The Lady Before the Clockwork: "Facts, Myths and Theories"
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Welcome summoners! Today is a good day. You know why? Because a new "Facts, Myths and Theories" discussion just came out!! I know I'm excited. Aren't you? Anyway, I just need to thank all of you guys that enjoyed and commented on last week's topic. There was some rage and trolling too, so I'm kind of sad about that. I wish I could've talked about all possible couples in League, but then we'd have a super mega post, and I know you already sacrifice enough of your precious time just to read my discussions every week, so... But, have no fear! I will most likely be making a sequel in the future! When? I'm going to add Romances to the poll again when I'm ready to do another "League of Romances", sometime in the future, and you just have to vote for it if you want to see a sequel being made. It was a cool discussion to make and it was a lot of fun! But, honestly... I'm really glad to be back with the usual topics. :P
By the way, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm trying to start a new series here on the boards called LORE BATTLE! If you're interested in discussing some of your favorite lore rivalries (e.g. Garen VS Darius; Yasuo VS Riven) this is the place to go and share your thoughts with some fellow summoners. Please, feel free to check it out!
Now, if you're just now joining us, "Facts, Myths and Theories" is a series where I talk about a Lore-related topic every week. I grab what we know, what we don't know and mesh these together to form - you guessed it - theories, to try and crack the lore wide open. I hope you guys enjoy this week's topic. I know I do! Speaking of which...
This Week's Topic: The Lady Before the Clockwork
http://i.imgur.com/urNMuMD.jpg
Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork. Well, you may know her as the Clockwork Girl now, but before all those nuts and bolts there was a little girl, Orianna Reveck. Her father was an inventor, Corin, and when Orianna passed away, Corin created a "replacement" for his daughter. Well, at first glance, reading through Orianna's lore, there doesn't seem to be anything or mysterious that we could work with. Reading it a few times over, however, I found a particular part of Orianna's lore entry to be quite interesting... Let's see what it is with today's first quote:
"It is unfortunate that her sheltered, wide-eyed naivete led her to take unnecessary and dangerous chances which ultimately led to her tragic demise."
It's interesting the way that Orianna's death is handled and worded here. You may not know the context, which I'll get into in a bit, but the fact that it doesn't specify how she died and that it doesn't say that she died per say is quite interesting. It just mentions that her attitude 'led her to a tragic demise'. It is referred later on that she 'died', but maybe that's just the assumption Corin made and the assumption the writer of the lore entry wants us to make. Well, sure it's possible I'm reading too much into this... but what if she isn't dead? And even if she is, what really happened to her and what connections does she have with other champions?
Before I go any further, I just need to clarify that, for the sake of this discussion, I will be talking about the League, although it is no longer canon. Since the retcon, the League, the Institute and Summoners are no longer part of the lore, but Orianna's current lore entry mentions the League a lot. It's one of the main themes of Orianna's story too, but we'll not be focusing so much on the League part of Orianna's story, so it doesn't affect the theories or the discussion at all. I think it's safe to assume that her identity, story and character themes will mostly remain the same when her lore is retconned, so I think this discussion will remain valid for days to come, even if it does have non-canon information.
Now that the boring stuff's out of the way, let's go onto...
The Facts
http://i.imgur.com/txea2kt.jpg
Let us begin! Well, we know for a fact that Orianna was the daughter of a Piltovian inventor, Corin Reveck. We do not know anything about Orianna's mother, who is completely left without mention in the lore entry. Corin loved his daugther very, very much! Seeing as how he's most probably a single father (the mother passed away, left, etc.), this is to be expected. Then, it's safe to assume that Orianna was probably his only family. She was a very good dancer, but she was more fascinated with the champions in the League of Legends. She was fascinated by them to such an extent that she started to train to become a champion herself. But, as I quoted earlier, this fascination is what ultimately lead Orianna to her demise...
"Orianna's death shattered Corin, driving him into deep depression and an obsession with techmaturgy."
So, as we can see from this quote in Orianna's lore entry, her death led Corin into a very deep depression. It then goes on even to say that Orianna's death left 'a void in his life'. Understandable. She was his only daughter and assumedly his only family after all! This void in Corin's life was too much for him to bear...
"Yes, I am a weapon." http://i.imgur.com/RTxUG9R.jpg
The lore entry then continues, as follows:
"He decided to build a replacement – one that would complete Orianna's dream."
Corin's deep depression led him to try and replace his own daughter. This replacement, was meant to honor Orianna's memory... by making Orianna's dream come true and making th replacement join the League of Legends! I cannot begin to mention how the life of a human being is irreplaceable, but it's overall a pretty sweet gesture, for what it is. It's basically Steven Spielberg's "A.I. - Artificial Intelligence". Orianna's replacement, that was named after her, was the, 'clockwork killing machine' we now know to be Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork. We'll be calling her Orianna-1 though, just to avoid confusion during this discussion. Corin, knowing her destiny was to become a champion, created "The Ball" to be her pet and protector. We'll talk more about The Ball in a bit though.
Soon after, Orianna-1 and The Ball were able to fulfill Orianna's dream and the purpose for which Corin had created them, joining the League of Legends as champions. She couldn't quite fit in with people from the outside world though, which she did try to do. Orianna-1 was ultimately designed to be a killing machine, so she couldn't quite get a grasp on how to become more humanlike. No matter how hard Orianna-1 she could never become a human... There would always be something alien with her, due to her nature and how she was merely a robotic creature made of clockwork, created by a man. In the League of Legends, there were few that could get past her exotic nature. People tend to think of her as a machine, as shown here:
"To many, it's as if there's nothing inside, that [Orianna-1] is just a soulless clockwork shell – a dangerous and deadly one at that."
In the end though, her "father", Corin, couldn't be more proud of her, since she had fulfilled his daughter's dream. And Orianna-1 danced so much like she used to... So, this is Orianna-1's story. Simple enough. A robot created to fulfill a little girl's dream, who was robbed of her life too soon. But, what about Orianna's story herself? I mean... this discussion is based on "The Lady Before the Clockwork". Well, we don't have much besides the aforementioned quote about her mysterious death, but more on that later. What we do have is Orianna-1's story, and I think one of the keys to discover the mystery behind Orianna's mysterious demise, lies within Corin's creations, Orianna-1 and The Ball.
Let's get onto some speculation then.
The Myths
http://i.imgur.com/BMUwBSw.jpg
Now, just to clarify if you're new to the series, the Myths section is meant to explore things that have been hinted at and aren't totally out here, although not official. So, basically, I'm going over solid theories that are very close to reality. Now, let's get going!
"This is a fun game." http://i.imgur.com/F0hgPVD.jpg
Let's begin by talking about Orianna-1's League Judgement. While I am including the League of Legends in this discussion, the Judgement was simply too connected to the League for me to consider it a fact. Still, Orianna-1's League Judgement is very useful because it actually tells us how Orianna died. So, we'll just put this into the Myths section.
Anyway, Orianna's League Judgement begins to tell us about the day Corin finished building Orianna-1. It was very emotional for him, and by the state of his workshop, it's safe to assume that this moment was the product of a lot of hard work. We learn from this section of the Judgement that Orianna-1's key component is something called "The Infinity Gear" which apparently was an echanted mystical gear. So, from this we learn that Corin's work in techmaturgy was also connected to enchantments with mystical properties... At least when it comes to Orianna-1 and The Ball, since it mentions that 'the enchantment of an Infinity Gear was only theoretical'. This is very interesting. So, although Orianna-1 is built from clockwork and technology she is powered by this magical Infinity Gear. Some say that magic is the science that we cannot yet understand, so Corin seems to stick to his roots as an inventor of technology.
Then, the actual Judgement takes place. During it, the summoners conducting the trial tap into Orianna-1's mind, which contained Orianna's memories! The summoners, surprised, asked Orianna-1 the same I asked myself: Are those Orianna-1's own memories? Well, Orianna-1 answered as follows:
"Those are Orianna's memories. I am Orianna. My father says so."
So, besides Corin treating Orianna-1 as if she really was his daughter, even calling her by his daughter's name, we also learn that Orianna-1 has Orianna's memories inside of her and believes them to be her own. Her overall soulless and robotic personality coincide with this naivety. Anyway, the memories the summoners saw were of Orianna's early life as a ballerina. And then of her training to become a champion. This is when Orianna died. Her 'one-eyed trainer', the way he's described in the Judgement, basically created a lane from Summoner's Rift for her to train on. On a daily routine of "tower dive practice", he set the turret to fire benign shots, as in not fatal and merely kinetic in force. This went wrong however, when the tower started firing true kill shots. The trainer tried his best to turn the turret off and to warn Orianna, but the girl was too distracted with the training that she didn't heed his call. At first she was able to dodge the shots, but then she got hit. She got hit a second time. Then a third. Orianna never got up again.
"'Yes, I died', offered Orianna"
Thus, Orianna-1 confirms Orianna actually died. The mystery around her death is solved. Orianna did indeed surely die as witnessed by her trainer and the city of Piltover. Does this mean Orianna's story has nothing more to it? Well, not exactly. I believe that she still lives on... just not normally. More on that later.
"I know what makes them tick." http://i.imgur.com/Ypzu5CV.jpg
Let's talk about Orianna-1 a little more. She is listed as having Blitcrank as a friend in her champion profile page, while Viktor is listed as her rival. We know how hard it is for Orianna-1 to make friends and we also know of her wish to fit in and be human, all the while she cannot. So, is there something we can learn about Orianna from these relationships? Well, I think not. I think that these relationships were created by Orianna-1 herself, and not Orianna. Orianna is Piltovian in origin while Blitz and Viktor are Zaunite. How did they meet since the League of Legends isn't canon anymore? We do not know, but we do know why the champions would feel this way toward Orianna-1.
Blitzcrank being a sentient steam golem can probably relate to Orianna-1, since they're both creations and, while Blitzcrank can feel, Orianna apparently cannot, at least not to such an extent as Blitz. He probably wants to help her be more like him. Viktor however is a different case, because his story and Orianna-1's story are complete opposites. Viktor is a human who wants to become a machine, while Orianna is a machine who wants to become human. Viktor wishes for every human and organic being to "evolve" and become machines and Orianna's wishes and feelings are probably an aberration to Viktor. We can naturally see the rivalry. (Kind of reminds me of Ultron and Vision from Marvel). Viktor is also an inventor who works in techmaturgy, but he is from Zaun not Piltover. Is it possible Corin and Viktor are related, since they were specialized in this same area? Well, it remains to be seen.
Orianna's story isn't really involved with these relationships, so let's move on to something that is... The Ball.
"The ball is impatient." http://i.imgur.com/NF5ifyr.png
Now, The Ball is quite interesting... it was created by Corin to serve as Orianna-1's pet and protector, and it has effectively become the weapon Orianna-1 uses to fight. Now, something that is told to us about The Ball is this:
"This nearly symbiotic creation uses a different type of techmaturgy, relying more heavily on electricity than clockwork."
So, we know from this that The Ball is 'nearly' symbiotic. Nearly? Does that imply that The Ball doesn't need to be connected to Orianna-1 to take action? Well, it is heavily implied that The Ball has a mind of its own. It is referred to as a pet and we know from some of her quotes (e.g. "The ball is impatient.") that The Ball apparently exhibits emotions, that Orianna-1 can understand. So, it's very safe to assume that The Ball indeed has a mind of its own. Another thing said about The Ball is that it relies more heavily on electricity than clockwork. Well, Orianna-1 relies heavily on clockwork indeed and is powered by the magical Infinity Gear we mentioned before. But, The Ball apparently is something more in tune with Corin's gifts of techmaturgy. It is mentioned that The Ball also uses Hextech. Then, there's the description given in Orianna-1's League Judgement:
"Then there was The Ball. One might assume that it was her pet, but the relationship was deeper than that. It was as if the two were symbiotically linked. The Ball was just that – a floating ball, equal parts clockwork and some kind of electrical techmaturgy. From time to time, a strange eye on a stalk would emerge from within the sphere, examining the surroundings."
So, their relationship was "deeper" than that? Wow! Talk about vague Rito! But, nonetheless, we can understand from this that The Ball has some mysteries around it... We also see that the type of techmaturgy used with The Ball is not common as it is described as 'some kind of electrical tecmaturgy'. Very interesting stuff. The Ball also uses that little eye it has to see apparently, although it mostly relies on Orianna-1's commands to move on the battlefield either way. By the way, does anyone think of GLaDOS and Wheatley when thinking about Orianna and The Ball? I do! x)
Anyway, we have collected a lot of interesting information so far. But what can we deduce from all this? Well...
The Theories
http://i.imgur.com/hJfgiPB.jpg
Here comes the theories, everyone's favorite part! We have some pretty interesting ones this week folks, so make sure to stick around. We actually have two theories this week. Well, more like two ideas, but you get the idea. Or... ideas. xD Couldn't resist. As per usual, the last one is the one I believe the most, but any other I mention is also a theory I think is cool and plausible. Let's get started then, shall we?
"Time tick-ticks away." http://i.imgur.com/oEtnVhG.jpg
So, the first theory of this week actually kind of serves as a continuation of one of the earlier discussions: "Jinx and Vi's Family Ties". In that discussion, I talked about the possibility of Jinx and Vi being sisters, and I ultimately ended up by siding with the theory that no, they are not sisters. But, I left a little cliffhanger in the end of the discussion: If Vi and Jinx are not sisters, then who the hell are Vi and Jinx's sisters? Well, when I wrote this question I was thinking of a clockwork girl that also happens to be a champion, you guessed it, Orianna. Well, Orianna-1, but you get the idea.
Now, before you close this tab dismissing what I'm suggesting, please hear me out. You may be wondering, so who is it? Jinx or Vi. Well, Jinx! There's this theory about how Jinx IS Orianna has actually been going around for a while now on the community. But, the theory I'm introducing to you today is that Orianna is actually Jinx's little sister. Now, we know that Jinx is possibly from Piltover, although she is affiliated with Zaun, as of late. Now, picture this: Your little sister dies. Your father falls into depression and totally forgets about you, when you need him the most. Frustrated and angry at your father, you run away from your home. You end up in Zaun and eventually go crazy or get experimented on. When you return to Piltover, you discover all the silly experiments of your father actually worked. Still, you remember Piltover to be the place that housed your troubled childhood and begin rampaging all over the place to make it seem more fun and in an attempt to hide the pain.
So, there you have it! Theory #1 for the day is: Orianna was Jinx's sister, who did pass away. Jinx does mention that her sister is crazy in one of her quotes, from her VO. Well, Orianna was kind of crazy about the whole "being-a-champion" thing, but even Orianna-1, who is meant to replace Orianna, is even crazier! Don't believe me? "So strange, they scream." If you think saying that isn't creepy when she lands a Command: Shockwave on your entire team, you are dead inside. Jinx's obsession over rampaging all over Piltover could be something of a subconscious thing, since Piltover, to her, may represent the childhood she never had. Thusly, she wreaks havoc and makes it more "fun" in an attempt to create new memories to fill the empty void a little girl deserves to have full of good memories.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not disqualifying the theory that Jinx is actually Orianna. This theory is actually equally plausible, if not more. Orianna may have undoubtedly died, unlike what some people think (e.g. disappeared, faked death, etc.), but what's to stop a Zaunite scientist from reviving her to and doing experiments on her? That is what happened to Urgot after all. Jinx would be pretty messed up, you know, having died and all. And the overall age and body build does fit with Orianna, if Orianna-1 was built to look anything like her human counterpart. Think of this as Theory #1.5.
Personally, I think that Jinx and Orianna being sisters is kind of cooler and it even solves the mystery of who is Jinx's sister, but that's just me. There's one other theory that swayed me over though.
"We are as one." http://i.imgur.com/ZHxbYfp.jpg
Now, remember how we assumed The Ball has a mind of its own. We even talked about it having a 'symbiotic relationship' with Orianna-1. Well, here it goes summoners, the theory: Orianna's mind is inside The Ball.
Pretty mind blowing, huh? Did I deliver this week or what? Now, think with me if you're still having a hard time understanding this. Remember how in Orianna-1's League Judgement they read Orianna-1's mind and saw Orianna's memory? Well, how is it possible that she had the memories of Orianna. Surely, it is possible that it was through the Infinity Gear and its mystical, spOoky properties. But, it doesn't seem logical that her memories are there through Orianna-1's technology, since she's made of clockwork and what powers her is the enchantment of the Infinity Gear. How could clockwork store memories inside Orianna? The Ball, however, was created by Corin to be Orianna-1's companion and has a symbiotic relationship with her. This 'deep' connection may even infer that the two need each other to function, but clearly they both function individually as The Ball has a mind on its own, and Orianna-1 also has a separate "mind" and was created before The Ball. Now, the Infinity Gear may have generated the memories, but how would the Infinity Gear's enchantment give her Orianna's specific memories? What if The Ball's link with Orianna-1 is what made her have Orianna's memories? After all, their link is what allows The Ball to communicate and transmit emotion to Orianna-1. Pretty interesting.
Now, the evidence doesn't stop here. The Ball isn't built mostly of clockwork, like Orianna-1, but instead uses a mysterious kind of electrical techmaturgy. You know what else uses electrical energy? Yep. The brain! The information transmitted through neurons and brain cells is sent as tiny electrical impulses, which is part of the reason why we have spasms when we get shocked. Don't take my word for it though. It's possible that even Orianna's actual brain is preserved inside The Ball! Weird huh? That's basically what Walt Disney did, except the box his brain is in is way cooler than Orianna's. Get it? 'Cause his brain is in a freezer? Forgive me... x)
Also, if we look at Orianna-1's League Judgement, there's some more evidence to support this theory, like this bit when Orianna-1's asked why she wants to join the League, for example:
"Because it is what I have always wanted. Because my father designed me to do so. Because The Ball is impatient to play on the Fields of Justice."
The Ball is impatient to play on the Fields of Justice... Mhmm... Kind of like Orianna, right? Maybe The Ball isn't Orianna-1's pet and protector. Maybe it's the other way around. Maybe Corin put Orianna's mind and/or brain into The Ball and Orianna-1 was made to act as his daughter and represent her as a proper lady, rather than just the plain round ball she now was. Also, when the summoners want to enter her mind to investigate her memories, Orianna mentions this:
"My father says yes. I have a mind. Do so. If The Ball is okay with it."
So, wait! Orianna-1 does what The Ball 'is okay with'? This changes everything! The Ball apparently is what makes Orianna-1 tick! (Pun not intended. Poetic writing intended.) The Ball controls Orianna-1, all the while Orianna-1 still has a mind of her own. Still, Orianna-1 is made to believe she is Orianna. Ultimately, it's the same that we always assumed beforehand, but in reverse. The Ball and Orianna's mind is what controls Orianna-1 and The Ball. Both these nearly symbiotic creations were made as a vessel for Orianna's mind to live on and fulfill her dream of joining the League of Legends. How exactly? Well, I can't answer that question. But, in the world of Runeterra where steam golems and talking cows exist, I'm sure there is a way.
In the end, Orianna lives on after all! Not as a little ballerina that wanted to join the League of Legends, no. Orianna lives on as a a champion!
It's all just a theory though... Thanks for reading!
Well guys. I hope you enjoyed this week's discussion just nearly as much as I enjoyed writing it (or as much as I hated editing it xD). I just have to mention that some fellow summoners helped me out by inspiring me for this week's topic: Jinx is Orianna; The Ball Theory. Seriously, they were my muses when I needed inspiration, even though I had the theories pretty much good to go in my mind, so please check their threads out. Anyways, don't forget to do all the usual stuff.** Check the discussion on Reddit. Comment below. Suggest other topics. Vote in the poll. And upvote if you enjoyed the discussion.**
I'm also happy to tell you that you can now follow me on Twitter where I'll keep you up-to-date on everything I post. Expect things to be clunky as I get accustomed to Twitter though, which I never used before. Yep, I'm outdated. See you next week summoners!
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