Riot could you change this whole Vastayan story???

Mannny·4/15/2017, 7:49:54 AM·2 votes·673 views

I like Vastayans and all but goodness are they just too much. They are the perfect race, they can turn into anything they want, they are born with powers and they live longer than humans. It's important for races like the Vastayans in your story to have flaws so we can somewhat relate to them. Flaws are always good, but they are basically the Saiyans from Dragon Ball Z. I hope as time comes more things are revealed about them because currently they are a perfect 11/10 species.

10 Comments

Grimm Howl4/15/2017, 8:31:52 AM6 votes

Flaw - They are magical beings in the sense that magic to them is like water to humans, and magic is becoming ever more rare in Runeterra after the cataclysmic events of the Rune Wars.

Variks the Loyal4/15/2017, 7:53:25 PM4 votes

This inherent 'perfection' in and of itself leads to flaws.

Think of them like Elves from other media. Elves are often seen as the fairest and most adept beings in all the land, being beautiful, long lived, naturally proficient in magic, expert craftsmen, and skilled fighters. From this perfection, flaws naturally flow; elves become arrogant and exhume hubris, they become overconfident and so they overlook what might be smaller mistakes, they fail to look at a smaller picture and might become cruel or uncaring for the lives of shorter-lived beings.

Xayah exhibits some of these traits already.

Lùmen4/15/2017, 8:59:42 AM1 votes

Maybe there are more people like Zed who harvest magic and as a result, hurt the Vastayans.. I don't know, it's not an actual weak point since it's quite a job to do and seeing how Xayah did it so easily, they wouldn't have much troubles getting rid of the crystals

Umbral Regent4/16/2017, 9:10:06 PM1 votes

You need to look at the flaws of individual characters, not the species itself. Although, even the species itself isn't perfect. Your description poses them as perfect shapeshifters who can take any form, human or animal, but that's really far from the truth.

Shai, Swain, and potentially Nidalee*, are examples of Vastayan Shapeshifters; their blood is so muddied between human and Vastayan that the magic in them allows them to shift to blend almost seamlessly with one or the other. Not all Vastaya can shapeshift, just those who have a lot of both human and Vastaya in their blood.

There are also those with /some/ human traits and some Vastaya traits that can't shapeshift: look at Xayah and Rakan - and ostensibly Ahri. They're not "pureblooded" Vastaya, and as such are much more humanoid in form. They can't shapeshift**, but they know a lot about the natures of magic.

And then there are the "pureblooded" Vastaya - examples being Rammus or Volibear, essentially sapient animals. Though, Rammus and Volibear aren't as chimeric as the Vastaya shown in the initial reveal of them (like the monkey things or the otterfolk), but they're still purebloods.

*Not sure if Nidalee is a Vastaya or a Shaman like Frey (from Vayne's lore) - details unclear, and I probably missed something. If anyone could clarify for me whether or not Nidalee is a Vastayan, that would be great. **Ahri's most recent updated lore has her initially as a fox, although through sapping souls and life essence from people, she gains human form - it could be said either way that Ahri is a pureblooded Vastayan shapeshifter or that she's a half-kind like Xayah and Rakan, so, take what you will of it.

As for individual Vastaya flaws, let's look at some:

Rengar - single-mindedly focused on the hunt and being the greatest hunter alive, and, at one point, grew weak and bored from not having thrilling hunts. It took Kha'Zix to re-sharpen his sense of pride and his desire to hunt. Ahri - Took souls indiscriminately, though she developed a conscience and started to put her essence-theft towards more productive uses, like fighting off Noxian incursions. Xayah - (somewhat)Misguidedly antagonistic towards the entirety of the human race, wages a personal war to unleash the magic of Runeterra, which apparently taxes her to no end. Rakan - Given almost completely to fey moods (bursts of wild, capricious action), kind of dumb, though still very knowledgeable, and, he's driven mostly by passion and love - sometimes a good thing, but also sometimes a bad thing.

That's just a few examples; there's definitely more to be found.

To summarize: You have to look at the race holistically, not just gloss over details and say "they're too perfect" - and even further, you have to look at members of the race to give context to the whole of them.