The Descent of the Aspects (Zoe/Pantheon/Aurelion Sol)
Hi there! My name's Yemi, but I go by OraMagi on most online platforms.
About the Author:
I've been playing League of Legends for about 6 years, after my friend introduced me to it on a whim. I've been hooked ever since. The game, lore, esports, music, art...I love every single aspect of it to pieces. I've given over 4000 hours to this game (as denoted by my shiny new emote) and I don't plan to stop any time soon! I'm a Computer Science graduate, but honestly, I have no desire to work in a computing-related field, save for game development. One of my main passions, along with video games and anime, is creative writing. I enjoy designing characters more than I do worlds - digging into the psyche of a fictional character and seeing how they fare in all sorts of situations...
I swear I don't have a God complex. Maybe.
Anyway! I've always felt that writing is a lot harder to get out there, especially when compared to digital art and sound, so I saw this contest go live, I jumped at the opportunity to put myself on Riot's radar! It's definitely somewhere I've wanted to work for the longest time and I can certainly see this as one of the steps I need to take. Here's hoping that one of the prizes for the Narrative contest is an opportunity to work at Riot! I mean, I can dream, right?
As for my entry...
The Descent of The Aspects (working title) - featuring Zoe, Pantheon and
Aurelion Sol
I knew immediately that I wanted to
do something which stands out and immediately catches attention as soon as you
lay eyes on the title. What's a better way to do that than by having my work
feature the latest addition to the League of Legends? Zoe's epithet is the
"Aspect of Twilight" and she's dubbed as a being which can affect
multiple realities. Which got me thinking - what other possible realities are
there in Runeterra?
As far as we as Summoners are aware, alternate
universes do exist. In the form of Skin lines! Each skin line; from Guardian of
the Sands to Star Guardian are all depictions of our favourite champions in
different dimensions. Take Vayne for example. On one hand, "Classic"
Vayne is a Night Hunter, someone who devotes her life to extinguishing the foul
magics which pollute Valoran. On the other hand, the newly teased PROJECT:
Vayne is a program-of-sorts, absolutely dedicated to its "Hunter
Protocol", which dictates that PROJECT be eradicated in it's
entirety.
Returning to the topic at hand, Zoe's release
skin is "Hacker Zoe", which strengthened the idea in my mind, that
Zoe can be linked to the events currently occurring in PROJECT universe. This
doesn't mean that she can only be linked to universes where she has a matching
skin, but it's a lot easier to prove her involvement in that way. So whilst Zoe
is off gallivanting in other realities, the only other known Aspect, Pantheon,
could just be...watching. Waiting for a suitable vessel to possess so that it
may exert its will upon the mortal realm. Zoe just happens to pop in to the
"Home of the Aspects" every now and again to say hi.
I'm still unsure of whether I want to include
League's resident space dragon, but he can definitely fit into the story I'm
planning. I hope you'll enjoy what I've got in store!
[08/11 - UPDATE] What should Zoe and Pantheon's relationship
be? Zoe is clearly a playful trickster but Pantheon is a rather serious Aspect,
being associated with War and whatnot. It doesn't mean that he can't have a
sense of humour or anything. As far as I'm aware, there's no real canon
portrayal of the Aspect of War, so this could be an opportunity to paint him as
I see fit.
[10/11 - UPDATE] When does this story occur? Due to the working title
being "Decent of the Aspects", I was thinking of having this story
take place before Pantheon descends to Runeterra to make Atreus his vessel. The
majority of the story would be a conversation between Zoe and Pantheon -
perhaps they're at odds as to whether the Aspects should interfere with mortal
matters. Is there precedent for what Pantheon wants to do? I don't believe so.
As a result of her childish nature, she could view this as her losing a friend.
She could view this as Pantheon betraying her. Here lies the conflict for the
story.
[21/11 - UPDATE] Yo, its been a while! Been thinking up some stuff to
play with and I think I might take this story in a slightly different
direction! With the release of Zoe today and some short-form lore, I've got
some canon stuff to play around with. If I've learnt anything, its that she's
just as playful and inquisitive as I thought she'd be. But there's gotta be
another side to that, right? I think I'm going to play around with the theme of
loneliness with Zoe. The other Aspects have left her for their Runeterran
vessels, but she's only decided to come down now? Why? Was there an argument?
Or was she just immature and decided to go and sulk in another dimension. I
think it would be safe to consider my entry as a prequel of sorts, before Zoe
descends for the first time. Yeah. That'll work nicely.
[22/11 - UPDATE] I played Zoe for the first time today! She's sooooo
fun! I'd had some sort of an idea of how she'd work since I'd been watching
streams and gameplay vids non-stop! She's so bouncy and happy go lucky! It
makes me want to dig deeper and uncover all of the negativity hidden somewhere
within even more!
...
Okay, that was unnecessarily sinister, but
there is some truth to it! She's sassy and very independent and you don't get
that way over 5000 years or so without encountering some unsightly situations.
This makes me thing that there's even more of a basis for my story. It's a
shame that there's only 1000 words to play with - I could go on for ages with
this story! Anyway, the first draft should be ready today - look forward to it! I've also decided that I will be including Aurelion Sol, but he'll have a very minimal role. Perhaps in another draft I'll cut him out completely and see how that looks.
[27/11 - UPDATE] Guess who's back? Back again! It's me! So, I've been doing a lot of thinking. And I mean a LOT of thinking. About just how much of the story in the current draft is necessary. So much of it is superfluous. I feel like I was shoehorning in some of the details about Zoe which are a given - traits such as being aware of the existence of other realities. That's not what the focus of the story is. The focal point is the conflict between her and Pantheon which causes a breakdown in their relationship, as well as Pantheon's descent. From reading the first couple of paragraphs, you wouldn't know that; which is a HUGE problem.
Honestly, its quite amateur of me and I'm disappointed in myself for not realising this sooner. If I ever want to work at Riot in any capacity, I need to be more aware of obvious flaws such as this. So, with all of that being said, I will be rewriting the current draft from an entirely different perspective and cutting out unnecessary elements such as the Baker universe segment and her little quibble with Aurelion Sol during the flashback. By taking back those words and using them elsewhere, I should be able to paint a much more vivid image of the focal conflict than ever before! It'll be great!
Be back soon!
[30/01 - FINAL UPDATE] Phew! It's been a while, hasn't it! I'm just going to level the playing field here, I haven't spent the past two months working on this - I had other personal projects which demanded my attention as well as my own graduation! Now I can officially call myself a NEET! Woo! (Here's really hoping that one of the prizes is a job offer from Riot). Anyway, I did work on different version of my entry for the contest which I will be including in the final submission, but since only one entry can be counted, I'm going to ask that my ORIGINAL entry be counted as my final one. The reason for this is that, I believe that this shows off a lot more of what I wanted to. I'm still including the "updated" entry, in order to show the judges that I am adaptable and that I am flexible. I want to show off that I can take constructive criticism and implement it it well in order to improve myself and my work.
I better stop there before I start rambling. Either way, this contest has been a pleasure and I wish everyone the best!
Replies
-Pantheon's outburst towards Zoe is good in concept, but the way it's presented here seems needlessly mean and unjustified. I'm not entirely sure why he calls her a traitor or why he refuses to use "the child's name".
-It's implied that Zoe's visit to the baker dimension was AFTER her talk with Pantheon here, but she also says that she hasn't seen Pantheon in any reality since having this talk. It's a pretty heavy contradiction, I think.
-I can understand Zoe's casual/playful antics, but Pantheon and Aurelion Sol both speak a little too casually to her. (Not sure how else to put this)
- I see what you mean here. I'll shuffle the order around and it should make more sense.
- I can DEFINITELY see what you mean here. This is where my vocabulary has failed me. Through the way Pantheon talks, it does seem a lot more casual than intended. My intention was to make him seem menacing in a sense, but I think I just made him seem slightly annoyed at most. Perhaps changing lines up from "They are my loyal acolytes, not toys" to something like "My zealots, acolytes and devotees. If you ever speak so casually about them again, you will regret it. My seething fury knows no bounds, even towards you, Twilight. Heed this warning and watch your tongue."
It could use some tweaking of course, but I think the latter conveys his feelings towards that statement in a much better fashion. Insulting a god's followers is tantamount to insulting them, so it needs to come through as such. Thanks so much for the feedback! I'll be sure to implement it and come back with another draft soon!
Oh I got that, I just don't get why he did so NOW, when he tolerated it before (it's implied this isn't the first time Zoe has gone there in her human form) and even did so at the start of the conversation.
[quote]Thanks so much for the feedback![/quote]
Just tryin' to help how I can