Varus: Untapped potential?

Furor Nexis··8 votes·1,072 views

So if many of you have seen me before in other boards regarding champions and their power in gameplay and so on, you'll know for a fact that I'll most likely mention Varus. Varus

Now I'll kiss his ass any day in terms of usefulness, but today I'm wondering how untapped he is lore-wise.

Aside from the League Judgment notes which details his sense of self with the corruption from the Pit of Pallus and it's respect / clambering for him, Varus has a very generic anti-hero themed lore summed into:

Good guy does the greater good, suffers for it, then turns to the dark to exact retribution.

It's effectively bare-bones lore which could be very much expanded upon. I'm actually listening to the Surrender@20 Podcast while I'm writing this which was centered around the revitalization of Mount Targon and its respective champions, and it was mentioned that in terms of writing lore for their champions is that unless they truly love them, no one will be bothered fully commit to write about this or that character, as there's no emotional attachment, sense of pride in that character, etc.

I always felt that kind of view on Varus. Hell I'd probably kill to actually write a piece about him. When playing him, it's a feeling of concentrated fury and precision combined with a huge pull of power and destruction to enemies I face.

Of all champions I'd probably love to see his lore expanded upon. It's generic as hell, but it's actually a decent kind of generic. No cringe stuff (Aside from his in-game emo boy quotes) and I did do the summation of it very bluntly. Riot's lore writers have a gold mine in terms of Varus & The Pit of Pallus, the corrupting flame held within the temple containing the pit, and the actual entity of the corruption itself and it's effect on Varus as he takes the dive and struggles to enact his ultimate revenge before it's power virtually erases all he was.

16 Comments

Wolfess1 votes

Varus was one of the first champs I bought and have always been interested in his lore/story.

I think there's definitely room to expand and get more into detail about what exactly this 'corruption' that has been sealed might be, its origins, the threat it actually poses, how it came to be sealed, and perhaps the possible threat it poses when/if it once completely finishes taking over Varus

Furor Nexis1 votes

Yeah, he really does have a lot to bring to the table in regards to lore aspects.

GreenLore1 votes

What if Noxus wasn't actually responsible for the destruction of his home?

What if they retcon LeeSin into a former mage who misused one of his spells and accidently destroyed the village of Varus?

Maple Crusader1 votes

{quoted}

What if Noxus wasn't actually responsible for the destruction of his home?

What if they retcon LeeSin into a former mage who misused one of his spells and accidently destroyed the village of Varus?

So while Varus was fending off waves of Noxian soldiers, his village (and the Noxian company sent to raze it) was actually destroyed by Lee's magical mishap?

GreenLore1 votes

Its just a suggestion what they could do if they take a look at the lores of these 2. I mean with the current lore that would be rather unlikely(after all lee was already the blind monk when he set himself on fire),but it would be an interesting point if Varus basically threw away his life to take vengance on the wrong one(and we don't know how far varus takes his vengance,so that could be rather dramatic)

Furor Nexis1 votes

{quoted}

Its just a suggestion what they could do if they take a look at the lores of these 2. I mean with the current lore that would be rather unlikely(after all lee was already the blind monk when he set himself on fire),but it would be an interesting point if Varus basically threw away his life to take vengance on the wrong one(and we don't know how far varus takes his vengance,so that could be rather dramatic)

Judging by Ionia's wiki page; The temple of Pallus and the surrounding village was said to be somewhere in the southern regions. During the Noxian invasion, the south and south-western regions were struck first, indicating that Varus' village was one of the many villages destroyed in Noxus' quest for conquest of the island.

There's also no given date for when Noxus first struck, just the indication of time between the invasion and then the subsequent withdrawal from Noxus after Ionia challenged them to the rematch. We'll give or take that Varus would've been a father of roughly 10-11 years at the time, as his son was old enough for Varus to converse with on a mutual basis going by the illusions that the League gave to him during his judgement.

It is possible to say that Lee Sin could have been the one to destroy the village, cause his age at the time could coincide very well at the prelude to the Noxian invasion save for one small fact: In the current outdated lore for Lee, he summoned the boy to him. In Varus' lore, he saw the bodies of his dead family, as well as the village being a smoldering ruin. The village that Lee summoned the boy from was also obliterated, as in there was nothing left to find. If the two were linked, even coincidentally, it still wouldn't make sense.

It wasn't until nearly 15 years later that Lee became known as the blind monk when he set himself on fire, that was a direct result of the protest for a second matchup between Ionia and Noxus as he beleived he could find penance for his actions as well as become a martyr at the same time.

Sure it would make for a tragic kick in the balls for Varus, to find out that his entire cause was a one-way suicide run into which the entity of Pallus tricked him into freeing itself, but I think it'd be a cop out to go full Shakespearean on him as a character. I'm not fond of the idea, I find it way too cliché, especially in modern movies and story telling- Warhammer is absolutely infamous for those kind of plot twists.

GreenLore1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Furor Nexis,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=VFIghA2k,comment-id=0001000000000000,timestamp=2016-02-27T23:59:18.571+0000)

Sure it would make for a tragic kick in the balls for Varus, to find out that his entire cause was a one-way suicide run into which the entity of Pallus tricked him into freeing itself, but I think it'd be a cop out to go full Shakespearean on him as a character. I'm not fond of the idea, I find it way too cliché, especially in modern movies and story telling- Warhammer is absolutely infamous for those kind of plot twists.

I wouldn't really call it cliche considering that this is almost never the case nowadays,I mean how many movies/books/games/whatever do you know where something like this happens?It is far more common that the protagonist rushes into the enemy base,kills everyone while no enemy is able to hit him and then have a big fight against the man who took everything from him/her.

Also well graham mcneil was working on the warhammer franchise before he became part of the lore team soo...

Furor Nexis1 votes

{quoted}

I wouldn't really call it cliche considering that this is almost never the case nowadays,I mean how many movies/books/games/whatever do you know where something like this happens?It is far more common that the protagonist rushes into the enemy base,kills everyone while no enemy is able to hit him and then have a big fight against the man who took everything from him/her.

Also well graham mcneil was working on the warhammer franchise before he became part of the lore team soo...

My inner sense of M. Night Shyamalan makes me pick up on that kind of stuff waaaayyy too quickly, so I kinda see it coming a lot. I always kinda try to avoid those situations when writing my own pieces because I personally find it a bit tacky to refer to a sudden twist that made leaves the protagonist crippled.

I do like seeing the odd bit of victory for the villain though. Kinda like Cais Ballad from FF 13-2. It'd be interesting to see what would happen to Varus if the entity of Pallus completely overtakes him though.

Furor Nexis1 votes

{quoted}

What if Noxus wasn't actually responsible for the destruction of his home?

What if they retcon LeeSin into a former mage who misused one of his spells and accidently destroyed the village of Varus?

Not possible. The Pit of Pallus and the temple that held it was a primary target for the Noxian invaders, given the fact that there was a legion assigned to that part of Ionia. Aside from that, the Noxian invasion of Ionia is an already event established in League's lore, so it'd be impossible for Noxus not to be responsible, unless Riot decides to retcon the entire invasion.

And you're pretty much saying Lee Sin to be retconned into doing the same thing as in his old lore, instead of killing a child in an attempt to summon, he destroys a village. Considering Lee Sin was an up-and-coming powerful summer to be.

GreenLore1 votes

Just because the noxians attacked the pit doesn't mean they destroyed the village. If the noxians had to go through the village to reach the temple then it would have made more sense for varus to stay in the village. After all varus was shocked that the village was destroyed.

And yeah it would pretty much leave lees lore intact,but he really needs a retcon because his current lore is linked to the IoW(and he didn't just kill a child,he did destroy a whole village,the boy was merely the only thing that got actually summoned)

Maple Crusader1 votes

There's a lot of ideas with Varus that I would like to see. How does Varus interact with his fellow Ionians? What is the Pit of Pallas? Is Pallas a Darkin? Is it like Aku from Samurai Jack?

Furor Nexis1 votes

{quoted}

There's a lot of ideas with Varus that I would like to see. How does Varus interact with his fellow Ionians? What is the Pit of Pallas? Is Pallas a Darkin? Is it like Aku from Samurai Jack?

I've always compared Varus and the corruption to the Blighted Archers from Samurai Jack. I wouldn't be surprised if Riot drew inspiration from it for Varus' lore.

Itadaki Seieki1 votes

I actually love Varus's in game quotes.

Especially " Beware a man with nothing to lose. " It goes to show you he won't stop until he's exacted revenge.

AND

Because it was also used in Catherine, my favorite console game next to Ori and the Blind Forest, Journey, and Spyro: Ripto's Rage.

Alphiriel1 votes

Hey! :) From starting League, Varus was and still is my main champion. I don't know he just fascinated me.. I fell in love with his lore, all his concept and I always preferred ranged champions. He fits perfectly for me and he just helped me to grow in league. Well how you already probably understood he's my absolute favourite and of course I would loooooove if Riot decided to extend his lore. They have so much things to write about . I don't know about you but I'm really interested in Pallas ('corruption' from the temple) . Where did it came from? What actually is It? Maybe It's somehow connected to Darkins and stuff? Call me whatever you want, but I have Pallas role play blog on Tumblr where I can express and spread my ideas. ( You can also try role playing if you want to write about and as Varus). I portray Pallas as a shapeshifting demon who was caught and prisoned in the temple by Ionian elders. I have so many ideas and headcanons about It and I would LOVE if Riot decided to reveal at least little bit more about Pallas and well Varus' lore in general. But oh well.. We have to keep out hopes high! Right?

DwarvenGiant1 votes

Oh, I believe Riot's Narrative team is more than aware of, what is for now, Varus' untapped lore potential, considering Jaredan's responses on ASK.fm when a Varus question is asked have him biting his lip a lot in an excited sort-of-way.

A few of said responses: http://ask.fm/RiotJaredan/answers/137124026309 http://ask.fm/RiotJaredan/answers/137530856389

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