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Essence Theif

CourtWizardAhri·9/30/2019, 11:18:56 PM·1 votes·1,383 views

Ahri is known to steal memories to help restore power and form, but what exactly is her power doing to those that have fallen victim to it?

She grew drunk with memories that were not her own, and exhilarated in the lives of others. Through stolen visions, Ahri watched through their eyes as they pledged fealty to a temple of shadow, sacrificed offerings to a deity of the sun incarnate, encountered an avian tribe of vastaya that spoke only in song, and glimpsed mountainous landscapes unlike any she had seen. Ahri was surprised when the memories led her to discover the tale of an unearthly fox demon. As she absorbed more life essence, she grew to identify more and more with her victims, and felt guilty at ending so many lives. She feared that the myths about her were true—she was no more than a cruel monster.

The key phrase here being

encountered an avian tribe of vastaya that spoke only in song, and glimpsed mountainous landscapes unlike any she had seen.

In "Eduard Santangelo's Vastayan Field Journal"

Though it nearly sprinted away in fear upon my waking, a handful of sweetcakes and the sonorous delivery of a soothing bedtime melody taught to me by my mother (I am a soprano, and thus uniquely well-equipped to serenade others with songs of relaxation) convinced it to stay awhile in my camp. ... Shai – for this was his name – chastised me for bathing in the pond, informing me that it, and the fox woman who was sometimes known to bathe there, would be hazardous to my health.

By the end of the field journal the last thing we are told is that he was never heard from again, Eduard also wrote about his distaste for Piltover Life, it's also hinted that when Ahri absorbs memories they are "taken" from the host and their memories are reshaped. Eduard returned to Ionia and of course being the hype man he is spoke about more than he was worth. Considering his journal was open ended, does this mean that the bandits just let him walk, since he had nothing anyway. Assuming he was released does this also mean he returned to her lake and had his memories reshaped?

What i'm wondering is what happens to the victims? If "she devoured the dreams of an entire coastal village" did she go all "dementor" on them or did she just erase everyones memories? Also does she hear your thoughts or just see what you see?

1 Comments

ExcessiveProtest10/1/2019, 5:16:14 AM2 votes

I'll double check the specifics later, it's been a while, but Ahri takes their essence, basically their life as magical energy. Taking memories is a byproduct of that, which she got addicted to early on: seeing everything a person had ever seen, everything they had experienced, in an instant. According to her full Bio, her victims do definitely die if they lose too much essence. Further, in A Fair Trade, she can outright remove memories from those who survive, as well as targeting specific memories. Nothing mentions stealing thoughts from that memory, or altering the ones left behind, but emotions and senses are explicitly stolen.

The village was almost definitely wiped out: survival depends on her level of control at the time, and she only attacked the village because she had lost it entirely. Live or die, her victims aren't talking about her after, so the stories about her likely came from the bodies left behind, and maybe a few who ran while she was distracted.

As for the artist, it is generally accepted, but not outright stated, that he is the same one from the Garden of Forgetting, which would mean he met her again, chose to stay even after learning everything, and eventually died when she lost control. The alternative is that there were two artists written simultaneously with no common sense, a tendency to get into trouble, and an obsession with Ahri. I have a theory that there's more to the artist's story, but the lore as currently written ends there.