Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Which house does Lucian belong to?

CupcakeTrap·12/4/2014, 7:18:28 PM·19 votes·7,686 views

http://lolwp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Lucian.jpg

Is Lucian of aristocratic lineage? If so, which house does he belong to? Is it one of the principal noble houses of Demacia, or is it a minor family?

We might get a Narrative answer—even if that answer turns out to be "Actually, we felt the Demacian Great Houses were constraining characters, so we've retconned them. We know you'll be excited when you see what we have in store for Demacia!" However, this isn't just a "Narrative pls" thread; I'd like to hear proposals and speculation from the lore community. I care more about what you guys think anyway.

Based on the discussion below, here's one proposal.

Important Elements Here are some elements of his story and theme that should probably come out.

  • Lucian was not born into the strictures of the Demacian nobility, but he is educated, and he has definitely not had to toil his whole life in the fields. His outlook is more personal and individual than one would expect from a member of the Demacian ruling class, or from someone who's lived as a serf. (Possibilities for implementation: maybe he's from a minor noble family, or a family of merchants. An alternative that I'm increasingly liking: he might have been born into a priestly class. Or perhaps he was "called" to the priesthood from another background.)
  • He's something of an outsider. (Possibilities for implementation: He's not from the capital, but he's from a lesser city; he's not from the sticks, like Quinn & Valor.)
  • He knows how to fight the undead. (Possibilities for implementation: the priestly background idea is sounding stronger and stronger.)
  • He got some fighting experience somewhere. (Possibilities for implementation: He could be born to a minor noble house that supplies knights and other "non-rabble" soldiers to the King's army. But does he really seem that "military"? Maybe something related, like a family of guardsmen? Another option would be for him to end up joining some knights-errant on a quest.)

Draft Background Here's an attempt to quickly put some of those elements together into a backstory.

  • Lucian was born to a family of middling status: not common, but only nominally "landed", with a poor patch of family land in the outskirts of a smaller Demacian city. For generations, the family has made its living as guardsmen for merchants and (occasionally) as hireling soldiers for the great armies of the crown. He went to school and learned his letters. His "vocational training" was more like a police officer's and less like a soldier's.
  • His Champion power-spike came in the form of a call to the priestly class. He took his vows and joined a holy order, where he met Senna.
  • (Aside: I like the idea that Senna, who was presumably also of Champion power level, won entrance to the League and fought for Demacia on the side, while Lucian shied way from the League's labyrinthine politics and believed Demacia needed his scholarly and priestly work more than it needed another fighter on the Fields. Maybe that's where she got her initial fighting experience. Just have her taken by Thresh before 18 CLE. Then, perhaps Lucian's entry into the League is another way of him trying to live out her legacy.)
  • (Or possibly even better—thanks to 2nd Fiddle for the idea—Senna tried to join the League, but wasn't quite strong enough on her own to make the cut. This might have left her feeling ashamed and bitter, possibly driving her to take more and more risks in order to prove herself worthy and unlock her full potential, until eventually she got herself killed. This would add some complexity and inner conflict to Lucian vis-a-vis the League and Demacia: becoming a Champion was her dream, but he also blames that ambition for her unhappiness and her eventual death. He might hold a grudge against the Demacian Champions who declined to vouch for Senna.)
  • They were both particularly drawn to texts on the occult and the undead, and the means of driving them out.
  • A band of knights errant came to them for aid in their quest to purge the undead. They accompanied them.
  • The knights achieved their quest and became knights of the realm, largely retiring from their adventuring ways. Lucian and Senna continued on their own.
  • And the rest we know.

Thoughts?

59 Comments

Sharjo12/4/2014, 7:29:55 PM9 votes

I'd imagine Lucian doesn't belong to a house, and is instead common born. He probably served time in the military, as all Demacians tend to do, but he and Senna took up training to become the warriors against evil following that. I mean, you need a certain amount of guts to fight against monsterish aberations of nightmares and evil, even if you're Demacian, so the two of them being soldiers was probably a necessity.

I feel like whoever taught Lucian was of noble birth, or head of some kind of order.

delonixdecaryi12/5/2014, 12:47:51 AM5 votes

Gryffindor of course.

Helmight12/4/2014, 8:24:12 PM2 votes

My understanding was that the Purifiers weren't a religious group, but just a small band of individuals dedicated to combating the threat of the Shadow Isles - kinda like Kassadin's anti-Void organization. Senna was probably already a member of the group by the time Lucian was recruited and the two got paired together while he was learning. Obviously they had a connection and got married later, so the pairing stuck.

Concerning Lucian's origins, I figure he's probably of a minor house. I don't think he had a life of working in fields or as a merchant or anything, but he's obviously not one of the major four houses.

Alexander12/5/2014, 7:30:10 AM2 votes

demacian ghetto

Terra Booma12/5/2014, 6:01:19 PM2 votes

Don't know if it's been said yet but what if Senna belonged to a more important house instead of Lucian?

AntiSkillshot12/5/2014, 6:08:52 PM2 votes

I'd have thought he was from a family of the baron level.

Like, hello. There's a king and other noble families. Where's the barons?

Quantum Weeb12/5/2014, 12:42:01 AM2 votes

I always assumed he was a commoner, like Quinn. We need a few more commoners around.

Hell, every Demacian champion before Quinn was an aristocrat, I think Riot has a bourgeois bias.

Support the proletariat!

@OP I've had some success contacting the lore team over on Twitter, specifically about the Demacian houses thing. I'd recommend trying that and seeing if it works. It took a few days for me to get a response.

GenoXx12/4/2014, 7:51:06 PM2 votes

If Lucian is the Gun Templar, I would imagine that there is a group who is devoted of ridding evil things like undead. And they probably hold some level of respect in Demacia. But that's just the thing. Templars I would think that Lucian is apart of the common rabble. Especially after he lost Senna. I think the family he came from isn't Aristocratic like Fiora, but maybe more to Vayne's level.

Dotintheparadox12/5/2014, 2:42:45 AM2 votes

It is quite possible he no longer actually answers to any house. Perhaps the "Religious" order of Demacia could operate under the ideal of "Body, Mind, And Soul For The Gods", so they give up their original names and adopt ones that represent a quality given to them by a superior.

Senna is a modified version of Seanna a feminine, English form of Shawn, which is in turn an Irish form of John, which is a reference to the name of the saint who was given the qualities of love, loyalty and companionship.

Lucian is an obvious name, derived from the word lucent, meaning light... or what it's really meant to be closer to, Lucifer to represent Lucian as a dark angel, driven to commit sins by his anger.

Also Thresh is a Satan reference, so that's out there.

BlazeRiver12/5/2014, 4:13:52 AM2 votes

Maybe Lucian is part of a evil-hunting group started by Vayne? It says in Vayne's lore that she was the "first night hunter." The key word here, of course, is first. Lucian kills the undead. Vayne hunts down those who use black magic. Although they aren't the same, undead and black magic are usually related.

I've always wondered what Vayne and Lucian thought of each other. Two evil-hunters from Demacia, who have both lost family to that evil... They have to meet somewhere, whether it's in the Shadow Isles or in the Institute of War or plain Demacia.

2nd Fiddle12/4/2014, 8:28:10 PM1 votes

Thoughts?

The guns are unique, they had to come from somewhere. Where they came from should be important.

Narasimha12/4/2014, 9:00:16 PM1 votes

Why does he even have to be Demacian? He could just as easily be a Noxian street rat or born in Piltover.

PhoenixSlayer1312/6/2014, 9:40:41 PM1 votes

While this is a great question, I'm honestly more interested in learning more about Lucian's order of undead-slayers. Is it based in Demacia? Is it an international organization without any kind of city-state ties? How does one join the order? How involved are they in the Shadow Isles? WHAT THE HECK DO THEY THINK ABOUT MAOKAI?