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Needless change or good lore???

mrmeddyman·6/26/2018, 12:40:05 AM·3 votes·1,081 views

It feels like the Darkin aren't special anymore because they are basically just Ascended now. Why couldn't they remain separate?

When the Darkin were aliens that came to Runeterra they felt like a unique race. Humans, Ascended, Yordles, Vastaya and Darkin all different and clearly defined. Now the Darkin kinda seem like Ascended* (see below), if you know what I mean.

I thought that the original Darkin backstory worked well. Having them come from a different world to Runeterra after having their world destroyed by the void in a bid to help humanity and maybe coexist with us after the fact did a lot of things. They come help stop the Void and then we turned on them.

It made the world feel bigger than just Runeterra, it painted the Void as a more cosmic threat (even though I loved the recent Void updates more grounded approach) The Darkins' fallen angel aesthetic worked because they had good intentions wanted to help us and we spit in their face. We trapped them in their own weapons and when they were able to free themselves they found that their original forms were twisted into a mockery of what they were once were. As if we intentionally made them into living propaganda even changing their name to something as hilariously generic as "Darkin" to spite them.

That's what makes the new Aatroxs' rage, Rhaasts' bloodlust and Varus' contempt work. They tried to play nice we weren't having it so they said "if the shoes fit" and then became the monsters we wanted them to be.

Now it's hard to wrap my mind around because to become Darkin in the current lore there are too many phases you must go through.

Human > Ascended > Dormant Weapon > Final Form Darkin

Meaning you would have to be a normal person then get godified and walk around as a muscular Egyptian animal then have that Aztec heart cut of your chest moment then chill in a sword or spear or flail or gun what have you for millenia until someone finds you, engage parasite mode on that person and THEN you get to be a Darkin. That's just too much abstraction for my tastes. It's a little messy.

What happens if you're a Yordle. What happens if you never became ascended but someone sealed you away. What happens if You are ALREADY an ascended but get corrupted by a Darkin in weapon form. It's just difficult to wrap my mind around when before the Darkin were there own separate thing.

I really wanted to see the lore expanded on. Have the holes filled in. Artwork of the Darkin Homeworld. Details of their involvement in Targon and Shurima and maybe a cool story about when Pantheon betrays the Darkin, to maybe flesh out the why of it rather than just "because humans are evil". I think this was overkill. This feels like a story getting uprooted.

Only worries me because Yordles are coming soon and already they are being referred to as "spirits". I don't want to see them get radically changed or have lore that Riot sees as "not working" get dumped on to something that is working. They should be distinct. Yordles are Yordles, Spirits are Spirits, Darkin are Darkin and Ascended are ascended.

Overall I thought what we got was fine though. In fact pretty good when not held in comparison to what the Darkin were. I just felt like there are parts of the lore that are dated and need to be changed but this wasn't one of them.

Thoughts? For it or against it?

9 Comments

Ebonmaw Dragon6/26/2018, 1:13:11 AM2 votes

I feel like the Ascended aren't special anymore because they are basically just Darkins now.

Wrathof3006/26/2018, 12:56:55 AM1 votes

Admittedly having them be a race that tried to help then, somewhere along the line humans started fighting them would have been a problem. Why did the Darkin war start? We assumed "Ok someone betrayed the Darkin or vice versa" but why, there was no real reason for the Darkin's betrayal if they were helping.

The new lore gives a reason for why a Darkin war happened, and that reason is directly tied to an even in Runeterra's history. The new Darkin are confusing, but simplified they could be considered 'fallen Ascended' hence why Darkin literally mean 'the fallen'. To become a Darkin, you need the power of the Sun disc and then some dark magics to transform you, at this stage you're considered a Darkin.

Darkins can be trapped because they have the power of the Sun disc within them. Currently on Runeterra, all remaining Darkins should be sealed in weapons, hennce why all Darkin we know so far are trapped.

SSmotzer6/26/2018, 1:07:32 AM1 votes

I don't think they ever said Darkin are aliens or from another world. They just said that they are really really old, and since the rune war, all prior evidence of their existence was wiped away. Ascended are the closest things to angels in the lore, even the Bible describes angels as beastly creatures. With wings, lion heads, etc.

It would look more like this God-like power+Void=Darkin>Weapon The difference between an Ascended and an Aspect, is Aspects borrow power from a god, Ascended have the power of a god. So an Aspect wouldn't become a Darkin. Like prophets can perform miracles by praying to god, but angels can perform miracles because they were given power from god.

Yordles are a newer race, they were essentially cave men when the Iceborn were raging war against the Watchers. So I don't think there was ever a time when the Sun Disk was active and Yordles were sapient. Meaning Azir would have to hand pick a yordle to Ascend, who would then need to be touched by the Void, either that or a Darkin would have to somehow overpower a yordle's spirit, which is nearly impossible, as demons seem to be disgusted by and possibly weak to yordles. We don't really know the interaction between yordles and most things in the lore, because yordles just haven't been around long enough to be exposed to everything. Maybe yordles are the gods way to fight the Void, because whenever they fought it with brute force, they always lost.

Well, if you look at what Aatrox says to Kayle and Morgana, it's pretty clear they are and aren't Ascended, and are and aren't a Darkin.

Ascended were probably the ones who contained the Darkin and hid the weapons. Then Shurima fell, and the Ascended disappeared.

JoeAnarchy6/26/2018, 1:37:37 AM1 votes

How to be a Darkin 101: be human. become ascended. fight void, slowly getting corrupted but your god-like power keeping you from being fully void-like. god powers make you a deformed void-god-thing that the other gods and humans fear. get trapped in weapon of you're own using. wait. get wielded by another being who's will you can over power. take their flesh, warp it to match your own. be alive again. ???? Profit.