Aatrox's Celestial Concept Theory

Wrathof300·9/12/2018, 9:52:52 PM·5 votes·4,456 views

When Kayn was released, Rhaast says the line "Death and war, this will be delicious." to Aatrox. At the time, the Shuriman lore of the Darkin had not been revealed however, its been said that Rhaast was written with this lore in mind. So at the time Aatrox and Rhaast were considered the Darkin of War and Death respectively, but in actually they are the Sunborn representation of War and Death in Shuriman culture. WAAARGHbobo's elaboration on how this works.

It has also been confirmed that the 'godhood' of Targonian Aspects and Shuriman Ascended originate from the same well of power. So can 2 representations (one Targonian and one Shuriman) of the same concept exist at the same time? If we believe Aatrox was the Ascended representation of War then it has already happen.

From Aatrox's lore:

Fearing that these fallen Ascended were as dangerous to Runeterra’s survival as the Void incursions had been, the Targonians intervened. It is said that the Aspect of Twilight gave mortals the knowledge to trap the darkin, and the newly reborn Aspect of War united many in fighting back against them. Never fearing any foe, Aatrox and his armies were ready, and he realized only too late that they had been deceived. A force greater than a thousand dead suns pulled him inside the sword he had carried into battle countless times, and forever bound his immortal essence to it.

However, it has been stated that Aatrox's celestial ideal no longer exists after his entrapment, WAAARGHbobo's comment:

I think it's possible Illaoi's god could free/kill Aatrox's human soul and allow that soul to return to the cosmos. But it's complicated because the celestial concept Aatrox merged with and gained his ascended power from -- has been trapped/deleted. Literally the ideal/idea he represented ceased to exist when he was trapped. Human's no longer could even have the thought/idea he was the avatar of.

However, I believe Aatrox was in fact the Ascended representation of War, notice in his lore they are referred to as, just "the Aspect of Twilight" and "the newly reborn Aspect of War". In his quotes Aatrox calls Pantheon "betrayer" and "fiend", however, his lore does not give proper clarification on what happened, wouldn't "coward" or "deceiver" be more accurate insults based on his lore?

Unless Aatrox truly represented 'whatever War used to be' and Pantheon represents the new concept of War as we perceive it to be. Like getting replaced at your job because the new guy is more 'modernized' than you. When Targon sealed Aatrox they made sure to replace his celestial concept so that the order of the universe would not be thrown out of balance.


A follow up question would be, did this also apply for Varus and Rhaast, who should respectively be Vengeance and Death?

5 Comments

Fasmodey9/12/2018, 10:03:15 PM2 votes

I mean, I know his answers are not canon, but according to Scathlocke, celestial concepts are represented in the Ascended differently. Nasus is not exactly "Ascended of Death/Life/Whatever/X".

He also explains "using the same well" concept a bit more. The Ascension according to him is hacking Aspect System (which he continues with how Aspects gave the Sun Disc to Shurima anyway). Aspects are generally more powerful than the Ascended, but having an Aspect is also more tiring. Creating an Ascended is more reliable and easier than an Aspect in other say. That's why they were far too many Ascended and such few Aspect. I believe it might be because of how to be an Ascended does not require 100% perfection. You might not be an extremely powerful Ascended but also not weak enough to be obliterated by power of the Sun, which is still useful against the Void (the Ascended even surprise Aspects in their fight against the Void). An extreme rarity of the Ascended are immensely powerful while others are medium tier.

TL;DR BOTH Ascended and Aspect carry celestial concepts in, but they represent them differently. The way of Ascended is unknown though.

Wrathof3009/12/2018, 10:49:06 PM1 votes

Something I think is also really cool but not a key factor in the theory. The Aspect of Twilight's involvement in ending the Darkin Wars, the Aspect of Change was present where, based on this theory, a celestial concept was re-defined.

And of course my favorite line from Zoe "Things totally change so they can be the same but also totally different!"