Bottom of the stories of Rune Terra. My name is Guy Black, or Raven Hood on the interwebs, as I am sometimes referred to, and I'm just a humble storyteller here to draw you into the vast world of Rune Terra by Riot Games. The Riot Games community has crafted an incredible universe full of tricksy little fishies. Each week, we jump into the Riot Games universe and narrate something from the world of Rune Terra off of the Riot Games universe site.
Think of this as an audiobook done by yours truly of League Stories and Lore. This week's story is Fizz, the Tidewater Trickster. Kind of pushing into some more Buildwater content, as you have all requested or some folks have thrown out there, but anyway, here's my terrible impression. You people can't even breathe water!
You're boring! Fizz is an amphibious yordle who dwells among the reefs surrounding Bilgewater. He often retrieves and returns the tides cast into the sea by superstitious captains, but even the saltiest sailors know better than the crosshemp. For many are the tales of those who have underestimated this slippery character.
Often mistaken for some manner of capricious ocean spirits, he seems able to command the beasts of the deep, and delights in confounding his allies and enemies alike. Again, thanks again for listening, appreciate it, and welcome into Stories of Rune Terra, a little homespun, homegrown, goofy little audiobook project by yours truly. I'm excited. It looks like we've got another trickster god up our sleeve to discuss.
In ages past, the oceans of Rune Terra were home to civilizations far older than those of the land. In the depths of what is now the Guardian's Sea, a great city once stood. It was here that the yordle Fizz made his home. He lived alongside the artisans and warriors of that proud and noble race, and even though he was not one of them, they treated him as an equal, and his playful nature and tall tales of adventures in the open sea made him welcome at any gathering.
But the world was changing. The oceans were growing warmer, emboldening fierce predators to rise up from the deepest trenches. Other settlements had fallen silent, but the rulers of the great city could still not agree on how to deal with the threat. Fizz pledged to roam the seas in search of survivors, or anyone who knew what had happened.
Then, one dark day, the Giculodons came. These huge, dragon-like sharks stunned their prey with fells shrieking, and the avenues of the great city were soon clouded red. Thousands died in a matter of hours, the immense bulk of their killers crushing towers and temples and monstrous feeding frenzies scenting the blood with water. Fizz raced back, determined to join the fight and save the city.
But he was too late. There was nothing left of the city to save. When the debris finally settled, not a single living creature remained, nor any store upon another, and the ravenous shoal had moved on. Alone in the cold depths, Fizz sank into mournful despair.
As his yordle magic began to fade, he let himself be carried by the currents, drifting in a catatonic torpor, dreaming away the millennia. It was only chance that reawakened him. A handful of copper coins fell from above, scattered to the seabed in the wake of a huge, wooden fish that swam upon the surface. This was no Gigalodon, but Fizz was alarmed nonetheless.
He knew little of the world overhead, but surely no fish could survive up there. He ventured up and peered into the salty air for the first time. There were people. People who lived outside of the water and sailed in wooden fish of all sizes.
Fizz found the thought both frightening and exciting, but the curious gifts they cast into the water made it clear that they wanted to be friends. In time, following their movements to and fro across the oceans, he came to the port city of Bilgewater. To the inhabitants of that lawless place, this strange and slippery creature quickly became something of a legend, the tidal trickster, the spirit of the ocean itself. It is said that he can summon great beasts to do his bidding, hole a ship's hull with his stone trident, and breathe air or water as it suits him.
Many a misbehaving child has been warned on moonless nights, we'll quickly get to sleep or the trickster will come and feed you to the fishes. Fizz is good-natured, but mischievous even for Yordle, and delights in confounding the people of Bilgewater. The most seasoned fishermen know, just as the ocean may rise and fall, the tidal trickster is as likely to lead them into windless doldrums as into an easy catch that would fill their nets. Even so, Fizz does not take kindly to the greedy or the selfish, and more than one haughty sea captain hoping to make a quick pile of silver has found that her mysterious guide has led her crew not to safety, but to shipwreck.
Today's story is entitled The Lucky Kraken, written by Anthony Reynolds. Ah, well hello there, young'uns. Shouldn't you cheeky little sprats be already a kid? What's that?
You want a suppertime story from one-legged Lars, eh? All right, all right. Just one before bed. Gather round.
Ah, but I don't want to hear no crying or whimpering this time. This is Bilgewater after all, and even our bedtime tales have more and a little darkness in them. Right. Now, hmm.
You've heard of the title, Trixter. Little ocean sprite they call Fizz, ain't ya? Ya have? Good.
Good. Well, this is a story about the time old Lars met him. What's that? Must have been fun.
Well, what sort of stories have you been told? No, it weren't fun. Thank you very much. He's a malign little terror, that one, and you'd be lucky if you ever crossed paths with him in all your lives.
Now I'm getting ahead of me, sir. Right. So there I was, clinging to a rock out in the jagged straits. Me ship was sunk, no matter how it happened.
There's a tale for another night. Maybe. But that's how I was. I clung to that rock for three days and nights, with fins a-circling.
And just when I was starting to give up all hope, he appeared. Now, all I seen at first were those two big round eyes, pale as death as he swarms towards me. Them circling sharks took right off the way, and make no mistake, there was a fear to him. See, just as y'all you should be.
Closer, closer, and closer he came. I don't mind admitting I were scared, but he shooed him off on my hungry fishes, so I dove into the sea and started swimming for build writer as quick as you like. But every time I looked back, he was there, with those big old eyes peering out at me. I finally get to shore and thought I'd lost him.
But how wrong old Lars was. I got a room in a fee-ridden flop house down on Rat Townway, and it didn't take long for me to realize I weren't alone. What first clued me in was a creeping stink of seaweed and fish in me room. Bah, puff!
Bah, bah, bah, bah. And that was a little wet footprints on the stair when I awoke in the morning. They call him the trickster, and he certainly lived up to the name, put seawire in me porridge when I tward looking, tied me bootlaces together so as I fall when I took a step, and slipped eels under me blankets, gave me a right proper scare when they started wiggling, I tell ya. All that time I hear some laughing.
Still makes my skin crawl just to think of it. For a whole week Fizz hunted me, drove me fairly to the brink of madness. What do you want, you little monster, I screams? But on the final night I woke, I heard his wet feet, flap it on the floor, slap, slap, slap, closer and closer he came.
This is it, I thought. He's come to end me, once and for all, and I hid myself under my covers. Slap, slap, slap, went his cold, wet feet, and then... Silence!
I lay there, cowering, for what it must have been an hour before I dared peek. Slowly I reaches out, lights me lamp, and you know what happens next? Nothing. Aye, Fizz were gone, at long last, but he left something for me, on the wooden box beside me bed.
A coin, a gold kraken no less. This coin right here in fact. Aye, aye, aye, look with your eyes and not your hands. That's my lucky kraken, you know.
But I tell you, rather than make me happy, for what I had an opinion to be named back then, the side of that coin filled me with dread. Because this was the very coin that our captain swore he tossed into the ocean on our way out of port. And that was his offering to the bearded lady for safe passage. But the tidal trickster took it.
That was the reason our ship sunk. That playful, hateful little imp, he doomed the whole crew and done it with a wicked fishy grin on his face. So I tells you little sprats right now, pray you never encounter him. When you wake, ha, have a good night, you all.
Well there, it's always fun to be doing. I like this, I like this format where it's kind of like a story about, I think. I'm a mythologist, amateur. Like, Cambelian mythology, the monomyth, and like different lore and cultures and legends and mythologies from across the world fascinating me.
And their influence on our modern suspicions and practices and traditions. And these little trickster gods are super fun. There's a couple in like African mythologies that I really enjoy. There's a lot in First Peoples mythologies.
And they're just these interesting little neutral characters that aren't like malevolent, but they're just brats. And they're so fun to hear about. And this format, like Anthony Reynolds has written, where it's kind of this old, I imagine, like tavern setting where some old guy's putting, finishing up his last point of beer before he heads out for the night. He's an old man, you know.
Doesn't look all that normal. He has the story for the little kids in there and they go out. Like, it's my jam. I love that so much.
Anyway, thanks again for listening for everybody that's jumped in on that. Again, thank you so much. It's kind of neat to see how you guys are sharing this with all your friends. If you do like it, drop a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any of those other ones.
It really helps. And then share, I mean, best way, share this with your friends if they think they like it, even if they just like storytelling and maybe not in the League of Legends because it's been kind of fun. Anyway, thanks you all and I'll catch you on the flip side.