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A somewhat controversial thread about Demacian culture and petricide.

Blood Magicks·11/18/2017, 6:01:23 PM·23 votes·4,156 views

This concerns Lux and Xin Zhao, but most importantly Fiora. Note I'm not trying to push any ideology, just analyze a faction.

https://i.imgur.com/QyD7TJK.jpg

Reading her lore we encounter various insights into Demacian tradition and how Demacian men treat their women, for example:

Many suspect Fiora herself puts every suitor through an impossible gauntlet of courtship in order to remain aloof and unmarried, for a wife would, traditionally, relinquish power to her husband.

Many lore fans, for example GedweyStenr have noticed this (see his post in the fanon thread ). It's not only Fiora's lore that hints at how terribly backwards Demacians are: we also have Lux living in fear of her own brother and Xin never feeling accepted in the kingdom, despite spending his life serving it.

So why are Demacians so sexist? It makes sense that they reflect Medieval Europeans and hence act like them. But then so do Noxians, and every medieval society, even historically the Far East (here corresponding to Ionia) treated its women terribly. I thought long and hard about why that contrast came to be, why even a militaristic society like Noxus respects its women:

Anyone can rise to a position of power and respect within Noxus if they display the necessary aptitude, regardless of social standing, background, homeland, or wealth.

I think the answer here is that Demacia feels so familiar to our own medieval history because like our own world, it is devoid of magic.

The major difference between Demacia and the surrounding states is that the entire city is built of a magic dampening material (petricite). This means the mages living there could only use their powers to a fraction of their efficiency. So in the absence of magic in a primitive society, who was the grand arbiter? Physical force, of course. Hence men, being far stronger on average, could subdue and control women for centuries, even before civilisation, even before culture and chivalry demanded them to respect women slightly more.

Compare that to Noxus and Ionia where mages were allowed to live with freedom and dignity and could run the show. There are incredibly powerful women in all of them (LeBlanc in Noxus, Karma and Irelia in Ionia), whereas in Demacia it's all men running the show. The difference is, of course, that in those states no man could assume a random woman would be easy prey, no matter how powerful, as even the strongest warrior could end up scorched, cursed or zapped. Just look at the amount of power concentrated in someone as young as Annie (Noxian).

I feel how common magical power was outside Demacia inspired a new notion of strenght in Ionia and Noxus, a definition of worth that came from within a person rather than from their force and masculinity. It is what helped Noxus become a culturally inclusive egalitarian empire. While Demacia was doomed to repeat the mistakes of our own world, the upcoming Noxus update will be a glimpse into a society that evolved to see people differently. I cannot wait.

PS Can any Lore person come round and confirm if my guess is legit? The contest story I'm writing right now sort of rests on that notion.

EDIT: Yes it should be petricite, my bad.

114 Comments

HonestJohnTheCon11/18/2017, 7:27:36 PM20 votes

Saw Fiora in the thumbnail, and "petricide", and I thought this was a misspelling of patricide, because Fiora killed her father.

:/

GhaelWinds11/18/2017, 7:26:46 PM13 votes

(Quick correction it's petricite.)

Yes I do think that Demacia is sexist in its views. Furthermore the idea that it is because of the lack of magic hadn't even crosses my mind and while I was loath to believe that at first I think I am coming to agree.

Another Demacian gal we tend to forget about a lot is Quinn. In Quinn's lore she wanted to be a part of Demacia's military force but was always assumed to fail because she was a weak woman. Quinn had to prove herself twice as much as her male counterparts to even be accepted into the elite group. This again leads to the idea that the physical is what is important to them when it comes to social standing.

This bit is a very small part of it, but one if the only other female leadership roles you see in Demacia is in Lux's story with the woman that ran the Lightbringers in that town. Now if I'm getting this correct (and this is a bit of a logic leap) but the Lightbringers are an effective religious nunnery. Another tool that was used in the past for control over women was in fact religion. The Catholic church or even Hinduism/Islamic were always sexist and were used a means to control. In the way of the Catholic church this meant giving them a convent to run and do charity work just like how you see in Lux's story. The root of the sexism in Demacia does very much in deed seem to parallel our own history.

There is also the fact that Demacia is insular. Historically, change is brought through with an increase in immigration or technological progress. Demacia has been in its own little bubble not dealing any trade with outsiders and not getting any immigrants to spread different ideas the entire time. They are very akin to Japan when they shut off their borders and were completely self-reliant. They were in isolationism for ~200-300 yrs. When the West had finally opened up their borders with a threat, we found that Japan had changed little of its culture or technology all that time. The same follows for Demacia.

However, I feel the only problem with calling this actually canon is the problem that Fiora's lore is generally outdated. She didn't get a lore update with the Demacian clan. This makes the most prominent source of evidence for this quite possibly not even true anymore. I do whole-heartedly hope that Riot continues in the direction this thread has analysed for the sole sake of literary diversity.

Atanchan11/19/2017, 12:22:31 AM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Blood Magicks,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=UEmdhvyO,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-18T18:01:23.951+0000)

Hence men, being far stronger on average, could subdue and control women for centuries

On one hand, this where the argument pretty much falls apart, but on the other, the fact that this appears in an argument that tries not to be sexist really kinda builds it back up.

Shame a population for trying to be physically strong and fit, and of course they're going to be "weaker on average" because the average isn't going to want to deal with that social pressure. So while the actual difference in strength can't be the reason, the perceived difference in strength could propagate the sexism further. As we see in this very post.