There is some nuance between the "good and evil of Demacia and Noxus" - sure, Noxus is chock full of villainous folk (Talon's a cold-blooded killer, Katarina's a showboaty killer, Cassiopeia is a flippin' monster, Elise is a spider cult monster, LeBlanc is a trickster illusionist, Swain's a conspirator, Darius is basically a butcher in soldier's armor, Kled, Draven's a dick, etc. etc.), but there's still a lot to be said about Noxus and Demacia as nations.
Demacia is basically Dragon Age style anti-magic, and then some. While Runeterran Mages don't really have any demonic corruption to rightly fear, the Rune Wars sets a pretty huge bias against mages for Demacia. So huge is this bias that there is actually an order of people called the Annullers whose sole job is to discreetly, and, very much permanently, /muteall a mage. Which, considering that Demacia employs the Annullers probably to an extent more frequent than the Rite of Tranquility is used in Dragon Age, that should say something about how arcanophobic Demacia is.
And, while Noxus is teeming with villainy and evil, there's still a fair amount of good to the place. (yes, the military of Noxus is unimaginably vile, using children for shock-tactics, mages as WMD's, and the reanimated corpse of a blood-fueled war-machine, all in some measure), but from a political perspective (ignoring the underground mage cult pulling the strings behind everything), the place is actually relatively decent and welcoming.
Mages are allowed and encouraged, those who surrender are allowed not just to integrate, but to share culture (although that may be a secret war-tactic), and, for a time, the dead and dying were treated almost with more reverence than the living populace - and probably still are, if Karthus inspired a few tally-men to take to their work as he did.
And, I mean, sure, Noxus is nowhere near as balanced-out as Demacia is, I'd imagine it'd still be a halfway decent place to live provided you're hardy enough. Better than Bilgewater, anyway.
in the game? Does no one defect from anywhere else? Is Noxus just ALL bad? I remember being told that there was to be nuance about the "good" and "evil" of Demacia and Noxus but really, Noxus is filled with the absolute worst and nothing bad ever comes from Demacia. I also remember that we were supposed to get a Crimson Elite line to rival the Commandos and that got dropped completely.
(though he didn't leave the place on his own)
was a Noxian too
