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[Diving Deeper]: The Darkin

Keagn·6/24/2015, 5:29:18 AM·3 votes·3,733 views

This isn't much, just a late night theory before I hit the hay.

From what we know, apparently five (5) darkin live. Currently released is Aatrox, the Darkin Blade, who is a red, winged humanoid with black armor like plates on certain sections of his body. He wields a symbiotic blade which seems to drink the life force of his foes, and in extreme cases, himself. Aatrox's domain is war, or more specifically, bloodshed/slaughter.

This leads me to believe that each Darkin has a symbiotic weapon/tool, not for any particular reason, but because I like the concept. We see it with Aatrox, so it stands to reason the ancient race would share this similarity with the five that remain. The lineup might look something like this:

  • The Darkin Blade

  • The Darkin Bow

  • The Darkin Bulwark

  • The Darkin Banner(?)

  • The Darkin Beast

After the first three the B trend seemed to fall apart a bit. The first one exists already (of course), and I'd be willing to bet on the next two, but there's nothing all that cool about The Darkin Banner. Its too close to the domain of war/bloodshed. I considered Bolt for a moment, and thought maybe they could utilize electricity, but it kind of made me thing of crossbow bolts more so than lightning bolts. Darkin Bell...? nope, nope nope nope. Board, Boon, Brace, Book, Ball, Bomb...(I go on for awhile, but I won't include them all).

Then I came up with an idea that was very 50/50. It had the potential to be either really cool, or really lame: The Darkin Brush. Since I'm going with this idea that Darkin affiliate with certain domains, the Darkin Brush would be of art, imagination, and creativity. So let's give the line-up a look now:

  • The Darkin Blade (Top/Jungle/fighter): Rules over conflict, and bloodshed.

  • The Darkin Beast (Jungle/Assassin): Rules over nature, and the hunt.

  • The Darkin Brush (Mid/Mage): Rules over art, and creativity/creation.

  • The Darkin Bow (Bot/Marksman): Rules over archery, and sport.

  • The Darkin Bulwark (Bot/Support/Tank): Rules over defense, and protection.

Now this is a nice solid idea, but may not be accurate. Another approach was the D&D connections, specifically, pact weapons/objects. There's the Pact of the Blade (Aatrox, the Darkin Blade), and two other pacts: Pact of the Tome, and Pact of the Chain. These could easily become the Darkin Tome, and the Darkin Chain, which both sound really cool. The Darkin Chain would be the equivalent of the Darkin Beast I came up with a little earlier, with a Familiar as its weapon. The Darkin Tome would replace the Darkin Brush, all is well, right?

Well pacts seem really cool, and fit along rather well with what we were going for, but following this format we're missing two. The Darkin Bow has been rumored for awhile, some speculate that its even Varus. Where it may be unlikely, I kind of like this idea. He's probably not the intended Darkin Marksman, but whatever is corrupting him might be. Another dark, warlike being perhaps, chopped up, burned, and thrown in the pit. Maybe its essence remained, and just needed a new host. Another supporting idea on this besides the organic/living nature of Aatrox's sword and Varus's bow is their voices, they have a very similar sound to them, possibly because of similar origin, well, at least of power. The early concept art of Aatrox also suggests this connection.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150223205504/leagueoflegends/images/c/cf/Aatrox_concept_2.jpg

We could call Varus the Darkin Arrow at that point, but this new solution presents a new problem as well: the nature of Darkin as a whole. Aatrox seeks to wipe out any for its own sake, the sake of victory through bloodshed. Varus wants bloodshed too, but for the sake of vengeance, probably because he's still somewhat human, and therefore may not count as Darkin. Aatrox's lore says "...one of only five that remain of an ancient race known as the Darkin. " , suggesting that the substance from the Pit didn't make Varus into a Darkin, but that doesn't necessarily mean the substance isn't. We'll let that one rest for now.

So with our Darkin Arrow, Blade, Chain, and Tome, there remains but one. Well, we thought along the lines of a Darkin Aegis/Bulwark/Shield, that could work. But what place does a shield serve in this new bloodthirsty line? An arrow is a weapon, as is a blade. A tome is not directly a weapon, but knowledge is considered to be. We've seen chains be used as weapons (Thresh), but isn't a shield a bit of a stretch? I guess this Darkin Shield could plow through enemies, bashing its shield against feeble foes. Sure. Why not?

So after a bit of a rant, we have this:

  • The Darkin Blade (Top/Jungle, fighter/tank): Rules over conflict, and bloodshed.

  • The Darkin Chain (Jungle, Assassin): Rules over bonds (and creatures) for the sake of conflict/bloodshed.

  • The Darkin Tome (Mid, Mage): Rules over the knowledge of conflict/bloodshed.

  • The Darkin Arrow (Bot, Marksman): Rules over conflict/bloodshed for the sake of vengeance.

  • The Darkin Shield (Bot, Support/Tank): Rules over defense for the sake of conflict/bloodshed.

I don't know, doesn't seem 100%. I'll give it another look in the morning. Feel free to give your thoughts too, I'd love to hear what you all have to say.

Entry Two: 6/24/15

Alright, I'm actually pretty surprised at the attention this drew over night, and I've thought up more to the Darkin theory I've been developing.

Now, we have no idea if Aatrox is typical for Darkin, his wings don't look very natural to me so that just be a "him" thing, but as some of you (GreenLore) had noted, the Darkin are incredibly probable to occupy the "demon" archetype in the world of Runeterra. However, this isn't what I wanted to bring up quite yet.

What I have for you guys today focuses on my theory of the Darkin being related to the Pact features of the Warlock class in D&D. Now, I'm not incredibly familiar with the game as a whole, but after doing some more reading I found the Tiefling, which are these demonic humanoids who are basically made for the Warlock class, and thus, the Pact Magic I've associated with the Darkin (Pact of the Blade, Tome, Chain). Of course, this could undoubtedly be a coincidence, we just won't know until we see more Darkin.

It's not much more, but what I kind of thought up while waking up. As always, I'll continue to update if I come up with more theories, or if more information presents itself.

(PS: Thanks to those who've jumped in on the discussion, its been great!)

~LU

14 Comments

Neamean6/24/2015, 6:58:17 AM2 votes

http://pre05.deviantart.net/e5c1/th/pre/f/2014/256/6/3/valanx_by_daemonstar-d7z0mss.jpg

not saying the kits is balance or anything but this look pretty cool

original artist: http://daemonstar.deviantart.com/gallery/51699926/LoL-Fan-Art

ABlueQuaker6/24/2015, 7:10:09 AM1 votes

My only fear is that a Darkin with a Symbiotic Bow would double-up on Varus' Archetype. If Riot were to do a Marksman-type Darkin, he would have to fire some other sort of projectile and through some other kind of means. It could be an Energy/Plasma-based projectile that could literally be pulled out of thin air, or something physical like Thorns/Spikes/Some sort of sharp object that could grow on the champion itself.

Troobalaro6/24/2015, 7:23:42 AM1 votes

These theories are awesome, I dunno how people come up with things like this. If anything, at least a little of this could be true and or eventually become something real in the game. Great job on this!!

GreenLore6/24/2015, 3:11:50 PM1 votes

Overall I'd look at the darkin more in a design-like manner. We know that Riot designs champs by giving each of them some sort of different core concept,like an archetype. Tahm kench is a dealer and frog/fish-monster,Rek'sai a tunnel digger,Ekko a time traveler,etc. And Aatrox is pretty much a war god who looks like a demon,so I suppose the other darkin are going to look quite demonic too(in the end I'd say that the darkin might be even LoLs equivalent of your typical demons)

But that begs the question as for what will be the the core-concepts of the other darkin and since they are pretty likely to be demons too,I think that they will cover different types of demons.(I mean if riot wants to cover these archetypes,then the darkin are pretty much their best shot at that concept) Like one of them could be an imp,another one would be a monstrous devil,one could be an Oni,etc. Of course that doesn't exclude the whole "symbiotic weapons-theory" as they all could still have these weapons in one way or another.

Icestar11866/24/2015, 3:19:51 PM1 votes

I personally disagree with the Symbiotic Weapons theory (mostly because it says Aatrox wields his sword, not the other way around). However, this is very interesting. I am hoping for a Darkin jungler or ADC to help clarify things.