Karthus

The harbinger of oblivion, Karthus is an undying spirit whose haunting songs are a prelude to the horror of his nightmarish appearance. The living fear the eternity of undeath, but Karthus sees only beauty and purity in its embrace, a perfect union of life and death. When Karthus emerges from the Shadow Isles, it is to bring the joy of death to mortals, an apostle of the unliving.

Real name: Karthus Alias(es): The Deathsinger, The Harbinger Species: Wraith Age: 51-297 years old Place of origin: Noxus Prime, Noxus Current residence: Shadow Isles

Karthus, the Deathsinger, is an undying spirit who views undeath as a gift rather than a curse. To mortals, his laments are a chilling prelude to horror, but to him, they are hymns to the beauty of eternity beyond life. Emerging from the Shadow Isles, he spreads death as liberation, a perfect union of mortality and immortality.

Karthus was born into poverty in the slums of Noxus. His mother died at his birth, leaving his father to raise him and his sisters in a crumbling almshouse. Death was constant, and while others mourned, young Karthus was enthralled by it, fascinated by the tally-men of Kindred who came for the dead. He longed to witness the moment life faded into death, and when plague claimed his sisters, he watched their passing with a rapturous sense of connection. Seeking answers, he followed the tally-men to their temple and was eventually accepted into their order.

He began as a gravedigger and pyre-builder, later becoming a corpse collector. His mournful songs while gathering the dead spread through Noxus, offering grieving families a strange solace. In time, he tended directly to the dying, guiding their final moments and searching their fading eyes for glimpses of what lay beyond. Yet he learned nothing of the afterlife, and concluded only the dead could answer his questions. Rumors pointed him toward the Shadow Isles, where souls lingered beyond death.

Karthus emptied the temple’s coffers and secured passage to Bilgewater, then convinced a desperate fisherman to sail him into the Black Mist. When the cursed island appeared, the fisherman tried to flee, but Karthus leapt ashore, singing his prepared dirge for his own death. The Mist engulfed him, tearing at flesh and soul, but his desire to transcend mortality was so strong it remade him into a revenant. In that moment, Karthus achieved what he had always sought: existence suspended perfectly between life and death.

Spirits of the Isles flocked to his song, and Karthus understood his purpose. He would not let undeath stagnate in limbo—he would spread its beauty, freeing mortals from suffering. Returning to the fisherman’s boat, he “blessed” the man with death, raising him as an immortal wraith, the first of many souls to join his growing legion.

Now Karthus is the apostle of oblivion, the emissary of the Shadow Isles. His funereal hymns carry on cold winds across Valoran, reaching graveyards and charnel houses, heralding the coming of his eternal choir. To him, death is not an end, but the ultimate gift—and he will ensure all mortals embrace it.

Appearance: Karthus is a thin man wraith with unnaturally colored skin, pale white in some areas and pure black in others. There is blue light emanating from the crevices where his eyes and mouth would be. He wears the traditional clothes of a member of the tally-men of Kindred Kindred, dark red and grey robes with armored cuffs and shoulderblades. He carries the staff of a tally-man of Kindred, with a grey handle and a spike at its tip. He also carries a book with him, with it likely containing either prepared laments for the dead or spells and enchantments, possibly both.

Personality: Karthus has pledged to bringing death to the world. He sees life as a crutch and an obstacle from reaching the true potential and knowledge that humanity has to offer. He feels no remorse for those he kills, as he sees them as freed and at their true potential.

Wraith: Karthus is one of the Shadow Isles's wraiths, created when the Ruination came to be. The Black Mist consumes one original personality, leaving only a specter consumed by negative emotions and obsessions. In Karthus case, he became an spirit that sings for the dead. Immortality: Being already dead, Karthus can't die again. He can only be banished and lose his material form for a while. Spiritual Construction: Wraiths can create solid constructs from spectral energy, such as bodies and physical objects. These constructs mainly base themselves around how they looked in life. Transitory State: Being ethereal beings, Wraiths can shift from the physical world and spiritual one at will. This means they can become intangible and invisible, and disappear from one place to another.

Passive: Death Defied - Upon dying, Karthus enters a spirit form that allows him to continue casting spells, before resurrecting.

Abilities: Lay Waste - Karthus unleashes a delayed blast at a location. Wall of Pain - Karthus creates a passable screen of leeching energy. Any enemy units that walk through the screen have their movement speed and magic resistance reduced for a period. Defile - Karthus passively steals energy from his victims, gaining Mana on each kill. Alternatively, Karthus can surround himself in the souls of his prey, dealing damage to nearby enemies, but quickly draining his own Mana.

Ultimate Ability: Requiem - After channeling for 3 seconds, Karthus sends a magic blast crashing down on all enemies.

Runeterra (meaning magic earth) is a plane of existence composed of the physical realm: an oblate spheroid planet and the Spirit Realm. The currently known continents the planet comprises are Valoran, Shurima and the Camavoran Continent. It also boasts several large bodies of water, such as the currently known 18 Seas (like the Conqueror's Sea and the Guardian's Sea), and 2 Oceans with several archipelagos and islands around them (like Ionia, the Serpent Isles, and the Shadow Isles). The planet orbits around a G-type star while a natural satellite moon orbits around the planet. Runeterra's sun and moon also even mirrored equivalents in the spirit realm. Composed of both the material and spirit realms, Runeterra is all that separates the celestial powers of creation from the abyssal threat of all undoing. This is a magical world unlike any other--inhabited by peoples both fierce and wondrous.

Centuries ago, magical artifacts called the 'World Runes' were rediscovered. Over the following decades, knowledge of the Runes began to spread as more were unearthed. The world's brightest minds studied the ancient glyphs, attempting to determine the powers they possessed. Few could even begin to understand the importance of their origins, or the sheer power held within them. Some surmised that the Runes were integral to the creation of Runeterra itself. The first use of these mysterious artifacts proved catastrophic, as they reshaped the landscape of entire nations. Mistrust quickly grew as those who knew of the Runes imagined such “Makers' Might” being used as a weapon. Conflicts related to these magical artifacts began to occur, known as the Rune Wars.

Open warfare raged across Runeterra. The first horrors of the Rune Wars sparked fear and aggression among those who now realized the power at their command. Ryze and his master, Tyrus, had sought out to lock away every World Rune beyond the reach of man for the protection of Runeterra. Some complied with their pleas, others dismissed them due to their new found powers and influence. After an incident with Tyrus, Ryze later on continued his journey alone in gathering all Runic artifacts so as to prevent another Rune War from starting and possibly destroying the world.

Runeterra has a large number of sapient species. These sapient species can range from being able to use primitive tools to one's advantage to god-like feats like forging literal stars. Some sentient species are monster-like and aggressive while others less aggressive or tame. While most sentient species are animals, there are instances of plant based sentient species. Most known instances of non-sentient species are found with plants. As rich and diverse as Runeterra is, not all species are well documented. From the Shuriman Jungles to the magic wilds of the Ionian Archipelago, known only by names or by visuals, these numerous species are an enigma.

Icathia is a lost city bordering Shurima in the southeast part of the Southern Continent.

Wraiths are the predominant undead found on the Shadow Isles. These twisted spirits are remnants of their former selves that were ripped away from their living bodies by the Black Mist that oozed out of the Ruined King's the Ruined King's broken heart. The stronger a Wraith's sense of self is, the stronger it will be as a result.

Shadow Isles: This cursed land was once home to a noble, enlightened civilization, known to its allies and emissaries as the Blessed Isles. However, more than a thousand years ago, an unprecedented magical cataclysm left the barrier between the material and spirit realms in tatters, effectively merging the two… and dooming all living things in an instant.

Now, a malevolent Black Mist permanently shrouds the Isles, and the earth itself is tainted by dark sorcery. Mortals who dare to venture to these dismal shores will slowly have their life force stolen away from them, which in turn attracts the insatiable, restless spirits of the dead.

Those who perish within the Mist are condemned to haunt this nightmarish place for eternity—worse still, the power of the Shadow Isles appears to wax stronger with every passing year, allowing the most powerful specters to roam farther and farther across Runeterra.