit had carried him far, but he knew that a destiny far grander than the Hall of Bones awaited him.
There, in the once empty wasteland of the afterlife, all those who had died under his latest reign were waiting. Perverted by dark sorcery, their spirits would never fade. The strongest became his devout, eternal army, bound to his will... but even the weak were given purpose. From the subtle matter of their souls, Mordekaiser would forge a new empire. They would be the building blocks and mortar of his Afterworld.
At the beginning of the first Demacian-Noxian War, 
Sion died after killing the first king of 
Demacia. Half a century passed before Sion's tomb was reopened. Noxian dominance had waned in the years since Sion’s death, and the ruling Grand General of the empire, Boram Darkwill, was willing to pay almost any price to restore its lost glory. The Black Rose, equipped with the knowledge of blood magic they learned under Mordekaiser's rule, reanimated the long-dead hero, and presented him to the Darkwill.
He hurled himself like a living battering ram against the enemies of Noxus, destroying all he faced. More so than before his death, the victories Sion brought were costly. He was uncontrollable, killing friend and foe without remorse, and those forced to fight alongside him began to desert. Finally, Darkwill ordered Sion reinterred. Without slaughter, the blood magic that sustained him quickly engulfed his mind in an all-consuming rage. His roars finally fell silent as he was sealed in beneath his giant statue.
When his tomb opened once more, it was to a very different empire. Darkwill was gone, overthrown by the general 
Jericho Swain, —but Sion cared little, roaring and pulling against his bindings in a frenzy that could only be sated in battle.
The Ruination
- Main article: Shadow Isles
Reanimation after the Ruination
- Main article: Karthus/Background
- Main article: Nautilus/Background
- Main article: Pyke/Background
Rise of Shurima's Last Emperor
- Main article: Azir/Background
Physiology
The Spirits of the dead are often mournfully referred to as "the Lost." For the most part, a dead soul trapped in the Shadow Isles will slowly diminish forgetting who it was in life. However, the most powerful specters retained much of their personality and desires even after the Ruination, becoming predatory spirits who may stalk the weak and vulnerable for all eternity. Any mortal who sets foot upon the Shadow Isles will attract the spirits of the fallen. However, many of the Lost are not aggressive or predatory. An innocent with a good heart who lands on the Shadow Isles may be met by a spirit with a benevolent or empathetic nature, who will try to lead the person to safety.
While some spirits are entirely ethereal, and relatively easy to bind or destroy, the most powerful beings on the Isles have proven themselves to be essentially immortal. Over time, these spirits' appearance will likely change to reflect their most essential qualities. This ultimately means that the most powerful spirits can only be vanquished by eliminating the source of their power, the Black Mist.
The Reanimated Undead are souls that where bound to an object in the physical world. This object can either be their old body, hold together by magic, or a vessel like armor, a 
diving suit or even temporarily 
sand.
Specters are human or animal souls who have a strong enough sense of self to take on a corpal form after death. Unlike reanimated undead, these spirits have no physical body and are only tangible projections of their spirit. Most of these Specters can be found in the Shadow Isles as a result of the Ruination.
- Arachnoid Horror, some malevolent spirits take inspiration from local fauna, twisting the familiar into the nightmarish.
- Chronicler of Ruin, there was a time when she sat with her father—a lord curator—as he studied the dusty tomes. He hoped one day she would take on the mantle. But not like this.
- Curse Keeper, an undead weighed down by the sins of his life. If his sins escape they become the Escaped Abomination.
- Darkwater Scourge, a large undead kraken. Some fleeing the Ruination tried diving beneath the waves, believing the corruption wouldn't seep into the depths, only to be taken by the Scourge.
- Eternal Scrivener, or Scribe of Sorrows, many of the humble scribes and archivists of Helia perished at their lecterns, unaware of the disaster that had just befallen them. This lost soul now feverishly scratches descriptions of its torment on an endlessly unraveling parchment.
- Ethereal Remitter, a scholar of the Blessed Isles until the Ruination.
- Hecarim, the Shadow of War, was once a mortal knight of the Iron Order, known for his cruelty and cold, distant behaviour, before travelling to the Isles, where he cast his final betrayal and was cursed to become a half-man, half-horse abomination. Iron Harbinger, in death, as in life, he bellows the twisted, dark command. And in death, as in life, Hecarim's loyal knights answer, charging forth to slaughter.
- Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance, served the same king as Hecarim, and was instructed with the task to discover an antidote for the King's dying wife, poisoned by an assassin. She searched across the lands until discovering the hidden Blessed Isles, where endless life-bearing magic flowed through the waters and the earth. She travelled back to her King, who demanded she bring him in order to revive the Queen, who had since died. Upon arrival, the King demanded the people of the Isles to revive his wife, and Kalista stood between him and the locals - until Hecarim struck her down, stabbing her in the back.
- Ledros, former Commander of the Ruined King and lover of Kalista. Most spirits lost themselves as the passing years eroded their memories. But anguish anchored Ledros to his past. Some things, even time cannot absolve.
- Mistwraith, these specters of the Isles shed their identities long ago to become amalgamations of pure, unappeasable hunger.
- Phantom Prankster, her cruelest trick wasn't slaughtering the soldiers who trusted the cries of a little girl, but sowing doubt in the survivors so they were sure to ignore the cries of their own daughters.
- Rhasa, the Sunderer, one of the strongest spirits on the isles, being able to beat the entire platoon of Demacia soldiers that arrived at the isles.
- Ravenous Butcher was once a meat butcher before the Ruination.
- Rekindler, a former candle lighter before the Ruination.
- Scuttlegeist was once a beast of burden for a kingdom long forgotten, this monster now scavenges across forgotten battlefields, adding scrap to its shell, and the souls of the dead to its core.
- Shark Chariot, a former chariot rider before the Ruination that is rode by undead sharks.
- Stirred Spirits are spirits of people who were hit by the Ruination when they were present in one of Blessed Isles taverns.
- Soulgorger, one of the strongest spirits on the isles, being able to beat the entire platoon of Demacia soldiers that arrived at the isles.
- Soul Shepherd seeks to keep weaker spirits safe from predatory specters.
- Spectral Matron, the Ruination corrupted all those caught in its path. The kind became cruel. The brave became brutal. Reason gave way to resentment.
- Spectral Rider, no longer bound by flesh, rider and beast became one, determined to race mindlessly into battles they no longer understood.
- Thresh, the Chain Warden, was once a mortal in service to an unknown order. An eerily sadistic man in charge of various artifacts in the depths of the order's chambers, buried underground. In this tomb, he guarded the chambers housing these unknown magics, until they lured him in to discover their secrets. He learned dark secrets and his own sinister capability, to which he fully embraced until the Ruination cast over the Isles, reincarnating him as a wretched wraith.
- Tortured Prodigy, a talented musician before the Ruination. The spirit did not notice the cataclysm, being so focused with his work.
- Undying, the old martyr remembered rallying his comrades to their doom. But it had been years since he could remember why.
- Wraithcaller, she appears without a sound. The terrors that follow her are far less subtle.
- Widow of Forgotten Songs was a collector of birds who tried to free them when disaster struck. She now wanders aimlessly, listening for the songs she can no longer recall.
Culture
The Harrowing
The Shadow Isles were once a beautiful realm, long since shattered by a magical cataclysm. Now, Black Mist permanently shrouds the land, tainting and corrupting with its malevolent sorcery. Those who perish within it are condemned to become part of it for all eternity... and worse still, each year the Mist extends its grasp to reap more souls across Runeterra.
On certain nights, a tide of hungry spirits swells the Black Mist. It carries them across the seas to prey on the living, and feed the growing darkness with foul new unlife. The harrowing strikes most frequently in Bilgewater. Those slain by the spirits during the Harrowing are damned, their souls dragged back to the Shadow Isles when the Black Mist retreats.
While weaker spirits may only be able to manifest during a Harrowing, more powerful entities can always do so, sometimes even venturing beyond the Shadow Isles.
Necromancy
Trivia
- Demacia, Bilgewater (Buhru), and the Sentinels of Light directly fight to repel the undead of the Shadow Isles.
- Besides Shadow Isles, denizens of Ionia and Noxus have been seen to dabble in necromancy.
- The Undead, be it specters or resurrected, are refused the ability to move on to the afterlife (death realms of the spirit world). Some powerful undead choose to remain in the physical realm, having a task not yet finished.
Media
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References
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