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New Syndra Lore

Overlord Forte·8/6/2018, 3:36:31 PM·39 votes·27,222 views

https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_US/story/champion/syndra/

https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_US/story/the-dreaming-pool

Syndra is now a mage that seemingly steals magic, despite assurances (on twitter) this is not what is going on. While it may not be a 'direct theft', as we see with Vladimir, she is nonetheless 'incidentally' draining magic around her to fuel her own power. This is theft-by-proxy at the very least, if not a more grandiose, abstract version of magic stealing.

Specifically,

This powerful ability had been dormant until now. It flared with volatile strength, the orbs like pearls of negativity that leached the spirit magic from the world around her, draining the ghost-willow of its life essence. Evard and his friends backed away in horror as the ancient tree twisted, its bark withering to a tarry black.

and

The ceiling gave way, rubble raining down, burying the sacred gardens in dust. Syndra turned her powers against what was left of the temple, sending shockwaves throughout Fae’lor, and draining raw magic from the island itself.

--

I would like to dissect the rest of her lore, but this is a champion-breaking problem in my mind, and all other details following are hard to address. The fact she was thrown into Time Prison by the 'will of Ionia' is itself a separate, equally immense character problem.

This is NOT Syndra, the Dark Sovereign. This is some kind of shadow magic mage based on Zed's principles. Her fantasy of her own personal power and potential is not being upheld in a way that validates it as her own power. She simply turns on and sucks away/drains/diminishes/kills all other spiritual magic around her, like a great gaping hole in the universe.

What is transcendent about that?

Where is the promise of her own potential, mired by the world around her? This makes her out NOT TO BE someone of presumably "infinite potential", she's a vampiric leech that literally everyone is justified in hating because the world dies around her.

If this is not your, Riot's writers, intention, then it is not being demonstrated clearly in the writing at all. In fact, it is actively harming the fantasy and ideas she was based upon, and is in dire need of re-assessment. What you have written is effectively a new, different premise that does not suggest anything about what she used to be about. Whatever new strength and power Syndra obtains in this version of your lore, it will only be stained by the fact she actively harms the flow of magic around her.

Perhaps you might say "well, this is how it behaved when she was immature or young", to which I ask:

Where is the evidence that this effect is gone? Where is the story that tells us of her dealing with this horrible effect she has on her own homeland/the world around her? Why is it necessary to make her drain magic around her for her power to operate?

I don't understand why this direction was taken.

None of it is the transcendent promise of the Syndra we had before.

111 Comments

RiotRiot Scathlocke8/6/2018, 4:49:43 PM40 votes

This is apparently a common misconception. We even reworded the bio to make it clearer, based on concerns that were voiced to the writer by (a VERY SMALL number of) players when the draft story was leaked...

Syndra is not "stealing" magic. She is not pulling magic from other people, or the land, to fuel herself. The difference is in he term leach (which is used in the lore) and leech (which is not). They are very different in meaning.

Her power is unique. It comes from within her. She doesn't fully understand it, because no one ever taught her how it works... but it seems to get stronger when she is in a "negative" state of mind. And when it is at its strongest, and she uses it and walks away, the residual effects on the magic of the land around her are quite disturbing. Without understanding how or why, she is creating "magical fallout" that permanently (?) sours the spiritual energies of the environment nearby. This is why, presumably, the Spirit of Ionia itself seems to have tried to imprison her.

IMO, Syndra is now a character with a thematic conflict, where before she was rather lacking. She is a personification of not being aware of the consequences of your own actions, but also of the dangers of marginalising people who don't fit into the dominant worldview - can you imagine if she'd been born in Noxus with this power? They would have been very impressed, and nurtured and trained her, and let her loose on the front lines at the first opportunity.

She's not evil. She was just dealt a difficult hand of cards, in the grand scheme of things.

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO8/6/2018, 3:47:35 PM16 votes

Except we know that Magic is more akin to a living, breathing spirit than just a force of nature. Ryze’s short story illustrates the proper understanding of magic as something that cannot be owned, or controlled, but can only be directed.

So when Syndra focuses her power, she is powerful enough that she is effectively concentrating the magic within herself, not allowing it to flow through her, like breath, but constraining it and molding it into her orbs of pain.

With that understanding, it’s clear how Syndra is both a tragic figure, and a powerful villain