Unity - Prelude (Terunis)
Before reading this story, please look at these linked champion concepts, as they're the main protagonists of this story, and this story will make much less sense without knowing their lore. This chapter is essentially Terunis' lore, everything leading up. Deity, Aspect of Unity || Terunis - Aspect of Runeterra
18 years ago:
After the separation of his parents, at the young age of 8, Terunis had his world torn in half... a more literal half, as he spent his time divided between his father's house in Piltover and his mother's house in Zaun, attending a school positioned close to the center of the two cities. But how did this happen? His father needed to finish his work, having high expectations he needed to be dedicated, relying heavily upon his employment to provide for his family. The work caused a rift between his father and mother, with all the stress and pressure they began to fight about what should happen, whether he should look for an alternate job or whether they needed to cut expenses altogether. The breaking point was when he had finally been offered a promotion, which meant more finances but it came at the cost of working 12hrs each day and then an additional 3-4 hours of work at home, instead of his normal 10 hours he had worked. The pay raise, from initial increase to additional hours of pay was more than enough for his Father to provide a healthy life for the three of them, but his mother had had enough of caring after the house and all who resided in it with no help. She thought "what good is it being married to a man if you never see him" and came to the conclusion that she could provide a better life herself for Terunis and her. An ultimatum was set, either leave his employment and search elsewhere or she would leave herself, and take Terunis with her. His father tried to explain how they should be grateful of his employment, and how everything would work out, but his mother was adamant. Soon after their fight his father had accepted his promotion, and his mother had scheduled a court hearing. The time came and his mother and father were present in the Piltover courthouse fighting for custody of their son. Time VS Resources, the decision was difficult, but eventually the ruling was made for dual custody and split weeks of visitation between the two, and whoever had provided a more healthy life in the following year would gain complete custody. The battle of custody had worn off over the year, and neither one wanted to risk losing their rights to see their son, so they came to an agreement that unless Terunis could come to a conclusion of who he wanted to stay with then they wouldn't take it back to the courts. And they cancelled the next hearing. Terunis could not choose between his two parents.
8 years ago:
Terunis graduated school, largely thanks to his dad's workshop that was free for 12 hours every day, and partially thanks to his mom's persistence in making sure he studied while at her place. His parents used to live together in Zaun, and his mom lived in Piltover before marrying his dad who was born in Zaun and lived there all of his childhood, but shortly after their separation his dad ended up living in Piltover and his mom could only afford to stay in Zaun at their old house. It was time however for him to finally move on and move out, to get a place of his own and find employment. Adult life was harder then he had been taught in school, and all areas of employment that he applied for wanted more experienced personnel. Luckily his father knew some people in Piltover looking for workers, and secured a job for Terunis. While his mom found a cheap place that he could rent in Zaun. Again, he was living a dual life... as long as he could remember now, he had to live between two separate worlds, caught in all the crossfire that followed.
4 Years Ago:
Terunis had grown tremendously over the years, and excelled in his job, having been promoted from assembly line to lead engineer over the course of the years. He worked in a factory that manufactured Hex-Tech gear, but was often more interested in the Chem-Tech machines that Zaun used. He had tried to combine the two technologies to try and invent something far more ingenious and powerful, but always fell short. He went to bed one night, as was normal, as most people tend to sleep at night, but this particular night he had a strange dream... In the dream he was standing in the middle a desert, looking at a far off city, surrounded by a cloud of sand. He looked up and saw a giant disc in the sky, the Sun Disc, he knew about it and all the history following it. But why would he be in Shurima? He looked back and saw a tent behind him, it had minimal supplies and looked to be his dwelling. He took a step forward toward the city but began to sink into the sands... He tried to grasp the ground around him but his fingers slipped against the fine grains of sand. Just as he was completely submerged he jolted awake and was gasping for air. In the course of the next year he had 7 more different dreams, all very vivid and each in a different area of Runeterra. And then he had his 9th dream, in which he stood at the center-point between Zaun and Piltover, this was nothing new as most of his dreams started similar to this, but this dream in his home city was particularly different... His parents were standing on both sides of him, yelling and screaming at him "Why did you not stop this!? How could you have let this happen!?", he was confused at first but then he saw the city turn to flames and buildings start to fall. Before long the entire area was flattened, and his mother and father were buried in the rubble surrounding him. He fell to his knees, and the ground began to shake, the very earth beneath him started to raise up toward the sky. He then stood on the top of Mt. Targon, but as soon as a voice began to speak to him he woke up, with a sweat and rapid heart, unable to resume his rest and return to his dream. This repeated for 2 weeks until he decided to take it as a sign and prepare for a long journey. Terunis gathered his prototype Chem-Tech gun and his last successful masterpiece, the Hex-Tech Blade, and with some small previsions he started his quest for Mt. Targon.
2 Years Ago:
It had been a year since he started his quest, and he had faced many enemies along the way. With the help of his 2 trusty weapons he finally managed to make it to the foot of the great mountain itself. Mount Targon. Nothing could compare to the pure mass that stood before him, climbing seemed an impossible for any person to achieve. But he was determined. He learned through his journey and the dreams he had prior that what he wanted to strive towards was unity, he wanted to unite all of Runeterra together. He would not sit idly by and watch it fall apart around him, he needed to take action. He took his determination and transformed it into power, power that he used to scale the towering mountain in his path. Everybody had heard tales of Mt. Targon, and people being granted wishes once they reached the summit, but few even dared to try. The rocks were surprisingly loose for such a great monument, and that only impeded his ability to climb even further, but he would not give up. Memories of his parents separating kept coming back to him, strengthening his resolve towards unity. Never again, should anyone have to feel torn in half, should they feel caught between two worlds with no place to belong. After a long miserable climb he reached the summit and collapsed, turning over to look at the stars, sprawled out on the summit floor. Terunis heard a voice that over powered his heavy breathing, clearly in his mind he had some being speak to him "Child of the twin cities, you have journeyed far. What purpose have you here?" Terunis, unable to give any more strength to his limbs, tried to stand or even sit but found that he could only lay on the ground staring at the stars. He cried out "I am here, I am here to unite Runeterra!", remembering how his life was from his youngest years when his parents lived together in harmony and then the fighting that followed those days, and all the fueds between the two cities he lived in, he began to sob "I wish to bring this world peace, and stop all this war!". The voice didn't respond. Suddenly a bright light flashed from the sky, and an other worldly being was staring down at Terunis, "very well, you have proven yourself here, I will grant you the power to do what you desire. It will not be a simple task, but eventually you may learn how to accomplish it. But in doing this, in order to have a chance at succession, you will yet again live between two separate worlds. Are you sure this is the path you want to choose?" it said as it stretched out its hand. Terunis replied "My entire life has prepared me for this, I will gladly accept those conditions" as he mustered the strength to grab the hand. Another flash of light and the being had vanished, but something was different, Terunis felt power swelling up inside of him. Standing up he let out a sigh of relief, and then felt a whisper in his mind "You are now the Aspect of Runeterra, great power is within you, but sometimes... power is not the way to win a war, you must gain an understanding of all the different peoples if you wish to unit them. A grave threat is coming, and they must be prepared, you must warn them", Terunis stopped for a moment and asked "A threat? Is coming to Runeterra? What is this threat?" and the voice replied "I... do not yet know, but it is certain that events will transpire to open both of our minds to this eventual threat. We aspects can feel it approaching our realm, we feel its presence growing stronger".
1 Year Ago:
"Ugh, this is so tiring, it seems so impossible at times" Terunis said as he threw himself on his bed, "I mean, not all hope is lost yet, I have found people to gave heed to my warning, even if only the Vastaya I guess not all are blinded against the inevitable threat". He composed himself and sat upright "The word of guarantee coming from one person isn't nearly as strong as I wish it would be, but I can't blame people from not believing one random stranger". He looked through his journal, recounting the day that he gained the trust of the Vastaya "Maybe... maybe it will take a century until I can solve this, I don't even know how long I have though... The threat grows stronger every day... I need to hurry up".
3 Hours Ago:
A portal opened up, and began to consume the room around him; Terunis stood amidst an empty void, blood draining from the sky... He looked at his hands and saw they were stained red with blood, but this was familiar blood... Looking down he saw the corpse of himself, in his aspect form, it was torn from him and lifeless. The sky was a dark purple, and the air was silent. He reached out to his aspect and a dark corruption flooded over it... It stood up and reached back toward Terunis and pressed its finger on his chest. Terunis saw his entire body begin to corrupt and panicked, while the dark aspect drove its hand deep inside and ripped out his heart he yelled "No, stop!" but the entity pushed its head close to his and spoke to him in a deep whispered voice "Oh... You don't need this anymore... Uniting? Runeterra? You're uniting them only in death... This won't help you. But... I can... If you let me inside". Just as he was almost out of life he heard a large explosion from behind him, the creature got blasted away with terrible force, and dropped his heart which rolled toward him. Holding his chest he let out large breaths of air, and looked with blurry vision in front of him to see a personage pick up his heart and walk towards him. "Don't worry, that's not the real you, just a glimpse of the darkness coming to Runeterra" the personage reached forward "You'll be needing this, make sure to keep it strong" and plunged his heart back inside his chest. Terunis jumped awake nearly paralyzed "What was that... another one of those dreams? This one was so much more vivid, and dark, it must be getting close... I'm running out of time", he looked at his arm to see it trembling "I need some fresh air... I'm going outside for a bit". He got dressed and left his room, needing to clear his mind for awhile.
2 Minutes ago:
He was almost calmed back down, his arm had stopped shaking, but then he saw a bright light flash from the Inn where he was spending his nights. His past house had become occupied since his initial journey to the mountain, so he needed somewhere to rest his head. He rushed back toward the building which was a few blocks away, but when he arrived it seemed very still, like something was off, it felt... different then before.
Preparing himself Terunis opened the door to the Inn, but it was empty, and the lights had all gone out leaving it dark. He went back to his room door and entered...
