On Darkin Names, Meanings, Themes and the Future

• Aatrox -fierce, bloody, terrible, frightening, dreadful https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atrox The word Atrocious derives from this. Fitting I think. He particularly seems to feed upon blood. Not just spilling it, but actually consuming it. In the Varus comic, Varus remarks to a Noxian Hemomage that "We gave you that!" I'm not sure what he means by that though. I never imagined the Darkin actually instructing people.

• Varus -bow-legged or bent outwards like a bow. ALSO "Varus, give me back my LEGIONS!" -Augustus after Quinctilius Varus lost 3 legions to the Germanic tribes in the Teutoburg forest. Varus couldn't escape and committed suicide. Others were captured, enslaved, or sacrificed to their gods. I feel the invading Darkin were beaten unexpectedly in the same way, and wiped out with more powerful ones sealed. Historians called it the clades Variana (Varian Disaster).
  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/varus

https://i.imgur.com/3Bz8HHG.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QCYcLwQ.jpg

This sort of makes me wonder....why does Varus desire revenge so much? More than the other Darkin, it seems? Could it be.........**that it was Varus fault? **

• Rhaast? I'm not so sure about this one. I'm still searching for similar words. Kayn/Cain asked Rhaast what it meant and he claimed it meant "Obey" , but that might have just been a quip on his part. It doesn't seem to be latin derived. Perhaps it's German? Then again it could be an out of game reference perhaps to Dota with 'Rhasta the Shadow Shaman' although their abilities are not alike. 1 letter A would have to be moved. recall that Baron Nashor is a tribute to Roshan from Dota.

Now. Where does this go thematically? Well. You've probably seen a MILLION threads go "Oh demons are the seven deadly sins!" and try to fit and other existing characters under that system. Well. Probably not sooo original, but I kind of see the legendary 'Five Darkin' as possibly fitting into a related theme, or another.

• - War incarnate. Noble Demon , and 'Wicked Cultured' tropes perhaps. Likes fighting uphill battles. Mysterious. Influenced numerous civilizations. Created Tryndamere. Stands out by having complete control over his form.

• - Death incarnate ("Death and war, this will be delicious." -Rhaast on himself and an allied Aatrox, although Kindred might have a word on that) Scythe of slaughter and mayhem, thrill-seeker. The most savage of the Darkin we know so far.

• -Vengeance (...Pestilence?? Blight ed Quiver/stacks?) incarnate. Everything he's about is annihilating the humans who destroyed his people and their world. "I'm on borrowed time." -True in the old lore, and the new lore. If spoken by Valmar, he doesn't know how long he has to live to save his body. If spoken by Varus himself, what if he genuinely believed that the two Ionians might overcome him? It's 2v1 unlike ALL other Darkin. Valmar has already seen the devastation of the Noxian invasion, and also desires to punish his enemies. But...he still has honor, and Kai to help him avoid giving into it and letting it totally consume him.

War, Death, Pestilence. All we'd need is Famine and we'd have an Apocalypse of Runeterra Theme. But that's only 4 Horseman. Who's the 5th? Well there is possibility mixing in 'Conquest' in as a champion unto themselves. A character to be a 'leader' of the group/five man band. So we would have Conquest as the 'Leader'. as the 'Lancer' -he would contrast to the Leader in some way. /Rhaast as the 'Big Guy'. He is very tanky as Rhaast, and bit more....blunt, and unrefined. Then a midlaner Darkin as 'The Smart Guy', and then 'The Chick' as support.

OR that could be reversed since it's a bit typical to put the Chick as a support like character. We can always use more male supports. We also know that Varus was looking for a 'sister' in a Shuriman tomb ('The Chick'). Unless of course...mysterious Aatrox is the Leader. That could make sense too. Or....he's the smart guy, that no one ever suspected, plotting against the leader ( The Starscream ]Starscream fits ODDLY well with his Mecha skin fighter-jet transformation. I mean everyone else has been down all this time, while Aatrox has been active for a long, LONG time doing his own thing seemingly.

Now all that said if we presume

• to be top (although he can Jungle)

• to be Jungle (he can top too, but jungle gives him the option to choose who he ganks and thus choose his form)

• to be botlane Marksman

Then that means we need a mid lane and a support as Darkin champions. We know they will all have weapons of some sort since that is apart of their theme. Since Varus mentions Darkin invented blood magic, maybe it's possible to have a Darkin Stave? In the past, I seem to recall teams wanting some AP and AD so it wouldn't be very easy to itemize against them. We have a Sword, a Scythe, and a Bow. Classical fantasy weapons. I kind of feel there's room here for some weapons we've never seen before.