#lore commentary

[linkons-most-wanted]

Fountain of Atei - The Hidden Meaning

The LaDS writers love to pack in little hints, clues, and symbolism to their names. Sometimes these get lost in translation, as with the "Fountain of Atei". So, I've done a deep-dive!

(Please take this with a grain of salt as I am not proficient in Mandarin and feel free to let me know if there's anything I've missed!)

Localized Name

The name evokes the Fountain of Youth, hinting at a goal of immortality, which we know is part of the X-Heart project (see the Snowy Stairs World Underneath story) that also involves exposing human hearts to Protocores, and which Ever announced in the Public Account post Immortality No Longer a Dream!. We also know this goal of immortality was/will be achieved (at least in the version of the timeline Xavier is from) at the cost of feeding humans into the core of Philos, giving rise to new Wanderers. (Key lore in the Shooting Stars myth, see here.)

Chinese Name

CN: 阿忒之泉 MTL: Fountain of Ate

之 is "of"

泉 is "Fountain"

阿忒 is used phonetically as "Ātè", "Ah-tuh"/"Ah-tay", localised "Atei"

阿 is the phonetic character for "ah", can also mean "to flatter" (Google Translate)

忒 is the phonetic character for "tè", can also mean "error", "excess", etc (Google Translate)

Crucially, 阿忒 is the CN name for the Greek goddess of moral blindness, Ate. Compare the CN Wikipedia entry for 阿忒 to the english entry for Ate.

Primarily an allegorical goddess, as opposed to a fully fleshed diety

Representing moral blindness and error, she could blind the mind of both gods and men leading them astray. She evokes recklessness and ill-considered actions.

In Homer, atē is something inflicted by the gods; it causes delusion, then folly, then disaster

Note also that the lore of Sylus and the N109 Zone frequently references greek myths: Onychinus = "Of the claw" in Greek, "Mephisto" derives from Greek, Tartarus and Elysium are locations in the Greek underworld, etc

So, we can then understand the full poetic meaning:

The Fountain of Atei represents a mission to find immortality/eternal youth that is ultimately one of self-deception and recklessness, which will inevitably lead to disaster.

Localization commentary

Since Ate is such an obscure goddess, if the name had been localized "Fountain of Ate" it would be too similar in EN to the past-tense verb of "eat", which would be very confusing

"Atei" has a pronunciation that's more appealing to the EN ear, but loses the direct intended parallel to the goddess Ate. It still succeeds at exuding a mysterious quality.

Ever's hubris/folly is well-depicted throughout the story, so nothing major is lost with the localization, but it's interesting context and another fun Greek Mythology reference

[loredwy]

Regular couple...

Old man yaoi.... Toxic yuri....

[divinituscaptivus]

"Yes, there are women among my protectors. I do not see why this is revolutionary."

[perfect-fourth]

"I knew it. It was the yordles all along. You just can't trust them."

[bendingfrost-blog]

//Freljord’s Story - A Rant

Now that I look at it deeper... Uncle Rito’s kind of gutted the Freljord from a story perspective.  They gave us a lot of new champions and concepts, with the introduction of Ornn and the lore changes to Volibear and Anivia.  And that’s nice for the Freljord in the open world kind of sense.  There’s a lot more to explore about the land and the people.  But... the story of the Freljord and where it’s heading is... a lot more vague and rather basic now.  This gets a little long-worded, so I’m putting it under a cut.

The Ancient War of the Three Sisters is gone as a concept, it seems.  There’s Lissandra, who has served the Watchers since forever, and has successfully erased all memory of the Watchers by manipulating the oral histories of the Freljord for generations and now controls the Frostguard tribe.  There’s Avarosa, who implicitly fought the Watchers, and was killed by Lissandra after uniting the people of the Freljord, leaving only her Bow behind.  The third sister, Serylda, is all but removed from the lore.  Mentions of them fighting each other are pretty much removed from the current lore. So we’re left with a Freljord that was once ruled by the Watchers, and was liberated by the Iceborn Avarosa, Serylda, and other unnamed “ancient heroes”.  Avarosa unifies the Freljord, is assassinated by Lissandra, and her kingdom falls apart into familiar tribes.  Nothing is said of the fate of Serylda.  The Watchers are forgotten due to Lissandra’s meddling.  Fast forward many generations, and Ashe takes up Avarosa’s bow and begins trying to rebuild the ancient kingdom from scratch.  She inadvertently makes enemies of the Winter’s Claw, and the Freljord splits into a civil war.  All the while, Lissandra implicitly remains uninvolved in any direct sense. While Ashe is still referred to as a descendant of Avarosa, and carries Iceborn blood, the same cannot be certainly said of Sejuani, though that may be implied by her use of a True Ice weapon. Another thing we’ve lost is any reference to foreign relations between the Freljord and the other nations of Valoran.  We have vague references to a conflict between Noxus and the Freljord, thanks to the Darius comic and the new Swain lines, but it’s a far cry less certain than the Barbarian Campaign of the old lore, and seems to be old news that didn’t have any major impact on either nation.  And without the certainty of that campaign and its consequences, I can’t even draw proper conclusions about the Freljord’s relationship with neighboring Demacia.  In the old lore, the diplomatic situation was rather strained, since Jarvan had refused to help the Freljord against Noxus, and turned back the displaced refugees.  But, again, that all relies on old lore.  There’s no basis for it in the current universe iteration. This leaves the Freljord’s future in a rather bland and stagnant place, from an ongoing story perspective.  Nothing is really happening, and it’s not really going anywhere.  The civil war doesn’t seem to have any momentum, one way or another.  They don’t have any overt external enemies (Noxus seems to have given up), or any allies.  While the Freljord itself is full of interesting places and people, there’s very little to do with it.  The only looming threat is the Watchers returning, but it’s not a threat that anyone in the Freljord is really aware of, so its not something the characters can prepare for.  There’s no real intrigue or drama.  It’s just... there. Sure, that gives people like me, who intentionally diverge from canon, a lot of lateral liberty to shape the Freljord our way.  But I like to base my divergence on the canon, and... it’s not giving me anything to work with.  How does canon Ashe handle diplomacy with Demacia?  We don’t know.  What effects did Noxus’ brief conflict have on the people?  We don’t know.  What happened to Serylda?  We don’t know.  And that’s the problem with the state of the Freljord’s ongoing story. There’s too much we don’t know.

[drsolarhead-blog]

Jhin has mind changing powers or just a REAL good actor

So I just reread Jhin’s lore and color story and one thing that stood out for me was when he was in jail and then everyone was like look at this shy boy he is so good at dancing and all this other artistic stuff and he is so talented we should set him free while they forget he is a giant fucking psychopath terrorist!

[futures-hero]

Jayce: Defender of Tomorrow Jayce: Murderer of Hundreds

[loredwy]

I just got a "PissFaggot" jacket? 😭

I couldnt convince them to give me the other one too though... I wanted both Kim and I to dress them :[