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Everything IMO that's amiss about Sion's lore

Whyte Lyon·4/18/2018, 4:22:20 AM·1 votes·1,879 views

Sion is undoubtedly getting a bio update, as after 3-4 years the guy still doesn't have one. So I want to pull apart the live lore section by section and just talk about whats my take on things and how it could impact the Bio, especially after the Noxus LU. This is going to be somewhat of a prediction and theories post, but mostly just thoughts on the subject matter.

Buckle up kiddies! This is a long arse post.

Into the Mind of Madness: So this little piece of lore is the closest thing Sion has to a colour story, but in terms of length it unfortunately doesn't live up to the same standards as modern colour stories. Mind of Madness sits at the typical length of a biography (600-700 words) whereas most colour stories push for an extra 1000 more words. So in my own opinion I'd love to see a true colour story for Sion. However he doesn't have his own biography either and based on how LU's are conducted these days champs only get bio updates alone, so I dont think we'll see a colour story in the next Noxus/Sion LU instead just the BIo. I could also see others being content with Mind of Madness being Sion's true colour story regardless, that's not an opinion I agree with but it's one I'm sure most have.

Now plot-wise Mind of Madness has been effected by contradictory lore. Things like Swain's descriptions reads like it has his old visuals in mind and the fact that Sion acknowledges Boram as his true general/ master, which use to make sense when living Sion was Boram's second in-command but within the new lore he's hundreds of years older than Boram. I could do some theory crafting on how Sion might still be attached to Boram but its just a realm of uncertainty. Im even at a loss for why he would ever bother telling Sion to "beware ravens", I don't think Boram even expected a coup coming. Granted even in the context of the story without the new lore in mind, there's still no logic behind why Boram would warn the undead monster about Swain. So that's what ever.

Memorial: No contradiction to be found, I do have a friggin ton of questions about Jarvan 1 and the Demacia incursion, which has gone shockingly underdeveloped after all these years. This piece of history would definitely be re-discussed in a bio for Sion as it's the event that resulted in his death. But im worried the bio wont have room to develop the topic much further beyond what little we already know about it. Then I have to consider well maybe the Demacia incursion is irrelevant to Sion except for his death and maybe that story is better developed in a history of Demacia type lore update?

Honestly I have a lot to say and speculate about the Demacia incursion, but for the sake of bulking this thread out too much I might discuss it further in another thread.

** Seeds of Doubt:** Nothing objectively wrong here. The scenario is intended to take place shortly after Sion's death. I'd say its only flaw is that it doesn't give any decent insight into why exactly the Black Rose would help bring Sion back. That goes for in general, as there's never been a developed logic behind why he was resurrected beyond "reasons" and any speculation fan's can muster up. Im hoping for something much more interesting than Sion was too good a warrior for the empire to lose.

The only other thing wrong is Darkwill is mentioned by name multiple times. His involvement makes no sense anymore and I would assume his name would be edited out. But I can't say im too found of just replacing Darkwill with "insignificant emperor from ages past whose long been dead now", as it just doesn't feel right. Basically the use of Darkwill had meaning behind, the reader knew who that is, changing it to X random other person lessens the value of the segment of lore especially considering that Petal and Thorn are two other names featured also lacking depth.

Proclamation:
Yeah again nothing too wrong, just a nice short segment about Noxus retaliation. I would like to know more about said retaliation, and the consequences Demacia faced but there's a lot of things I'd like to know more of and a lone bio couldn't satisfy that.

Maybe the simple answer is the retaliation was just to wipe out the remainder Demacians from Jarvan's army. That would bring up the question of just how quickly was Sion resurrected? So I don't know.

Regrets: Exact same issues with the Seeds of Doubt segment. Darkwill's name has lore and meaning behind it, editing him out for random other emperor we couldn't care anything about will hinder how interesting the things that are going on. My only take on that is to not just edit/ replace Darkwill out but to completely re-write the segment in favor of something else.

Dissent: The only segment were there's seemingly no need to change it. Probably good to remove "Respectfully, Grand General" since Swain is the first Grand General and this segment takes place when Emperors where the sovereignty of Noxus.

Bridge to the Past: This segment is the most annoying one, its content is either uncanon or could still be canon there's just no way to tell if it is at the moment. But it's the fact that this segment implies Boram was involved in Sion's resurrection, if that remained even somewhat the case Sion would be a resurrected skeleton, there'd be no flesh on that corpse long before Boram was born.

So the segment could be rephrased to mention Leblanc in place of Darkwill, although I would say just remove the segment and have Swain discover Sion in a completely different manner than how it's portrayed here.

The Anchor: Another segment that doesn't have too much wrong with it. I just hate how vague the necessity of JIV's blood has been after years of it being a thing of possible significance. It apparently helps Sion focus for reasons. Im going to unassuredly guess that the lineage of the Jarvan that killed him brings back... his humanity. IDK the mcguffin of blood magic I guess.

The Return So this segment to me has some confusing element. Initially I thought it could synergize well within the new lore, since it could explain how guile/leblanc managed to get equal control in the running or manipulation if you will, of the empire. But I imagine Swain had her in mind for the role anyway, I dont think she needed to do any favors to get that position.

Things I would like developed in Sion's Bio update:

  • What was Sion's role in Noxus? Initially he was second in-command or something like that (Hand of Noxus maybe?). There's not much reason to think that's changed and if not it would still be amazing to learn more about pre-death Sion. That's been something I've seen brought up a few times by Sion fans. What was Noxus like then, clearly it was post Mordekaiser, but much earlier than crazy pursuits in territorial expansion.

  • Of course the Demacia incursion: If it remains that Jarvan 1 marched upon the Immortal Bastion, then I would like to understand why the hell did he think that was an intelligent idea, what drove him to think they could pull it off? Im of half the mind to think retcon it into (maybe) a random battle that took place on the borders between the nations, rather than in the difficult to believe heartland of Noxus.

  • Sion's death: This isn't a big thing, but the death shares the same details with Viper vs the Mountain from GoT. It's a cool death scene no doubt, but still the exact same story. I feel like maybe the writer could add some new details into the new Bio, so it's not insufferably copying.

  • How did Noxus retrieve his body? You would think the Demacians to deny Noxus making a martyr of the man to murder their king. Perhaps Jarvan's army wasn't all killed off then and there, maybe a treaty had to be made, if Sion's body was given back the remainder of jarvan's army could safely return home?

  • Why was Sion resurrected? This was never explained before, maybe now's a good opportunity to do that. Originally the idea was Boram enlisted the aid of the Black Rose, but in the new lore says the only help Boram ever got from the BR was for his take of the Noxian throne. Nevermind that Sion was dead long before Boram's time. I feel like instead of resurrecting Sion for a different emperor, this time the BR do it for their own nefarious reasons. Would still prefer to know the purpose tho.

  • Why was Sion's first resurrection a failure? Or perhaps more importantly why did it take until Swain before they managed gain some control over the juggernaut? See Sion's live lore implies through Vlad's magic, JIV's blood and (i think) the Shadow Isles dagger did they manage to focus Sion's hollow mind. But we now know Vlad is hundreds of years old, surely if the BR was involved in the first resurrection Vlad could have done what he did but way back then with an earlier Jarvan's blood, no?

  • Why is Swain interested in Sion? Simple question we never got a full explanation for. The obvious has something to do with Swain could probably find a use for him every now and again, and Swain's also the kind to risk the consequences that Sion would bring. But that's kind of a trivial explanation. Im thinking maybe Swain needed more than an army of loyal followers to succeed in his coup. As I can't imagine even with his own power and loyalists would they conquer the capital and remain undefeated by Boram loyalists especially when even Darius army was away in the north at the time. Although Boram was spreading the Noxian armies thin across the world, maybe there was no force in the capital to oppose Swain? Hmm..

TL;DR I assume the writer will either be Interloc or AntinOz since they're seemingly the Noxus aficionados. I dont want the next Sion LU to just be a fix up. Just "boom" here's a fresh bio that fundamentally re-explains what the writers already explained about him and what readers already know of him. That to me almost feels like a waste of 3-4 years, Sion's lore has never been bad but I would sum it up as "a series of crazy events that just happen to happen for very vague reasons." I would love for that to be different, with a new Bio.

8 Comments

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO4/18/2018, 5:12:44 AM2 votes

this is very thorough and well-reasoned. I’d imagine there may have been some triggering event that made Demacia so isolationist.

GreenLore4/18/2018, 8:24:35 AM2 votes

Uhm why do you think that Sion predates Boram that much?

I mean sure Sion died when he killed J1,but there wouldn't be much of a problemif Riot handles the ages of the characters appropiatly. If J1 was ~50 when Sion killed him,with J2&3 being ~30 and ~10 respectively,then all of this could have been ~30 or 40 years ago,in which case it wouldn't be impossible for Boram to survive all this time depending on how old he was back then.

Also Boram likely warned Sion about Beatrice,not about Swain,because Beatrice is an ancient demon that likely haunted noxus already for decades if not centuries.

Berserknurple4/18/2018, 8:47:49 AM1 votes

None of Sion's lore is contradictory or needs change. Boram has long been known to have extended his life via magic, the timelines add up. Everything is pretty clear really, Boram was obviously aware of the demon in the Immortal Bastion and that's why he warned Sion about ravens. Sion is a fucking giant of a man and the greatest warrior in Noxian history, IN ADDITION to being a close friend of Boram himself, who we already know has dabbled in necromancy/life-extending magic. Of course he would try to resurrect Sion, and of course Swain would take advantage of the insane monster locked inside his monument (as long as he can be controlled). The Shadow Isles dagger required Elise's involvement to acquire, so it may not have been possible to fully restore Sion the first time. Or more likely, the Black Rose simply wasn't much of a fan of Boram and didn't want to do more than lip service. Noxus won the battle where Sion died, so getting his body back when its literally just outside of the capital city wouldn't be an issue.

As far as Swain, all of the descriptions still match up as Swain does in fact still have a hurt leg and a brace. Not mentioning the lost arm might be strange, but might not considering he still has one, it's just demony.

And no, The Mountain's death and Sion's are quite different. Duel vs. battlefield. Sion wasn't outmatched by Jarvan like the Mountain was, Sion was just massively outnumbered, single-handedly breaking through the King's bodyguards and choking him to death before dying. Unless you think the trope of "two warriors killing each other" is a super unique trope (it's not)

The only lore bits that may need some change are Demacians assaulting the Immortal Bastion as that's pretty unlikely (although could easily have been before Noxus was much of an empire, during a failed invasion of Demacia) and MAYBE Boram's title. Grand General could easily still have been a title for Boram, even if just a secondary one, like Commander-in-Chief

Now don't get me wrong, I'd love more Sion lore, but what is there needs little-to-no change