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The Truth about the Void

SaltyToplaneGoat·6/5/2015, 2:34:39 PM·6 votes·1,580 views

Ohhkay, so let's talk about this mysterious dimension for a bit. We have a fair amount of champs coming from there, yet we barely know anything about it - mostly because Riot keeps describing the Void as "too spooky to understand" and "too evil for our mortal minds to comprehend". But let's just work with what we have.

First of all, the Void is NOT simply another dimension, like Kayle and Morgana homeworld for example. But if it's not another world, what IS it? Simply... empty space in between dimensions? That wouldn't make sense since dimensions are not seperated by space.

Another point: dimensions and Void must be connected somehow - Void beings materializing in the world, icathians even worshipping the Void in the past. But how does the world influence the Void? In my theory these two realms are two sides of the same coin.

I did some thinking about this and came to a conclusion: why do we even think of the Void as a material realm? Wouldn't it make more sense for it to be some kind of extra-dimensional "spirit world"? Maybe even comparable to the ghost-world in Dragon Age Inquisition (that is also called nothingess or void for some reason) - in there you have spirits of wisdom, power, superiority, and a LOT of other concepts that could be described as jungian archetypes.

But wait, this does not explain why everything inside there is an purple monster with immense appetite. Or maybe it does?

Let's look at another thing for a moment. What is the most ELEMENTAL thing in all living things? The most primeval urge that is inside every single life form? Hunger. A living being needs to consume external substance to survive. The beings of the Void seem to be a manifestation of that, showing hunger in all of it's forms:

  • Hunger for the sake of eating: RekSai
  • Hunger for the sake of appetite: KogMaw
  • Hunger for Power: Chogath
  • Hunger for Knownledge: Velkoz
  • Strifing ("hungering") for perfection Khazix (in this case the perfect hunter so he can catch and eat even MORE stuff)

My theory is that the Void (as a collective) does not actively want to "invande" Runeterra (maybe some parts of it want to). They simply get drawn in, or "stumble" into the world. Some other theorys of mine: 1.) void beings could NOT enter a world without life. (because a world like that knows no "hunger") 2.)"Higher" forms of hunger, such as Vel'Koz, cannot manifest in worlds without sentinent life, in difference to Rek'sai or Kog'Maw that could show up almost everywhere. It also seems that from all Void-beings Rek'Sai has been in this world the longest time...

Inside the Void on the other hand those beings have no material form. There is no "species" of Cho'Gaths in the Void. There is just the one CONCEPT of what we call "Cho'Gath", the concept of hunger for power - we cannot be sure if this concept can materialize in the world multiple times at once, or if the strenght of materialzation simply increases the power of the one being that already is in the material world. There might be some kind of hierachy tho, some kind of order how these concepts stand to each other. This could be proven with Kog'Maw refering to his "father". What could be the "father" of a concept? I have the idea that Kog'Maws father might the manifestation of pure hunger itself, mindlessly consuming EVERYTHING that crosses it's path...

But wait, how does Malzahar go along with all this? We know that he is a seer, extremly open to any kind of magical/spiritual influence. If my theory is correct there are also different sentiences in the Void. Some of them want to consume the world, some maybe not and some are probably just hungry. But to get what they want they need to "open up" the veil that seperates the material world and their immaterial spirit-realm - maybe to increase their influence, who knows?

Tl, dr: Void not necessarely evil. Immaterial spirit realm connected to material world(s).

Also: there might be also other things that come from the Void. Some that are not driven mad by the hunger that forms their existence... I heard once that Poros are the materialization of whatever positive things there are around the howling abyss - a place that, apart from icathia,has the highest probablility of being void-related in entire Runeterra. Also... never stand in between a horde hungry Poros and their snacks.

Tl, dr 2: Poros might be Void related.

16 Comments

GreenLore6/5/2015, 2:50:14 PM3 votes

If each of the voidborn represent a different aspect of hunger,then how do you explain malzahars voidlings?Or the Xer'sai who are a whole species?Or the voidspawn of item 3512 ?

Rebonack6/5/2015, 4:39:51 PM3 votes

It is worth noting that in Koggy's lore he didn't enter Valoron.

He manifested. Which implies that he had no physical substance before he popped into being.

So this isn't simply a place that something comes from. It's a place where our concept of what is physical and real has no context. I can see the Void working in one of two ways, assuming that it isn't just 'the spooky purple monster dimension'.

In the first, the Void is more real than real. The things that dwell there can not exist in the physical world any more than we can exist in a video game because the video game isn't real. They can, however, create avatars. Things that are similar enough to the physical world that they can interact with it, but they can still bend the rules.

In the second, the Void is unreal. Unformed. Unbound by physical law as we imagine it. Wherein there is only will and hunger. And the Void seeks to impose its will and hunger on Runeterra, much to the chagrin of anyone who encounters the manifestations of its impulses.

The Anagram King6/5/2015, 3:36:43 PM1 votes

I made a --thread-- kind've recently on this topic, suggesting that the Void might be a semi-sentient force all by itself; perhaps beguiled by other realms and desiring to emulate parts of them.

In a nutshell, though I didn't say it in the thread, I would put forward that the Void could be what pre-dates real planes of existence. Twisting desires and a longing to exist as something greater than a concept. People who come into contact with it? Permeated by its ideas and visions.

Monsters that come out of it? All fine-tuned to learn about different bits and pieces of other realms.

This, of course, could just be coincidence. A by-product of champion diversity whilst trying to emulate the original theme. :P

Shénzhì6/8/2015, 10:03:32 AM1 votes

Interesting thoughts. Been curious, too, myself. I've come up with an interesting theory that stretches back to ancient times.

DIMENSION INTERVENTION Let's consider the creation of the cosmos as dimensions. Dimensions are difficult to comprehend but scientists have theorized. This difficulty of understanding may be the same as trying to understand the Void. Real-life's scientific theory on dimensions is different that this fictional explanation for LoL explaining they each one single layer merged into a whole what we call the cosmos.

  • First dimension was 'flat' and inter-connecting. It sounds chaotic where everything and nothing happens on the same string. The Void may be the 1st Dimension of the cosmos. This says that the Void is everywhere no matter where you look which makes sense to what we already know as 'a between-world'. (Time)
  • Second dimension adds 'depth' and is where the Grove is. In Bard: Mountain you see three dots in the sky from any planet. They are always there in any part of the universe; a distance cannot be measured as their is no 'cubic volume', sort of.. This is the 2nd Dimension of celestial beings. (Time and Gravity)
  • Third dimension adds 'volume' and is the endless universe we know today. If we jump vertically we're moving two-dimension; if we jump diagonally we're moving three-dimension. (Time, Gravity and Space)
  • Fourth dimension is quite difficult to explain for me. It strikes me as a timeful world looking into itself and this got me thinking of Zilean. Did his flawed time machine pass him into a 4th Dimension? He's physically there but is also pinpointed everywhere! Ekko should be careful since he is deliberately experimenting with dimensions. (Time, Gravity, Space and Infinity)

Consistency of all these dimensions is Time. Without time there can be no beginning or end and nothing can be created or destroyed; just Exist or Not Exist. The Void is not a timeless place since it can quite literally and sporadically do whatever it wants and its products are revealed. How can we assume it's bound to Time, though? With the existence of everything in one confined place both Time and Timeless may also exist together in the 1st dimension. This sounds almost as incomprehensible as the Void seems to be. So the legacy of the Void may explain all things that were created before time since it may be able to disembody Time itself. Kayle's flaming sword was "forged before time" so it's passed through 1, 2 and 3 dimensions.

The 'living essence' of the Void may reflect on how destructive a sentient super-intelligent Human being can be today. With a conscious and power to create and destroy maybe this living Void essence was simply Natural Selection to which now supersedes all other things that may have resided in the 1st Dimension. This may be typical of Ascendants in the 3rd dimension of Runeterra who are rising above all other things. This unfathomable being, a redeemer and destroyer of all the cosmos now only serves to express its own linear ultra-nature which to other dimensions is alien and chaotic. This protruding into other dimensions reflects the intelligence of this living Void essence and may explain the existence of all our 3rd Dimension life: an experiment with dimensions by creating and exploring them. Why? The simple curiosity of a sentient being.

Being "instilled with Void essence" like Kassadin and Malzahar could be explained better with this, I suppose, but no! It can but is not necessary. In fiction where there is a mystery is itself part of the story. The unexplainable mysteries of the Void just serves to intrigue the reader. There is one way of explaining it similar to Zilean's magical disease 'chrono-displasia'. It could be explained as 'nether-displasia'. The magical diseases themselves could simply be explained as: 'an unsafe exposure to defiling magic that envelopes the object, immerses the Soul and subsequently pertains it to its associated dimension'.

So .. if Bard and Soraka can traverse from the 2nd Dimension why can't this 'living Void essence', too? The message Malhazar brings may be the message of this ultra-being of the 1st dimension planning to come to the 3rd dimension and its experiments are the Void champions we play on LoL. If this is the case then maybe during ancient times of Angel's evil-busting battles were actually voidlings pouring through Zz'Rot Portals from the 1st D to 2nd D. Now there's a 3rd dimension it may plan to do that all over again.

Wolf with laces6/19/2015, 9:33:08 AM1 votes

Well, one day we had a session with my friend and we came to a very interesting conclusion. Void is from the future and is a capsule universe. From the future because one day the summoners magic somehow failed and made other creatures to mutate, and not just creatures but the landscape as well, in attempt to save the most, they used their magic to enclose everything that has been infected so far and send it somewhere. But the creature inside still remained and they were hungry, so hungry that soon everything was eaten and explored (for velkozs sake) and so they began to invade other realms such as runetera.

Rebonack6/19/2015, 1:28:16 PM1 votes

The thing is that rek'sai IS a leader. She is the queen of the Xer'sai,meaning that she does lead other voidbeings.

Not... really, though.

Nothing in Rek's lore or game-play or reveal or anything implies leading. She isn't a queen in the governmental sense, she's a big nasty solitary predator. Nor is she a queen in the eusocial sense, again, her 'species' consists of a bunch of solitary sand sharks rather than a hive of organisms who all work together.

I think she's 'Queen' of the Xer'sai in exactly the same way that Godzilla is King of the Monsters.

By being the nastiest one around.