Aurelion Sol - What's in a name?

I consider myself an - I hesitate to use the word - expert on languages, vocabulary and grammar, and how we, as humans, understand, interpret and react to them. Above anything else, I'm really good at pattern recognition. Names can hold tremendous meaning, especially in fictional works. League is no exception.

So the entity formerly known as Ao Shin that Riot teased us with back in 2013 has been announced to at last maybe finally be released in this half of the year... under the name Aurelion Sol. Does this mean the Ao Shin we knew once is dead? No. This is the evolution of ideas and drafts. i know this personally being both a writer and an artist that from meetings to the cutting room and production floors, so many things can be changed about anything in any given work. Remember that Illaoi was originally a squat, old woman and Braum once wore armor. Riot and League of Legends in general is an interesting case study on the evolution on ideas. Since it's constantly being updated and its voice and image slowly shaped over time, we can see in real time the ideas being reworked and old story elements being retconned in favor of ideas more concrete and better shaped... with varying degrees of quality and accuracy, but I digress.

So what kind of name is Aurelion Sol? First, we'll discuss what kind of name Ao Shin is. Ao is a Japanese word for color somewhere between the blue and green spectrum. It's also associated with youth. Shin has a variety of meanings, depending on how you write it in Kanji, with a synonymous thread between most of them. It has associations like "new", "progress", "true", "humility". So Ao Shin's name can have such meanings like "New Blue", "Young Progress", or "New Humility", and these various names give insight into the kind of character he might have initially been portrayed as behind closed doors. The name Ao was also fitting because sky blue was a primary color on him, and the sketches showed him interacting with wind, painting him as a Janna-like champion who had mastery over the element of air. On top of all this, his name was Japanese, associating him with Ionia, the Asia surrogate in this game.

Aurelion Sol is Latin. Aurelion is an alternate spelling of Aurelian, which is an ancient term for interest in butterflies. Its name is associated with chrysalis and the golden color that it changes to before it hatches and the butterfly emerges. Aurelian's name is also derived from the Latin word for gold, Aurum (Au is the periodic symbol for gold). Once again we see an association with the sky (butterflies) and progress (chrysalis), still reflecting the undertones behind Ao Shin's name.

Sol is the Latin name for the sun. It's as simple as that, but the meaning can have so many interpretations. The sun is literally the single most important thing in the universe to us. We could not be here without the energy and light from the sun. Almost every religion on the planet was born as a result of this subconscious acknowledgement of the dependency on the sun; even the Judeo-Christian religions are derivatives of sun worship. The sun is also commonly associated with the elements of light and fire, being a giant ball of plasma and nuclear fusions that provide heat and light. Finally, it's also associated with the cosmos; the sun is just one of basically infinite out there. Whenever you look up into the sky at night (granted you live in an area with little smog and light pollution and can actually see them), all those stars up there are another sun in our galaxy. They're everywhere. From a mythological and religious standpoint, the cosmos is the outer realms of reality, where greater gods dwell and what mortal minds were not meant to comprehend. You can call it Heaven or Asgard or Olympus, but the meaning remains the same.

Now combine this association with the Bard trailer from a year ago. Giving Riot the benefit of the doubt and hoping and assuming that they weren't playing us like a piano two dollar banjo GODDAMN FIDDLE!, the egg object that Bard stole/took/recovered/protected from the Ionians and Noxus was claimed by Riot to be Ao Shin's egg. Bard technically has no association or affiliation in Runeterra. He's an extraplanar entity who appears to restore balance where it's needed. His story in the preview leading up to that was told from the perspective of stargazers on (presumably) Mt. Targon. For all intents and purposes, he's of a cosmic affiliation; something outside mortal understanding, and this is further emphasized by his voicelessness, his faceless, inhuman mask, glowing eyes and mouth, alien designs on his flute(?) and clothing, and inflated, disproportionate limbs. Even calling him a him from a masculine sense is misleading.

Ao Shin's supposed egg was also cosmic in its appearance; it literally looked like a reflection of space. This proposes that Ao Shin, now Aurelion Sol, is also cosmic in origin like Bard, perhaps even directly associated with him because of the events in the Bard trailer. Because of his name of Aurelion, he could also still be associated with the sky and therefore wind. Sol associates him with fire and light. His Latin name (meaning almost literally Golden Sun or Solar Butterfly) and their association with the sun could make him affiliated with Mt. Targon or even Shurima, as they both worship the sun and have a lot of solar iconography, and the Latin language originates from the area around Italy, which presides just northwest of the Middle East, similar in Targon's geographical relationship to Shurima.

What does this mean for his supposed abilities? It probably means he'll either have phenomenal cosmic powers or he'll control the forces of wind and/or fire or some combination of both. It could even be solar wind (though THAT would be truly bizarre). He's definitely a mage and likely a support. Whatever the case may be, understanding the origins of his names gives new insight into what he might possibly be once he's finally released, and definitely made me more interested in him than when I was when I woke up this morning.