So...Are the Darkin Evil?

Dreamspitter·Dec 1, 2017·3 votes·757 views

Are they? Varus says he wants to avenge his kin. His Darkin. The way he describes it, he says that "humans" destroyed his entire PLANET. And basically says "You think I am the monster? Oh we were creatively brutal, but look around you."

Still, this could be extremely biased.

But since they come from another world entirely, it makes me think of the Targonian Space Empire. Perhaps they, using Human forms destroyed their planet. I still don't quite grasp what the Targonians are, truly, but Darkin seem much easier to understand. It was indeed mentioned by Aurelion that there were many space faring peoples, who traveled from world to world.

The Darkin if we judge them by the few we know, are all warriors. But is that what common Darkin were really like?

12 Comments

RebonackDec 1, 20172 votes

Objective ethics don't exist in the League universe. Evil isn't a thing. The Darkin did what they thought was in the best interest of their people, I would imagine.

DreamspitterDec 2, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Objective ethics don't exist in the League universe. Evil isn't a thing. The Darkin did what they thought was in the best interest of their people, I would imagine.

Soooo .... Evelynn TahmKench Nocturne Veigar Hecarim Mordekaiser Teemo ?

Then there's questions of whether there is such a thing as "Cosmic Evil"? This is Evil on a scale that goes bigger than Runeterra. Albeit originally, this would have been more an Orange/Blue Amoralism rather than Black/White as in later mythos works.

RebonackDec 2, 20172 votes

{quoted}

Soooo .... ?

Then there's questions of whether there is such a thing as "Cosmic Evil"? This is Evil on a scale that goes bigger than Runeterra. Albeit originally, this would have been more an Orange/Blue Amoralism rather than Black/White as in later mythos works.

Well, let me explain in a slightly different way.

Philosophically speaking, ethics and morality are different things. Ethics is 'ought' in a cosmic sense. Morality is the mores (social norms) of a given culture. For a cosmic scale 'ought' to exist, there needs to be an ethical force or being that objectively defines what ought is. In most of the monotheistic religions, ought is defined by God. In standard D&D cosmology, ought is defined by the alignment axis.

Riot has gone out of their way to inform us that there's no absolute God in the League universe. The closest thing we have is the cycle of reincarnation perpetuated by Nagakoborus. So things dying and reincarnating is what 'ought' to be. Hence, why things of the Shadow Isles are such an abomination. So we could argue that beings like Thresh are evil, not because they do morally reprehensible things, but because they are a violation of the only universal ought that we're aware of.

As far as Cosmic Evil goes, that might apply to the Void. From Rek's story it sure sounds like Void beasties are able to rip souls out of the cycle of reincarnation and use them as the 'physical' building blocks for themselves and their tools. That would make them evil as well. But I'm willing to bet the cycle of reincarnation doesn't exist in the Void. Maybe the sapient critters there find the idea of something dying and its personality being annihilated forever exactly as reprehensible as someone from Runeterra would find their destruction of the reincarnation cycle. In which case, we might have two competing and mutually opposed oughts, which would be an interesting dynamic all on its own.

PlacentasDec 2, 20171 votes

Yoo, wish I could upvote this several times. I like this observation a lot.

GlîtchyDec 1, 20171 votes

Darkin Kayn exists, so either Darkin are the bad guys, or Riot games are the bad guys for creating him.

TheHappyReaperzDec 1, 20171 votes

I'm still not sure the Darkin are aliens. The only indicator I've seen of the Darkin being aliens, was Varus referring to Runeterra as the "new world", which could mean they are aliens, but that phrase is also used by a lot of explorers. North America was once the new world. Also, the Darkin, so far, have yet to demonstrate any real space travel abilities. While they are really strong warriors, they can't manipulate dimensions like the Void or Targonians can, and show no scientific advancements.

PlacentasDec 2, 20172 votes

Imo, I dont think they're "space aliens" per say, but more like dimensional aliens.

RebonackDec 2, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Imo, I dont think they're "space aliens" per say, but more like dimensional aliens.

Both are possibilities, the information we have on them is still pretty vague.

And for the record, I've never been a huge fan of the Darkin. Something about them has always rubbed me the wrong way ever since Aatrox came out. That said, the new lore for them feels really weak. Previously it sounded like Aatrox was a demon of some kind. Except instead of making a contract with someone and then personally devouring them like Eve or Tahm, he made a contract with armies to give them the power to devour them enemies. And then, ultimately, themselves.

The new spin on the Darkin basically just sounds like the Burning Legion.

PlacentasDec 2, 20171 votes

I don't mind the Darkin really, but I also don't see where they fit into the rest of the story? Like we have the void, shadow isle, and world rune threats. A handful of Darkin don't seem nearly as bad compared to those things.

I'm not familiar with Burning Legion so I dunno. I think with Aatrox we really just need to wait and see because I do hope they keep the core of him basically powering up armies and fueling rage and chaos, having them win but the soldiers slowly are corrupted and driven mad with despair.

If anything I think they might play a part in the Noxus Vs Demacia Vs Ionia story line.

RebonackDec 2, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I don't mind the Darkin really, but I also don't see where they fit into the rest of the story? Like we have the void, shadow isle, and world rune threats. A handful of Darkin don't seem nearly as bad compared to those things.

I'm not familiar with Burning Legion so I dunno. I think with Aatrox we really just need to wait and see because I do hope they keep the core of him basically powering up armies and fueling rage and chaos, having them win but the soldiers slowly are corrupted and driven mad with despair.

If anything I think they might play a part in the Noxus Vs Demacia Vs Ionia story line.

The Burning Legion are a bunch of totally-not-demon extra-dimensional invaders from the Warcraft universe.

And I'm with you on the threat thing. We already have the Void as the otherworldly threat. We have the Shadow Isles as the 'unnatural' but still part of this world threat. And of course the World Runes could doom everything. Then we have the demons who aren't an existential threat, but they're pretty unpleasant. Why do we need space invaders?

PlacentasDec 2, 20171 votes

Yeah exactly.

Like I feel like Riot is trying to play them off as something thats BIG, but I just don't see how they can be at the moment.

A rioter even stated one of the Demi-Gods such as Volibear, Anivia or Ornn could take on a Darkin and defeat them too. I think they even said Syndra could fight one and win.