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Darking Plothole: There are 3 (or more) Remaining Fallen Ascended/Darkin, not 2 (Future Champs?)

NA Darklarik·6/27/2018, 7:52:57 PM·3 votes·3,732 views

So as we saw in the new Twilight of the Gods, the Darkin are in fact, "fallen" Ascended, or Ascended who are mentally ill after fighting inside the Void for so long and later altering themselves via magic. In the story, most, but not all, attend the ill fated meeting where Ta'anari with the help of Twilight Zoe kill all but 3 of the ones present. The Darkins we do know off, namely Aatrox , Kayn ,Varus Are not present at the meeting, we were told that in total, there was 5 in the world.

We dont know how many didnt attend the meeting aside from those 3, although its implied that Twilight doesnt have the means to kill the rest, but trap them:

> “No. Naganeka, Valeeva and Cebotaru escaped before the fire could take them. But they’re pretty weak, so I don’t think they’ll be a problem for long. It’s the others, all those who didn’t show up,** who’ll be harder to trap**. ”

So lets go over who did Survive

> "_Naganeka of Zuretta watched from within her hooded cowl, a long scaled robe draped over the coiled length of her body. Her venom blinded life-bearers stood ready to convey her words, should she actually deign to utter any. None of them had heard her sibilant whispers in over five hundred years. _" > _“Rhaast will be disappointed,” she said, her voice a wet, reptile hiss. “He had sworn to slay Xuuyan himself.” Her venom blinded life-bearers shuffled behind her, unsure of what to do now that their reviled goddess had spoken aloud. _

  • The first is Naganeka, who from the description, is a snake headed-like Ascended, and she is either allied or on some terms with RhaastKayn .

> _Cebotaru the Wolf paced back and forth, impatient to be done with this conclave. His battle-hosts ravaged the far north, and the lands over the western seas. Of all of them, Cebotaru was closest to breaking the bloody stalemate. _

  • Probably the coolest Ascended present and most powerful, Cebotaru is a Wolf headed Ascendad warrior from the North, similar to Nasus, but with a Wolf head and features. Lives in the Feljord, closest to taking a lead in the stalemate war.

> _Valeeva watched Ta’anari with the same haughty disdain that her brother always did—the one member of their sundered fellowship he was relieved had not attended. _ > _Valeeva, you and your **brother **saw spite in every eye, and sought vengeance for slights real and imagined.” _ > _“Oh, they were real,” she hissed, her alabaster skin threaded with violet veins and her venomous spines standing erect at her shoulders. _

  • Valeeva is the only one here mentioned to have a brother. Asuming that the ONLY Darkins who DIDNT show up to the meeting are Rhaast, Aatrox and Varus, this would probably imply that she is either the sister of Aatrox or Varus. My guess is Varus

Now, We know that after the events of Twilight, the remaining Darkins were supposedly trapped in their weapons, an act which robbed them of their connection to the celestial powers, disfigured them, and robbed them of their noble forms and feel. This is the principal motivation behind why Aatrox (and probably the rest), are fighting at this point, is for freedom, or to be as they once where (This is stated in Aatrox's lore at least).

What were interested in is the fact that there are at least 3 more darkin. This leaves a couple of options, as either the fact that there are more than 5 will need to be ret-conned, or:

  1. 2 of the survivors where trapped in weapons, but 1 (or more) of them is still loose/in hiding in his normal Ascended form (IE escaped Capture).
  2. 2 of them were trapped, 1 was killed.
  3. Aatrox, Rhaast, and Varus only **KNOW ** of at least 2 others, meaning that more could remain in total.

Personally, i belive the remaining 2 are the females they are searching for, Valeeva and Naganeka. Aside from the fact that we already have 3 males, and 2 women couldent hurt, if we are too go with option 1 (asuming the 3rd isnt dead like in option 2), that leaves 1 possible ascended champion concept. Lets go with this posibility. I dont think Naganeka would be ever made as a champion in her Ascended form because the snake/poison master is a concept taken by Cassiopia, Teemo and Signed. Next is Valeeva, whom i strongly believe is Varus sister (doesnt have to be biological sister), or it could be Aatrox's, still, she also presents a sort of snake like/poison champion based off the brief qualities they give us off her.

This leaves Cebotaru, the Wolf Ascended. Now aside from the obvious, Yes, his silhouette would be very similar in appearance to Nasus, he sure looks like someone who could be made into a champion. Particularly when you think he resides in the North, the place where the Watchers are, masters of the Void, of whom the Ascended are made to fight against. It presents interesting lore ties and concept. The alternative for this would be SKINS, Legendary Lore skins for champions to assume "the identity" of the Ascended for lore/visual purposes only. Cassiopia could be Naganeka. Cebotaru could be either Nasus or Warwick. This is the sort of mental image i get of Cebotaru, and boy would he be cool to behold. https://i.imgur.com/tZfKiCH.jpg[/img]

It would be awesome if Riot could comment on this. For the longest time we have been told that there are only 5 remaining Darkin, but this not only puts that into doubt but also shows us there could be other Ascended still alive/in hiding, same as Nasus. What do you guys think?

38 Comments

JCPANDIT6/27/2018, 8:13:44 PM4 votes

It was commented in the story that the three escaped Darkins were weak. I believe someone has also noted that only the strongest of Darkins were trapped inside weapons. With that in mind, it’s completely possible that not all of those at the meeting had to be trapped.

Oleandervine6/27/2018, 8:51:58 PM3 votes

Some flaws in your logic. Myisha states that Naganeka, Cebotaru, and Valeeka escape, but that they're weak and wounded. This implies that Myisha intends to hunt them down herself and finish the job. Because of this, and because Myisha seems to know a great deal about things and can travel via portal like Zoe can, it is probably best to assume that Myisha has ended their existence.

Next, you're reading too hard into the line "harder to trap." Myisha laid out an elaborate trap for the fallen Ascended when she organized this meeting between the 9 who showed up and Ta'anari. Her trap she laid resulted in the death of 6 of the 9 fallen Ascended. What she means by "harder to trap," is simply that she'll need a whole lot more cunning and trickery to deceive them and get them to a place where she can eliminate them. At this point in the story, she's not devised the manner of trapping them in the weapons yet, so that's not what this line is in reference to.

Naganeka's line about Rhaast doesn't imply any alliance or cooperation. She was merely stating fact - that Rhaast had pledged to kill Xuuyan and now that opportunity is gone.

Cebotaru is not stated to live in the Freljord, nor is it implied that's he's Freljordian born. It merely states that his armies have been tearing through the Freljord and the lands over the seas. This means he's got military ambitions far grander than the other fallen Ascended, since his armies are powerful enough to conquer these lands outside of Shurima.

Valeeva is Varus' sister. This is verified with one key word - vengeance. Varus is the Arrow of Vengeance. It'd not make sense to explicitly use that word in relation to anyone except Varus.

We can assume that Naganeka is dead. This is notable because the tomb that Cassiopeia employed Sivir to plunder had her visage everywhere - yet also required Setaka's blade, the Chalicar, to open. The fallen Ascended, as we saw, all coveted the Chalicar due to it's power and importance to them, and none of them had seen it since Setaka's death. At the end of the story, Myisha is in possession of the Chalicar, so the odds of a weakened Naganeka obtaining it from the Aspect hunting her are extraordinarily slim. Given that the "curse" on the tomb that Cassiopeia was trying to plunder basically reformed her in Naganeka's image, this was either a case where Myisha was setting up an elaborately evil prank by killing Naganeka and using her form as a curse for tomb robbers, or it was a method that Naganeka used to basically bottle her essence to pass on to a future generation, and Myisha just locked it away in a tomb so no one would find it. Either way, Naganeka has to be dead, since the tomb containing her "curse" is sealed by the Chalicar.

As for Valeeva and Cebotaru, we simply don't know how they died, but again, we can presume they're dead since Myisha weakened them and had them on her radar. Varus wouldn't know his sister had died then or later, because he wasn't present when Myisha sprung her trap on the gathered fallen Ascended. He would have theorized, however, that his sister was last seen at that location - which is where he was searching in his flavor story. After all, he would have probably been invited to the meeting as well, since Myisha had wanted all of the fallen Ascended present. And remember, Myisha can teleport, and there's only so far that weakened Ascended could have gotten before she'd been able to find them - so their deaths are highly likely.

Additionally, Aatrox has hints in his VO that Morgana is a fallen Ascended. While this isn't hard proof, it's heavy implications, especially since Urgot and Swain trigger same lines for Rhaast, Varus, and Aatrox lines for her. Given that we know that only the fallen Ascended dabbled in dark magics, and that some Rioters here have confirmed that they also manipulated their own flesh with magic to take on "greater forms," his lines about her flesh and her binding fall in line with this. Kayle, conversely, seems to be an actual Ascended of some fashion, so she technically wouldn't qualify as one of the remaining 5. This would mean there's only 1 left unaccounted for, if we have Rhaast, Aatrox, Varus, and Morgana.

Ebonmaw Dragon6/27/2018, 8:04:36 PM2 votes

I know that Riot said that there were 5 remaining Darkins long time ago... But, I have a question: When was the last time that we atually heard about the 5 remaining Darkin in the lore? I mean, Rhaast mention the "3... 5... of us", but that doesnt count since it could be talking about the humans Kai, Valamar and Kayn.

Valaran Nara6/29/2018, 12:24:38 AM2 votes

I see the Darkin as the "War-torn Ascended" as in, if they did not participate in the fighting, they do not count.

Nasus and Renekton did not fight. Because of this, their names have not been tarnished with the title of "Darkin"

Ta'anari is an Ascended. He too fought in the war, so he was referred to as Darkin by the mortals.

And if there is a total of 5 darkins which were put into weapons, that means all ascended that did not get killed or captured are still referred to as Ascended. You're only a darkin if you got trapped in the dark.

Stars Shaper6/27/2018, 8:45:22 PM2 votes

The Lore clearly states that some Darkins where trapped into weapons that were later used to hunt and kill the remaining ones.

It means that there is no reason to think there is a different number than we previously know.

OniZetsu6666/30/2018, 9:14:28 PM1 votes

YESSS! YESSSSSSSSS! MORE DARKIN! FUEL MY HUNGER FOR EDGE!

Tesla Effect6/28/2018, 11:35:14 PM1 votes

There is no plothole. Riot said there were only 5 darkin that are known in-universe. Which was an easy way to say "there maybe be 5 but we can always add more in the future".

Lord Zeta 13136/29/2018, 1:07:05 AM1 votes

I personally think that valeeva has the biggest chance of getting into the game due to her being a poison spine based champion. Also i think that she will be released at the same time as the varus rework. I also think that she will be another aggressive support so it maybe a while before we see her. They might have to change her name though :) any thoughts on what her abilities or reworked varus's might be?

Makarakarn6/29/2018, 12:00:35 PM1 votes

You know what I think? I think there are 5 Darkin weapons in the world. And I think we will only ever get 1 more champion in game who is a Darkin. Why? Let's review. What does Aatrox 's E do? It gives him healing based on the % of ad damage he deals. His sword also has a body part in it and has a general red and grey/black color scheme. What does Rhaast's passive do? Gives him healing based on % of ad damage. His weapon has a big body part in it, and shares the same aesthetic as Aatrox's sword. Any of you seeing a pattern here? Living weapon..body part in said weapon...red and dark colored aesthetic..% healing of ad damage...hmmmm....HMMMMM...item 3812

Warlord Rhinark6/27/2018, 8:01:29 PM1 votes

Until Riot confirms there is more than 5 Darkin in the world, there isn't more than 5 Darkin in the world.