A rexamination of the Noxus-Ionia relationship in light of the removal of the institute of war

*This was initially meant to be a post in Carnival Knights’ thread I apparently can’t post this much into a reply box at once.

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I think it’s time we had a talk about that whole Noxian invasion of Ionia thing…

Riot, through its devblogs and other red posts has indicated that it is attempting to craft a much more vibrant world that is involves deeper motivations for its champions. A big chunk of this is removing the puppeteering of the Institute of War/summoners as the strings controlling the character’s actions in favor of suggesting that the characters might actually have their own motivations for the actions they undertake.

I want to examine at the napkin-math level the current relationship between Ionia and Noxus;
-Noxians invaded Ionia because they are dastardly evil-dooers -Ionians all hate Noxus because you hate the dudes that stabbed you with a sword

That is all the relationship is right now. There is no great breadth of interaction between Noxus. It’s a relationship that is entertaining fluff and empty calories. It’s entertaining as a novelty but without much substance or sense of purpose just like the USFL jersey nameplates of “HE HATE ME” and “I HATE HIM”. Its good showmanship antics and that is it. As the story stands there isn’t much room to develop a breadth and diversity of narrative on the Noxian-Ionian conflict. This is problematic for Ionia, an archepelligo otherwise isolated from Runetera except for the Noxus conflict driver. Thankfully there are some very powerful themes with home-hitting familiarity to much of the world markets where League of Legends is played that can be substituted to craft an engaging narrative.

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I am going to throw up a big DISCLAIMER here before continuing. Some governments of the world and thus the markets they preside over have insecurity issues on the following themes. An examination would be need to be made at Riot if Localization of the following potential lore would be possible or if censorship issues would preclude it.

Goals;

1. Identify Noxian and Ionian affinities and their tenants that lead to organically occurring ties between these two factions.
2. Give Ionian champions a vehicle to break their isolationism and interact in diverse and meaningful ways with the rest of Runeterra.

First, an examination of Noxus

Too often Noxus is trope-cast into being “evil” despite its core affinity being “Power”. The invasion having occurred in the past allows us to examine Noxus’ actions with the lens of history and a textbook almost academic presentation of the city. The Sion relaunch was a great example of this kind of academic presentation. We can see what the systemic, uniquely Noxian problems are that the city state has suffered from. Ultimately they should all flow from the shortcomings of a life guided primarily by ‘Power’.

Noxian Tenants of power a) Noxus supports survival of the powerful (mental, magical, physical) b) The weak while not actively culled are left out to weather in absence. c) No judgement is passed on the means to achieve power d) Supremacy of the human(oid) form and inter-species xenophobia keep Noxus on track

This survival of the powerful tenant drives Noxus into a titanology effect. In Noxian society it is better to have fewer but more powerful offspring, soldiers, weapons, ect. When this tenant has been instituted since antiquity it leads to each Noxian being valuable and hard to replace. Such a sense of irreplaceability serves to build the esprit de corps of Noxus even amongst the lowest members of its society.

Systemic flaws of Noxus a) Noxus has a low population base to work from due to this titanology and is being out-populated into obsolescence by other city states of Valoran b) Noxian quality is at risk of being outweighed by Demacian, Piltoverian, ect’s sheer numbers c) Xenophobic attitude has irreparably damaged relations with continental Valoran.

Noxus’ historical problems with the lack of manpower needed to constantly replace losses from the moral crusades of external forces mean that if today’s Noxus wanted to survive as an independent power they needed to have acted on it one hundred fifty or more years ago. And so, they did…

Potential remedies for the flaws of Noxus a) Conquer Demacia i. This hasn’t exactly worked any of the times they tried it before b) Conquer Piltover i. Friends of Demacia see above c) Conquer Zaun i. Attack our only friends in this world? d) Subjugate various magical beasties of Valoran i. Bugs are gross! ii. A Yordle!?! e) Subjugate Ionia i. It’s got vast numbers of people we could conscript ii. It’s kind of out of the way where no one can easily help them iii. It’s got vast numbers of people who are pacifists iv. It’s residents are kind of obsessed with training personal power just like us!

To Noxus, one of these ideas looks much better than the others and it begins to be easy to see where the idea to make Ionia into a colony of Noxus comes from.

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Second, The subjugation of Ionia

This would undoubtedly be a complex process with a lot of room to create narrative background for today’s events – the stories of the champions we do play. My suggestion on the first step of this process is to retcon it backwards in time a significant amount. This will allow for the past tragedies associated with what would certainly be a brutal campaign to remain in the past. Not every single Ionian needs to follow the Inigio Montoya storyline “You killed my (insert relative or martial arts teacher here) Prepare to die!”. It gets old fast and feels really shallow.

Placing the invasion in the past would also let it be used as a thematic hook for key narrative events like Sion’s storyline. Why was Noxus so weak at that moment? Perhaps it was Boram Darkwill’s all-in make or break moment with Noxus’s armies still overseas and only a token homeguard to defend the city itself. An invasion in the past would give more weight to the accomplishments of our chronologically older champions and give them a new thematic bridge to the present day.

Further placing the invasion in the past will allow us to create a sense of stability about the current arrangement of the Noxus-Ionia situation. The time lapsed will allow us to create a track record of Noxian rule in Ionia that will act as the razor that carves the Ionian champion base into smaller more nuanced point of views.

The tenants of Noxian rule should largely derive from the goals of its occupation of Ionia and the Noxian tenants of Power

a) Noxus came to Ionia for manpower. Ionian’s are therefore compelled to serve in the Noxian army during times of conflict.
i. This would take the form of both Ionian led and composed units and integrated forces.
b) Noxian interest is about glory for Noxus not making/converting Ionia to be ‘Noxian’ i. Annexed areas of Ionia are considered ‘part’ of Noxus albeit secondarily to the continental possessions and the city state itself ii. In light of this most of governmental affairs of Ionia are decentralized and assigned to the traditional pre-invasion sources.
c) While ruling Ionia with a loose hand it is a heavy hand and any action crossing beyond civil-disobedient protest and into rebellion is summarily crushed with absolute lack of mercy d) As Noxus is a power driven meritocracy, Ionians that volunteer, pursue, and embrace the spirit of Noxus are given equal advancement consummate with their deeds and in some cases will occupy key positions in military and government e) Not all of the minor and outlying islands of the Ionian archipelago were conquered. Noxus has no designs for these small areas preferring instead to use them as a pressure release valve where dissidents may be exiled to without being martyred

How this Noxian rule has been executed can be a point of contention and a conflict driver for the Ionian characters to debate amongst themselves. What I think would occur is what has occurred in the real world -- a lack of consensus on the best course of action for those with spirt, an apathy to change amongst those that are risk adverse, and a comfort in an orderly status quo amongst those who want to live unmolested. I think that the debate and the narratives that you could craft within this framework would resonate deeply with those areas of the world where grappling with colonialism and its effects is imprinted on the national ethos. (see India, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Polynesia, SE Asia, ect)

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Third, an examination of Ionia with more leeway from the author

Ionia is really an eclectic collection of champions right now. They are generally trope-typed as eastern themed or martial artsy themed champions. But each point of the collection is so remote from the next that they cannot coordinate the symphony of Ionian story. It’s like trying to build a telecom network in the outback – there are very big distances involved and it gets very expensive. In my mind we need to bring these characters closer together so that they can first live and interact with one another. We can then use vehicles like the Noxian army and Noxian occupation as a vehicle to export these characters to Valoran where they can have rich stories and interactions with the rest of the cast of the League of Legends.

To that end I’ve done a non-exhaustive pass over some of the Ionia champions to group them into camps of sorts with hypothetical attitudes towards the status of Noxian rule in Ionia.

-The Ionian Dunk Squad Jax, Irellia, Master Yi, Wu Kong

These guys list “Cultural-practioning Badass” as their occupation on their tax returns. This is a group with no extreme fondness or love for Noxian rule. They aren’t striving for independence either. They are well aware of the concept of if not Noxus then someone else-- ie) if Demacia were in charge of Ionia instead you could write off having any more council of the elders under the monarchy structure and you can write off all your love of non-theistic spirituality when justice-worshiping Demacia comes to town. With enough street miles to understand realpolitick, Noxian rule is unobtrusive enough for them to go along with it and find other ways to retain, express, and develop their Ionian virtues instead.

Begrudgingly complying with the requirement for military service they seek to show Ionian superiority through their own unique means and prove that Noxus has a deeply flawed understanding of power. -For Jax this is eschewing true weaponry and creaming opponents with a lamppost and other training weapons. What Noxian can do that? -For Irellia, she can do it all with no hands. What Noxian can do that? -For Master Yi, whatever a Noxian can do he can train a monkey to do better. -For Wu Kong, he can do anything better than you. -Whereas Noxian troops may kill all troops these Ionian regiments may force retreats, accept surrenders, take prisoners, ect (much to the disgrace of Noxian Pride)

-Those actively rebelling Yasuo

Once or twice a decade, some Ionian village thinks it wise to rebel. The rebellion usually ends shortly with the village entirely extinguished. How did Yasuo’s village fare? Take a look at his backstory, change virtually nothing, and you have your answer. This gives all the thematic space necessary to pursue the Riven-Yasuo narrative farther. What engendered the village’s rebellion? Perhaps it was Lee Sin’s self-immolation?

-Those in independent Ionia Karma, Lee Sin, Varus

As an escape valve for dissidents, the outlying islands act as an echo chamber for Ionian independence rhetoric and clamor. Their legendary resiliency is exceeded only by their lack of an economic base, of fighting numbers, and overestimation of support from an apathetic mainland Ionian populace.
-Karma, if anyone would be able to rekindle the flame of Ionian Independence it would be this young, diplomatic firebrand. -Lee sin, actually set himself on fire before being exiled to independent Ionia -Varus, probably jumped the gun too early on popping the evil pills.

-Those Noxus x Ionia champs Riven

Perhaps these are the decendents of Noxian noble/military families that resettled to Ionia for personal gain. They have all the pedigree of Noxus but have ‘gone native’ or otherwise have Ionian qualities as well.

Riven participated in the brutal putdown of all challenges to Noxian order in Ionia. Given the jockeying for position that occurs often in the capital there is an inherent hypocrisy about how life out here at the edge of the empire is conducted. She has her own identity crisis to follow.

-Those Ionia x Noxus champs None yet

The invasion of Ionia now being a long standing fact, we have an opening in thematic space for what was once unthinkable. We can now introduce Ionians who have adopted and perfected the spirit of Noxus with their own Ionian abilities. There no longer would have to be a contrived turncoat story to account for this. Ionians could be drawn to pursue this path for any multitude of reasons be it economic or a desire to actually use their power, ect. If I ever get around to finishing it, I have some nice ideas for concept art along these lines and I’m sure other people do too.

At this point I’m curious to know what other players and particularly rioters think of the idea of repositioning the Noxus-Ionia relationship to open things up more and farther away from the squabble about who killed who. It’s supposed to be a happy occasion after all.