#( not rakan ; not important ; promo )

[thegleamingquill]

thegleamingquill’s first anniversary memory post!

Here’s a list of some of my favorite things from my first year! The good, the sad, and the crack. I deleted all my original original posts so my first posts appear from like May

The good!

My first promo post!

That time killingpizzaz’s mun made rakan x jhin art

The blog’s first Harrowing!

Ships and other fun interactions!

Yun being Rakan’s...pet?

Lux giving Rakan chocolate

Rakan wishing Thresh a happy birthday

Rakan sending lonely texts to Rhaast

Rakan teasing Irelia as always

That time Tianna arrested Rakan

The crack!

Rakan’s daddy kink being exposed

Everyone telling Rakan to shut up in the morning x x

Lux and Rakan having poor coping mechanisms

Me showing my ass as soon as Sett was released

Smash or Pass, Lux edition

Rakan’s darkin fetish

The important!

The final drabble I made for killingpizzaz’s Jhin

[masteredshadows]

Hi! It’s me. Your local Zed-obsessed tumblr user here to do a whole lotta speculation from a whole lotta nothing. This is all very disconnected and kinda a bunch of thoughts written down as they come to me. It’s way too long, as is tradition for me. Enjoy.

(If you read anything please read the large bold bit at the end + the misc questions.)

I’m thinking that Zed’s ult change in the assassin update is now reflected in lore. 

“PASSIVE - REAPER OF SHADOWS: Scoring a takedown with/while Death Mark is active permanently grants Zed non-stacking bonus attack damage (he always keeps the highest value between his current bonus and his latest takedown).”

My tentative thoughts right now are that Zed is attacking these... Magical strongholds...? Because he permanently retains the power he collects. Like, the video and the new stories both allude to the idea of soul-collecting. I think that, like his in-game ult passive, Zed retains the power that he collects from that.

OP fucker.

No, because, like, he was enacting something there. With the rune. It looked like it was absorbing power. 

I’ll think about that later.

New thought: “The first guard wears a shiny golden amulet on his chest. I snatch it from him.”

???

????????

???????????????????

Speaking of distractions, in the comments of the Reddit post for Xayah and Rakan’s stories, it was essentially confirmed that ADHD was definitely kept in mind when writing Rakan.

That makes me happy.

Very happy.

NEW THOUGHT.

Golden amulet. 

How do Zed’s disciples get their powers? Like, before, I was personally running on the assumption that it was something that anyone could technically access if need be. It seems odd that an Order of Zed’s size (which, to be fair, all of this has no in-lore basis at all) would... Be as successful as it is if some sort of magical process resulted in powers.

That’s worded poorly. 

Wait I’ll go back to this later I had an outline written to this that I’m deviating from.

The disciples have standardised outfits confirmed. They’re different from what’s seen in Zed’s teaser image, thus suggesting that, unlike in game, he can summon multiple shadows whenever.

Nice. Love me some OP assassins.

That said, in the video, he only ever has a clone during his ult. There also didn’t seem to be much need for duplicate attacks, though?

Either way I don’t personally write him using duplicates much, so.

In the disciples’ outfits, though, there wasn’t much armour that I could tell.

Rewatching the video.

So that’s a disciple. Looks like metal on the arms and underneath the cloth -- metal mask; mentioned in Rakan’s lore (I have yet to re-read Xayah’s today), but otherwise, a mostly cloth outfit. They’re also all the same.

ALSO. All of the disciples also have the glowing eye thing. So definitely something related to the shadows. It might be something only activated when using those abilities, it might be a group thing, but it does suggest that the shadows leave a physical effect on the individual using them.

Which sounds minor but it’s a big thing for my headcanons, at least. 

It suggests that joining Zed is a very permanent thing. I mean, I doubt Zed would let anyone leave alive, but still.

Nobody in the videos has any golden trinkets. Might be something else, something more important.

That said, everyone in the video uses the same katar-esque Assassin’s creed style weapons as Zed, though not nearly as impressive, whereas in the story, there were a variety of weapons.

Also, this isn’t an explanation for Rakan’s lines towards Zed. I mean, maybe it is. Xayah looks hurt at the end of the cinematic, though it’s difficult to tell, but in her background -- not colour story -- Zed attacks the Vastaya before she meets Rakan.

That suggests it actually happens a while ago, too. Rakan and Xayah are evidently deeply, deeply in love, and they live a while. Jhin’s colour story suggested Zed attacked Shen’s dad five years ago. There’s some weird timeline stuff happening here. 

Granted, Riot’s never claimed all the stories are happening at the same time in lore. Still. Zed may have attacked Xayah’s group while still in exile.

Uh. I strayed off of my outline again.

Have I mentioned this is long?

I’m sorry but also I love Zed so like...

He’s also definitely WAY stronger than his disciples. Not a surprise. Difficult to keep in power if all those you lead are at your level, or perceived to be so.

Might reflect something to do with how people use the shadows, though. Zed has the box. The disciples don’t. Or do?

@Riot pls. Let me remain vaguely canon. Give me more information.

The rune. The thing in the animation. The giant floating rune. It looked similar to those in Zed’s backing animation. 

I dunno. I think that the runes have something to do with his abilities.

I also think the shadows are magic. I mean. That’s not surprising. But like... 

I don’t think Zed is inherently magic, but I do believe that he’s looking to harness it for his own personal gain. This might contribute to Ionia’s implied dislike of it. (See: The references to totems.)

The place shown at the end of the animation was intensely beautiful and looked magical. 

The rune collecting. He collects AD in game, but it could be just that he collects power.

Wait I think Xayah’s lore has something on this.

...

“An ancient vastayan temple had been tainted by unnatural shadow magic, disrupting its connection to the spirit realm. Xayah destroyed the temple in order to dispel the corruption. Almost instantly, magic flowed back into the surrounding lands.”

Shadow magic.

Yeah.

Riot always does an AMA after champion releases. I imagine we’ll learn more then.

I don’t think this is the end. I don’t know if we’ll get more on this thread any time soon, but they’re building a lot of threads about Zed.

Also, they said they’d have updated lore for him last summer. It’s April. @Riot where.

OH ALSO.

The animation starts with Zed sitting there, quiet, surrounded in the red glow of whatever that was above him. I think that was something similar to his backing animation, again. He’s channeling some sort of a spell, I think. Or meditating like an asshole.

Dude I’m definitely making a promo image out of that screencap and changing my icon LOOK HOW BADASS THAT IS.

--Or maybe communicating with something...?

I still have a lot more to go I’m sorry but also not enough to stop writing.

He’s also blatantly stronger than he is in game. No real surprise. Most champions are. 

But like -- He was sitting in the middle of the thing, then he hears Xayah, then he’s flat out gone no sound at all.

He was also doing flips and shit mid-air, and jumping impossibly high off the ground.

That’s my boy.

Nah but I’ve always said that the shadows make him physically stronger too so.

And he -- The one time we see a shadow, it doesn’t appear to be a clone, it appears to be Zed just noping out for a second. Around 1:30 in the video.

Scrub Zed can’t 1v2 squishies report this bronze noob.

I’m lowkey disappointed the disciple design is so plain.

OH DISCIPLES.

Zed doesn’t seem to care about sacrificing them. That’s pretty callous. Either that, or he didn’t expect Rakan and Xayah to come, but like -- He was just chilling in the centre of that room until he heard Xayah. He would have been able to hear the fighting outside, so...

HE’S STILL A VILLAIN THANK GOD. Kill them vastaya. KILL THEM.

No but seriously Riot was pushing him WAY into moral ambiguity which ok sure but I felt like they flat out couldn’t have any villains which is...

I dunno look at his design. Make him human, yeah, but keep him a villain.

Looks like they are.

Praise our Rito lords for backtracking a little bit.

Watch them make me eat my words.

I don’t think the rifles were actual rifles.

Talking about the stories now. 

They were referred to as rifles in dialogue, but the way that they were described.. If Rakan likened them to a crossbow, it seems odd for them to flat out be real rifles.

I could be wrong, but it’s just a suspicion I have from the way they were described.

Order of the Shadows is definitely huge. Rakan claimed to have 20-30 chasing him, and about that number died / were knocked out in the animation. I doubt Zed takes all of his disciples everywhere, but he’s definitely a presence to be feared within Ionia.

He also has a really aggressive fighting style. Also not surprising, but Xayah was on the defensive quite literally the whole time. Zed was constantly jumping towards them, attacking, attacking, attacking. He wasn’t on the defensive. When he had to dodge, he immediately repositioned himself to attack again. This might be as a result of prior history with Xayah. Not sure. Still, it’s cool.

I’m pretty happy.

“Together, they fight to release Ionia’s abundant flow of magic so that the vastaya might thrive once again.”

I wonder if maybe what Zed does stifles the magic?

Maybe instead of collecting it he’s ... Stopping it. Or-- stopping the flow for them so it supports him.

I’m not sure. I’m weirdly hesitant to speculate because this feels like something Riot will explain.

“...and our esteemed consul isn’t going to escape a dungeon guarded by a horde of shadow acolytes on his own.”

Is Zed trying to capture Vastaya? 

Like, I’m genuinely getting the vibe that he wants their power. Xayah had to destroy the temple, which makes it sound like Zed was limiting the flow there. It’d fit with his mentality of do not deny me, punish restarint, so on and so forth.

Back to the rifle thing, in Xayah’s colour story: “They carry double-firing crossbows...” So-- I think that might be the rifles.

But then it’s immediately followed by a reference to them.

Maybe I’m just reluctant to see technology idk.

““Your soul will serve me forever,” he grunts. I can feel the shadow magic bound up in his blade, the essence of every life it has taken.”

See that in itself doesn’t-- Imply that it’s Zed alone.

So-- Maybe ult passive applies to everyone.

WAIT what if shadow duplicates are the souls of past kills.

That would be cool. That would be fuckin’ cool.

Shadows being the spirits of people in general. Shadow magic being the power collected from an individual’s death.

That’s why it’s forbidden. That’s why it’s considered so, so extraordinarily bad. It’s disgracing the dead, it’s taking the power of someone who should be allowed to rest peacefully and twisting it to serve one’s own will.

More on the rifles: “He makes it ten paces before the first arrow strikes him, but he doesn’t stop.”

??? I dunno man.

I wonder if the friend in the Kinkou is Kennen, yordle xenophobia be damned. It’d be a cool way to make him relevant again. 

I think the Puboe Prison stuff happened at a different point in the timeline than the Jhin stuff. Not sure.

Misc questions:

Seriously. Are the shadows a technique? Are they a demon(s)? What’s up with that? Is it harnessing dead spirits? Is it magic? Is it something anyone can do? Was the amulet power? Does the Order of Shadow get stronger the more death they cause?

How do the disciples get access to the shadows? How does the box tie into all this? What’s the difference between Zed and the disciples? Are the disciples capable of doing this-- Doing the clones thing? It didn’t look like it in the animation. Is it just that the weapons they use are imbued with shadow magic, and they’re otherwise normal warriors?

How much power does the Order of Shadow have in Ionia? How much power does it have in general?

What the hell was that giant rune. 

The shadows in general. How strong are they? What the hell is the whoel -- corrupting forest thing? Compare the shot at the beginning of the animation to the end of it. What the hell was all that?

how in the ever loving fuck did fucking gangplank ranksack a temple run by that fucker what the FUCK

TL;DR 2,070 words of RIOT I WANT MORE.