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Rioters, tell me more about Factions at war please!

VaVahik··8 votes·4,404 views

Helo, I'm Izayeth and I am in the process of making a fanmade, community driven faction-based League TCG for anyone to download and print!

I need to know more about League's factions, it would be nice if Reds (or anyone in general) could answer a few questions:

I know that not every faction has official rulers or leaders, but in a time of imminent full scale war / cataclysm / other kind of hardship, who would they turn to? What those characters could offer as military/spiritual/political leaders?


If any LoLverse's factions were at war, what strategy would their actions revolve around? Lets assume no peace talks or diplomacy here. Would they simply crush their opponents with superior army or magic? Or rather use terrain advantages and tire the enemy out? Or use spies and traitors to make them fall apart from within?


What technologies / magic / weapons / units they would mainly use? Would f.e Piltover fight with mechs and turrets?


I am mainly interested in the following factions: ** Noxus Demacia Freljord Piltover Zaun Shurima Ionia**

I know that Noxus and Demacia are well covered in Universe videos, but I am still looking for more!

Tl;dr : Faction leaders / war strategies / techologies and weaponry insight please :)

Thanks for all replies :) [katarina-love]

@Ant In Oz

15 Comments

RiotCarnival Knights13 votes

Hm, well, let's see. And forgive me for a bit of incomplete knowledge, as I mainly deal with the rest of the multiverse instead of the core canon. If you want to talk about those dudes I will drone on forever.

Also note that everything below is covered more extensively and with (somewhat) less jokes on universe. The rest is purely conjecture/speculation and is not necessarily canon based on my running a lot of large scale battles in D&D and owning an eleven year old copy of Landmark Thucydides. So, you know, kind of an expert on war over here. Ha ha. Anyway.

Lets talk about military logistics. **Noxus **is essentially a huge melting pot of other cultures and peoples, and as a result has a huge, multicultural army trained in the most effective tactics and equipped with the deadliest weapons from defeated or absorbed nations. Because Noxus is (ostensibly) a meritocracy, this army is led by the baddest dudes around -- but individual soldiers can think and act freely if their commander gets taken out, so they're capable of performing well even without any active leadership. There's also the subject of Singed, who spends most of his time mixing biochemical weapons that he likes to "deploy on accident" for "super awesome tests." Collectively they're very hierarchical and organized, but individually they're unpredictable and patriotic. A scary combination.

The boys in Demacia are quite a bit different. They're an anti-magic monarchy and a kind of rigid, structured nanny state, cloistered off from the rest of the world but martially proficient in the event they need to attack or defend. Historically very powerful, they're also a bit fanatical in nature -- almost like an army of crusader-knights. Then there's Galio, who literally comes to life just to smoosh things and absorb enemy spells, which helps him smoosh more things. Any invading army would have their magic dampened and then have to fight on Demacian home turf against crazy strong soldiers. Not sure how the Demacians would do offensively. They don't really get out much.

The Freljord is a series of wild cards wrapped in another, larger wild card. The Freljord itself, much like Siberia in WW2, is its first line of defense. The people of the Freljord know how to deal with sub zero temperatures, unforgiving blizzards, and a bleak-ass tundra sparsely populated by murder vikings and (like in WW2) sixty-foot-tall snow monsters. After that it's down to who you're fighting. Ashe has a gigantic army of basically everyone, if I remember correctly. No matter how bad your dudes are, the Avarosans can overwhelm opponents with sheer numbers. The Winter's Claw is much smaller, but every single one of them is a hardened survivor capable of killing a dozen or more men in under a minute. Each of these factions of course is led by their respective champions, whose abilities also need to be taken into account.

Finally there's the Frostguard. Nobody really knows their true nature yet, and I guarantee Lissandra would see any attack coming months in advance. Were an invading army to get past the Winter's Claw and the Avarosans (Liss is a master manipulator, remember. Also I main her so I'm hella biased), and begin to break through the Frostguard citadel, there's at least a small chance (I actually don't know if she can just call them up like that. Gonna go with probably not) you're instantly dealing with a nigh-unkillable eldritch ice horror from an age long past. If she can just summon one up. Which she very likely can't.

Shurima kind of has the same thing going for it. It's a massive desert with nothing in it but sand and an angry talking crocodile and sometimes Rek'Sai, so any marching army immediately has to overcome all those hazards in addition to the unforgiving geography (and sometimes Rek'Sai). You've got two 'emperors' (I guess one is real, whatever) raising giant armies in their neato sandy castles, but both happen to deeply hate one another -- making it unlikely they would ally. Still, they're both ancient magical ascended (in Xerath's case, sort of ascended. Kind of. If you think about it), and they have very large and martially proficient armies trained to fight on sweltering sand dunes in the middle of the afternoon. They also probably recruit mages, or at least a handful of magical-type-dudes, so you're dealing with magic as well. And god forbid you knock the sun disk during your definitely-well-thought-out-siege. Seeing as how messing with that thing went so well the first time (spoiler: I did not go so well the first time). Plus if you accidentally march to Icathia because your maps are bad... well. Well.

Yeah, good luck invading Shurima. I hope you brought water and also your dumb idiot brain, you big dumb idiot.

I think **Piltover **and Zaun would be attacked before they fought anybody. That's pure conjecture, though; I'm not sure if they even have a standing military. I do think you're looking at a Zaunite-led guerrilla resistance consisting of jacked robot people, human-animal-chemical hybrids, time kids, engineered plagues, and whatever other nightmare Technomancer shit Zaun's bohemian weirdos decide might kick the invaders out. It might be easy to conquer, but it would be impossible to hold considering how advanced and deadly and difficult to track their weapons are. In my opinion. Again, **pure **conjecture, as is most of this stuff.

When it comes to Ionia, I'll let that one sit for now. Insert plug for universe here (seriously, though, the work on there is really really good). Hope this fires your imagination!

6FlagsFunnelCake2 votes

Wait the Winter's Claw is small? I just kind of assumed that the massive hoards of barbarians and vikings that attack Demacia, Noxus and any other tribes of the Freljord were associated with them.

VaVahik1 votes

Thank you for taking the time for your answer!

From a design standpoint for my LoL TCG, I decided that leaders will be key to the game. The players will play as leaders, so if these characters die, the match is lost.

Also, before I thought that putting Structures (cards that can't attack, but do something for you each turn) into the deck was a good idea, but after rethinking and testing some gameplay scenarios (As in drawing a structure when you have no cards in hand and enemy rushes to kill you) , it became clear that those either are gonna be in separate deck, or better: Put as the leader's abilities!)

So, my another question is: What kind of battle - related buildings would each faction use? Barracks where they train their soldiers? Or mercenary centers where anyone can be enlisted and tested for their rank? Or magic schools, technology centers etc.

Epicurus3 votes

Ok I'm not from Riot, but I'll have a go at this.

Noxus Noxus is led by the triumvirate of Swain, Darius, and an unnamed third person known only as "the Faceless", respectively representing vision, might, and guile. Previously Noxus was ruled solely by Boram Darkwill, but Swain decided to share power so that different values could be represented in Noxian rule. Regarding military tactics, Noxus' armies are made up of the united warbands of all the nations that have joined Noxus over the years. Their greatest strength is their diversity of tactics, so just about every strategy would be represented somewhere, including large animal cavalry, mages, espionage, or brute force. Likewise, they would use any technology they could get their hands on, but it's worth noting that Hextech and gunpowder weapons are technologies that Noxus has only recently acquired, so their use is still rather rare.

Demacia Demacia is led by King Jarvan III, but we don't know much about him. Jarvan IV and Garen are also both highly respected by the people of Demacia, so in times of crisis either of them could serve as a motivational leader. Demacia is fairly straightforward with their military tactics. They are very uniform and organised, and rely on the superior training and displince of their soldiers to achieve victory. However unbeknownst to the common people, there are also organisations within Demacia who covertly use magic to protect their nation, which is quite signigcatnt seeing as magic culturally tabooed. Also they have a giant magic statue that occasionally comes to life to squash enemy mages. Regarding technology and weaponry, Demacia has been slow to adopt new technologies and still rely on their traditional weaponry. Demacian steel had magic negating properties, so that's pretty useful.

Freljord There is no single faction leader of the Freljord, because the Freljord is not a single nation. It is made up of dozens of individual tribes. Ashe leads the Avarosan, and Sejuani leads the Winter's Claw, two of the largest tribes, but there are other tribes that follow neither of them. Each individual tribe probably has their own tactics, but for the most part the Freljordian tribes favour ambushes and raids over open warfare. Ashe's Avarosan might be an exception. Freljordian steel weapons are considered to be good quality, and some warriors wield True-Ice weapons. There are a few Freljordian mages, but they're probably not as powerful as Noxian mages. Some tribes use tamed monsters in battle, such as Sejuani's boar.

Shurima Like the Freljord, Shurima is made up of many different peoples, some of them located in cities and some of them wandering the deserts. Individual groups have their own leaders, and they tend to be religious leaders, including Malzahar. Some Shuriman cities are under Noxian control, and so ultimately answer to Swain, though I doubt the people living there have any idea who that is. The recently resurrected Azir is trying to re-establish the Shuriman empire, and is gathering people to his city, but he's still got a long way to go before he becomes the official faction leader. Mercenary companies are quite common in warfare. Sivir used to be in charge of one. Not really sure about what sort of weaponry Shruima has.

Piltover This is a fun one. As far as I know, no-one is in charge of Piltover. There are several powerful clans who control a lot of the businesses of Piltover, and they tend to keep the balance by virtue of trade and economics rather than with politics. In a time of crisis, I'm not really sure who the Pilties would turn to. Maybe Jayce, as he's quite popular with the people. But they are not a military culture, so in the event of an invasion I suspect most of the clans would just surrender and try to negotiate a profitable compromise. Piltover has the most advanced weaponry in Runeterra, but it is not mass-produced and no one is actually being trained in how to use it. Honestly it's hard to say how Piltover would cope in a war, as it's something that they've never had to face in their history.

Zaun Mostly the same as Piltover, as the two are pretty much different districts of the same mega-city. Notably, the people of Zaun are used to oppression and violence, so in the event of an invasion I doubt they'd roll over so meekly. In a time of crisis, the people would liekly turn to Janna, assuming she decided to show up. Ekko, Urgot and Viktor each have their own groups of followers, and Vi is something of a street legend, so any of them could also have an influence.

Ionia Let's just wait for Irelia's lore before we try to answer this, shall we?

If any of this is confusing, or you want to know more about something in particular, feel free to ask.

VaVahik1 votes

Thanks for help! Yeah, lets focus on the factions that have well-established leaders.

Let's assume for the sake of simplicity, in my game you can lead freljord as each of Ashe, Lissandra and Sejuani. For Noxus, it will be Swain or Darius (unless I get some info on who the Guile one is) For Demacia, i have trouble as there is not enough info on J3, so J4 and Garen are probably good choices. Maybe Galio as this game is more about battles and less about long-run politics?

So, what do you think those champs would do if they were in charge of a battle against any other faction?

What tactics would they favor? How would their personal abilities affect this? What could be their ace-in-a-sleeve against others?

tl;dr Tactics for Swain, Darius, Ashe, Lissandra, Sejuani, J4, Garen, Galio (?)

Epicurus1 votes

TCG is trading card game isn't it? I don't play any games like that myself, so I'm not exactly sure how this would work.

Swain Swain is a master planner and strategist. He will make full use of any resource he has as his disposal, wether that be magic, assassins, warriors, or terrain. The short story the Black Powder Plot is a good example of what Swain is like at his command, carefully considering all the possible paths he might take to victory. The demon Swain is bonded with has an affinity for collecting secrets, so Swain has a lot of tactical intelligence at his disposal. He can also sprout big demonic wings and blast people with force-lightning.

Darius Darius leads the Trifarian legion, which is the most elite military force in Noxus and possibly in all of Runeterra. Darius knows how good his men are, and he knows he can probably win most fights through brute force. That being said, he's not a bloodthirsty barbarian, and will use strategy when he has to. He has been known to use Warmasons, Noxian spies who infilitrate enemies cities weeks or months in advance to learn all they can about possible weaknesses. Darius personally also commands a lot of personal respect from his troops. Under his command, soldiers will keep fighting when they otherwise might have retreated.

You might also want to consider including Kled in your game. He's not a leader from a lore perspective, but he has been known to lead Noxus to victory just by virtue of his sheer insanity.

Sion too.

The Faceless is often thought to be LeBlanc, but we don't know for certain. If you want LeBlanc in your game, then her strategy will always be to win through deception and betrayal rather than through combat.

Ashe and Lissandra Sorry. There's not really enough modern lore about these two to say what they are like in combat.

Sejuani Sejuani on the other hand, is a very bloodthirsty warleader. She always chooses to solve problems with violence. However, I imagine she is also practical and realistic: she knows the Winter's Claw can't win against the Trifarina Legion on equal ground, so she would most likely ambush them when they are unprepared, and then withdraw before they can mount a counter attack. Personally, Sejuani rides a monstrous drüvask boar, so she's quite formidable in combat on her own.

Garen and J4 I'm doing these ones together because they are quite similar. Both Garen and J4 are believe in honorable combat, so would prefer to fight opponents head on when they can. But their not stupid: they won't charge heedlessly into an obvious trap, and they would retreat if it's obvious they can't win. But they would never, ever surrender. Like Darius, they both command a lot of personal respect from their troops.

Galio Galio is very big and likes to squash things. He only comes to life when there are mages nearby (and Demacia doesn't have any in their own military), and turns to stone again when the mages are dead. So he's quite a situational fighter. He's probably also immune to magic, being made of petricite.

Others leaders Just some other champions I think might work in your game who you might want to consider including: Azir and Nasus as leaders of Shurima. Hecarim and Mordekaiser as leaders of the Shadow Isles. Maybe Karthus too. Leona, as a leader of the Solari and the Rakkor.

VaVahik1 votes

If you would like to expand on anyone else, I am willing to listen!

Epicurus1 votes

Well ok then...

Leona We get a good picture of what Leona is like in combat from her colour story the Light Bringer. She organises her forces into a strong shield wall, and lets the attackers come to them. Once the initial shock of their charge has passed, she uses her magic to eliminate their leader, and then routs her foes while they are leaderless and disorganised. For the sake of your game, it would make sense for Leona to specialise in defence rather than offence.

Mordekaiser Mordekaiser's key strategy is enslaving the souls of those he has defeated, so maybe he can have the ability to steal from his opponents deck? Lore-wise, Mordekaiser is just about immortal, so he attacks his enemies head on knowing that there is nothing they can do to stop him.

Hecarim is similar to Mordekaiser, but isn't so big on the soul stealing thing.

Sion Sion is Noxus' shock trooper, and Swain's secret weapon. He rampages unstoppably through enemy forces, growing stronger for every weakling he crushes. Even if he is "killed" he would have done so much damage that the rest of the Noxian army can clean up easily, and then stitch Sion's pieces back together so he's ready to be used again in the next battle. The major downside of Sion is that he has a habit of killing his own soldiers if they get too close.

There are other champions in the game who could be seen as "leaders", but I don't think the lore gives us a clear enough picture on what they are actually like in a leadership position, or they don't have a well defined faction.

If you want clarification with anything, just ask. This has been a fun discussion.

GreenLore1 votes

While it is not confirmed who the faceless is,many speculate that it is Leblanc,because LB as the master of "guile" makes a lot of sense and it was hinted that the faceless is a woman and that Swain is willing to use the black rose for his own agenda,even if the black rose wants him dead.

RiotBioluminescence4 votes

There is another claimant to leadership in Shurima, remember - 'Emperor' Xerath rules out of Nerimazeth, and it's at least player-facing that he has significant military force backing him (willingly or otherwise).

From Bloodlines:

Nasus turned and looked to the horizon. A cloud gathered there, dust kicked up by the feet of marching men. Nasus saw the glitter of sunlight on speartips and armor through the dust. He heard the beating of war drums and the skirl of battle horns. Lumbering beasts emerged from the dust clouds, braying war-creatures yoked with knotted ropes and directed by groups of men armed with barbed goads. Protected by calcified skin plates and armed with curling horn-tusks, the beasts were living battering rams easily capable of smashing down Vekaura’s already ruined walls.

Behind the war-beasts, a host of tribal warbands advanced on the city beneath a wide variety of carved totems. Five hundred warriors at least; light skirmishers, whooping horse-archers, and fighting men bearing scale shields and heavy axes. Nasus felt the touch of a dominating will upon them, knowing that many of these tribes would normally tear each other’s throats out on sight.

Nasus felt the presence of ancient magic and the taste of metal flooded his jaws. His every sense heightened. He heard the babble of hundreds of voices from below, saw every imperfection in the bronze disc and felt every grain of sand beneath his splay-clawed feet. A sharp smell of blood, only recently staunched, stung his nostrils. It carried the faint trace of elder days and distant echoes of an age thought lost forever. It called to him from somewhere in the east of the city, at its very edge where the ruins merged with the hills.

The bearer of this awakening magic floated above the host; a being of crackling energy and dark power bound by chains of cold iron and the shards of an ancient sarcophagus. A traitor to Shurima and the architect of the ancient empire’s doom.

“Xerath,” said Nasus.

Also a pretty good description of some of the weapons available to the highly varied Shuriman forces.

The Nerimazeth 'capital' reference is from Nasus's color story, Ouroboros:

“Emperor Xerath sends offerings. We are to be your servants. He welcomes you to his new capital at Nerimazeth.”

Epicurus2 votes

Oh true. Thanks for chiming in.

GreenLore1 votes

We know that Bilgewater and the shadow isles are in a constant conflict,though this might have changed thanks to Illaoi(I mean who is to say that she can't do the purification thing again when the shadow isles attack again?).

Noxus is pretty much at war with everything around it.They want Demacia,because Demacia has a lot of rich resources,they want Ionia because Ionia is full of magic,they want Piltover(which would likely come with Zaun) because of its technology and currently they are also invading Shurima,probably just because they are an easy target since Azirs empire is still in the process of rebuilding itself.

The avarosans and the winters claw from the freljord are likely also at war currently(Lissandra is playing innocent for now).

Other than that,there doesn't seem to be many factions at war,though Demacia and Targon seem to have a problem with barbarians who are likely from the freljord.But that doesn't mean they are at war with the freljord as a whole.

VaVahik1 votes

Thanks for your interest, but I didn't ask what factions are currently at war, but what would they do if they were at one!

GreenLore1 votes

Ah ok,misunderstood you then,was reading it in a hurry. Might give my points about that later on.

GreenLore1 votes

So now that I have a bit more time on my hand I can give you some proper info for your game.I won't focus too much on the leaders of the factions,as Epicurus did a good job with that,so instead I'll get more into detail about what I think the different playstyles would be like:

Demacia Demacia would be kind of an antimage and elitist faction.Their arsenal of special abilities would likely be rather limited as they usually don't use mages outside of a secret order,but they'd have abilities to cancel out enemy ones.Since Demacia is known to have one of the best trained and most organized military,so I'd expect their units to be stronger than most average units and that their units would synergize well with each other. It is also a land that is known for its abundance of resources,so while Demacian units would likely be a bit more expensive,they'd also have more ways to pay these costs.Aside from their regular soldiers they are also known to have a flying cavalry,I think it was said that they are black wyvern riders,though I remember that there was also a picture of a guy riding a giant bird. In terms of leaders I'd say that J4 could focus on the synergy between units,while Garen could focus on the anti-magic aspect of them(or Galio focuses on the anti-magic aspect and Garen on the training of the units)

Noxus Noxus simply uses every tactic to their advantage.In a game they'd likely do a bit of everything,but would likely rarely have effects that synergize with others.They do use warbeasts,like the drakehound or basilisks,but also have mages(including blood mages),powerful warriors and assassins. As for the leaders I suppose that Swain could be more about magical power and gathering information from the enemy,Darius would be about raw power and Lb(who is likely the faceless and is the leader of the black rose eitherway) would be about tricky effects and maybe assassins.

Piltover Uses a lot of hextech technology which they'd likely use in a war scenario,their average soliders would likely be equipped with powerful gear that would put them above your regular foot soldier,even if they aren't that well trained.With a vast array of hextech devices I'd expect them to come with lots of different abilities. As for leaders I'd suggest Caitlyn,since she is the leader of the police force and Camille,who is the shadow leader of one of the biggest clans in Piltover.

Zaun Is similar to Piltover,but usually uses more crazy and unpredictable hextech gadgets and would likely use more augmented soldiers,while also using poisonous chemicals to fight the enemy.

Shurima Shurima honestly doesn't seem to have much of a military right now except for Azirs sand soldiers and the mind controlled servants of Xerath.In the past though it looks like they used generally tried to overwhelm their enemy forces with a bunch of slaves,with some really powerful ascended as the backbone of the army,though nowadays they are pretty much rebuilding their armies,so it is difficult to say how they'd work now.

Ionia Is known as a land of magic,so they'd likely focus a lot on magical abilities.From what we see in the game,it looks like their units were usually focused on having low defense in favor for a high offense,yet their nation is not an agressive one.Recently they also started to work on their own hextech devices,as can be seen with Jhin,but otherwise we don't know much about their modern warfare(I guess we'll learn more about that soon,since they announced a small ionia event).I guess in terms of leaders one could focus on Irelia for the militar,Karma for the more spiritual aspects and Shen/Zed for the ninjas(with Shen likely focusing more on punishing enemy agression,while Zed would focus on destroying the enemy to gain more strenght)

Freljord Not much here that I can add that Epicurus hasn't said already. Though one could say that the Avarosans would likely try to overwhelm enemies with their numbers(as the avarosans are known to be the biggest tribe) and the frostguard would likely use some powerful ice magic to their advantage.

Bilgewater Likely the strongest faction when it comes to Sea battles. Currently it is mostly ruled by Miss fortune(as she killed Gp and most other big leaders),they have a lot of gun powder based weaponry and there are also so called serpent callers,who are able to control giant sea serpents.They are also closely related to the Buhru islands,who are likely a bit more tribal.Besides MF,one could also use Gangplank and Illaoi as leaders,with Gp being the former leader and Illaoi being the figurehead of her faith.

Shadow isles They attack without much of a warning and their undeads are immune to most weapons(though demacian steel can hurt them).They also essentially turn every fallen enemy into one of their own.

Targon Since the mountain seems to be infested with void horrors,I'd say that the average targonian warrior is quite tough and brutal,however they are low in numbers and don't seem to have many special warriors except for the aspects.

The void Not much of a faction,as it is more of an origin for several creatures. The void is all about erasing things like biomass or even memories and it produces monstrosities that start out rather formless originally,but then turn into more solid monsters eventually. It does need to consume living things in order to spread though,so if it isn't able to devour anything,it will stop to grow. While it obviously doesn't have leaders one,could use Malzahar as the leader of the void cults or Cho'gath who seems to be the most powerful voidborn champ in the game and represents the whole consuming aspect of the void better than anyone else.

Bandle City Sadly there isn't really much we can say about it. However judging by Tristana and Teemo,they seem to favor ambush tactics in their warfare and the new lore also makes it clear that it seems to be hidden from most regular people,so it would probably be good at tricking the enemy into a false sense of security

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