The Legacy of Boram Darkwill

Upon reading the new lore releases, I found myself taken with a bittersweet feeling. For years now, I've found that the way Noxus' place in Runeterra changed was almost always for the better, fleshing out an originally one-dimensional "bad guy", comically machiavellian faction into a thriving empire bent on expansion of its ideals. Yet at the base of it all stood a misterious man of which we knew little but whose name was nonetheless inevitable, a character that fascinated me because of how little we knew about him: Boram Darkwill.

Originally, he was not just a ruler among others. He was "The Eternal General", a man with apparent eternal youth, who ruled since before Jarvan I. He was the unshakeable head of the Noxian High Command, a man with no fear that shaped Noxus into the powerful nation that it is. Yet there was a darkness to him that could be first traced to the death of his most trusted ally, Sion, and the desperate bid that led Darkwill to seek the Black Rose's help in reviving his friend. Although that was a failure, it is safe to assume it was then and there that Darkwill started playing with necromancy and found the way to, at least apparently, maintain himself young.

To this followed another essential aspect of his character: that his rule was fated to end with a death he seemed to have always hope to avoid. Be it to cause turmoil with Demacia (because of a supposed assassin sent by the stoic nation), or simply because Swain's thrist for power met with a Darkwill of deteriorating health and mind, his legacy ends with his him, his son incapable of wrestling the power back.

The new lore seems to capture that aspect very well. Darkwill was a competent ruler raised to power by the support of noble houses (and the black rose), once, and as soon as he was puppeteered by the Black Rose, his end inevitably came. Noxus cannot tolerate a weak leader, and his fall and Swain's ascension is retold brilliantly in the new lore. Yet, I cannot help but feel something is amiss. Now, Boram is described as an old man, fearing the passing of time and with it, an inevitable death. He is described as an overambitious conqueror, desperate not for the glory of his nation, but for a solution to his plight. A man that was eventually manipulated by the very forces he reviled. In a sense, he is far from being the enigmatic, foundational leader of Noxus.

So I find myself divided. In a way, Boram has never been truer to his legacy. He is now, more than ever, the defeated grand general. The man with a former glory, and no place in the present. His fear of death made him weak and weary, sealing his own demise at the hands of those who were more ambitious.

But in another way, he's gone. Two entire aspects of him have been lost. One is the necromancy-delving, power-hungry, eternally youthful man. The other is the founder, the man that raised Noxus from the mud, an exceptional ruler and unequal general that not only embodied what it meant to be Noxian, but himself set the standards for it. Riot has made the decision to use these themes as the new clay for shaping the lore of Jericho Swain, the demon-wielding reformist, the cunning, deeply rooted Black Rose (and its mysterious matron) and, essentially, all of Noxus.

It is not often that a change in the lore hits me so deeply. And yet I am not angry or disappointed. Swain's new lore made me shiver with excitement, and knowing Boram was not only remembered, but solidly established in the lore after years of oblivion makes me very happy. But there is a longing for what once was that I don't think will go away so soon.

I will remember the Darkwill that was, and hope to see him live on in the new Grand General, a man with vision and undeterred willpower, a true Noxian. But, as a parting to his legacy, I thought it appropriate to share what I find to be his best quote, for it seems surprisingly fitting for the situation. It is spoken during an eulogy for Sion, after the battle that took him and Jarvan I from the world:

"Every Noxian should look upon this memorial and know this is what I demand of you: if you die, do so gloriously. Make the world falter at your loss."