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A Musing: How the Solari can be the "bad guys"

Tyvani·3/5/2015, 6:55:09 AM·4 votes·1,200 views

I originally posted this on a personal blog of mine, but am curious as to what kind of discussion I might be able to get from sharing this, so I figured I'd repost it here. Please feel free to share any thoughts you have about it.

I recently realized how in-line my Solari faction theory is with what Riot’s offered up as a hint in Leona’s League Judgement. Now, I know it’s easy to toss this aside by calling out that Riot retconned everything to do with the League, which would include the judgements, but I don’t think they’ll honestly ditch every single thing they’ve put into the lore in the past. Good chunks of information are still viable, they simply have to cut out the League. And all of this is well enough, but I will explain my theory below.

Now, one of the ideas I brainstormed some time ago when I was fervently enamored by Diana’s lore was to do with Solari and Lunari conflict. I obviously can’t be sure what really happened, but I can offer up something that had to be a huge point of the whole ordeal.

Power.

One of the things I brainstormed was that the Solari seeks to expand their influence. As of right now, all that’s been confirmed (unless I’ve otherwise missed something) is that the Solari exist at Mount Targon’s peak. That’s fine and all, but you can’t honestly thrive too well as a closed off faction at the top of the continent’s largest mountain, can you? Mountains are harsh and hostile and our own tallest mountain in near-impossible to climb, even. And while it seems the Rakkor prefer to fight with the other existing factions more than anything else, they are clearly loyal to the Solari given the fact that they willingly repealed Leona’s execution and let them take her. The Solari, a “simple,” sun-worshipping cult. A cult made up of Rakkorans who retired from war to revere the sun. Given that the Rakkor so highly value the art of war, there has to be more than just the previous Champion of the Sun’s standing as a valiant, Rakkorian warrior tying the Rakkor to the Solari in the present.

Of course, it’s not stated that the Solari are substantially muscling the Rakkor around enough to influence them that much in the present time. In all honesty, it’s hard to imagine they really are. But it could have happened in the past. Nevertheless, this would only make them two allied factions, alone, at the top of the continent’s highest mountain. Even between the two of them, thriving there can’t be easy. But who’s to say the Solari are exclusive to Mount Targon?

It seems, in most cases, that most religions seek to spread their faith. Maybe not originally to garner more influence over people farther away, but it can eventually devolve to that. What’s not to love about Solari worshippers in Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, and beyond sending food and resources to the temple on Mount Targon’s peak? Or having worshippers who come from far and wide on pilgrimage to the “sacred” place and leave money in donation to help them thrive. It makes life easier when people willingly donate things to your cause.

And so the Solari push outwards, send missionaries out across the land to spread the faith, and the faith catches on, perhaps a temple or two springs up across the continent. Slowly that faith spreads to more people, and people trickle into the following of the Solari. And then Leona comes along, and it’s like having their Champion of the Sun returned to them. They’re thrilled, shocked, and they rush to bring her to the safety of their temple. They help Leona focus her abilities, but once she’s ready, they ship her away to the League of Legends.

In Leona’s League Judgement, she claims the League should outright want her in their ranks because of who she is as the Chosen of the Sun and because of the power she’s gifted with. Whatever level of truth there is to that, it’s not enough to actually accept her. In the judgement, they pull out something else, something more honorable: Her desire to atone for the all the lost lives of the Rakkor children. In turn, it likely reminded her of how she wanted to protect them all and how she fought against the injustice of the Rakkor ways.

But it was the Solari who sent her to the League of Legends, an organization created to mediate political conflicts. An organization that ended up being used by factions to gain more power in the world. What reason would a religious cult have to send their Chosen of the Sun off if they had retired from war to serve the sun?

It was because they wanted power. Over time, the leaders, the Elders, likely grew twisted in their intentions. Where they once may have simply revered the sun, they now sought a greater foothold in the world. They sought more influence over the world, and Leona was their new tool.

"But the League of Legends doesn’t exist anymore!" You might cry.

This is true. But that doesn’t make this whole theory fall apart. Instead, it requires that Leona be sent off as a missionary in her own regard, or that she is sent to one of the various factions to form an alliance with them by serving in their military. One major change does happen with the retcon, however: Leona no longer has a summoner in her head pulling out the reminder of who she was originally fighting for.

Overall, a lot likely happened over a long period of time between when the Solari was first formed and where they are now, and a lot probably happened between the Solari and Lunari, as well. Nevertheless, this should offer insight into what sins the Solari may have committed over the years and why the Solari might fear having this lost and destroyed Lunari cult brought to light. Their hunger for power consumed them and twisted them, and much of the honor the core of the Solari may have possessed in the beginning likely withered away due to the dark side of human nature.

TL;DR: The Solari might be hella power-hungry and are using a "blinded" Leona to try to conquer the world.

4 Comments

A Superb Villain3/5/2015, 4:52:12 PM1 votes

Interesting theory. The idea of the Solari making efforts to expand their faith is a nice hook for future interaction between factions, and more connections between champions is always welcome.

However, I will contend with you on the point of the Solari being power hungry. While it is not entirely out of the question, having the upper echelons as bigoted zealots intent on expanding their influence for the sake of control feels wrong. The Solari are a religious sect within the Rakkor tribe, perhaps the smallest faction present on Runeterra. They are a fraction of a fraction, and conquest through military or theological methods would border on madness (madness?!). Few members of the Rakkor become Solari, and it is likely they share the same worship of the sun. That foreigners would be so willing to take up similar worship, let alone welcomed by the xenophobic Rakkor, is a questionable assertion, assuming outsiders have any interest in the Solari religion at all.

I imagine the Solari do send out missionaries, that they try to reach other populations of Valoran, but not for conquest nor power. They do so because they believe in their own righteousness; worship of the sun is the only truth, and how could it not be when its champion walks among mere mortals?

The primary theme of the Solari is being blinded by their own brilliance, so wrapped in the trappings of faith that everything is a mere shadow of their beliefs. They are zealots, some might even be fanatics, completely oblivious to truths outside their realm of understanding, corruption born of extremism. The order itself is not evil, though some of its members might be, but seriously misguided after years, perhaps centuries, of tradition being left uncontested no matter how unreasonable it might be.

Leona is how the Solari should be, not sectarians willing to murder the first deviant that crosses their path.