I lied. There is a part two. LeBlanc better watch out, there's a new deceiver in town.
Walking through the halls of her palace, Lissandra, the Ice Witch, smiled to herself. All of her plans were finally falling into place, and all it took were a few little pushes from her to move the whole scene along.
Lissandra had not limited herself to just the corruption of Freljord, but had tried to spread her influence to other parts of Runeterra as well. As she slowly began to corrupt the noble Frostguard tribe, she had sent her... special servants out into the world to acquire for her an army. From land, sea, and air they went, trying to find the perfect soldiers for their queen.
There had been some promising subjects, but no way for them, other than if she herself went, to make these subjects join her ranks. There were even several failures, but those were acceptable. After all, she still had her own army to cultivate and grow. Why worry about the failures of her servants?
There had been one, however, whom she had placed great hope into. Hakolin the Bonecrafter, he had called himself, said that he could give her an army of immortals. He spoke of jungle trolls far to the south, in a land known as the Plague Jungle, who could recover from fatal wounds and fought like demons. She was impressed by this, and so gave him what he needed: hundreds of her pawns, supplies, money, and mounts. She had invested a king's ransom and more into his success. A pity it did not go his way.
When he returned several months later, he had said that he was unable to kill them, that her army of immortals would take time. And so she waited, and sent him back to the Plague Jungle to wait for his leprous curse to kill them. Nearly a year later, when he did not return, she went looking for him. When she found him, she made him tell her what had happened, and he told her. The trolls were stronger than he could ever image and had not died from his curse, but instead grew stronger. He said that, if given another chance, he could give her the army he had promised, and more.
She refused to believe him, and infected him with a curse of her own. She bound his soul into a prison of ice, and then placed it on display in her palace. Forever, he would suffer the cold embrace of death, but never die. His own magical power would fuel the weapon she had sealed him in. As to his body, she left it in a tomb of black ice. Slowly, many centuries in fact, his body would rot from the cold of the ice. She had left his soul and body connected, so that both would feel the pain of the other. In this way, she tortured him twice; once for his failure and twice for his hiding.
As the generations passed, she watched as her Frostguard tribe grew more and more corrupt, becoming servants to her masters. She found it ironic that such proud defenders of the land were now working to destroy it. She laughed herself to sleep many nights, just thinking about it.
One particular year stood out above the rest however, and with it came the most extraordinary thing: the Institution of War.
She was surprised to see such a thing, a place dedicated to peace, yet it allowed truly good and truly evil individuals into its halls. Curious, she watched what were called League matches, and was able to pick out several faces she knew. The leaders of the Freljordian tribes were among them, and even more people of isolated lands she had never heard of. Demacia, Noxus, Piltover, Zaun, Bandle City, Bildgewater, the Kumungu Jungle, and the Plague Jungle.
What caught her attention was that troll within the league, Trundle, he was called. She watched him more than any other of the champions. He was from the Plague Jungle, a living subject of Hakoli's failure. By look of him, he bared the leprous curse, but further study told her that his tribe did not. It took some time, sending servants to research, but she eventually found out what had happened.
A plan began to form in her head. Perhaps she could turn Hakoli's failure into a success, but she would have to spin a web of deception.
She began with Hakoli. From his suffering spirit, she learned of a way to remove the curse, but it would involve a great many things. Thankfully, the Institution was already providing some of them. By fighting in an arena tainted with magic, as well as being the victim of magic, they were unknowingly tending to his disease, but it was not enough. They were only scratching the surface.
Her second step was to remove him from the place of his curse. Unknowingly to him, he was not containing the curse for his people, but absorbing it. Hakoli's magic had tainted the area of the village, and so by staying there, within the tribe, he was absorbing the curse. He had intended to be the cure for his people when in reality he was only the magnet for the curse. Once away from it, the disease would fade away, either dissipating or infecting the tribe once more. Whichever happened, she did not care.
To accomplish this step, she took the form of a troll sage. With this guise, she had informed his people of his betrayal, that he had knowingly taken their regenerative ability from them to make himself stronger. When she pointed out how he could manipulate the disease to the land, they believed her. As she talked to them, she could see that they were growing angrier with their champion. Soon, he would be her champion.
The third part was the journey to Freljord. She had wanted to simply take him there, but she could not for fear of ruining her own plan for him. Instead, she turned to a reason for him to come long before she spoke to his people: disrupt the trolls of Freljord. With the savage creatures fighting one another and the human tribes, it was only a matter of time before King Tryndamere and Queen Ashe began to wipe them out. With this underway, he would have a reason to come to the land of ice, and right into her palm.
There had been one thing she feared, and that was the jungle woman Nidalee. She could tell that the troll held a great respect for the woman, and she feared that he would stay with her now that he was without a tribe. And so, she was forced to stay with him, from the distance and in the shadows, until he was away from the woman.
The rest of the journey she cared little for. He would make it to Freljord with his own strength or she would know that he was a failure. To her greatest pleasure, he made it. All that was left to do was show him to one of the tribes. The hard part was picking the right one. Most would have killed him for setting foot into their home, but not the Fenrir tribe.
With a delicate touch, she led him to the tribe, and then watched over him as he lived there. She was forced to take the forms of both him and the chieftain, Rocko, to provoke him into challenging the old troll. Luckily for her, he did. She did not know how he had managed to avoid death after the battle, but he did, and he had found his way to her palace.
At long last, after years of careful planning, delicate manipulations, and fragile lies, she came face to face with Trundle. As Hakoli had said, his curse was barely there when he entered. It was time to completely undo it.
She still wanted to test her champion, and so she put in his way traps and guards he would have to solve and defeat. When he came to the weapon that held the necromancer's soul, she could feel herself beginning to sweat as she watched him. The magic of the necromancer called out to the troll's disease, drawing him to it. Finally, he touched it! She felt her cold heart stop for a second.
Silently, from her place in the shadows of the room, she watched him as the curse left his body. What she hadn't expected was the necromancer dying. She had seen his spirit break within the ice, turning it from black to blue. When it looked like he had recovered, she made her appearance and presence known.
Again, Lissandra smiled to herself. Everything was going according to plan. She had an army of humans, and now she had the makings of an army of trolls. Hakoli had earned his death, her mercy, for finally fulfilling his promise. While they were not the immortal army of undead trolls he had promised, they would be her ruthless and brutal vanguard and enforcers.
The new age of ice was coming. The time of the Watchers was returning. Everything was going according to plan.