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Ugh there is just far too much potential in the Noxus LU!

Whyte Lyon·5/30/2017, 5:54:33 AM·28 votes·12,377 views

http://hasagi.gg/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sion-vs-riven-league_of_legends-fight-5523-1024x576.jpg ##Warning: expressing thoughts and feelings with exaggerated fluff and excessive rambling.

There is something incredibly old about Noxus, not just in terms of its history but in its bones as well. Victory is their currency, it hungers for sovereignty and thrives off conquest. They have been doing this for as long as anyone can remember. However Noxus isn't as noble as some will have you believe it to be, the inclusive Empire might be unfaltering but there is a presence of jealousy and rage among them. Deep down they realize that they’re not as fortunate like the rest of the world, which is why there is no freedom for anyone who cannot prove their worth.

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/004/018/061/large/gabriel-yeganyan-noxus-town-gate.jpg?1479493125

Noxus isn't my favourite region (as my heart belongs to Zaun) but no one can deny that the nation has so much more potential than any of the other regions. There are numerous narrative directions and options that have been pre-established from old lore, begging to be told anew. With many reasons for this, the biggest being that pre-retcon Noxus was the most established region among them all. More so the other regions from pre-retcon had very little to no world building to begin with, so it’s no surprise that places like Piltover/Zaun, Demacia and (when it eventually gets an LU) Bandle City will have vast differences from their former selves. However I don't think that entirely applies to Noxus, since the fundamentals of its old lore can be carried over into the new. If anything most of it just needs more context and/or follow up rather than re-imagining. At least that's what I think whether or not Narrative feel the same is a different thing entirely.

Out of the 10 or so champs that need updating and lets assume only 6 of those gets an LU. Who do we think or who do we know is important enough to spearhead their nation into the post-retcon? - Always remembering that Swain's VGU has high potential for a hopefully not too distant future relaunch, which I would assume will come with its own LU as well.

I have considered the following Talon Katarina Cassiopeia (Girl still needs her bio update). I pick these three simply on the basis that I would like to see Narrative properly tackle General Du Couteau's disappearance. How that story would play out is the Narrative team's issue. However I will admit a story focusing on kids with abandonment issues might not be the most ideal way to re-introduce Noxus but I have faith in Riot's efforts.

85 Comments

Blood Magicks5/30/2017, 9:31:29 AM13 votes

Oh, my heart rate speeds up every time I think of this.

Every, and I mean EVERY Noxian champ has a cult following of insanely loyal fans. Noxus is the most diverse and politically complex faction.

What I'm saying is these lores need to be mastercrafted with the utmost love and care, because with potential like this success would be incredibly rewarding.

HalfTangible5/30/2017, 8:16:58 AM7 votes

I feel that, when updating the lore of any given region, it's important to get a good view of the region at its best and its worst. More importantly, you need to establish how the region currently is and where it could go from here.

For Noxus in particular, their big thing internal thing imo has always been the struggle between the various ideals of what strength is. Katarina sees it as loyalty above all else, Darius as 'getting shit done', Swain as brilliant planning, LeBlanc as manipulation, etc etc. Noxus builds itself on the effectiveness of its troops more than anything else, so such an attitude makes sense.

Let's go through the Noxian characters and see what Riot can do with them. (Keep in mind the point here is to show off Noxus as a nation/region, not necessarily to show us how cool a particular character is)

Cassiopeia is in Shurima, last I checked, and had an update there. If she does receive an update, I doubt it'll focus entirely on Noxus, given that she's largely cut out of public life.

Darius is a sure-in. The guy is a major war general and the main man trying to purge Noxus of its main problem: corruption in the ranks. This makes his inclusion basically a necessity, as it would give the clearest possible picture of Noxus' current political and military affairs.

Draven is a one-man show, so updating him won't tell us much about Noxus. He'll probably get updated alone to show us about the combat arenas he holds entertainments in (see Fiora for a comparable example). I could see him getting an update alongside his brother Darius, but other than that I don't see a pressing need for an update. Also, we already know he will be getting touched up in the Draven update. His ego requires another patch; it's still too small.

Katarina is another sure-in. She's THE Noxian champion in the old lore and imo the current one. Hot blooded and strong, but loyal to an almost fanatical degree. I've always said she's the Noxian ideal. Noxus promises its citizens the freedom to work as they choose (which Kat does) but it also wants them to have an eye for the health of the empire as a whole (Which she does). Updating Noxus without her and Darius would be like updating Demacia without Jarvan/Garen.

Kled is already updated, and if he needs changes it'll probably be with the full Bandle City/Yordle update.

LeBlanc's got her hand in basically everything in Noxus. So she'll be updated, though it will probably center largely on the black rose rather than LeBlanc herself. It'll probably also give us some insight into Noxus' history, much like Galio's did with the introduction of petricite. If not, reference will certainly be made to her.

Riven, as much as I love her, probably won't be updated here. She's very much the Exile, so she won't be anywhere near Noxus. Her update will probably come with Ionia, since her lore is probably gonna be tied with Noxus' invasion of the region.

Sion's already got a color story, but he has no bio, and that's a major problem for his lore page.

Swain will probably be updated. He's the de facto leader of Noxus from a political standpoint, and the main figurehead for a major faction in world politics. We NEED to know what he's doing.

Talon's lore is very limiting in what it can show us about Noxus.

Urgot is getting a full VGU soon anyway, so yeah.

Vladimir... I honestly don't even know what to make of this guy.

Thoughts, comments, additions?

GreenLore5/30/2017, 9:48:18 AM7 votes

Well normally I'd say that they should focus on updating the champs of the faction based on their importance to it(for example in the demacia event they updated the lores of all the demacians who had no big connections to other nations),in the case of Noxus I'd rank the champs roughly this way: Tier 1(central characters) Swain I mean he is the leader of Noxus and has connections to more noxian champs than any other champ.

Tier 2(iconic/important champs) Katarina Darius Leblanc Sion Kata and Darius are pretty much the most iconic Noxus champs and Leblanc is the leader of her own mini faction within Noxus,so she is also quite important.Meanwhile Sion is a warhero and their secret weapon,so he is iconic for them in-universe

Tier3(at leas they are mainly connected to Noxus) Draven Vladimir Talon None of these 3 really seem to be that important for Noxus,but at least they are purely noxian champs.

Tier4(Might as well be a champion of another faction) Kled Riven Urgot Cassiopeia Cassio&Urgot look like they are from Shurima/Zaun respectively and Riven doesn't live in Noxus anymore as well.Kled does live in noxus,so it might be wrong of me to list him here,but that doesn't matter anyway,since he has already a complete lore and doesn't need an update anyway.

However the big question is when we'll get the first noxus lore update. We might get the first part with Urgots VGU and then the second part with Swains VGU. However since Swain is so central to Noxus,they might actually shy away from updating a few of the more important noxus-champs when urgot gets his VGU. I mean its kinda hard to establish Darius as Swains right hand man,if they can't establish Swain first.

And then there is also the fact that cassio and Sion have been bioless for quite some time,so I feel like they should get a new bio regardless of how important they are to Noxus.

Duchess Katarina5/31/2017, 12:40:20 PM4 votes

What about Morgana? She lives in Noxus, I know her lore is obviously tied in with Kayle. But I think she could provide some insight to Noxus, especially as an outsider.

LordHippoman5/30/2017, 6:50:35 PM3 votes

I'm...conflicted about the Noxus Lore update.

I think it's pretty clear the intended direction for Noxus changed as League was developing. They were the generic villain state in a lot of the earliest champs' backstories. Need slavers for Alistar? Noxus. Want some people to murder Yi's village? Noxus. Need some people to toss Veigar in jail and drive him insane because "lol, yordles"? Noxians got you covered. Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, because it is amazing, THEY LIVED ON A GIANT SKULL SHAPED MOUNTAIN.

But you start seeing a change in that with characters like Riven, and even Darius a little, where Noxus starts to get more nuances and traits regarding personal freedom that Demacia evidently lacked. Probably a lot of reasons for that, wanting to make the story more complicated, fans latching onto Noxian characters like Swain or Kat, etc. But there's still this canon tangling issue of:

Swain : "We're the empire of personal freedom where anyone can rise up! Also over here we have our Gladiatorial Slave Death Pits, the prison where we keep people of other species, and a monument to That Time We Genocided The Minotaurs."

So I'm expecting the Noxian Lore update to cut a lot of that. They've already, as OP mentioned, made them very inclusive, which is a pretty sharp retcon from "notoriously xenophobic", as they were described in their old summary. I'm guessing the slavery is getting dumped too. I think that's good, to help make Noxus more of an interesting location and less of a generic bad guy zone. It is going to be a retcon, yes, which is unfortunate, unless it's explained away via Swain being a less savage Grand General than Darkwill. Still, though, there are a ton of good stories waiting to be told with Noxus and Noxian champs. My personal picks for stuff I want expanded would be:

Cassiopeia Katarina 's Dad. What the hell happened to Marcus? Is he even still canon? I hope so, that was a great unsolved mystery. Cass is also a character I'd really like to see more of. Her new short story on Universe paints an almost sort of benevolent vigilante side to her, which is something we haven't seen before and I'd love to hear about.

Leblanc The Black Rose has some awesome storytelling opportunities. Secret government-controlling cult, maybe some unknown endgame, they're stylish as hell.

Swain . Just...anything involving Swain. He's such a good character, he's got his hands in everything. He's apparently tricked the Vastaya, he's in good with the Black Rose, he murdered and schemed his way to the top, and he's gotta learn soon that he's sitting on Morde's old house.