Found a cool easter egg on the Piltover map which has a nod to Jhins flavor text, I think.

firesfrost·Dec 7, 2016·4 votes·4,107 views

If you look in the top right, you see it leads off to Ionia, Jhins home as you may know.

There were a couple of names scrawled alongside Ionia, and one caught my eye:

Kashuri

A quick skim through Jhin's flavor text and found out it is actually the armory where he got his weapons from, neat. > Desperate to counter the power of the ninja and Wuju swordsmen, a cabal within the ruling council conspired to secretly free Jhin and turn him into a weapon of terror. Now with access to the Kashuri armories’ new weapons, and nearly unlimited funds, the scale of Khada Jhin’s “performances” has grown.

Anyone out there found anything else cool on the map?

11 Comments

SharjoDec 7, 20161 votes

I suppose the Medarda, and really Piltover as a whole, are keenly interested in the Kashuri and their hextech.

RiotWAAARGHboboDec 7, 20167 votes

Ooooh... and vice-versa. They are vvvvery interested in Piltoverrrr and Zaunnnn.

SharjoDec 7, 20162 votes

I can imagine. The potential for hextech in Ionia's just absurd. I mean what else are they gonna do with all that magic?

RebonackDec 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

I suppose the Medarda, and really Piltover as a whole, are keenly interested in the Kashuri and their hextech.

Waaaaait hold on a moment here.

Jhin's story makes it pretty clear that hextech (using actual or synthetic namestones as a power source) is a Piltover Only thing. Jhin's weapon is powered by (or enhances) his own innate magic. These are two very different forms of technology. One is self-contained while the other functions as more of a focus for the wielder's own abilities.

SharjoDec 7, 20161 votes

Oh no Ionia's making hextech of their own. Ever since they started getting their arses handed to them by Noxus they were scrambling for ways to salvage their lands, and the Kashuri went from just making traditional weapons to the first Ionian hextech. Jhin's gun Whisper is an example of what they've been able to accomplish with some better funding. It's not nearly as technologically advanced as the stuff you'd find in Piltover and Zaun, but they make up for that by being able to use a crap ton of magic. What they lack in tech they make up for in raw power, which is why Whisper's so sodding powerful of a weapon.

From the first line of his short story:

The gun in his hand was simply a tool - but a perfectly crafted one. Gold type was inlaid into the blackish-green metal. It spelled the smith's name: This detail spoke of its creator's pride and confidence. It was not a Piltovian weapon - those gaudy things that attempted to function with the minuscule amounts of magic available in those lands. This gun was made by a true forge master. Magic pulsed from its bronze, Ionian heart.

On that note I'm wondering if there are places beyond the Kashuri armories in Ionia actively working on hextech development. Would make some modicum of sense I feel.

RebonackDec 7, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Oh no Ionia's making hextech of their own. Ever since they started getting their arses handed to them by Noxus they were scrambling for ways to salvage their lands, and the Kashuri went from just making traditional weapons to the first Ionian hextech. Jhin's gun Whisper is an example of what they've been able to accomplish with some better funding. It's not nearly as technologically advanced as the stuff you'd find in Piltover and Zaun, but they make up for that by being able to use a crap ton of magic. What they lack in tech they make up for in raw power, which is why Whisper's so sodding powerful of a weapon.

From the first line of his short story:

Ah, it's possible you may have misunderstood what I meant.

Hextech is based on hexcrystals (namestones from the Brakern). The really powerful (and expensive) stuff is made actual namestones. Everything else uses the synthetic substitute that Clan Ferros invented. Given how revolutionizing this technology is, it seems wildly unlikely that Clan Ferros would share a trade secret like that with anyone ever. As far as I know, if anyone wants hexcrystals they have to go through Clan Ferros to get them.

Or.

Y'know.

Go murder some more crystal scorpions and make Skarner even more lonely.

So if Ionia is making hextech equipment (which is a specifically defined term now that we actually know what hexcrystals are) they would no doubt be forced to pay through the teeth for those synthetic crystals.

But why would they?

Jhin says it himself. Ionia is full of magic. Innate magic is much more common there. If this new technology isn't simply acting as a focus for innate power, then whatever is power it probably isn't a hexcrystal, but some other magical power source native to Ionia and distinct from the false-namestones the Pilties use.

SharjoDec 7, 20161 votes

Given Ionia's effectively adopting the powers from other areas but still being very much their own people I can see their approach to hextech being to create a different power source, potentially just straight out of the air or from the user. I can imagine Ionians looking at hexcrystals and figuring out a more elegant and natural form for such a power source, potentially imbuing the devices themselves and their materials with magic. It might not even be consistent since this is even newer technology to Ionia than Piltover, Zaun and Noxus.

Alternatively they heard about the approach with the Brackern and said "Hey we have creatures like that" and began harvesting the native wildlife, sentient or not, for their innate magic that they could form in to something substantial with which to fuel their creations.

Dunno. We'll have to dive in to an Ionian hextech armory to see their methodology.

RebonackDec 7, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Dunno. We'll have to dive in to an Ionian hextech armory to see their methodology.

You're hitting on exactly the points I was considering.

If it isn't using hexcrystals, but something else, then it wouldn't really be hextech, would it? Since hexcrystals are what define hextech these days rather than it simply being vague 'magical technology'. Just as you could have a ship run off a diesel engine or a nuclear reactor. The same tool with the same purpose, but a diesel ship and a nuclear ship are quite different in their application.

I really want to know how Ionia's new technology works compared to what Piltover creates. Because IF Ionian tech requires innate magic to wield, that could have some very interesting story consequences in the event of stolen weapons. And if Ionian tech needs heavy ambient magic to function, then that might cause a rude awakening when taking the gear elsewhere.

SharjoDec 7, 20161 votes

If it isn't using hexcrystals, but something else, then it wouldn't really be hextech, would it?

I wouldn't say so because it all falls in the realm of techmaturgy. I mean hell such a name implies that the whole concept of hextech is machinery that can do miracles. How it's specifically powered makes little difference since in the end it's all using magic, like how the ships all are powered by energy. Energy's just that, even if the origins are different. Magic's probably similar. Sure it has different shapes and forms when encountered in the world, but down to its base it's still magic.

RebonackDec 8, 20162 votes

{quoted}

I wouldn't say so because it all falls in the realm of techmaturgy. I mean hell such a name implies that the whole concept of hextech is machinery that can do miracles. How it's specifically powered makes little difference since in the end it's all using magic, like how the ships all are powered by energy. Energy's just that, even if the origins are different. Magic's probably similar. Sure it has different shapes and forms when encountered in the world, but down to its base it's still magic.

Same tools different power sources. I think 'techmaturgy' is a great generalist term for this stuff, machines that run on the principles of magic (whatever those might be, we still don't even know what magic IS in this setting =P) rather than the laws of motion and thermodynamics. Hextech with hexcrystals, whatever the heck Ionion techmaturgy is because whatever it runs on.

I'm just one of those silly people who likes to precisely define things. That's why I made that 'what the hell is magic?' topic I did months ago. Understanding how a setting works at its most basic levels tells you a lot about the nature of the setting.