Undead

The Undead are beings who persist beyond death through dark magic, cursed anchors, or the corruption of the Black Mist that emanates from the Shadow Isles. They range from mindless wraiths to fully sentient revenants who retain their memories and personalities. The single greatest source of undeath in Runeterra is the Ruination, the cataclysmic magical event that destroyed the Blessed Isles. That catastrophe was triggered by King Viego of Camavor, who attempted to resurrect his murdered queen, Isolde, using the sacred waters of the Blessed Isles. The ritual failed catastrophically, killing Viego and unleashing the Black Mist, a wave of death magic that transformed the verdant Blessed Isles into the nightmarish Shadow Isles. Every living thing on the islands was killed and reanimated as spectral undead, bound to the Mist. The most powerful among them retain their consciousness. Thresh collects and tortures souls for his own pleasure, Hecarim leads a spectral cavalry in eternal charges, and Yorick uniquely resists the Mist's corruption through his holy vial of blessed water. Mordekaiser predates the Ruination entirely, an ancient warlord who conquered death through iron will and necromantic knowledge and built a death realm from the souls of the slain. The undead of the Shadow Isles are less a culture than a prison. Most are mindless wraiths enslaved to the Black Mist and, through it, to Viego's unconscious will to reclaim his queen. The stronger undead have formed their own twisted societies: Thresh's lantern holds countless tormented souls, and Hecarim's Shadow Riders are a mockery of the knightly order they once were. Mordekaiser stands apart as a being who chose undeath deliberately and rules his realm of the dead by iron decree. Living cultures across Runeterra fear the Harrowing, periodic surges of the Black Mist that reach beyond the islands to consume the living.