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So there are five Darkin, but...

Nanuk Pihoqahiak·11/30/2017, 7:48:02 PM·1 votes·638 views

Three of them currently follow themes of The Hour Horsemen:

The Horseman of War uses a sword, which Aatrox also uses. This is befitting of his current ingame character. He inspires war, and inspires those losing to fight, or be forgotten.

The Horseman of Conquest uses a bow, which Varus also uses. This one is interesting because as I recall, the Horsemen is also referred to as Pestilence, which sort of fits Varus through the seeping corruption on his body, and his ingame visuals for spewing blight.

The Horseman of Death resides in Kayn's hands. Pretty self explanatory. He's an assassin and kills people. It could also be assumed that his own death to Rhaast ties in with this theme, should be lose control of the weapon.

The last Horseman is absent. I'd imagine it's going to be something to do with Famine. Famine's 'weapon' of choice was a scale, and as the name implies often involved starving out populations as a means of culling them. Maybe we'd even see a female Darkin pop out of this?

The fifth Darkin is unaccounted for, as there are only four horsemen. However, I figured I'd make a short little writeup to draw parallels between these characters.

7 Comments

GreenLore11/30/2017, 10:15:31 PM1 votes

I think there are 2 possibilities for the 5th darkin:

A:They split the famine darkin into 2 seperate beings(with 2 of them representing the sides of the scales)

B:They split the first horseman into 2 darkins.Varus is pestilence and uses a bow,while the other one is sealed inside a crown(as the first horseman was carrying a crown and a bow)and represents conquest.

HalcyonDweller11/30/2017, 10:23:29 PM1 votes

I always shy away from ideas such as this. it muddies character development and can lead to forcing themes that are unnecessary when you just try to mark off all the checkboxes on a list of characters in a group or pantheon that exists outside of league. It breaks Runeterra's uniqueness and individuality.

And for examples of pantheons that could be designed around, the Zodiac, or the Chinese Animal Calendar, or the horsemen of the apocalypse, or the gods of any particular religion.

Riot borrows from the ideas of such groups, but so far to my knowledge they have not just followed a group's entire pantheon to the letter. And I prefer it this way, new characters are more fresh and unique if Riot doesn't have to try to fit them into a 'famine' shaped box.

Around999People12/1/2017, 2:12:00 AM1 votes

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/VQvnQ6VW-a-theory-about-the-darkin

I talk about how War is also called Pestilance and this explains the 5. War, Pestilance, Death, Famine and Conquest.