Is Piltover an Apartheid government?

ForgottenStone·6/7/2018, 4:50:04 PM·2 votes·2,196 views

Looking at Camille’s lore along with Janna, Ekko and Caitlyn beneath the shiny veneer Piltover seems to practice Apartheid against the Zaunite people who literally live beneath them.

Zaunite people are treated like garbage and for the most part not even allowed in Piltover proper while Piltover freely exploits Zaun’s citizens for their labor and resources. Piltover police just make sure Zaun people aren’t crossing into Piltover or they are shot in the head or beaten to death. Hell Camille murdered a Zaun man for attempting to marry a Piltover noble.

Sounds like a form of apartheid to me, what are your thoughts?

2 Comments

DerMangoJoghurt6/7/2018, 5:34:29 PM3 votes

Camille murdered a Zaun criminal trying to marry a Piltover noble. I'm sure she'd be fine with someone from Zaun, just not someone who will disrupt "the great machine".

Although there are a lot of prejudices, I don't think it's as bad as you make it out to be. I don't know where you read that Zaunites aren't allowed in Piltover, but you must have misread it.

People from Zaun usually just don't have the money to meaningfully spend time in Piltover, and people from Piltover usually want to avoid the poor conditions in Zaun.

We know of Piltover volunteers helping in Zaun after accidents, we know of Zaunites applying for apprenticeships in Piltover, we know of people born with parents from both cities. And then there's the highly populated Entresol level, where people of Zaun and Piltover freely mix.

Zaun and Piltover are connected and it's people are too, although few like to pretend they aren't.

PerchancetoGame6/8/2018, 7:37:28 PM2 votes

I think the answer is somewhere in the middle - but personally I'm leaning more towards the OP. Zuanite's may be technically allowed in Piltover but there seems to be something of an unwritten rule that they shouldn't make a habit of it. That kind of thing isn't unusual in similarly segregated areas in our world - you might not be in trouble just for being somewhere but you can be singled out for other reason or the law simply won't protect you.

Hell, I could draw an analogy to "driving while black" in a white suburb - people of color can be there but the law will be on the lookout for any opportunity to make it clear they aren't welcome and are being watched. I imagine it's a similar situation in Piltover for Zuanites.

There was mention of Zuanites applying for apprenticeships but it also showed them being dismissed out of hand simply for being from Zuan.