was swain head of noxus when riven was exiled?

Riven didn't exile, she deserted from the front line like a bitch.

We know so little of Noxus...for now we know nothing

Make sure to include a lot of x scenes

Quite probably, yeah. As some people had said before, we still have a lot to find out about Noxus, however, the last piece of information we got about that faction (I'm not counting Urgot's lore because he has been reworked to be mainly Zaunite now. In case you do, the pice of information before last) was from Darius comic.

Unless Riven's lore gets changed, she deserts from Noxus's army when she realises the horrors her nation brought upon Ionia. In the new lore, the ionian war is still pretty gruesome: Darius wanders the streets of Ionia with Quiletta only to see the destruction product of some kind of toxic weaponry, probably Singed's; in Kayn's lore we learn that some particularly dishonorable generals sent kids to fight in Ionia because they thought the ionian honorable standards prevented them from killing their young army.

In "Blood of Noxus" (again, Darius's comic), we see him talking with the last hand of Noxus, and the war veteran calls Darius "hand of Noxus". As far as we know, Swain is the one to give him that title, so if he already is hand of Noxus when the ionian war happened, and Riven deserts on that same war, we could almost be sure that she pretty much deserted from Swain's dictatorship.

I don't think he was at the top just yet. I do know he spent a deal of time more or less 'cleaning house' in Noxus before he even got to the top along side Darius, cleaning out the weak and the inferior and those who were undeserving of their station before he took over. From the outlook and lore I am familiar with, I do think Riven, Darius, and Swain would be more than likely share the same vision of what Noxus should be.

While people might say the phrases "Celebrate the Strong" and "Crush the Weak" are the same, there is a big difference between the two. Noxus strikes me as a Meritocracy with a dash of Darwinistic tendencies. The worthy will rise to the top, but those in power trampling and beating down those below them isn't what Noxus is about. Ideally.

The problem Riven likely had with those chemical weapons? "Only the strong survive" - The chemicals made combat meaningless, because it more or less ensured no sides would have survivors. Throw in probable PTSD and the Noxians being ordered to kill noncombatants, and you have something that goes against the 'Noxian Ideal'. The strong should prevail, and those defeated by Noxus become part of Noxus.

Send me the link when you're done with it. I'll take a read.