Is Janna truly the only "god" in Piltover and Zaun?
At first there is the problem to why she's the only "divine spirit" showing herself in human form on Runeterra. And there is even the possibility that she is the only one: My guess is that most other areas lack a certain "faith capacity" given their low population. I think it can be assumed that Piltover and Zaun are the most densely populated spot on the planet, and Janna could only materialize as the entire city called her for help in the Great Incident years ago. Possibly Noxus and the captial of Demacia might have such deities as well, but we have not met them yet - or at least they have not been introduced as such. In Demacia they have their "Veiled Lady", and looking at Noxus it would be interesting to see who and to what goal the Black Rose really serves...
But with Piltover and Zaun things get a bit complicated, as always when mad science is involved. And going by old lore there was a certain scientist who had tried to chase after the secret of immortality - a rather divine thing. No matter the culture in our world, as different as their gods were, immortality was a constant. So the search for immortality and the search for divinity might be one and the same thing at some point.
Now the way janna functions, as a way that can be observed and theorized, would be that she draws from the collective subconscious of the population who constantly floods the aether with their wishes, desires, dreams, and prayers. A "divine" entity is primarely just a "reciever", at first it does nothing but take in all of that, and is then CHANGED by those it takes in, specially by those that are directed at it. Just take janna for example: at first she did pretty much nothing, but the sailors just viewed her as an omen for good luck, safe travel, and good winds. They fed her up with more and more until she finally was able to take action herself and act like the god they unknowingly created, increasing the faith in her even more, and so her powers.
The implication of this: whoever can act as an "reciever" for the collective subconscious can become extremly powerful, as it is a seemingly infinite pool of energy - as long as there are people you have power.
So the first step our scientist - who's Singed for all who have not guessed it yet - would make was to make experiments to how to turn a human person into such a "reciever". Obviously that requires cruel human experimentation on a large scale, because even with a successfull link the surviving person might either be physically overloaded and be reduced to dust or physically twisted beyond imagination (oh that's some good horror potential here), or their mind might simply break under the subconscious voices of all the people of the most densely populated area in the world. Even with several dozend experiments it wouldn't be weird to have one, two, ore possibly only three survivors - or at least people who are somewhat sane.
Also, given that you don't want your subjects to be smart and/or evil enough to use their potential new powers against you, it would only be logical to pick subjects you could subdue and/or manipulate easily. To make it short: child experiments, which had the advantage that orphanages just turned into very cost efficient well of test-subjects. Is it highly uneathical? Obviously. Has that ever stopped someone like Singed? Nope.
My thesis is that we have the name of one, or possibly even two or three, of those survivors.
Now what is the most common element of Zaunite culture? A constant state of anarchy. Yes there are chem barons, but even those are just individuals who have just grabbed on some power and can easily fall again. The only reason most of them hold a loose alliance is for their own benefit, and once it proved beneficial they wouldn't stop with stabbing each other into their backs.
And what champion is literally a "being of pure anarchy"? Someone who's entire reason for existence is to cause trouble and mayhem, and all for no reason besides it lies in their very nature?
, obviously. She literally cannot stop herself from causing trouble, even if she was to lay down her head wouldn't stop giving her impulses and hyperactivity. And now if she speaks of her sister... does she really mean
or possibly even
?
But Vi might still be on that "sister-spot" tho. She however seems to have to worked with her "new powers" completly differently: by completly shutting the door on them instead of embracing them like Jinx does. Probably caused by trauma, which has also wiped out all her memories of the incident - it is cannon that she has no memories to prior the age of six. And that's unnatural, given that humans only tend to forget the first three years as the brain shifts in the "data format" in which it saves memories. Sure, you don't recall much from age five, but there surely is something everyone has. Not coming up with anything is kinda weird - unless you have suffered a major trauma, then it makes perfect sense.
But that doesn't mean the effects of the experiment are still gone. Vi might be still connected to the collective subconscious, but she's unknowingly surpressing it, leading to her "easy to enrage"-nature and attitude. Isn't it weird that some brat on the street turns out to be a genius mechanic? Even Heimerdinger is impressed by her gauntlets, and before she was doing mechanic-stuff for the Zaun gangs - before the whole fiasko in the mines and she set out to rip her -now former - gang-mates a new one and then somehow joined forces with Caitlyn (which I think was a really weird process incuding lots of irritation on both sides and delicious cupcakes. The cupcakes are the main reason she stayed. But that's just my theory ^^)
The question is now to what part of the collective subconscious Vi is connected. Or if that is even specified and what you draw from the aether might be dependant on your personality, who knows? Definetly not Vi that is.
There might also be a third survivor, but we have not seen them yet. Possibly the ellusive "C" - if he is still canon that is... Right now we have two aspects of the cities: anarchy and inventiveness, that both are present in Vi and Jinx in varying degrees. But what if there was a third concept to be dominant in Piltover and Zaun? My guess would be on "greed". The Kench knows it as well, he even has a line for Jayce I think in which he calls the drive for inventions the "hunger/greed for something new". At the same time Piltover is the most propserous and technologically advanced nation on the planet, while also being the world's largest trading hub. If you want to make a fortune, you work in Piltover. Having some sort of "super-theif" show up who only steals the finest treasures wouldn't be weird at all, especially if the desire to amass and hoard these treasures like some sort of crazy dragon was directly engraved into his existence.
Also, Singed still chasing after immortality would also explain his experiments on Warwick. The vastaya are said to be long lived, possibly even immortal. But Singed is not someone to disregard other possibly options, and had probably multiple experiments going on simultanously - and that is why Warwick recognices Jinx somehow...
Buuuut again, just a theory. it would be nice if a red could drop by and comment this.
Until then, here have a Jinx:
[slayer-jinx-wink]
URGOD