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Summary of the Rune Wars

Artificial Human·6/1/2016, 7:12:29 PM·4 votes·2,499 views

I've always been fascinated by the lore of league of legends and one of my favorite topic is the rune wars, because we know not that much about it and because of that there is a lot of room to speculate. The Rune wars was recently mentioned in Rammus and Skarner's updated lore.

First off there are the Magelords (Owl) and the Protectorate (Stag), the theme color of the magelords is red and for the protectorates, blue.

The Magelords are more like...mages.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/3/3a/ProfileIcon713_Red_Team.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141113192119

and the Protectorates like Paladins.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/fe/ProfileIcon712_Blue_Team.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141113192030

There are two skins with that theme, Rune Wars Renekton, he has red crystals in his shoulder pads, therefore he references the magelords. The other one is Runeguard Volibear, he has blue crystals in his armguards and thus references the protectorates. That is atleast how i interpreted it.

Summary of the Rune Wars:

  • Runeterra held a large quantitiy of raw magical power
  • Runeterra's denizens band together in tribes
  • Opposing tribes fight to settle their disputes
  • War between tribes
  • No matter the era, preferred choice of warfare has always been magical
  • Magical items were forged (Weapons and Armors)
  • Armies were enhanced or decimated by spell and rune alike
  • Cataclysmic forces of the Rune wars began to devastate the world
  • Runeterra was on a collision course with disaster
  • Unchecked magical warfare began exposing the fragility of runeterra
  • Violent earthquakes and horrific magically-fueled storms made life difficult
  • The Rune wars sundered the shuriman desert with uncontrolled magic
  • It is theorized another rune wars would tear the world apart

The old indicates more than one Rune wars, but it's pretty old and the recent sources only speak of one.

7 Comments

EndGamer116/1/2016, 9:13:47 PM2 votes

The magic of the Rune Wars seems to be far stronger than the magic used currently in Runeterra, so there might have been some event that caused the source of magic to shrink slightly, or the "portal" through which magic flows to shrink. Pre-RW magic is strong, see Ancient Targon, Shuriman Ascention practices, Ryze's scroll. Maybe Zilean is old enough to qualify as well. Currently, most common magic is through binding magic to Runes (which are used in Hextech weapons). Rarer than that is caster magic, such as Veigar, Syndra, and Taliyah. Rarest and most powerful seems to be ancient magic, as previously stated, examples in LoL being Ryze, Xerath, Brand, etc.

I theorize that the early Demacians were the remnants of the Protectorates. Their paladin-like nature and resemblances in architecture seem to coincide. The Magelords seem to have been all but wiped out, but perhaps they built Piltover and used their knowledge of runes to create Hextech. Factions of both that may have split could have created Noxus and Zaun. Protectorates who thought power was more important than civility split and run Morde's cultists out of his castle and found Noxus, while Magelords who disregard safety are exiled from the city of Piltover, only to set up shop right across the bay.

A future rune war would see the major powers against each other in an all-out fight. Zaunite poison bombardments of Singed and Warwick are met by Piltover gunfire and bombs from Ziggs. Noxian charges are met by Demacian troops covered by Heimerdinger's turrets. Sensing blood being shed, Morde heads out from the Shadow Isles with whichever troops from the Black Mists can muster. Bard hovers nearby (relatively speaking), ready to snatch up any ancient relics (as long as they are too powerful). Xerath, if his army isn't cleaned up soon in the current lore, may march to clean up what remains. Worst case scenario, Malzahar summons the Void to Valoran with victory assured by the infighting. This attracts Diana and the rest of the Aspects, possibly even Sol himself. At this point, over 75% of the League roster is at whichever big area this takes place in. The only way this conflict is resolved is a series of miracles, or Sol atomizing the planet, which he is very capable of doing.