#and especially in a world like runeterra and a nation like noxus

[noxianwilled]

how does kata handle the quite serious matter of, you know, killing people? even if they (realistically or in her mind) deserved.

is there guilt? regrets? emotional detachment? mourning? and so on.

send me questions you have about my character

— @axewhirl

oh that's a good one i smooch you in the cheek

i'll start by saying it depends, but for the most part, killing doesn't weigh heavily on her at all. the thing is her perspective is very different from most people. there was never any point in her life where she had to see taking someone's life as something horrible or frowned upon. and that certainly fucks up your perspective on things like that in a way that might make other people a little horrified.

katarina's training started when she was a young child (really young, i'd say, from the moment she was capable of holding a dagger and learning to use it). before the age most kids develop the understanding that death is permanent, katarina was already being trained to be a killer. even as she grew up and understood, it's a topic that i believe would've always been framed with cold practicality by those around her, especially her father. yes, he kills people. that's his craft. that will be her craft when she's ready. they don't go about killing anyone, it's not without purpose, but it is killing all the same.

this resulted in a very detached outlook toward the topic. she's not at all sensitive to violence, having been exposed to it from a young age, and i think she might come across as lacking empathy a bit when it comes to killing. not in regards to death as a whole (she's not indifferent to innocent civilians being killed, for example, and of course the death of people close to her would leave her somewhat devastated, though there's something to be said about it even in how she processes those deaths), maybe, but definitely in regards to how easily she's capable of killing.

there is no regret nor guilt; she's doing her job as much as any soldier on the field, as much as any hunter, as much as any other profession that demands lives to be taken one way or another. it's a cold way of looking at it, maybe, but it is how she sees it, and she gets very easily annoyed by any moral preaching in that sense. why would the way she kills be any worse than trespassing someone with a sword on the battlefield? in her eyes, it isn't.

and in her eyes, the people she kills had to die, and innocence is irrelevant in that sense: her parameter is what noxus needs. take the comic as an example: katarina doesn't refuse to kill lux because she's an innocent demacian who did nothing to deserve being killed. she doesn't kill lux because, after her moment of understanding, she judges it as more beneficial to noxus to leave lux alive than to kill her. innocence and 'deserving it' have nothing to do with it. her killing isn't morality based; it's her job. she is acting on behalf of the empire, and so it's the empire and what it would profit from that matter in that judgment. she's not killing people as punishment for crimes, she's killing them because it's what's better for noxus one way or another. this can be seen when she kills that one warmason too; she thanks him for his service and gives him the death he wanted, but ultimately, he was becoming too costly for the empire, and he had to die all the same.

guilt and regret don't come into play in part as a result of that. what she's doing isn't morality based. but, of course, katarina is still a person, no matter how much marcus tried to make her into a weapon — and one that feels deeply, at that. she's not indifferent to her targets, for better or worse, but that manifests in the ways she approaches killing them (not killing them, hesitating to kill them are never options). again, with the warmason, she gives him the death he was seeking, facing a skilled opponent in combat; with the leader from the rogue warband, she kills his warband one by one before making sure he knows why he's going to die and be forgotten. the first comes from a place of compassion: this old man wanted to die serving the empire, wanted to die in battle, and he's someone she sees as deserving of that, so she accommodates his last wish. the second is using fear, then pride, to punish her mark before ultimately ending him; it's designed to be more cruel and cold.

and yet, after her targets are dead, they don't linger with her. she doesn't feel remorse, she doesn't think about them. her task is done. they are dead; there will be others, and they too will die, and they too will not cross her mind again.

well before she put her skills into action, i think she was already being desensitized to killing — with her first mark, she doesn't hesitate, it doesn't bother her, she's proud of her flawless kill, and she was like, 14 and had never really killed before. but a dead person leaves no impression on her, she's not haunted by the violence, and the fact it may be perpetrated by her own hands doesn't change that.

of course, if she had to kill someone she cares about, that would be different, because she cares about them, not because of the killing. even then, the detachment and coldness and desensitization definitely play a part in why i think she'd still be able to do it; i just think it'd be far, far worse after, and that she'd struggle greatly with what she did. it'd definitely take a heavy toll on her emotionally, in a way her usual kills simply do not. but grieving in itself is a complex thing to her — when you're so used to death, when death is your craft, when you've seen hundreds of people die and taking their lives made you feel nothing, it gets more difficult to feel anything about death as a whole.

it's not something i think she'd be hit with immediately. it'd eat away at her slowly, over time. and i think the comic also supports that in that, right after marcus' death, she's somber, but not more than that. she goes about what she has to do, she talks to swain casually enough. which isn't to say she didn't feel it (her relationship with marcus is so complicated, but i doubt she'd be indifferent to his death, especially having a role in it); rather, i think she'd just be hit by it with full force later, instead of right away. and in those more personal cases, then, yeah, there may be grief and guilt and regret, in some cases even self-loathing, sometimes overwhelming sorrow.

but yeah, generally speaking, she's far too emotionally removed from the act of killing for it to weigh heavily on her. to her it's just a task. it's not at all uncommon for katarina to, you know, kill a person and a couple hours later be doing something absolutely normal, like having tea with her brother, as if it never happened. the fact she talks about her mission with talon, even! there's absolutely no sorrow or mourning or guilt. it's just her job, to her, and ultimately she's very indifferent towards the act of killing people.

[remember-no-more]

Hey ho ho ho!! Santa most extreme here! - Throws snow dust all over the place and dances- How are you today, my little amazing friends! I had a lot of fun reading yesterday's story! Dnd can certainly be amazing like that! When i take off the hat, maybe i can tell you some of my crazy shenanigans! But for today... Let's get spicy~ Who was Mimi's first love? Who was her last?? Is she currently in love? Share the spice with this Santa!

// Hey Snowdown buddy! It’s always so nice to hear from you ♥ I do hope we’ll remain in touch after the event ends! And of course, you must tell me about your own DnD adventures when you get the chance, I’m very curious about those~

I just hope you’ll forgive me for answering walls of text to every ask you send, but you have no idea of how excited I get to receive from you quq Thanks for making this Snowdown so special!  (I’ll put a TL;DR at the end, I’m really sorry!)

Things are proceeding calmly here. Long threads are mostly on hold on the blog but I returned to have some nice quick fun with fun-fact-asks and stuff, you might have seen some on the dash cx 

About me, welp, I kinda caught a cold, whoopsie! It’s not exactly fun to cough and have all the eyes on you, but I checked things and it’s not the virus, it’s just me being an irresponsible kid when it comes to clothing. I usually avoid taking medicine when I can, but I guess it’s time to start curing it before I get closed up in a room and the key gets thrown away! (Ahahah, jk. I don’t want others to worry for nothing.)

But enough about that, let’s give a little premise before answering the questions uvu

---VERY LONG ASS STORY

Mimi has a hella long story that was revolutioned by the canon lore updates. Most of what happened before that became nonsensical, especially after Noxus turned out to actually value mages a lot and Veigar never being imprisoned. The only way to not start over with her completely and not throw to the fire years of roleplay and character building was to actually consider the lore changes like an event that happened at some point in the timeline - see it like the movie Return to the Future :o something happens at some point and the future changes radically. 

The catch is that she is actually aware that she’s missing certain puzzle pieces about her past, many memories just disappeared or feel somehow wrong but there’s no way to solve the mystery without causing another paradox/reaching a dead end and a consequent reset of her timeline. However, there’s a reason if she’s not searching for answers anymore... and all of this deals with her first and last loves. Now we get to the juicy details~

Her first love was the Master of Evil himself. After fleeing Noxus when she was little more than a child, she learnt how to survive and took years to develop her magical skills on her own, then she tracked down the mage and offered him her unconditional support. She needed a guide and she wanted him to be it: old lore Veigar inspired her to act because he evaded from the prisons of Noxus, which were a far worse deal than just running away from home, and her idea of him was all she had left to hold onto when the rest was left behind. She was ready to do anything to achieve that, and none of the ones I roleplayed with rejected a free pawn. 

What happened with the one I ended up choosing as Mimi’s canon Veigar (the-primordialbust) was developed through years of roleplay. She earned his trust, he began to teach her things, he took her under her wing and eventually opened up to her, and she couldn’t be more happy about that. He even gifted her a soulstone to enhance her power at some point, the same kind of jewel he had on his staff - the one that justified the AP growth in-game according to his headcanons. At that point, she was so in love with him that she didn’t care about the price she had to pay to obtain it.

Then the changes happened, Veigar-mun actually abandoned the blog, so I reinvented Mimi to keep her alive. She still had the stone, she had no idea about how she got it or about what she did after she ran away from Noxus, and even the reasons that made her decide for that first life-changing event don’t feel exactly right according to history.

She began looking for answers. On the way, she met an ex Noxian soldier, a mercenary, and they spent a year knowing each other, fighting together and so on. He was one of the few that got to know her full name and see her actual human form after she polymorphed into a yordle for so long (something that, again, she kept doing because of unmotivated habit). They became friends with benefits, but he never knew she actually had feelings for him (and the mun actually found out just a few weeks ago, hah). 

When he found out about her quest to find out about a past that gave more and more hints about how dark it was and realized what the stone she kept actually was, he offered her his help to destroy the stone and free her from this burden, so that she could move on and live freely. She wouldn’t have accepted if it wasn’t him asking. 

Succeeding was risky and they both had to pay a toll for it. He sacrificed his runic attunement while her own spirit was lost in the process, but they both survived. About her, she’s still surviving without her own soul because undoing the tie to black magic allowed her runic attunement to flourish, especially making her able to dab the power of Life itself. Taking away her magic would turn her into a husk. This also makes her life expectancy on Runeterra much longer than she can imagine, but she has no idea about that yet. The downside of this is that her fate when she finally leaves this world is actually very unsure - she cannot exactly get to the Spirit World without an actual spirit, can she? 

But let’s return to love affairs!... he left right after they fixed this. She hasn’t forgotten him yet, but she is getting to know more people now. We shall see how things evolve~

---TL;DR

Canon lore changes messed everything up, so Mimi doesn’t remember about her first love being Veigar from the old lore universe! She abandoned the nation and her previous life to follow him after he escaped from the Noxian prisons, they bonded over the years, then everything went poof because suddenly Veigar never set foot in modern days Noxus! (And modern day Noxus doesn’t look down on mages anymore, but oh well *shrug*)

Her last love was a Noxian mercenary that helped her to get rid of the soulstone Veigar gifted her before the lore changes! He never realized she was in love with him and he left after he convinced her to abandon her memory holes/dark past and move on with life.

[inumbro]

a collection of some of the ama answers, all the twitter posts, and all of red posts on the boards about zed & some related topics that I can find from the last ~1.5 years (with a few exceptions), so that I have all this info in one spot for reference

organised based first by topic, then by rioter

if anyone has any jhin / xayah / rakan / vastaya related information that I missed I’d appreciate a link so I can add it bc there’s not nearly as much not-officially-canon-canon information on those connections as I remember there being!

Morals:

WAAARGHbobo said:

No. He is, if anything, a hardline nationalist and federalist.

WAAARGHbobo said:

Zed is, indeed, much more complicated than you think. But he is definitely not a nice person.

@miketmccarthy said:

At the moment, [Akali] does not align with [Zed’s] philosophy. He killed Shen’s father and master. Although they are both aggressive, Akali is inherently good and Zed, well, notsomuch.

Shadow magic:

WAAARGHbobo said:

...A wizard has a different, more studious, and analytical way of accessing magic — but arguably a shaman has a more inate connection to spirit magic. While warriors like Zed, Shen, and Kayn have studied a different way to access magical power—

The strenght of the connection, the control, and the narrowness of focus are all important variables...

@LaurieGolding said:

... but Shadow Magic had not been practiced in Runeterra for a long time, before Zed started. Jax hasn't had time to master it in the ~10 years since then!

Kayn:

Scathlocke said:

Kayn's principal conflict is almost not with Rhaast at all, but Zed. It is very likely that his master sent him to retrieve the weapon knowing that it would be the ultimate test for his protege - either it would destroy him, or he would conquer the Darkin and become a worthy new leader for the Order of Shadow.

Basically, Kayn and Zed have a super-complicated "adopted father" type of relationship going on. Rhaast is more like Lady Macbeth, in this current situation.

@LaurieGolding said:

I think [Kayn’s] shadow-form is what Kayn and Zed both hope the outcome will be - he's been given a near-impossible task by his master, as a true and final test of his worthiness to one day lead the Order of Shadow. If he fails, the weapon will consume him.

It's interesting, because both Zed and Swain seem to have engineered their plans for succession into their own rise to power. Both of them seem to say "You can have my job... IF you can take it!"

@LaurieGolding said:

Kayn is a singularly gifted student, but Zed gave him the hardest test imaginable - to withstand the power of a Darkin. ...

Jaredan said:

I wouldn't take the horror of Kayn's experience as typical of Noxus's approach or attitude to recruitment. The Ionia conflict saw some very strange things happen within the Noxian military and beyond. I can't talk about them yet. But that day will come.

@miketmccarthy said:

I think a lot of that will come out later... Zed has had a complicated run in his life, he wants a successor, and I believe he hopes Kayn is 'the one' and time will tell whether or not he can be that. Zed saved Kayn from certain death, trained him, raised him. He cares.

Interlocutioner said:

Link to Zed: Functionally, they're master and apprentice. But in truth, I think they have a deeper relationship than that. Zed sees himself in Kayn. An orphan with a gift and a drive that others can't control, no matter how much they try. No matter how much Zed tries, in Kayn's case, lol. I think Zed might also see something he could never be in Kayn. Kayn's link to the shadow is deep, for whatever reason. Maybe Zed hopes this is a sign that Kayn could do better than him? Ultimately succeed him? And he may have other, darker motives as well.

I think Kayn's respect for Zed is just as deep. Unfortunately, he's in the process of convincing himself that the only way he can prove himself to his father figure is by becoming something more than Zed wants him to be. Stronger than Zed. Strong enough to defeat him, if necessary.

They have a bond, but it will be tested.

...

I just mean their bond will be tested by Kayn's possession of Rhaast, if nothing else.

Kinkou + Jhin:

Jaredan said:

The characters you mentioned [Shen, Zed, Jhin] are very important to each other's lives going forward...

Jaredan said:

Shen, Zed, and Jhin, sitting in a tree. K. I. L. L. I. N. G.

In their history, Jhin is absolutely an antagonist. But Shen doesn't look at Zed with any kind of fondness, only with betrayal. The man he thought was his brother murdered his father, the person that Shen defined himself by.

However, it's true that Shen can't give into his own immediate, visceral anger. Perhaps he even tells himself he doesn't hold that anger against Zed. His job does require him to hold that inner balance to perform it. It's a role that he does partly in honor of his father. Still, if Shen told you he isn't angry, would you believe him?

When he has two worlds balanced on the edge of a blade, how long any man keep his hand steady?

I'm not going to talk about where their story might be headed in specifics, but those are the things that are involved in our thinking.

Jaredan said:

Yup, though Shen and Zed's relationship is a bit more complicated than Tobias and Malcolm's. Zed and Shen also have more complicated personalities and responsibilities than TF and Graves (that's not a challenge when it comes to Graves especially, he's a to-the-point kind of fellow).

Scathlocke said:

Shen is most likely seeing quite a few parallels between Zed's path, and Akali's. There is some significant crossover in their ideology, and they both rejected the Kinkou Order in some way... but Zed rejects the notion of "balance" as weak, and is more than happy to use any/all means at his disposal. Akali is certainly not there, yet!

Thermal_Kitten said:

Akali knows the cost of Zed’s break with the Kinkou. Zed was training alongside Shen, but after their first run in with Jhin, Zed began to have second thoughts. (We updated Zed’s bio to add more context and details surrounding this.)

...

As far as the Order of Shadow and the Kinkou, they don’t exactly work together, it’s more they tend to keep out of each other’s territory and see to Ionia’s future in their own ways. If it came to a direct disagreement, it could come to blows.

WAAARGHbobo said:

Jhin give us a chance to show that Ionia is in transition. The attack on their nation changed them. They are embracing technology they had previously thought unnecessary, and they are questioning their morale foundations. Jhin is the true villain of Zed and Shen's story-- and he represents everything that could go wrong for Ionia.

The Noxus-Ionia war:

Scathlocke said:

Seven years since Swain seized power and commanded the Noxian armies to leave Ionia.

@LaurieGolding said:

Noxus has a HUGE military presence off the main coast of Ionia - the First Lands are so concerned with restoring balance after they "won" the war, they've failed to notice that Noxus hasn't actually abandoned the island of Fae'lor, for example...

@LaurieGolding said:

The Great Stand at Navori was about ten years ago, and she was something like 14 then. Swain seized control of Noxus roughly three years later and ended the war in Ionia.

@LaurieGolding said:

Noxus was originally supposed to be persuading Ionia to join the empire, which of course became an occupation, then a war. They didn't intend to pillage/destroy... But it seems Darkwill was actually looking for magical stuff to extend his life, so who knows? (LeBlanc, maybe?)

@LaurieGolding said:

The death toll was catastrophic, certainly. But also, Ionia has been marked with a big, bloody Noxian handprint that they'll never be able to wash away - the soul of the First Lands has been changed forever... Was that Swain's plan all along? It's hard to say.

Vastaya:

Q&A:

Why is there a rebellion? Is Zed doing something with magic that affects the vastaya and are they dying as a result?

Not dying, but magical essence sustains their continued existence. The less magic there is, the fewer resources there are to support vastayan life and tradition. Other humans tap into or twist up the same magic source that the Lhotlan vastaya need to survive. This is not necessarily a moral thing, good people do bad things for good reasons, unaware of the consequences it causes others. Zed and his people are unknowingly or uncaringly accelerating the drain of the magical energy though they are absolutely not alone in doing this. This is aggravating the growing tension between humans and some vastayan tribes in Ionia - and directly violates the agreements that were forged between species.

Miscellaneous:

In response to:

Then Zed decided to pull a Sasuke because he couldn't deal with someone being better/picked over him.

Jaredan said:

Zed's issues run a bit deeper than that.

WAAARGHbobo said:

[referring to the wild magic video] It is not a part of the timeline. Promotion team just takes inspiration from the lore-- they do not make stuff within the timelines. Because... uh.. Reasons? Well you'd have to ask them.

WAAARGHbobo said:

So as the guy who did this, and Jhin’s lore...

The character you love hasn’t changed.

This simply expands the timeline and shows how Zed’s descent can be understood from his own perspective.

This timeline was actually done during Jhin, and the goal was to give Zed’s fall a slower, more human, less arch, trajectory.

Timeline (rough from my phone):

Shen and Zed are students together and bros. Zed is clearly the better, more talented student.

Kusho takes the two young teenagers undercover chasing “the golden demon”

Jhin crime scenes traumatized zed. (And shen)

Zed begans to struggle with his studies.

Kusho catches but refuses to kill Jhin. Zed loses respect for his master.

Zed begins to study forbidden shadow magic. —gets in trouble.

Leaves.

Noxus invades —zed witness war crimes. Kusho’s refusal to help the war effort is the last straw, Zed is no longer sympathetic or allied to the kinkou. While not directly opposed to them— he begins to view the kinkou as rivals.

Zed forms his own order— related to the Navoi militia group. (Spelling?)

Some vastaya tribes looking for a better deal, ally with the Noxus. Others fight for Ionia. Zed begins hostility with non- humans.

The war is tough, zed returns to the take the last of the shadow magic. Kusho tries to stop him.

Zed kills his master, shen’s dad.

Shen becomes the eye of twilight.

Kayn.

The war ends.

Zed begins consolidating power. Trains kayn. (He continues hostility with noxus, growing hostility with many Vastaya tribes.)

Harrowing mists begin to bother the southern Ionia sea ports.

Kayn gets raaast (around here i think)

Jhin is frees.... by someone

Zed finds out jhin is free. contacts Shen.

Jhin heads to zaun.

[infinite-xerath]

Regional Magic

So I’ve thought the magic in Runeterra quite a bit lately, and last night I had a bit of a revelation: what if the nature of the arcane itself actually changes from place to place? It might explain some of the differences and slight inconsistencies with how spells seem to work in different areas of the world. Below are my observations about how magic seems to work in different regions of Valoran.))

Shurima: We’ll start with perhaps the most obvious one. Shuriman magic, due to the region being based off of Egypt (and perhaps a few other surrounding nations) appears the most ‘supernatural’ in nature. Now, obviously, magic itself is somewhat supernatural, but Shuriman magic seems to be especially so. Thus-far, Shurima seems to contain the highest number of ‘curses’ we’ve seen in the lore so far; Xerath cursed the queen so she couldn’t have another healthy child, Nasus can curse people to age or “WHITHER!” as he calls it, and Cassiopeia was transformed due to a curse put upon her by the snake statue. There’s also Amumu, who was resurrected through a curse that seems to be different from typical necromancy.

Furthermore, Xerath is revealed to be able to call forth great storms by ‘calling forth spirits in the depths of the desert,’ and Azir is able to resurrect things by manipulating sand. The magic of Shurima certainly seems to take a lot of inspiration from the Egyptian aesthetic it was based on.

Ionia: Now let’s look at an example of magic that is perhaps the most contrary to the others. Ionian magic seems to be rather spiritual in nature; the most obvious example of this is Karma, who quite literally wields the power of her spirit, an ability she apparently gained through ‘enlightenment.’ Of course, there are other examples, such as Shen, who wields magic in the form of his spirit blade used to combat demons, and Zed, who summons shadows born of an unknown power he stole from his master. Yasuo can manipulate the wind, but he does so in a matter quite obviously different to how Janna does it, using his sword to stir up the air around him. Irelia controls blades through sheer will, and characters like Yi can heal themselves or move at immense speeds through sheer concentration.

Ultimately, Ionians seem to harness magic through their martial arts, developing fighting styles based around their power, and using it more to compliment their skills in other areas rather than focus heavily on magecraft (Syndra being the obvious big, floating exception.)

Noxus: This one’s a little trickier, since Noxian magic doesn’t seem to have an obvious theme at first when looking at its mage characters (Swain, LeBlanc, Vladimir, etc.) However, it can certainly be said Noxians are known to use magic that would be rather deadly on the battlefield, such as necromancy to raise up defeated soldiers, blood magic to sap their enemies’ vitality, or rune magic to strengthen their weapons (see Riven.) LeBlanc’s illusion magic could make it easy to disorient the enemy and confuse them, and Swain... Well, he’s getting a rework soon, so I’ll leave him alone for now.

As a whole, Noxian magecraft appears to have evolved primarily to be useful in combat and warfare, and they’re willing to harness whatever dark or immoral powers they deem fit for the sake of victory. After-all, the Black Rose is apparently harboring tons of artifacts from the Shadow Isles, thanks to Elise.

Demacia: Needless to say, Demacia doesn’t have much in the way of magecraft, since they’re a nation founded on the idea of fearing magic. They use things like petricite to dampen magical powers, or Demacian steel to ward of the undead. The only real examples of characters with a somewhat arcane nature in Demacia are Lux (the only real mage we know of in the nation), Poppy (her hammer is enchanted), and Galio (he’s made of petricite, but can come to life when he absorbs magic for some reason.) It’s tough to really narrow down a theme, but there are two possibilities to discuss:

First is the obvious idea of elemental magic, which is, of course, primarily made obvious by Lux and her affinity for wielding light magic. Of course, there’s her skin which has her wielding several elements as well, but seeing as how that’s not entirely canon, we can’t really rely on it too much. The other possibility is that, just as Noxian magic has evolved to be aggressive and brutal on the battlefield (as expected from a nation of conquerors), Demacian magic might be centered more around protection and defense. After-all, Poppy’s hammer can only be wielded by a true hero who stands up for justice (supposedly), and Galio’s job is literally protecting people from enemy mages. This would fit well with the theme of Demacia seeing themselves as the Vanguard of Valoran, after-all.

Freljord: Now this one is probably the hardest to get a firm grasp on. The only true ‘mage’ character from the Freljord is Lissandra, who wields the power of her corrupted True Ice. Indeed, perhaps one could argue that True Ice is simply the over-all basis for magic in the Freljord, since plenty of people seem to enchant their weapons with the stuff. However, if one looks closer, one can see an almost shamanistic style of magic-wielding from the northerners, even if it’s scattered somewhat loosely. Sejuani and Olaf both received prophecies from seers, which could be false, but we know that seers are at least a thing in Valoran thanks to Malzahar’s lore. There’s also Gregor, whose spirit is bound to the Howling Abyss, surrounded by large stone tablets with markings on them.

Last but not least is Udyr, who can call upon the power an ancient spirits; a skill that he, in-part, learned to harness on a trip to Ionia. One could also bring up the Primordials (Ornn, Volibear and Anivia), however they seem to be more along the lines of ‘embodiments of natural forces’ rather than full-on magic users.

Bandle: Alright, there’s a lot about Yordles that still hasn’t been revealed to us just yet, so I’ll refrain from touching on this one too much. All I’ll say is that their magic is blatantly styled after faeries, with their glamours (which may or may not be partially science-based?), and of course Lulu’s whimsical, nonsensical spells. I’ll wait until Riot gets to revamping Bandle’s lore properly before saying anymore.

Targon: And finally, let’s examine the last major location on Runeterra with a heavily magical presence: Mount Targon. Needless to say, though the ordinary mountain dwellers don’t seem to have much in the way of magical skill, the beings that reside at Targon’s peak (and beyond), wield magic that is very-much celestial in nature. They can harness the power of the sun (Solari), moon (Lunari), the stars (Taric and the Protector), and... Uh... War, I guess? IDK Pantheon’s the odd one out, not having an obvious space theme, but he has a star dragon at his beck and call, so... That sorta counts, right? Anyways, yeah, Targon seems to harness the power of the cosmos itself when channeling magic.

So yes, it seems that magic and how it’s wielded by mages actually evolves differently depending on different regions and environments, much like how humans do. Each area of Valoran seems to have its own unique set of rules for how spells can operate, which might explain why you don’t see Noxians conjuring up storms, despite how powerful such an ability could be (you’d think somewhat else would have figured it out after Xerath), or Freljordians incorporating a touch of magic into their fighting styles like the Ionians do, despite both seeming somewhat spiritual in nature.