I'm tired of people freaking out about this. Riot went out of their way to call Vastaya a phylum. It's a larger classification of creatures. Fish and Humans are part of the same phylum, for example. Yordles being spirits doesn't stop them from being Yordles. Ahri being Vastaya doesn't stop her from being a magical fox girl. Nami being one doesn't stop her from being Marai.
BananaSlayerAMO40 votesStory-wise Riot didn't change much; they just added a name to animal-human hybrids and a brief insight into Runeterran history.
ModKnightsKemplar3 votesTHIS is what people don't understand I think.
They are expecting "Vastayan" to be this big-deal thing. It's not. It's just a word that is used that lumps animal-hybrids together. They aren't human, they're vastayan.
I think if people understood that, they wouldn't really be complaining. The complaint that I keep hearing is that nobody wants to wait a year to get the lore dump on all the Vastayan champs that are totally different now. But they aren't different, and that's been lost in translation.
Azteryz1 votesbut not all hybrids are vastayan right?
like volibear
people shouldnt be freaking out
Sharjo30 votesNami can be vastaya AND Marai. The tribes have names y'know.
ULTRAF0RCE1 votesare all marai vastaya? or are there members of the marai tribe or species or whatever group the marai are only vastayan or are non vastayan's such as yordles or fizz's people also able to be in the same group.
Sharjo3 votesMembers of vastayan tribes are all considered vastayan. To be a part of that tribe your heritage has to go back to the origin of the vastaya to begin with, which immediately locks out other beings who don't share that heritage.
To draw from a gaming example: in WoW there are a bunch of races that share an origin in that they were descended from creations of the titans. This group of beings was called the Titan Forged and included vrykul, tol'vir, dwarves, mogu and others. They were all their own races while being part of a collective group of beings tied to a specific origin. The vastaya are actually far more specific in how they came to be down to their core than that, but I find it to be the best example.
ULTRAF0RCE1 votesokay I understand that now, I presume the player base will need to wait to find out about whether or not non-vastayans are allowed to be in a vastayan tribe long term?
Sharjo1 votesYes, but it will be soon! Really soon!
DragonShea1 votesNami can be vastaya AND Marai. The tribes have names y'know.
Well said.
Requiemsfire19 votesThese Ahri mains would rather her be a painfully generic Japanese reference with no influence or interaction with the world around them rather than an actual character. Ahri's lore put side by side with the lore of other characters, Ahri is nothing special.
Papa Andrei10 votesTHey literally want her to be a meat character, with no real interesting story, with a generic goal (Be hooman) and not play a part in the world. Just something for their "fanart"
Raxistaicho5 votesUhh, hello, Ahri main over here, I'm actually glad she was retconned into being a Vestayan because it actually connects her with the lore a little better, and I'd been annoyed for some time that the removal of the League made her disconnected from everything else.
Requiemsfire1 votesI find that her lore as it stands is rather weak. I mean her whole character is being human but there's no mentioned motivation, no reason, no reference to any kind of personality shift outside the remorse she gained from killing people and beyond being a Vastaya she is utterly inconsequential as it stands to any of the main arcs in League of Legends.
Leetri1 votesThe funny thing is that Ahri isn't even a reference to the Japanese nine tailed fox, she's based on the Korean version.
Requiemsfire2 votesOf that I am fairly aware, however the vast majority of fans most likely won't do research on the subject and brand it with their own assumption.
yay nibbers1 votesThe extra silly thing is she's still that Asian myth reference, she just has another label slapped on her now. Nothing important has even changed.
Cubical9 votesAhri was a sexy boob fox naruto copy and now she has background ://////////
Tattersall2 votesHuh. I hadn't realized this. I wasn't freaking out or anything, but I'm glad I read this post. +1
what you deserve2 votesthe people who don't think ahri counts as vastayan are kidding themselves there's literally no way any literate person could read the recent post and actually think ahri isn't vastaya
TeCoolMage2 votesYup. Classification and world building isn't retcon.
People need to stop arbitrarily deciding something is 'retcon' simply because of their unconfirmed preconceptions being proven wrong later down the line.
I might as well be saying that every new champion is a retcon because the lore isn't exactly the same as it was before. Or an announced champion being different from what I expected is a 'retcon'
Glîtchy1 votesI'm not a fan of this, cause it takes the uniqueness away from Ahri,
however I don't mind 
or 
being apart of the Vastaya
original lore was too similar to Ahri's in the sense of how he became what he is now.
shrouded in enough mystery, such as his race was NEVER confirmed.
Tenant24 votesYou're fine with those two being Vastayan but not Ahri? Based on what? What was even "unique" about Ahri before this?
Glîtchy1 votesYou're fine with those two being Vastayan but not Ahri? Based on what? What was even "unique" about Ahri before this?
Let's see, the fact she was the first Japanese mythological entity in league (Kitsune), and the fact that she was one of a kind to begin with, now it's just....eh.
Sharjo26 votesYou mean Korean mythological entity (Gumiho)?
Nobody11115 votesYou mean Korean mythological entity (Gumiho)?
You mean the Chinese mythological entity (húli jīng)? ;)
Sharjo5 votesTouche. Sorry I was unaware of a chinese version of them myth.
Lanceworks5 votesWhile the many-tailed fox myth did originate in China, Ahri was inspired by the Korean version of it.
Nobody11112 votesthat I do know, I was mostly being a smart ass.
Requiemsfire9 votesThe fact that Ahri's only unique trait in your eyes is that she's a part of a mythology says a lot about the character.
Supreme Senpai691 votes^. To me she hasn't changed at all. If anything I dig it even more. At first I was like "Wow she's a fox that wants to be human so she takes their humanity which ironically is inhumane." But that didn't make sense cuz like why is a fox doing this how does a fox have the ability to take their humanity or even think things that aren't fox-related
Now we know
In runeterra there are creatures that are basically sentient animals. Now she makes sense.
MavenSong4 votesidk why people are jumping the gun, we still dont have her updated lore. She can still very well be unique.
Valaran Nara9 votesidk why people are jumping the gun, we still dont have her updated lore. She can still very well be unique.
Based on Xayah's disdain for Ahri and calling her a Mu-takl (race traitor), I'm assuming that Ahri still wants to be more human, but was born a Vastayan and not just a random fox. In which case, Ahri isn't too fond of her race or being the individual she is within her skin.
Spareatick6 votesI disagree. I don't think it takes away her uniqueness. I feel ahri is unique because of what she has been through and how she acts now because of what she learned from that. In my opinion her being vastayan finally connects her to the world. She felt so disconnected from the bigger picture before because she was just a fox that transformed into a human (kind of) and didn't really have any meaningful interactions. Her existence just seemed so random
NineTailedMystic1 votesShe didn't need meaningful interactions. I liked how she didn't have any friends or rivals. No, Wukong doesn't count because I can't find any reason why they're considered friends at all.
Spareatick1 votesShe didn't need meaningful interactions. I liked how she didn't have any friends or rivals. No, Wukong doesn't count because I can't find any reason why they're considered friends at all.
I can understand why you would like that, it's just my personal preference I suppose. It gets me more invested in the characters when I feel they have a bigger connection to the world around them.
Anidan5 votesAlright, so you're not fine with Ahri being a bit less unique in that regard because there's a phylum, but you're okay with Wukong being changed because his original lore was too similar to Ahri's..? It's the other way around, if anything. Wukong was released first. If you're going to have a problem with it, you can't cherry-pick like that. You have a problem with both Wukong and Ahri, or you have a problem with neither since it's basically the same issue.
Glîtchy1 votesAlright, so you're not fine with Ahri being a bit less unique in that regard because there's a phylum, but you're okay with Wukong being changed because his original lore was too similar to Ahri's..? It's the other way around, if anything. Wukong was released first. If you're going to have a problem with it, you can't cherry-pick like that. You have a problem with both Wukong and Ahri, or you have a problem with neither since it's basically the same issue.
Ahri is more memorable than Wukong, when someone asks you about an ionian champ which of those two comes to mind first?
Anidan9 votesWhen I think of Ionia I tend to think of neither of them in the first place. I think of someone like Irelia, Karma, and Lee Sin. But of the two listed, I think of Wukong first, personally. Not saying that's the norm or anything, but I think of Wukong before I think of Ahri because I like the Journey To The West novels more than I care about Gumiho or Kitsune. Really, I'm pretty sure the only reason she's even Ionian is because Ionia is a short-hand for Asia, and like Wukong, she's derived from Asia.
Now, as a result we can look to why Ahri is considered more memorable, and I can take a stab at the answer: She receives more attention from Riot and looks easier on the eyes. That's it. Wukong has never been in a cinematic to my memory, while Ahri has. Ahri is also frequently used in promotional art while Wukong isn't. Her appearance is more marketable and so we remember her better than Wukong despite the fact that overall she's not a more compelling character than Wukong, nor is her lore any deeper or more involved than Wukong's.
DarkRitual1 votesTurns out gamer guys like pretty girls with boobs. Don't need a focus group for that.
Most of the girls I know who play like her too. They find her very pretty as well.
HowPlayGAEM1 votes[deleted]
DarkRitual3 votesI doubt Xayah knows what a phylum is.
ULTRAF0RCE1 votesTo compound what Dark Ritual said it seems most likely that Xayah's goal is to kill all humans which are a species, but yeah she probably thinks of Vastaya as beings that can transform or have some human features but are not members of the species, it would be interesting to see what her thoughts would be on Nidalee who is not Vastayan but is still quite special.
Sozan51 votesYordles being spirits doesn't stop them from being Yordles.
Uh, but it makes them spirits, which they weren't before.
It also does so in a very lame way, basically removing most of the interaction they had with the rest of the world. They just made them into another Bard/Kindred/Aurelion, but without things that make them nice. Oh, and when they do interact - the other side doesn't even realize that.
Mind you that this is a huge difference from what they were before: coexisting with the rest of the world, Poppy was an ambassador of Demacia, Heimer/Ziggs were in Piltover, Heimer even had an academy there, Humans coming to visit Bandle City to see where Heimer grew up etc.
Also, making them immortal magical beings makes Gnar, The Missing Link, completely redundant.
Chromatic Eagle1 votesI actually agree, but my point is that saying a champion being a part of something new doesn't automatically remove something that they are a part of.
Sozan51 votesBut it did remove something for Yordles, that's why you shouldn't put them together with the Vastaya.
FilDaFunk1 votesVastaya are certainly in a lower taxon than phylum - I would assume chordata, since they have a spine.
