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The Guardian Emerges: the Epic ‘Anubis’ Baptiste!

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Mar 06, 2018

The Horus King has called the Sun God for help, but to escape the Lost Temple, they must face the Guardian: ‘Anubis’ Baptiste! 


MODEL & EFFECTS CHANGES

            • Bladed ankh staff with snake details
            • Canine skull & spine headdress with gold details
            • Ankh earrings
            • Metal claws
            • Gold arm cuffs
            • Linen shendyt skirt with gold belt
            • Canine leg bone armor
            • Fearsome mummy shades with green & purple glowing ankh headpins crawl through scarab-infested sand
            • Throws canopic jars filled with skittering scarabs for ‘Bad Mojo’ ability


          ALTERNATE FATE LORE

          Read Part I: The Lost Temple of Ra
          Read Part II: The Sun God Awakens

          PERMISSION TO PASS

          The sealed tombs opened in glowing clouds of ancient, choking sand, skittering with scarabs. The Horus King and the Sun God raced through the mastaba toward the thin light of the temple’s entrance as the growls grew ever louder behind them. The temple door blazed into view, then darkened with the shape of the Guardian. A terrifying laugh echoed around them.

          “You have entered the obelisk of the Temple of Ra,” called a mocking voice. “Now you must find your rest.”

          The shape of the Guardian, Anubis, emerged. His mouth stretched into a smile under his wolf’s skull headdress.

          “I am Ra himself,” said the Sun God. “I give permission for the Horus King to pass.”

          “Permission is not yours to give,” hissed Anubis. “The king’s ancestors await.”

          A growling horde of the mummified remains of the king’s fathers and grandfathers had overtaken them, pulling themselves along the floor with their glowing death-claws. The king sliced through them with his spear but more and more came. Anubis approached as the Sun God burned the mummies with arcane fire.

          The king whirled, but before his spear could strike Anubis, the guardian’s claws dug into the king’s chest and wrapped around his heart. The king’s blood poured down as Anubis murmured, “Are you worthy of the Netherworld, Horus King? I will take the measure of your heart.”

          The Horus King’s eyes rolled up into his head. As he sighed his last, he heard the melodic Verse of Ra’s Judgement guiding him into a blinding light.

          And then, silence.

          The king blinked awake. He laid in the warm sand outside of the temple. His body glowed with otherworldly fire. His people knelt before the radiant Sun God, whose palm laid over the king’s heart.

          “I have healed you,” said the Sun God, “but you will carry Death inside of you for the rest of your life.”

          “The guardian…” coughed the king. “Anubis…”

          “He was tested by my judgement, and he failed. Now: take me to the Glass City.” The Sun God lifted the king onto his camel. “Together we will fight the Churn.”

          The caravan moved on as the eerie laughter of Anubis was again swallowed by colorful dunes.


          Read Baptiste’s canon lore:

          The Complete Collection


          WALLPAPERS

Tony’s Rise: The Beginning

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Feb 24, 2018

It’s been months since your power punchers slammed through the last of the rock to Mont Lille’s hollow center, and yellow TOP SECRET tape still criss-crosses the opening. You poke your head into the dank-smelling darkness.

“No, Tony.” The head engineer grips the back of your neck.

“C’mon, Pippa. I wanna see what’s in there,” you whine.

“Don’t get too big for your cargo shorts. Entrust this part of the operation to the smart dwarves. Besides,” she says, poking at your chest with rolled-up blueprints, “we need a demolition dwarf up on the Rise, tunneling down.”

Sweet!” Most dwarves are scared to go up that high, but you’re adventurous. You hustle up to the surface, Pippa’s blueprints under your arm, and head straight for the the long, winding mountain trail leading to Sovereign’s Rise.

The hike takes all day, so you take a rest at the Sanctuary. Over the edge, you can see the Storm Queen’s palace and capital city. You hock up a loogie, spit it out, and watch it fall.

Well, time to get to work. There are three paths stretching away from the Sanctuary.

If you go left, tap here.
If you go right, tap here.
If you go straight, tap here.

Create a Vainglory Alternate Fate!

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Feb 22, 2018

 

The Storm Queen collected dragons to protect her people from the Churn. What will become of her empire when heroes come to take her dragons?

HOW TO ENTER

Unleash your imagination! Draw a 1 to 5-page comic story about the Storm Queen.

Submit your Vainglory Alternate Fates Lore Comic to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for a chance to win 2500 ESSENCE & BLUEPRINTS FOR TWO UPCOMING SKINS! 

Alternatively, channel your muse! You may instead write a max-300 word story about the Storm Queen. Submit your Vainglory Alternate Fates Lore Short Story to your social media platform of choice for a chance to win. (We’ll be looking out, but it’s suggested you tweet @vainglory with a link to your short story to ensure we don’t miss your entry.)

Submission Dates:
  • February 22 to February 26, 2018

Your masterpiece can be manual or digital, but it must be your original work.

OFFICIAL RULES

FACEBOOK

    • You must like Vainglory’s official Facebook page.
    • Include your comic in your post.
    • INCLUDE YOUR IN-GAME NAME.
    • Enter as many times as you like!

TWITTER & INSTAGRAM

    • You must follow Vainglory’s official Twitter or Instagram account.
    • Tweet or post your original Vainglory comic.
    • Tag it: #VaingloryArt.
    • Mention @Vainglory (but do not begin your tweet with the @ sign).
    • INCLUDE YOUR IN-GAME NAME.
    • Enter as many times as you like!
    • Make sure your account is not set to private.

PRIZES

Up to five submissions across all platforms will win 2500 ESSENCE & BLUEPRINTS FOR TWO UPCOMING SKINS! 


For more contests and exciting events, check out the community tab in the Vainglory app!

Vainglory Lore: Tony

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Feb 27, 2018

Part One

‘Tony’s Rise: The Beginning’

 

It’s been months since your power punchers slammed through the last of the rock to Mont Lille’s hollow center, and yellow TOP SECRET tape still criss-crosses the opening. You poke your head into the dank-smelling darkness.

“No, Tony.” The head engineer grips the back of your neck.

“C’mon, Pippa. I wanna see what’s in there,” you whine.

“Don’t get too big for your cargo shorts. Entrust this part of the operation to the smart dwarves. Besides,” she says, poking at your chest with rolled-up blueprints, “we need a demolition dwarf up on the Rise, tunneling down.”

Sweet!” Most dwarves are scared to go up that high, but you’re adventurous. You hustle up to the surface, Pippa’s blueprints under your arm, and head straight for the the long, winding mountain trail leading to Sovereign’s Rise.

The hike takes all day, so you take a rest at the Sanctuary. Over the edge, you can see the Storm Queen’s palace and capital city. You hock up a loogie, spit it out, and watch it fall.

Well, time to get to work. There are three paths stretching away from the Sanctuary.

If you go left, tap here.
If you go right, tap here.
If you go straight, tap here.


Check out the skin inspired by one of these stories!

‘Steam Knight’ Tony

Brand new Special Edition ‘Red Lantern’ Gwen & Reza!

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Feb 15, 2018

 

‘Red Lantern’ Reza & Gwen guard the doors to the Netherworld in their alternate fate lore. Participate in the 2018 Red Lantern Event to determine the outcome of the story! 


MODEL & EFFECTS CHANGES

‘Red Lantern’ Gwen

    • Conical hat with steel point & openings for bunny ears
    • Red silk-wrapped ponytail tipped with a red lantern
    • Red cheongsam dress with flower detail and heart cutout
    • Pink cowgirl boots with gold dragon detail
    • Light pink socks with red silk ribbon
    • New year dragon revolver
    • Firework-firing crossbow
    • Lucky red envelope for Aces High ability

  • ‘Red Lantern’ Reza
  • Deep blue & gold Chinese jacket and tie with red sash and waves & dragon detail
  • Ultra modern red watch & thick-rimmed glasses
  • Blue horns
  • Red lanterns on chains


  • ALTERNATE FATE LORE

    THE DOOR GUARDIANS

    On the night of his death, the thief found himself on the street where he’d always lived, but it was gray and empty except for a nightclub he’d never seen before.

    The club had two doors, one red and one blue. Outside of the doors stood two menshen security guards: a hybrid rabbit-woman in a red silk dress twirling a dragon-head revolver around her trigger finger; and a dapper man with ice-blue horns and a blue silk suit swinging chains by his sides. Red lanterns cast a warm glow in the eerie death-gray.

    “Look, a thief,” said the man. “A perfect recruit for the Infernal Dragons.”

    “Don’t be hasty,” said the woman. “Let’s take a look.”

    The thief watched, astonished, as a scene played out on the street before him: the ghostly figure of himself as a young boy, stealing a dumpling out of a cart when no one was looking, then handing it to a hungry beggar girl. “Some people misbehave for darn good reasons. He’s Lucky Aces material.”

    “That was just the first thing he stole,” said the man, and his chains swung through the scene, breaking it into mist. Ghostly figures formed again, but this time it was the thief as an adult, taking the pearl necklace from a lady’s throat while distracting her with a dance. The horned man laughed. “He belongs to the Dragons.”

    Let’s see how he died,” said the woman, “then we’ll decide.”

    The burglar watched in horror as the night of his death played out before him in the mist. He saw himself scale the wall of the wealthy man’s home, slip the cursed Jade Goose into his jacket and race away…

    Away from the city the thief fled, into the cold forest night. He hiked until dawn, the ice-cold Jade Goose against his chest, until he came upon the Jade Goose Temple.

    An ancient monk met him at the paifang gate. His old eyes widened with surprised tears when the thief handed over the Jade Goose.

    “Oh no! You have taken the thief-curse,” said the monk. “Now you will die!”

    “I am happy to pay for my wrongdoings,” said the thief, smiling his last before crumpling to the snowy ground. The scene in the mist disappeared.

    “How boring,” said the Infernal Dragons’ security guard.

    “Right this way, dear,” said the Lucky Aces’ guard, opening the red door into the nightclub.


    Check out more Red Lantern Festival stories:

    The Red Lantern Festival
    Flicker’s Best Red Lantern Festival Dumpling Recipes
    The First Red Lantern Festival

    Read Gwen’s canon lore:

    The Complete Collection

    Read Reza’s canon lore:

    The Complete Collection


    WALLPAPERS

    ‘RED LANTERN’ REZA

    ‘RED LANTERN’ GWEN

Legendary ‘Vox on Ice’ Leaps into Vainglory!

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Feb 09, 2018

Vox jumps, spins and leaps into Vainglory with an outrageous new ice skating performance! Read on to discover more about this legendary new skin. 


MODEL CHANGES

    • Long ice troll fur coat
  • Deep blue figure skating costume with protruding ice shards!
  • Ice-carved headphones

ANIMATION & EFFECTS CHANGES

  • Frost flies from new icy effects!
  • All new skating run and sprint with several variations
  • Skid stops, poses, dances, jumps, spins and leaps!
  • Trip & fall death

 


ALTERNATE FATE LORE

THE WORLD’S MOST ELUSIVE CHAMPION

by Sugar Venom, Sports Analyst
Evil Sports Broadcasting Organization

“You gonna eat that?”

Ten minutes before he skated his way to a first-place medal in the Worldwide Winter Championships in Trostan, the most elusive figure skater in the world plopped down in the chair opposite me, shrugged off his floor-length ice troll fur coat and grabbed up my sandwich before I could say a word.

That’s how I met Vox, a kid who erupted on the scene this year out of Taizen Gate, a hot island known more for its tech than its skating rinks. No one knew who he was when he first arrived on the scene, winning the invitationals in New Aullerium and then placing first in the ultra-competitive Seven Islands Regional Championship, wearing his trademark headphones.

For the world championships, his headphones were carved from ice, as were the shards protruding from his chest and deep blue costume. His fur coat, a nod to the local fauna, caused an uproar among troll rights activists. But Vox was no stranger to uproars. He stunned the world when, at the beginning of his first show, he shot a magic sonar energy from his hands that blasted apart the rink’s speakers.

“I’m not into the same old boring skating music,” he told me with his mouth full of my sandwich. “At my shows, the music comes from inside the audience. Their hearts beat together, their minds make the melody, and we’re all a part of the show.”

His raw athletic talent matched the musical phenomenon. Vox smashed records, landing strings of impossible jumps and leaps with solid technique. During this time of uneasy peace between the two empires, even the Storm Queen of the Eventides sent delegates to take a look. After winning the world championships, Vox astounded the world again by refusing to perform a private show for the queen herself. Only I was unsurprised.

“I don’t care about queens and stuff,” he told me when I asked if he was nervous to perform in front of some of the world’s most important people. “My dad’s a Gythian mechanic. My mom was… she was from the Eventides, I guess, but I’m a Taizen kid. In Taizen Gate, everything’s a party, and I’m always the one throwing the party.”

In all my years of sports reporting, I’d never seen an athlete so at ease before a performance. “But so much is on the line,” I said. “Don’t you care what happens?”

“I care desperately,” he said, and took a gulp of my hot chocolate. “This is just how I live my life. I grip it and rip it. I give everything my best shot.”

Vox disappeared in a shroud of mystery from the world stage after winning it all. Rumors abound, but even the most exhaustive search turns up only the occasional low-budget Taizen gathering, where a mysterious boy is said to throw raves using no speakers, microphones, or tech of any kind except his ever-present headphones.

The world of figure skating, everyone agrees, is a snooze without him. Vox, if you’re out there, we’re all eagerly awaiting your return to the rink.


Read Vox’s canon lore:

The Complete Collection


WALLPAPERS

Coming soon: the Rare ‘Kyūdō’ Kestrel!

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Jan 25, 2018


 

A young Stormguard trainee is sent to the Seven Islands for exclusive training and earns her lifelong nickname. Read on to learn more about ‘Kyūdō’ Kestrel!


 

MODEL CHANGES

  • Ornate yumi bow with rayskin same-kawa wrapped grip and blades that snap open when the string is pulled!
  • Flowered blue kimono top with red sun design on the back
  • Golden hakama with white leaf design
  • Deerhide tomo armguard
  • Long pink tabi socks with geta sandals
  • Deerhide quiver tied into burgundy obi sash
  • Pink camellia in her hair


ALTERNATE FATE LORE

Becoming the Kestrel

“Focus: tip of nose. Do not cross eyes. Settle energy down inside belly. No blinking.”

The porcupine archery master of Les Sept-Îles accepted one apprentice a year, for a hefty fee, from the Storm Queen’s best young students. His severe eyes were beady and dark, his nose large and round. Glorious silver quills burst out from his forehead and back, but his chest, belly and limbs were human. He sat, in his black hakama trousers and sash, on the forest floor, watching the girl who, at fifteen years old, had already affected a permanent scowl.

A raven, one hundred paces away, also watched. He always watched.

The girl gripped the bow with her left hand and set her gaze. Her breathing settled. The master circled behind.

“Embrace large tree.”

Her elbows expanded, her fingers curled around the grip just so, the root of her thumb and little finger touching.

“Fine. Raise the bow.”

The bow scooped up, the girl’s fists rising above her forehead.

“No energy in chest and shoulders.”

She pushed her left arm forward, her right elbow back in tandem… and paused. Her arms shook. She locked her jaw, held her breath and strained, but the string would pull no further. She eased the string back and let out a frustrated breath.
“The draw’s too heavy,” she complained.

“Always the draw too heavy, the wind too fast, the rabbit too unpredictable.” The master stood, plucking errant camellia petals from his quills.

“I draw my bow one hundred times every morning and one hundred times every night, as you instructed. Something is wrong with this bow.”

The master took the bow from her. “I re-strung it. Heavier draw.” He plucked a long, stiff quill from his back, fanned out his feet, breathed, drew the bow, and shot the quill through a falling camellia flower fifty paces away.

“You wanted me to fail,” said the girl, her eyes filling with frustrated tears.

The porcupine man laughed with a nasal wheeze. “You pull with chest and arms, you succeed with a lighter draw. You breathe wrong, get lazy. Blink. Fine for hitting target. Fine for big beast drinking at a stream, maybe.” He flicked her ear, bruised and swollen from string snaps, and she gasped. “You are queen’s soldier. Instrument of war. Your targets are small and quick and strike back. You must be a war bird. A kestrel.”

“I don’t want to be a kestrel,” she whispered. “I want to stay here and become a master like you. Please…” She knuckled her eyes. “Don’t make me go back to the queen.”

The master’s tiny mouth twitched. He kicked at the insides of her feet, sliding them back into position. “You are the kestrel already. The arrow exists now in the target.” He handed the bow back to her. “Again. Power in belly, in legs, in feet, in center. Not in weak arms and chest. Power from the ground is strong enough for a heavier draw.”

Her gaze extended from her nose to the grass, to the sky, to the pagoda sinking into the distant morning fog. Her belly growled. Here, somewhere, was prey fit for a war bird.

The air lifted, held her as she hovered, weightless. The whispering cool wind fluttered her feathers. Her keen eyes scanned the ground and trees and, one hundred paces away, found it: the raven.

Her elbows expanded; her fingers curled around the grip just so, the root of her thumb and little finger touching. Her energy dropped with her breath, sank into her belly, so hungry, then into her legs, her feet, the ground. The raven felt her gaze and laughed at her.

The bow scooped up, fists above her forehead. Her left wing pushed forward, her right wing expanded back in tandem. Her chest ballooned with air. The string pulled back, far back, way back, behind her ear.

The arrow sailed away. The bow spun in her grip, the string against her wing. The raven fell.

“Fine,” said the master, settling into the grass. “Again.”


Read Kestrel’s canon lore:

The Complete Collection


WALLPAPERS

Tony’s Rise: Back and a Little to the Left

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Feb 24, 2018

ALTERNATE FATE LORE


No better direction than forward, so you take the middle path. Birds tweet, clouds lazily by, flowers open, a Grumpjaw gnaws on a femur…

A Grumpjaw?

You yelp, stupidly alerting the monster to yourself. He turns your way, his tusks swinging high.

“BREAKFAST,” roars the Grumpjaw.

You flank and run. The Grumpjaw takes off after you. Its every step shakes the ground. You splash into a fast-flowing stream, allowing the current to push you faster, the blueprints slipping away.

You don’t notice the waterfall until you’ve already run off its edge.

The whole of Mont Lille stretches out under you. You fall fast, flapping your arms in the frothy falling water.

Right behind you, in the middle of a blinding, spinning light, the Grumpjaw also falls, gaining on you!

Your life passes before your eyes as death both rises and falls to meet you.

You feel the Grumpjaw’s hot, icky breath just before everything goes dark. There’s a revolting squeeze when he swallows you whole, then…

…stillness.

You hear a voice from the other side of the Grumpjaw. Ahh eye. Off ih uh. Faint from lack of oxygen, you push at the gooey, tough-meat insides of the monster.

NOW!

The walls cave in and you are launched, feet first, dripping with digestive juices, onto the grass next to the top of the waterfall.

You gag, wipe gunk from your eyes, and scramble to your feet. “Am I… dead?”

“Not dead! Not vaporized! Not even squished!”

Next to the hungry Grumpjaw stands a dwarf holding a steel box.

“How… how did you…” you gasp.

“With mathematics, kid. Time travel is all mathematics. If I hadn’t known the precise coordinates of the planet’s course through space, and thrown The Cube after you, I would have lost a perfectly good Grumpjaw.”

“I traveled back in time?”

“Back, and a little to the left. Come now; we have things to do. You haven’t seen a malfunctioning robot about, have you? Never mind; so much to engineer, so much time!”

“But the engineers never let me help them. I just do demolitions.”

“Forget those clods. When I’m done with you, you’ll be the second-best engineer on the continent.”

“Me? An engineer?” You drop your punchers and your jaw, elated.

“BREAKFAST,” repeats Grumpjaw.

“Off we go then.”

“Off we go!” you cry, running to catch up.

THE END

To go back to the beginning, tap here.

Tony’s Rise: The Escape

  • Vainglory
  • |

ALTERNATE FATE LORE


You’re celebrating with your team, your pockets stuffed full of crystal shards, your financial troubles behind you. Blackclaw naps with his tail wrapped around the destroyed Vain Crystal, his snores poofing out black smoky puffs. You’re smoothing back your hair with your palms, getting ready to ask this Koshka girl out for coffee, when Blackclaw’s belly blasts open. Guts fly everywhere.

“Poor thing,” says the cowgirl.

“Ew,” says the mech driver.

“Bad gas?” asks the Grangor.

“Noooooo!” wails Koshka.

Out of the belly of the dragon steps the huge masked guy, dripping in oozing goo. He sets down his huge gun and wipes his face.

“What? Were you all just gonna leave me in there?”

THE END

To go back to the beginning, tap here.

Tony’s Rise: Sky Captain

  • Vainglory
  • |

ALTERNATE FATE LORE


“Alright, listen up!” The goblins aboard the airship are so distracted with arguing and picking one another’s noses that you must bop the nearest one on the head so that the others will listen. “I’m the captain of this ship now, and you are my faithful mates.”

“Aye aye, Cap’n!” scream the goblins.

“There will be gold!”

“Yay!” the goblins yell.

“There will be adventure!”

“Yay!”

There will be bloody battles!”

“Yay!”

“Off we go!”

“Where!”

You gulp, having not considered that part yet. “S… South!” you stutter.

“Yay!” cries the crew, scrambling to their positions.

The ship shoots straight up, sending your stomach up into your throat, then lurches around the sharp mountain crags, birds escaping the engines by the smallest of margins. Off to the south you go, one foot up on the prow, where you will seek treasure and discover adventure and fail in the Battle of the Sky Captains, which of course you know all about.

THE END

To go back to the beginning, tap here.
To go back to your last choice and try again, tap here.