Here are the summary results from the third interactive lore event of the Nyroth arc. They are subject to review by Naggarok and the lore team.

A general note: this event does not generally represent actual in-universe votes. Very few if any factions operate so democratically. When you vote in a lore event, your vote represents a few different in-universe phenomena, the main ones being, first, your Summoner urging a certain course of action, and, second, a certain “nudging” of key individuals. For example, a vote for Demacia to attack Zaun’s mines in Shurima represents both your Summoner character urging Jarvan III to do so and, to some extent, Jarvan III deciding to follow that path. (Basically, in a lore event, you get to partially control major NPCs such as faction leaders and Champions.) You’re portraying both a Summoner character and the “guiding spirit” of the faction.

Follow-up poll

We have a quick follow-up poll, because we know you guys love polls. :3 Actually, it’s because we need to figure out who’s supporting and opposing which petitions. There are also some espionage selection questions and other follow-up clarifications.

Here are the links.

• Bilgewater Vote Here
• Ionia Vote Here
• Shadow Isles Vote Here
• Freljord Vote Here

These will have to close by Saturday morning at the very earliest, which raises some logistical issues: we don’t want to end up with 4 people voting and sending the faction down some crazy path that completely contradicts its past behavior. Here are the rules on number of responses; basically, if not a lot of people respond, rather than making the whole faction behave according to what just a handful of its Summoners say, we’ll apply a little tilt to attempt to reflect the faction’s overall attitude (and to break ties).

• 30 or more responses: We’ll implement the results strictly.
• 15 or more responses: If an option is within 3 votes or so of going one way or the other, we’ll apply some tilt. We’ll try to consult with the faction’s mentor and such to guide this decision.
• Fewer than 15 responses: We’ll take it as more of an advisory opinion.

Executive Summary

We know you Summoners are busy people, so here’s the quick-and-dirty, before we get into the faction-by-faction details.

Also, concerning the sanctions: Bilgewater condemned the Freljord, and none rose to the Freljord’s defense. The Freljord now suffers one ban in each match, with no “ban-shield” option, and also loses access to one randomly chosen Summoner Spell in each match of this weekend’s tournament. (Ionia nearly intervened to help them, but narrowly decided against it.)

By the way, every faction decided to see about helping Azir with whatever the crazy bird-man is up to. More on that later.

Bilgewater

Bilgewater condemned the Freljord, bought the Demacian prisoners, turned Krocylea over to the League, and is petitioning for Research help. It’s also building a Lunari Temple on Nyroth and working to rebuild the Marai Republic stronger than ever. They recruited Lulu and Viktor.

Ionia

Ionia will keep Karma as its leader, spend Commerce on Research and Favor, and recruit Ezreal and Lucian. It will petition for Research Help and to disqualify Nami from the coming tournament. It will take no action concerning the sanctions against either the Freljord or the Shadow Isles.

the Shadow Isles

The Shadow Isles recruited Aatrox and Kog’maw, and are continuing their rampage under Mordekaiser. They also finally finished Night Terrors. (So no more jokes.) They are petitioning the League for research assistance and to have their tourney matches Saturday on the Twisted Treeline.

(Night Terrors gives them a 1-in-6 chance in each Featured Match or Tournament match to ban a Summoner spell for the enemy team. It represents Nocturne secretly spooking them the night before the match.)

the Freljord

The Freljord will now by led on Nyroth by Lissandra; Ashe has stepped down to better oversee matters on the home front. They have recruited Jarvan IV and Gnar to their roster. They are requesting research help from the League, and are attempting to disqualify Nautilus from the Bilgewater roster for the tournament.

Bilgewater

Bilgewater condemned the Freljord, bought the Demacian prisoners, turned Krocylea over to the League, and is petitioning for Research help. It’s also building a Lunari Temple on Nyroth and working to rebuild the Marai Republic stronger than ever. They recruited Lulu and Viktor.

Leadership

There was some talk that Nami might be stepping down in favor of Miss Sarah Fortune, a Champion considered perhaps more world-wise. However, Nami appeared before the Council on Thursday to add Bilgewater’s next petitions to the agenda, indicating that she would be retaining leadership of the faction in Nyroth for the time being.

Champions

Bilgewater declined to convert any of its Krocylea rewards into extra Champion pickups, so it received only the standard two.

Bilgewater’s explorations on the fae island of Kibu turned up a rather surprising finding: as its Summoners worked to realign the island’s nexus, they heard a hushed voice behind them urging them to “ease up on the chartreuse! You’re gonna spook the trees, numbletoes!” One Summoner cried out in surprise and fumbled an enchantment. The half-crafted spell spun out of control, knocking the Summoner over and creating a bit of a fireworks show in the air. (A cloud of pixies swiftly descended on that Summoner, prodding him and squeaking “chartoose! Char-tooth! Tarchoose!” in a vigorous attempt to get him to do it again. The others were anxious that the League would come down on them for Lulu’s unauthorized arrival on Nyroth, but Nami was able to pull some strings and smooth the whole incident over. The Council was ultimately satisfied with their invocation of a special regulation concerning emergency assessment of high-risk extradimensional vortices, coupled by their immediate petition to retroactively add Lulu to their roster.

Doubtful that such an undertaking could be accomplished without his personal assistance, Viktor nonetheless consulted with Bilgewater Summoners from afar concerning the reconstruction of the great automata factory on Avalon. When it was completed, he agreed to sign a petition for entrance into the Nyroth dispute. With that out of the way, he has traveled via warpgate to Stormhaven to begin overseeing the advent of the Nyrothian Glorious Evolution personally. The remarkable thaumic matrix created by Nyroth’s leyline convergence makes the reliable construction of advanced sentient constructs—an extraordinarily difficult task on Valoran—possible, and he has reconsidered his wholesale rejection of purely “mechanical” approaches to the Evolution.

Foreign relations

After Nami’s horrifying introduction to the brutal realities of great power politics in Valoran, she has pushed back against the urgings of the many Zaunite and Noxian Summoners supporting Bilgewater in this dispute. (As a new entrant to the League, Bilgewater has few “native” Summoners to draw upon.) While Bilgewater continues to pursue close relations with Zaun, a fellow commercial superpower, Nami has established considerably greater distance with regard to Noxus, Demacia, and the others.

The New Marai Republic

The New Marai Republic has been selected as Bilgewater’s new research project.

The newly forged moonstone has pushed the vile beasts of the depths far from the borders of Marai land, ending the increasingly savage attacks. The Marai have begun to reclaim their lost territory. However, they have discovered that there is greater damage than they expected. Not only are many of their great cities in ruins, but it seems these fiendish sea-titans have been feeding from the leylines that run along the ocean floor beneath those cities. These arcane conduits are now bleeding wild magic into the waters, causing thaumatoxic phenomena very similar to that observed on the Nyrothian mainland. Bilgewater has dedicated considerable resources to searching Nyroth for a means to repair the damage and restore the Marai to greatness. It is hoped that not only can the damage be repaired, but that their civilization can rise greater than ever before.

The Lunari Temple

Bilgewater has begun construction of a great temple of the reborn Lunari order near Stormhaven.

Commerce spending

Bilgewater is spending its monetary assets on three main things: the Demacian prisoners, research, and mercenaries. It will spend 143 Commerce out of its massive 186 Commerce war chest, bringing it to 43 Commerce…but its special ability, On The Account, gives it a 15 Commerce kickback on the merc hiring (because a little rum and some encouraging talk from Gangplank drives prices down), and brings it back up to 58 Commerce.

Demacian prisoners

Bilgewater will pay Swain’s exorbitant ransom for the lives of more than two hundred Demacian prisoners. From the Lore Event III writeup:

Some Bilgewater Summoners are having second thoughts about throwing in their lot with Noxus, at least under Swain. One way to back out of that messy business would be to buy the Demacian prisoners’ freedom. Swain would not agree to simply release them to Demacia in exchange for payment, in part because that would restore Bilgewater to Demacia’s good graces too completely—a significant objective behind Swain’s theatrical pronouncements of torture was to destroy Bilgewater’s image in Demacia. What he would accept would be an agreement whereby the prisoners are thoroughly interrogated, abused, and humiliated, then sold as indentured servants to Bilgewater to toil in their shipyards and docks for five years, after which time they would be freed. This would be much, much better for them than what they’re currently facing (life imprisonment at best, death by torture at worst). This would effectively restore Bilgewater to a “neutral” status vis-a-vis Demacia, and would give a small Industry bonus (about half as efficient as buying Industry normally). It wouldn’t save everyone: Swain will insist on making an example of a select few, particularly the Demacian admiral who ordered the attack on the fleet.

This will cost it 50 Commerce: enough to hire mercs equal (in some sense) to almost half of the Demacian or Noxian militaries. Swain is satisfied that this deal is “dirty” enough that it won’t repair the damage done to Demacia–Bilgewater relations, while providing valuable assets to be used for rebuilding the Noxian military and preparing for the next offensive. Demacia is publicly grateful, but simultaneously defensive: it does not endorse such ransoming in general, and expresses fears that many more than two hundred lives will be lost as a result. Nami sees it as a way to wash her hands of the affair without burning bridges with either great power.

Research

Bilgewater will spend 62 Commerce to accelerate progress on rebuilding the Marai civilization stronger than ever before, and unraveling more of Nyroth’s mysteries in the process. (It gains 186 points of progress, putting it at over 10% completion right out the gate.)

Mercenaries

Bilgewater will spend 31 Commerce on hiring mercs to replenish its forces on Nyroth with 31 Strength of swarthy sailors and buccaneers. (Note: pending check with Naggarok to make sure it’s not going over its merc cap here. If so, the extra mercs will just be on standby in case it takes losses.) It gets a 15-Commerce kickback from its special ability, On The Account.

Rewards from Krocylea

Bilgewater gained one Major reward and two Minor rewards from Krocylea, for defeating the Void’s armies and helping to repel the attack by the Shadow Isles on the Krocyleans. These have been applied as follows.

• Favor (Minor): Bilgewater gains 10 Favor for defending the Krocyleans.
• Industry (Major): Bilgewater has offered some of the Krocyleans refuge on Avalon and Emain Ablach. They have agreed to earn their keep with temporary labor contracts. (+400 Industry)
• Research (Major): Freed of their obsessive madness by the repair of the nexus, several Krocylean sages who have long struggled to turn the island’s magic into Rune Wars-style magic have agreed to apply the thought-provoking results of their dangerous work more peacefully, joining the team working to revitalize the Marai Republic. (+300 Research; +10 for the remainder of the arc.)

Petitions to the League

Bilgewater will present the following petitions to the League.

• Research Help. Nami is requesting access to restricted League archives concerning underwater leylines in the region of Valoran inhabited by the Marai. (Difficulty: 100.)
• Condemn the Freljord. Nami came before the Council to present damning evidence from Krocylea concerning the Freljord’s invocation of rune magic. The testimony of Bilgewater’s Summoners further establishes that the Freljord chose to employ dangerous leyline-manipulating magic in a reckless manner, and that the Freljord’s actions were considerably more responsible for the opening of the Void rift than those of the Shadow Isles. While commending them for their choice to defend the Krocyleans from Aatrox’s undead army, she firmly declares that the League must punish such world-endangering actions harshly, without regard to how virtuous or vicious the guilty faction may be in other respects. She is presenting further testimony from Marai concerning the leyline damage now afflicting their reclaimed homeland. Her final witness was an elderly Nyrothian man from the floating city above Yoroth. He spoke with tears in his eyes of how, upon learning of how Bilgewater had restored freedom to Avalon and repaired its damaged nexus, he began to hope that he would live to walk down the streets of the ancient cities of Yoroth, and gaze upon the splendor that was Nyroth with his own eyes. Pointing a finger at the Freljordian delegation, he angrily proclaimed that their recklessness may have dashed that hope forever. Objections swiftly arose that there was no proof of that, and that the Freljord had done what it did to defend the Krocyleans against the Isles, but observers agree that the testimony had a considerable impact.

Condemning the Freljord burned 25% of Bilgewater’s 128 Favor, bringing it down to 96 Favor. Its Research Help petition is still virtually guaranteed to succeed.

Krocylea turned over to the League

Bilgewater, which has become Valoran’s emissary pro tempore to Nyroth after the first tournament, has exercised its powers by turning the island of Krocylea over to League jurisdiction for the remainder of the dispute.

Ionia

Ionia will keep Karma as its leader, spend Commerce on Research and Favor, and recruit Ezreal and Lucian. It will petition for Research Help and to disqualify Nami from the coming tournament. It will take no action concerning the sanctions against either the Freljord or the Shadow Isles.

Leadership

Ionia has overwhelmingly decided to keep Karma at the helm of its Nyrothian mission.

Champions

Ionia’s Clockwork Monastery project has drawn Ezreal’s interest. He fought for them in Shon-Xan, and is willing to give Ionia a true display of skill in the battle for Nyroth as well. Meanwhile, Ionia’s valiant stand against the undead on Krocylea has convinced Lucian to come forward and join the fight.

Foreign relations

Ionia seems to have become remarkably cool toward even long-time allies such as Demacia, perhaps as a result of Demacia’s actions in Shurima. Piltover showed a lot of love to Ionia during the Hextech Revolution, and is currently working on an underwater velocitronic railway to link the two nations; Ionia seems to be reciprocrating. Right back atcha, my steampunk pals.

Commerce

Ionia will spend 16 of its 32 Commerce.

Research

Ionia will spend 9 Commerce to gain +27 Research progress on the Clockwork Monastery.

Favor

Ionia will spend 7 Commerce to gain 7 Favor, by contributing funds to the League’s emergency relief efforts for the Krocyleans.

Rewards from Krocylea

Ionia came out of Krocylea with two Major rewards and two Minor rewards for its utterly heroic efforts to defeat the Void, defend the Krocyleans from the Shadow Isles, and repair the nexus that turned the island into a Star Trek episode. They have been allocated as follows:

• Favor (Major+Major): Ionia is looking pretty heroic right now. It gains 60 Favor, bringing it up to 108 Favor total, and gets a reroll on its next League petition. (Note: factoring in the +7 Favor from its Commerce spending.)
• Research (Major): Grateful to Ionia for finally restoring the nexus to balance, Krocylean mages have pledged their loyalty to Ionia, and will assist them in their Clockwork Monastery project. (They’ll even put up with Ezreal’s snark.) Ionia gains +300 Research progress, and +10 to Research for the rest of the arc.
• Military (Minor): The families of many slain Krocylean warriors have donated their loved ones’ enchanted weapons to Ionia, saying that in the peaceful new era they hope not to need them, but trust Ionia to wield them with honor beyond Krocylea’s shores. (+3 Strength.)

Petitions to the League

Ionia will make the following petitions to the League.

• Request Research Help. Ionia will request that the League release to its custody Edith Lake, a hextech automation expert currently in an Institute holding cell after (“allegedly”, she says) bribing a Summoner to copy schematics from a forbidden Rune Wars-era book on arcane automata, so that she may assist with the Clockwork Monastery project.
• Disqualify Nami. Ionia has put forward a bold petition: it demands that Nami recuse herself from the coming tournament while allegations of irregularities in her original application to join the League are investigated. While that is the ostensible legal rationale put forward, it is widely understood that this is an attempt to check Bilgewater’s meteoric rise to power by targeting one of its most vital Champions. Ionia likely hopes to win support from the Freljord (just condemned by Bilgewater for its use of rune magic) and the Shadow Isles (because why not?) for this petition against the dominant faction.

the Shadow Isles

The Shadow Isles recruited Aatrox and Kog’maw, and are continuing their rampage under Mordekaiser. They also finally finished Night Terrors. (So no more jokes.) They are petitioning the League for research assistance and to have their tourney matches Saturday on the Twisted Treeline.

Leadership

Aatrox, Mordekaiser, and Hecarim remain firmly in command of the armies of the Shadow Isles. TREMBLE, MORTAL FOOLS!

Champions

The Shadow Isles summoned Aatrox to Krocylea to lead them to glorious carnage. They closed down the Void rift that the Freljord opened, but then recruited Koggles to their side. They chose not to convert any of their Krocylea rewards into bonus Champion recruitment.

Kassadin is now available to all factions when facing the Shadow Isles.

Foreign relations

The Shadow Isles seek a close alliance with Noxus and Zaun. Otherwise, they’re fairly neutral. (They indicated extreme hostility to Demacia, confirming that the Summoners voting in this poll have passed Lore 101.)

Commerce

The Shadow Isles will spend half of its astonishing 10 Commerce on Research. It spends 5 Commerce to gain 15 points of Research progress, possibly in the form of bedsheets and scissors with which to cut out eyeholes. It’ll finish Night Terrors sometime, guys. Really.

Rewards from Krocylea

The Shadow Isles gained two Major and one Minor reward from Krocylea.

• Research (Major+Minor): They heard me making fun of their lack of Night Terrors progress, and got serious about this. They will pick up +400 Research progress (and gain +10 Research for the rest of the arc), auto-finishing Night Terrors (which was at 62%, or about 620 points). Uh, they found some spooky ghosts on Krocylea, or something.
• Industry (Major): They did something unspeakable that ended up with them gaining the possession of a lot of souls and bodies. (+400 Industry, which is enough for them to reinforce 40 points of lost units. That’s a lot of skellies.)

Petitions to the League

The Shadow Isles will make the following petitions to the League.

• Request Research Help. The Shadow Isles will request the use of artifacts in the League’s deepest archives which pertain to communion with the dead. They suppress the urge to cackle maniacally as they file this petition.
• Substitution of Field. The Shadow Isles requests that the Field of Justice known as the Twisted Treeline be employed for all matches on the first day of the tournament in which the Shadow Isles participates. (Tiers would be HGS.)

the Freljord

The Freljord will now by led on Nyroth by Lissandra; Ashe has stepped down to better oversee matters on the home front. They have recruited Jarvan IV and Gnar to their roster. They are requesting research help from the League, and are attempting to disqualify Nautilus from the Bilgewater roster for the tournament.

Leadership

Having recovered from the injuries she sustained on Krocylea trying to stop that poor fool of a Frostguard Summoner from his own recklessness, Lissandra has now taken over the leadership of the Freljord’s presence on Nyroth. The humble sage pledges to commit all of her wisdom and learning to finding a brighter future for the Freljord.

Please ignore the maniacal cackling from her quarters. That’s probably just the after-effects of the injury. Poor Lissandra.

Champions

Quinn stood with Jarvan in a forest overlooking the Freljord’s frostgem mines. This would be enough to get Piltover’s investors interested in finally connecting the Freljord to the velocitronic railway linking Demacia and Piltover. It would mean a lot for the people of the Freljord, and would surely strengthen their relations with Demacia.

She was jarred from her thoughts by a ferocious roar booming out from the trees. She spun in place and drew her crossbow, only to find herself toe-to-toe with an enormous dire bear, easily twice as tall as a man. Everything slowed down. The beast’s claws were coming down toward her face as her hand tugged the loading mechanism on her weapon. Tick by tick, each advanced, and in a chilling moment of realization she understood that she would lose this race.

POW!

A flash of gold struck the bear and knocked it aside. A gauntleted fist. It took her a few moments to realize what had happened. She trained her crossbow on the fallen beast, which was snarling and whimpering, but was apparently too dazed to stand. Did the prince really just punch out a bear?

She heard Jarvan’s hearty laughter. “I like this place!” He turned his broad grin to her. “Brisk and invigorating. Such hardship must imbue these people with honesty and valor most firm.”

He crouched, and lifted the groaning bear up onto his shoulders. “You may inform Queen Ashe that I will accept her proposal. Now where did that Braum fellow get off to.”

Quinn watched, astonished, as the Crown Prince of Demacia strolled off toward the Freljordian miner’s camp, the dire bear slung across his shoulders as though he were carrying a burly drunkard to an inn.

“No one would believe me,” she muttered to herself.

Gnar wants to join the Freljord so that he can visit Argyre and dance with the Nyrothian yordles. Hooray!

Foreign relations

They seek to be close allies with Demacia, Piltover, and Bandle City. They are strongly disinclined to deal with Zaun, and are wary of Noxus.

Commerce

The Freljord will spend 30 of its 61 Commerce. It will allocate 15 of that to building Favor by doing adorable things with the yordles from Argyre (+15 Favor), and 15 to purchasing artifacts for Lissandra’s continued research (+45 Research progress).

Rewards from Krocylea

The Freljord gained two Major rewards and two Minor rewards from Krocylea, for helping to repel the Void and saving the Krocyleans from the Shadow Isles. Without the last-minute flanking charge of their Winter’s Claw boar riders, the battle would have surely been lost.

• Favor (Major + Minor): They gain +40 Favor and a reroll on their next petition. Combined with their Commerce spending, they are now at 41 Favor. (They had been at -14. Yep.)
• Research (Major + Minor): Lissandra seems to have awoken from her injuries with new insights into the leylines and nexuses of Nyroth. (+400 Research progress, +10 Research for the rest of the arc.)

Petitions to the League

The Freljord will make the following petitions to the League.

• Request Research Help. The Freljord will seek to overcome the sanctions against them and regain access to certain locked archives that Lissandra believes contain information valuable to her current inquiries.
• Disqualify Nautilus. They will be filing a petition to disqualify Nautilus from this tournament, citing recent erratic behavior on Kibu.