Lore: Thresh, The Biggest Villain alive in Runeterra

What brings together a loving couple, a magical island, fantastic items, great technological advances and the demise of all that?

If you guessed Viego, you wasted your shot! Who brings together all these elements which could be a part of a fantastic fantasy story with a happy and wonderful ending is the most cruel and sadistic being alive in Runeterra. And his name makes even the most courageous heart in Bilgewater tremble.

I speak of Thresh, the Chain Warden.

Our story starts in another continent, in a Kingdom called Camavor. There, there was a king and he had a love so great for his queen that it would be impossible to put it into words, unless I was an expert poet or minstrel.

But what defines heroes and villains is a thin line — love can turn into compulsion, compulsion can turn into obsession and when you realize it, morality is left aside and a villain is created.

Viego

Viego after having his love wounded by a poisoned arrow got desperate, obsessive and to save his loved one, would do anything!

He sent Kalista, his niece and most notable warrior, to search for a hope. After days of searching, Kalista found a magical kingdom, and there all good in the world prospered, it was a kingdom hidden from the world behind a sacred mist. The kingdom’s name? Helia, in the Blessed Isles.

Helia was the most prosperous place in all Runeterra, inspired by Avalon, Atlantis and by other pacific civilizations and/or advanced technologically such as Shambhala and El Dorado; Helia was hidden from the world, however Kalista found the Isles.

Kalista followed a clue about some sacred water which could cure any ailment, and that way came to the Blessed Isles. There, she met the person who would bring Ruination to everything and everyone: Thresh, an average man, very smart and savvy. The man was in charge of taking care of the secret Helia vaults, which kept the Isles’ biggest artifacts and secrets.

Kalista discovered the Waters of Life, and they told her that she could bring the dying queen there, but that she could only savor from the waters if she was still alive.

So, Kalista returned to Camavor, praying that her queen had not collapsed yet.

Viego and Thresh

Viego prepared his army — he didn’t care if they would be welcomed in Helia, no one would stop him from saving his love. Isolde, the loving queen, died, and because of that was forbidden from having contact with the Waters of Life, and Viego went mad and caused the biggest slaughter that ever took place in the sacred island. Thresh, taking advantage of the delicate situation, helped Viego and took him willingly to the Waters of Life.

Thresh was a sadist and his objective was to see pure chaos, terror and agony. And that was exactly what he saw.

When Viego put his love’s body in a fountain full of the Waters of Life, Isolde did return to life, but she was no longer human, she was now something Viego had never seen before.

The being that was once called Isolde, took Viego’s sword and stabbed him. This act of cruelty happening where Runeterra’s most sacred waters were caused a big cataclysm, which set off the death of all the beings that lived in Helia. Their spirits were condemned to live for all eternity, always executing the tasks that were granted to them in life, some of stronger hearts acquired different forms, such as Ledros, Hecarim, Kalista and the biggest villain Thresh. We call this cataclysm Ruination.

Thresh was one of the few who saw the cataclysm as something beneficial, because there, in that place, in that form, he could be who he always was: A psychopathic sadist.

Thresh’s cruelty

Thresh started to imprison and torture the existing souls in the Isles, his lantern was only one of the ways he could imprison these souls. Thresh took an old building and remodeled it in the shape of a great dungeon.

Ledros, the old commander from Viego’s army, was one of the souls that Thresh took most pleasure in tormenting. Ledros was seeking to free his loved one, none other than Kalista. And Thresh for centuries let Ledros almost free her, only to fend him off just at the last second, and leave him suffering for longer.

This was something quite similar to what the warden of the chains did with Lucian, however with Ledros was different, because this torture had been going on for thousands of years.

The Ruined King Game

Centuries passed, Thresh tormented all the souls in the Isles. However, that became not enough for him, the existence only in the Isles no longer satisfied his pleasure. And when opportunity came knocking, the warden grasped it with all his chains.

Gangplank, who was almost killed by Sarah Fortune - more commonly known as Miss Fortune - made a deal with Thresh: he would help free the ruined king and, in exchange, Fortune would be killed and Bilgewater would come back into his control.

In the blink of an eye (as he doesn’t even have lids to blink) Thresh accepted the deal, and that way the game’s storyline begins. Some champions tried to stop the awakening of the ruined king, but failed. Viego awoke and decided he would revive his love, however his queen’s soul was fragmented in many pieces, and that way Viego decided to go all over Runeterra in search of reuniting his love’s soul.

Sentinels of Light

Lucian and Senna started to gather people who could help them fight off the Ruined King. They went to all regions in Runeterra and gathered the ones available (yes, kinda cringe, but it was like that) and started to face Viego and his forces.

During all this process, Thresh was absorbing Viego’s strength and the souls who belonged to the people killed by the Ruined King and their strengths too.

Thresh was immensely powerful and, when Viego was defeated, his whole scheme came to light: Thresh manipulated Gangplank to free Viego and that way he would be able to absorb an amount of Black Mist which would make the warden of the chains free and he would be no longer stuck to the Shadow Isles.

That way, Thresh managed to free himself from the Shadow Isles and leave them, and now the ex-warden of the chains wanders Runeterra imprisoning souls. Thresh was last seen in Noxus. But what he wants now is a mystery!