Chapter 208 - Twisted Fate - The Card Master

Twisted Fate is an infamous card sharp and swindler who has gambled and charmed his way across much of the known world, earning the enmity and admiration of the rich and foolish alike. He rarely takes things seriously, greeting each day with a mocking smile and an insouciant swagger. In every possible way, Twisted Fate always has an ace up his sleeve.

Born to the nomadic river-folk of the Serpentine, the boy was taught the magic of the cards at an early age and soon learned what it was to be hated. Tolerated for the exotic goods they peddled, but shunned for their strange ways, the boy's people found only short welcomes wherever they berthed their colorful river barques. His elders claimed this was the way of the world, but their refusal to fight back against this prejudice always rankled the young boy's sensibilities.

When men who'd lost their fortunes in the gambling tents of the river folk returned in the dead of night to exact vengeance, they came bearing cudgels and emboldened by cheap rotgut. They beat the river folk back to their boats with curses and blows, eventually turning their weapons upon the boy's family. The boy could take no more and fought back, driving the men away with swift blows from their own clubs.

Proud of what he had done, the boy was stunned when his people turned their back on him. Retaliation went against the code of the river, and there could be only one punishment. Exile. His whole world falling apart around him, the boy watched helplessly as the barques of his folk sailed away without him, leaving him with nothing, alone for the first time in his life.

The boy grew to manhood drifting from town to town, trawling the gambling dens of every city he came to, using his preternatural skill at cards to earn coin to survive. That he was able to relieve the boastful, the arrogant, and the cruel of their cash was just an added bonus. Though always careful to let his opponents win at least some hands, he soon learned more ways to fight when many a disgruntled opponent sought to reclaim their lost fortunes.

Across one table, he met a fellow named Malcolm Graves and, recognizing a kindred soul, joined forces with him. The two spent years cutting a ruinous swathe across Valoran. With every con, swindle, and heist, he sought ever more dangerous means to make the cards bend to his will.

That search ended badly when a heist went wrong, resulting in Graves being taken alive, though the riverman ran free. The exact circ.u.mstances of that night and its dire consequences for both men remain shrouded in mystery, for the gambler never speaks of it. Seeking to begin again, he returned his birth name to the waters and took another: Twisted Fate.

In the time since, Twisted Fate has continued to ply his games of chance in the high parlors and low dens of every city he visits, earning countless fortunes along the way – though none can say what becomes of these winnings (other than his fine clothes) or why he seems driven to amass such wealth. He has been imprisoned with great fanfare on dozens of occasions, but there is no cell in Runeterra that has been able to hold him. Twisted Fate is always gone with morning's light, leaving only a mocking calling card to speak to his being there at all.

In Bilgewater, Twisted Fate and Graves finally had their day of reckoning. After a highly destructive running battle, and narrowly avoiding death at the hands of Gangplank, the pair finally put aside their differences, and are now once again working together.

Nigh-on impossible to track, Twisted Fate has been said to vanish into thin air every time an enemy believes they have him cornered. A useful skill indeed for a man who has parted thousands of souls from their gold...

"It's not gambling if you can't lose..."