[LORE DISCUSSION] My Thoughts On Noxus' And Demacia's Portrayal in League's lore.

(Note: I planned this to be far more brief, but it turned out like that. Sorry.)

Tl;dr: Noxus isn't all good, Demacia isn't all bad. Both regions make sense in the context of the lore.

There have been many posts complaining about the attempts by the writers to make the lore more morally grey. Most are aimed at Demacia's and Noxus' portrayal, as, they claim, instead of morally grey, Riot made Demacia the bad guys and Noxus the good guys. Now, I'd like to discuss that. Many people may feel like that's the case, because on paper Noxus does seem like the better place to an average, modern person. We value our personal freedom very highly, so we are quick to judge the regions based on that – Noxus allows it, while Demacia is very restrictive, therefore Noxus is better. But that's just the surface. Noxus may be more accepting, but that's because they value anything that helps with your survival – and that's an apt word; survival. One does not simply live in Noxus. One has to fight for it. Constant street fighting, maladies, famine, robberies, murders – it's enough you're just slightly weaker than someone else, or just more unlucky... and you will likely die. And no one will really care you did. All of it is in the background of many Noxian champions' lore. Karthus' sisters died of a malady. Darius and Draven were orphaned and had to fight for survival – had they lived in Demacia, they'd have probably been taken in by someone. Noxian cult of strength didn't come from nothing. It came out of necessity. And I didn't touch upon the worst part of Noxus; warmongering. No matter if we're talking about how good the regions are for the people or how good are they in general, Noxus' constant need for conquest shouldn't be seen as positive. For the people it means family members being drafted into war and likely killed. It means the mass murder of innocent civillians... But obviously, I don't need to explain to anyone why war is bad.

Now when it comes to Demacia – it's the opposite. It has always been. Where there is famine in Noxus, there is prosperity in Demacia. Where there are murder and robberies, there is law and justice. If someone finds you injured on the street in Demacia, they will help you. In Noxus they'd just ignore you or take your stuff before finishing you off. In many ways, Demacia is way better to live in than Noxus. They are also more peaceful. Now, obviously, with all those positives comes a hefty price; Demacia was built on phobias. They fear the mages, they fear anything that can disrupt their daily order. They fear many, many things... In this, Demacia is based on medieval societies that shared many of those phobias. After all, witch-hunts were a thing... But for the average Joe Demacia is a paradise compared to Noxus.

Both places have their positives and negatives, but I do see why people often forget about either... Thing is: lore usually focuses on the good sides of Noxus and the bad sides of Demacia. Why? Because the bad of Noxus and good of Demacia should be seen as a given. The negative sides of Noxus are seen as obvious and were focused on in the past, which is why the current writers would rather focus on something different – they don't remove the bad, but they show that there is also good – it's more interesting to write about. The negatives are usually in the background of the narrative, but with how slow the lore moves forward, readers start to focus on the face value of things; writers write about positives of Noxus, so Noxus must be good. The opposite goes for Demacia – the positives are obvious and were focused on in the past, so the writers want to focus on the bad. It's also very fulfilling to write about a character who's being discriminated because of something – that's why the mages of Demacia are often in the focus. With that being said, I do agree that sometimes the writers go a bit too far with Demacia in that case... But when taking everything into account the way these regions work makes sense. Noxus was built on the ruins of Mordekaiser's empire. It's hard to make a complete 180°, when the whole history of a region was based on conquest and tyranny. Noxus improved since the day of Mordekaiser's rule, but his reign left a mark. Demacia was built after rune wars. After the world was nearly destroyed by the mages. It was built as a safehaven, an isolationist nation, founded as a refuge from magic after the rune wars. With all of that it makes sense that they hate magic and act the way they do. It also makes sense that they have a strong sense of community and are generally willing to help people. And this is actually something not many people talk about – there is far more hope that Demacia will improve, than there is for Noxus. Noxus under Swain's rule, won't be changing their ways anytime soon... But Demacia? The current prince, someone next in line for the throne, is hiding a half-dragon in his guard. Jarvan IV is holding a bright future for Demacia, as he seems to be willing to change. Honestly, if not for the fact that League's lore is moving at a snail's pace I'd say that writers have some really cool things in store for Demacia... But unfortunately it'll likely all just remain as a hope for the future, rather than actual lore development. But as of now Jarvan IV seems like such a perfect ruler, that if it was a George R.R Martin novel, he'd likely die next chapter.

And as a final note: It seems like Noxus and Demacia are based on two sides of real medieval societies. Noxus took on the maladies, famine and poverty, while Demacia took the phobias and discrimination.