A (Too Long) Musing on Sona's Origins
TL;DR at the bottom
Background I've been a Sona main since she's basically been released. I found her play-style super easy, and I really like the look of the character. That being said, she's one of a few champions that have been given next to no attention when it comes to lore. I'd like to piece together what RIOT has given us over the years in bits and pieces to try and come up with a complete in-universe backstory for her.
What We Know The first place where we have to look for evidence of her past and the source of her power is of course her biography page.
- Firstly, she's an Ionian orphan. Theories on why she was orphaned later.
- She and her etwahl are somehow tied together, whether it be by fate or magic.
- Lestara, her adoptive mother, heard of the etwahl first.
- Lestara somehow knew which orphan the etwahl belonged to without asking the caretakers.
- Next the "related champions" section gives us an interesting clue into the possible power of Sona: Ryze. While Taric can be explained away with his love of beauty and art, and Xin Zhao has very likely been to one of Sona's performances, Ryze would stand out like a sore thumb at any event Sona holds.
Despite the League being retconned, I think we can still glean some useful information from her judgement, like how her power works and some descriptions.
- The date is 21 September, 20 CLE. Remember this. It's critical for my later theories.
- Her very appearance is described as magical, despite being Demacian, a society that we understand absolutely abhors anything magical.
- Sona has amazing hearing; and with sounds being portrayed throughout the story as various musical terms, she very likely perceives sounds as some sort of music.
- Sona's etwahl feels alive to Sona.
- She remembers someone saying to her:
- "This instrument will be the key to unlocking the world. It will speak for you more truly than a voice ever could. Nothing else; not us, them, or any magic in this world will ever own you again."
I think we can start puzzle-piecing some things together, but I want to hold off for just a bit more to pick up some odds and ends from other, various sources.
She's held concerts in Demacia, of course. In the JoJ (wikia warning alert), we can see she's played in Ionia. And not just anywhere in Ionia, but underneath The Great Tree, an auspicious locale where The Blood Moon event is held. (We also see that she's described as "young." here, another important piece) In her biography, we can see that the Swain, a General in High Command of the Noxian Army has listened to Sona play, which is interesting. Swain would likely not be allowed in either other places. Either this means that despite being Demacian, she was allowed to freely come and go into Noxus, or Swain seeked one of her concerts out, which is equally noteworthy. Since we know that Jhin wants to kill Sona, it's highly likely that she is world famous for her talents.
So we have built up some of her backstory, but there are many gaps in our knowledge.
- Who were her parents? Why was she orphaned?
- What is the etwahl? Who made it? Why was it so important that Lestara traveled so far to seek out the owner?
- Why is Ryze in her "related champions" section?
IT'S THEORY TIME
So I'm going to hit you with what I think these answers are with various pieces of evidence sprinkled in. Note, a lot of this theory may be 100% off, but I think it's the closest anyone has ever come to a solid theory about Sona's backstory. It's easily the most time anyone has sunk into this.
> Sona, as an infant, was cursed with muteness by ancient Ionian magic to be inexorably tied to her etwahl that she uses to control people's emotions through music. This effect is so powerful that Ryze had to investigate to make sure it wasn't a World Rune.
I'm going to go through this step by step to try and explain where I came from. Why do I think she was cursed as an infant instead of her being born with this power? I grappled with the source of her power for a long time. Every indication of her power seems like it pointed toward her instrument, but I was never happy with that answer. I wanted to believe that Sona herself was responsible for her power. Having it just be the instrument felt incredibly lacklustre.
My first clue came when City of Iron and Glass came out. In it, Mama Elodie claims to be Ionian, chiefly Vastayan, and shows incredible talent for singing. So much so that she creates "a sense of oneness and harmony" in the audience. She says, "[That her mother] was of... an old Ionian line, though her voice was far superior to mine." So that lets us know that:
- There's an ancient Ionian group that harnesses the power of music and
- That despite it completely taking over the room, there are people who are better at it.
Also in the story, it seems that the singing takes a lot out of the singer, so the effect is on the performer is incredibly draining. So what we've learned is that she learned from her mother how to do this. My theory is that she and Sona came from the same tribe. An expansion on this theory is that it's not just a tribe, but a monastic order. I think this line of reasoning is solid after the patterns that arise in stories I've read about Ionia. However, Sona was not only abandoned as an infant, but she's also mute, so singing is not a possibility. That's where the next part comes in.
What would cause an Ionian to become an Orphan? For that, I need to bring you back to both A) Sona's judgement day, and B) the JoJ entry. Here we see the date "20 CLE." This date, as far as I can tell, is the establishment of the League. I know what you're thinking. "The League isn't cannon anymore." Here's the great thing: It doesn't have to be. All we need to know is a sort of timeline. In the JoJ Sona is described as "young," which I take to mean 16 - 22. So we need to look around what was happening around the date "0 CLE."
Noxus invaded Ionia. It's another Wikia link, and a JoJ, but bear with me. We know that this event happened despite this source being retconned because it's so fundamentally tied to Lee Sin's and Karma's history. So my theory is that Sona's and Mama Elodie's order was eliminated by Noxus and that Sona was squirreled away at the last moment.
A side note before I continue. Every mention of etwahl is in lower case. Now I know that might not seem like an important detail, but because it is a League exclusive term, tells us that there are likely more than just the one Sona uses. What we can't throw out, though, is that they're so incredibly rare that one would travel across continents to find one, or that Sona's is incredibly special. This leads me to believe that they were only made by this order by some sort of magical master craftsman.
Now this leads us to the question of how on Runeterra Lestara knows about this, much less how to train Sona on her etwahl. If I thought Sona didn't have much information, Lestara has even less. All we have is Sona's biography and judgement, which isn't much. I'd imagine she's an Ionian scholar or historian of some kind. Maybe she has ties to the ancient order. This still is one of the biggest question marks I have regarding Sona. It's also where I make the largest leap in logic.
I think that Sona's natural ability to listen for music was given to her by taking her voice away and putting it into the etwahl. I have no proof of this other than what I believe, but I think it's a natural conclusion to make. :^)
TL:DR: Sona, as an infant, was cursed with muteness by ancient Ionian magic to be inexorably tied to her etwahl that she uses to control people's emotions through music. This effect is so powerful that Ryze had to investigate to make sure it wasn't a World Rune.
P.S. The fact that Sona's default splash art is clearly Ionian in style speaks volumes on how she actually associates. I think her muse skin is how she gets by in Demacia. It fits their look and feel more. Notice all the white clothing and marble structures.
