The coming Zaun V Piltover Event: Are the Pilties doomed to failure?

#Piltover A city of progress and ecologically-friendly technology. A city low in crime and high in living standards. Quite possibly the single most enviable place to live in all of Valoran... Assuming you've got what it takes to get in. It's kind've like a world-class college, in that respect. For the past few decades, the city has been held in high esteem by the other nations; a forward-thinking, environmentally-conscious settlement comprised of morally upright citizens devoted to the gradual betterment of all of mankind. Also Heimerdinger and Ziggs make bombs.

At least, on paper, this seems to be the case. But as it stands, it has been years since Piltover has managed to churn out anything revolutionary. New Zeppelin models, slightly more efficient power sources, weapon upgrades - all, admittedly, admirable in their own right, right? Right! And yet...

...across the river, lies a city. A twin city, split from Piltover due to a difference of opinion. And the things they do... the things that they've... acheived there...

Artificial Intelligence - the artificial creation of new, fully aware, synthetic lifeforms capable of learning and growing.

Techromancy - bringing the very dead themselves back to life.

Synthetic Life - the capacity to create self-aware biological lifeforms. Apparently packed with every variety of human emotion. Love, fear, hatred - and a desire to protect those dearest to them; cultivated in a test tube.

Transhumanism - The absolute culmination of human achievement. Mastery over life, over death. Your form and frame, completely subject to your whims. Where you can live, what sensations you can feel, the intricacies of your very own mind - all within your own grasp; editable, modifiable. The beginning of ascension to a new, unexplored, plane of hence before unfathomed heights of existence.

And it's all found within the city borders of Zaun.

Where Piltover toils aimlessly on trinkets and luxuries, Zaun unravels the very fabric of reality and stares upon the framework of the universe. Clambering out from under the boots of the privileged, the citizens can't even see the sky through all the smog. Monsters like Warwick roam the streets, collecting specimens for insane experiments; striking terror into denizens and foreigners, alike; and yet, from these anything but humble beginnings, the city unlocks the secrets of life and death; of **unbridled potential **in a future limited only by the imagination of its citizens.

Friends die in poverty, and vengeance festers. Mere children, like Ekko, obtain the means and methodology to bend time, itself.

And all the while, Piltover stagnates. A fossil of the past, unable to deal or profit like Zaun does. Unable to shirk its responsibilities to its own citizens, as Zaun does. Rules, regulations, infrastructure - Piltover makes money, but so very little of the money makes it back to the city.

Even now, as Piltover frets over the wellbeing of its citizens, Zaun closes in on the possibility of biological immortality. A city not concerned with death, coming close to overcoming that very flaw with each passing day. How would Piltover feel, to stare across the coast that separates the two cities from one another? How would it feel, to witness the budding reality of a new world; envisioned at the hands of those you despise; those who forsook all that you stood for and chased dreams that you dismissed with as simple a gesture as a passive waving of your hand?

#How would it feel? Your ambitions, your ideals, your reputation as the utmost leader in science and ecology, outmanoeuvred in a swift moment of scientific growth at the hands of your competitors. And now Piltover is left standing with its hands in its pockets.

The first hit is to your city's funding potential.

As affordable immortality becomes the latest craze, ecological concerns take a swift and noticeable back seat. Grant money thins, divisions shut down and masters in their field find themselves struggling to secure work. There is still money, but nothing like before. Piltover falls back on its last major field of study still happily backed by its funders; Weapon development. And then, slowly, but surely...

#The dream dies.

Piltover, the city of ecological advancement. Of scientific progress. A place of innovation and invention. Of empathy, of morality - a place to secure a better tomorrow.

And also Heimerdinger and Ziggs make bombs.

I guess some outcomes are just inevitable.