Azir is against slavery

The Ecdysiast·May 16, 2016·2 votes·564 views

So then, what's going to happen when Taliyah finds this out? He's not going to enslave her family or her people. He's just going to be a good leader as he planned to millenia ago.

6 Comments

RalanrMay 16, 20162 votes

An awkward breeze will blow in between them.

Obviously.

LordHippomanMay 16, 20162 votes

I'd be a little skeptical of Azir. Sure, thousands of years ago he wanted to be a fair and kind emperor, working to benefit all of Shurima. (Although, it's worth noting he went a little bonkers around the Ascension thing, he threatened those priests with death if they wouldn't perform it, although that's more Xerath's cunning influence.)

Then he was backstabbed, lie dead in the sands for millenia, and woke up only to realize his best friend murdered him, along with all of his people, his wife, and his children.

I think it wouldn't be too much of a stretch if something inside Azir snapped. He tried to be the good guy, and look what it got him. Of course, he WAS doing the right thing, but the sheer emotional devastation at something like that might push that fact out of his mind. Maybe all he wants now is power for revenge on Xerath. Maybe he doesn't care about the common people anymore. Azir is potentially a very different man now than he was years ago.

Or it could just be a misunderstanding, and he could be the noble and gracious emperor he always wanted to be. I think it depends on the direction Riot wants to take Azir's character. Is he a determined leader, back to help protect his people? Or is he a relic of the past fueled by hate and anger, who should have stayed buried?

RabblerouserMay 17, 20161 votes

Add to the fact, he's still a pragmatist. As much as he wanted to abolish slavery, he didn't want to upend his enter society that depended heavily on slave labor. He did what he thought was best for Shurima.

It may very well be that he believes that to rebuild Shurima, he'd have to rely again on slave labor. A dark means to a brighter end. Either that or "I freed the slaves and look where it got Shurima and its people".

With people commenting on Azir's resurrection in Taliyah's lore and even saying "their bird god" has returned, "says he misses his slaves". It hints strongly that may be the case. They've seen his hawk-like form since he Ascended into his hawk form "recently". And mentioning slaves specifically means Azir probably is bringing slavery back. That is, unless it's just a horrible plot device to hook Taliyah into Shurima. I don't like that they're likely turning Azir into a bad guy, though.

I also feel that even though they call Azir the one that fell victim to ambition, Xerath started this all. He couldn't take Azir's decree. He wanted Ascended. To "steal the empire". Xerath was the ambitious one.

The Shuriman story has all these heartbreaking viewpoints and none of them are perfect.

Take into account part of the bio for Jhin, a wonderful quote: "Good and evil are not truths. They are born from men and each sees the shades differently."

The EcdysiastMay 17, 20161 votes

*wives plural
It didn't specifically say he planned to enslave the people, despite that being in the slightly less recent Shurima lore, so it goes to reason that he doesn't.

GreenLoreMay 16, 20161 votes

I guess she might not believe him.

I mean he comes up and is like "no I'm not like the other emporers,I'm against slavery,trust me and come in my city that is likely filled with sand soldiers who could kill you whenever I wanted to do it".

From her point of view it is likely that she'd be too afraid that he just puts up a facade to fool others.

UomoAfideMay 16, 20161 votes

I feel like the final clash will not be about slavery. Taliya will come to clear the misunderstanding about Azir and slavery, yet that doesn't mean she is going to approve his methods. Azir is basically an imperialistic demigod that resurrected from the desert itself. I feel it's more about Taliya considering Azir a relic of the past, back to pretend servitude (still not slavery) and loyalty from a collection of tribes which had lived millenias without his rule and the presence of the Shuriman Empire itself. It's not exactly a fight against slavery or non-slavery it's more about the clash between the resurgence of old glory and tradition against the future and the change brought by the passing of aeons, Taliya feels that Shurima can still live without Azir's rule and that his time was long due. At least, that's just my personal interpretation of what might be.