Trying to decipher the lore behind League Of Legends can be aggravating. There are essentially two different versions: one before the lore rewrite (when the fields of justice were where champions fought their battles) and after (when they threw all that stuff out the window.) Mixing past and present lores can get kind of messy, especially when there are two different versions of the same champion. Warwick was just a criminal who pissed off Soraka, but after his rework he transformed into a Hextech cyborg who hunts criminals.
Taking a champion with lore before the reboot and trying to match it up with the current story of League Of Legends can get kind of confusing. Kayn, the newest champion coming to the game, exacerbates that problem by bringing back one of League’s most complicated and least fleshed out ideas: the darkin.
In Runeterra, there are five all-powerful beings called darkin. We knew nothing about the race other than their existence and that they lived alongside humans. The only one we knew about was Aatrox, who was constantly seen on the fields of battle throughout history. In an epic confrontation between Tryndamere’s vikings and another Freljordian tribe, Aatrox injured the king so badly that it filled him with an undying rage. Neither of these champions have updated lore, so it isn’t clear if their stories are even canon anymore.
When I first started playing League , the last champion released was Aatrox. His splash art was so badass, showing a giant-winged demon thrusting his spiked blade into the ground after a hard fought battle. I immediately started playing him and felt an overwhelming sense of… meh. He could jump into the air and slam into battle, but was too squishy to survive the fight. If he died, he could come back with a third of his health, but then would die again right after. He’s been League’s most disappointing champion since release, but thankfully Riot Games is finally doing something about it.
With the release of Kayn, League Of Legends is fleshing out the idea of the darkin. Rhaast is an angry scythe that wants to corrupt Kayn and turn him into a darkin. The weapons seem to infect the host, corrupting them into an amalgamation of rage, anger and pointy spikes. In one of Kayn’s quotes, we even hear that Varus is one of the darkin. According to his lore, there was a corrupt well that gave Varus his power and bow. Is the well the darkin weapon or is the bow the source of his power? There’s so many questions that remain unanswered because of this mesh between new and old lore.
League Of Legends is a game that doesn’t require any lore to work. Every MOBA needs champions, but what they do is irrelevant to actual gameplay. Thresh stole Lucian’s wife’s soul, yet they lane together with zero problems. There’s no need for Riot Games to rewrite everything, but they are doing it anyway.
I’ve always thought the idea of a race of god-like creatures roaming Runeterra and shaping the world around them was a great idea. These divine wanderers must have had an enormous impact, though we know nothing about them. As a fan, I’m excited to finally get to know more about the darkin and what they mean for League .
Kayn pushes the boundaries of what a champion can do and I’d love if his lore could do the same.
