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The Name of Varus' Bow (RIOT PLS) [Also Other Darkin Discussion]

Revive Dominion·7/19/2017, 4:50:10 AM·7 votes·1,975 views

Warning: This is a freaking Giant Theory/Darkin Discussion thing. It's probably TLDR.

Okay, so I think it's relatively confirmed, thanks to papa Rhaast, that Varus' Bow is either currently a Darkin (The lore is vague enough as is to even keep the same lore) or will be soon rewritten lore wise as a Darkin. As such there HAS TO BE A NAME TO THIS BOW!

Now we can in fact confirm that Varus is in the state that Kayn is currently in, though possibly much closer to the edge than Kayn, because of the following.

Not a FULL Darkin-

  1. Varus was his prior living name and he still refers to himself as Varus.
  2. (Just a Theory) All Darkin must have an Aa name, Aatrox and Rhaast are way too similar in that aspect and don't even need 2 As (Though I love it) Heck they even all have RAAT (Future bow name Satar or Taras? or maybe Staar? ; o;.
  3. When Darkin take over they don't look Corrupted they look like a full new being.
  4. Rhaast sounds more like he's trying to Convince Varus to join in than referring to him as already being a full Darkin.
  5. He has a ton of more human feelings and thoughts, he doesn't seem inhuman and even states in a voice line that he is "on borrowed time" which isn't something a darkin would say, as Rhaast points out and as Aatrox's lore states.... They are immortal.

Not an Ascended (True Archer? Arclight? Whatever you'd call his ascended state?)-

  1. He still is suuuper corrupted, like his torso and head are the only thing spared, As we see with Kayn you lose almost all the corruption or it changes into more of an extension of your being in a more positive appearance.
  2. Kayn would regard him with disgust instead of joy, he sounds like he is very confident in this Bow's Corruption and doesn't fear him turning over (He even sounds like he's being persuasive)
  3. I don't know literally nothing looks like an ascended form at all with him I couldn't comprehend them saying he was without a visual rework.
  4. Arclight Varus honestly would probably be what his ascended form would look like so... Yeah...

What State is Varus in Then? (MY THEORY)

  1. He's most likely in a "borrowed", as he himself put it, state. Kayn has minimal actual super human powers outside of going through walls and going into people (Which maybe the walls is part of his shadow training? Since it gets stronger from his assassin form?). Varus has a toooon of superhuman powers, his entire kit is based around him shooting corruption at people, very little of what he can do would be possible without some level of magic, and he was just a really good archer prior to his lore event.

  2. So most likely, and what I personally think, he's basically an impending Darkin, in exchange for more if not all of the Darkin's power, he offered his life, giving no way out, to the Darkin in exchange for Vengeance. This is also probably why you never hear the Darkin or hear it specifically speak, it's in the midst of the contract. Heck even Rhaast and Aatrox might not know which of their brothers it is as it's dormant until the time runs out.

Will they do a Re-design or Re-work?

  1. I doubt they'd do a rework, they don't want him to be a replica of Kayn and I feel too many people are madly in love with Varus' Playstyle, myself included. But it is possible, you never know with Riot.

  2. Re-design though I can absolutely see it, he could probably use a nice touch up on his design, also maybe have the bow seem more lively with an eye or something? If nothing else a nice lore update would be cool as his lore doesn't conflict with anyone else's and a change would make it a little more obvious.

  3. Or... At the very least... Riot... TELL US WHAT THE BOW'S NAME IS. I NEED TO KNOW. COME ON THE NAME LITERALLY WOULD MAKE ANY CONSISTENCIES WITH THE 3 INTO RELATIVE DARKIN CANON. DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING, JUST THE NAME, NOTHING ELSE, JUST GIVE ME THAT. JUST THAT.

The Four Horsemen Theory

  1. This theory makes a lot of sense, since Aatrox is stated as War and Rhaast refers to himself as Death. The main issue with this Theory is that there are in fact Four Horsemen and their are Five Darkin. The way this gets fixed though is if you simply use the Four Horsemen from 2 different interpretations. If you take the War/Death/Famine/Pestilence and War/Death/Famine/Conquest, just cut out duplicates and you end up with 5 as only 1 horseman is actually different in the 2. So then it's War/Death/Famine/Pestilence/Conquest, which we have 2 of.

  2. If you aren't a fan of turning Conquest/Pestilence, whom are technically the same horseman into two, then it actually makes A LOT of sense that the 5th might not even be a horseman. The Four horseman are to bring about the Apocalypse, which brings about the question, would the 5th Darkin actually be the Physical representation of the Apocalypse? If not basically the Anti-Christ etc depending what we're going with. It is stated that the 4th and 5th Darkin haven't been spotted before and are most likely just rumored or off handedly remarked by the Darkin we know of. So what if the reason we haven't seen the 4th Darkin yet is because seeing him, would bring bout the full apocalypse, thusly summoning the 5th and last unseen Darkin? (Honestly just thought of this on the spot but I really like it)

  3. Now which one would our boy (or girl? Maybe first female darkin?) Varus' Bow be? I'd say either Conquest, as the Bow easily represents Conquest as it is the weapon that the horseman Conquest used.

"Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, 'Come.' I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer."

Revelation 6: 1-2, New American Standard Bible

  1. Or Pestilence (Literally the alternate version to Conquest) which..... Well I mean it shoots freaking corruption what more do you want, though my main complaint would be that Corruption doesn't exactly equal Pestilence? So I'd think Conquest would work more as the Darkin is the weapon itself.

BUT HEY WHAT DO WE KNOW HE'S CALLED DEMON PANTS BY RHAAST TOO SO MAYBE IT'S DARKIN PANTS

If anyone wants to add to this or debate any of this hit me in the comments and I'll update this. If there's interest that is.

*Also if you're wonder why everything HAS to be numbered.... Well it makes the formatting look less horrid as the hyphens (-) don't actually push the paragraphs outward to show they are sectioned off.

Edit: I added in the biblical quote that refers to Conquest as having a bow, thank you to Umbral Regent for reminding me of said quote and that I should probably have put that in in the first place lol.

Also adding in the Apocolypse/Anti-Christ Theory to the horsemen

18 Comments

Salson7/19/2017, 12:52:50 PM4 votes

One thing to note, though not sure if it's still cannon: Varus was a guardian of the 'The Pit of Pallas', by that logic Pallas could be the Darkin Bow.

VelvetCrotch7/19/2017, 7:46:28 AM2 votes

would be nice to know. supported! =)

Umbral Regent7/19/2017, 10:02:29 AM2 votes

Following the theme of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Varus would likely be the White Horseman, Conquest. (also, here's the Wikipedia page for the Four Horsemen for citation purposes.)

"Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, 'Come.' I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer."

Revelation 6: 1-2, New American Standard Bible

Then, of course, we get to our second, Red Horseman of War, Aatrox.

"When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, 'Come.' And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him."

Revelation 6: 3-4, New American Standard Bible

Now, the "Pestilence" iteration of Conquest notwithstanding (I personally view the Four Horsemen as exclusively War, Death, Famine, and Conquest), you'll see we skip a Horseman with Shieda Kayn and Rhaast.

"When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, 'Come.' I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, 'A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine.'"

Revelation 6: 5-6, New American Standard Bible

This would be the Black Horseman of Famine, otherwise considered the Lawgiver. Whereas our legendary Shadow Assassin and his corrupting blade would be the Pale Horseman, Death.

"When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, 'Come.' I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth."

Revelation 6: 7-8, New American Standard Bible

So, hypothetically, of our Five Darkin/Four Horsemen, we're still missing Famine (which would be beyond interesting to see interpreted as a weapon, even more as a corrupted host), and some fifth entity to tie it all together.

But, marking off which Champions are which Horsemen (Varus/Conquest, Aatrox/War, NA/Famine, Kayn-Rhaast/Death), I'mma dive into some speculative reinforcements to the Four Horsemen theory.

So, starting with Varus, the Arrow of Retribution. Assuming that the potential future lore re-write doesn't change his story too much, we can assume that he will still embody Conquest pretty well. Taking a quote from his Biography:

"He swore to slaughter every Noxian invader, but first he needed to become stronger...He left, seeking the blood of all Noxians involved with the invasion, a grisly task that eventually led him to the invasion's most infamous perpetrators."

And, going back to pick a particular quote from Revelations 6: 1-2:

"and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer."

Should Varus' bow be a Darkin, I have no doubt that its' will would be to conquer and break people.

Next, Aatrox, the Darkin Blade. His is probably way more cut-and-dry than Varus', as not just in his lore, but his very quotes lend to the Horseman of War. Starting with a snippet from the Bible, this time:

"and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another..."

Aatrox's Biography is basically him turning the Protectorate army of old into a bunch of bloodthirsty warriors (taking peace, and that men would slay one another - sound fitting?). While I wish I could pick a valuable snippet (a needle) from his Biography (a needlestack), it'd be better for everyone to just read the whole thing themselves.

Though, that brings me now to Kayn and Rhaast, the Shadow Reaper and the Darkin Scythe. Outside of the obvious (Death being known as a Reaper, brandishing a Scythe), there is one interesting thing to note.

"and Hades was following with him."

While Greek Mythology refers to Hades as the God of the Underworld, Christian Mythology refers to Hades as something more of Limbo or Purgatory (think of the afterlife as Dante's Inferno/Purgatorio/Paradiso, but as the three H's - Hell/Hades/Heaven). So, knowing that Hades is akin to Limbo for Christians, what's worth noting?

The best way I can put this out is in bullet points, but since there's a small variety of possibilities, I'll number them.

  1. The motes of blue and red energy severed from Champions in-game are spirit essence that Kayn collects, likening him to the reaper. Though this coincides with point 2, I want to state it as something separate for distinction.
  2. Kayn may have trained a little bit in the Kinkou Order's arts of Equilibrium, possibly from Zed (as he's the only one we know to have trained in the Kinkou order), and as such the Spirit Realm/the realm of magic would be quite closely tied into Kayn.
  3. Kayn's deep connection to the Shadow Arts, and the shadows in general, could be interpreted as his closeness to Hades.

Which, much like Varus' conviction and Aatrox's presence in major conflicts, would paint a wonderful picture for Kayn as the Darkin Horseman of Death.

But, of course, there's still holes to be poked in the Four Horsemen theory (no Famine as of yet, and what the fifth Darkin would be), but so far the theory does have some pretty good ground to stand on. Hopefully we might be able to see more about Darkin in the future to confirm or deny it, but until then, glorious, glorious speculation abounds.

Around999People7/19/2017, 2:40:58 PM2 votes

I love this and hope it's true

Narvuntien7/19/2017, 6:56:52 AM2 votes

The Darkin are like the four horsemen of the apocolypse. AAtrox is War. Rhaast is Famine and whatever Varus's one is it is Plague hence the corruption.

Varus is stilll human but only just. That is what he means by borrowed time... not long left until the Bow takes him... I think he is holding on to his humanity through memories of his family and his rage at Noxus for taking them. I agree, once vengence is complete the bow will take him.

Kayn was already a well trained shadow ninja when he took the scythe has strenght of mind and body. Varus was just a village woodsman, certainly fit but not mentally prepared to fight a Darkin. Kayn took the scythe with the intent of winning the fight against it. Varus just wanted the power.

Wrathof3007/19/2017, 4:34:38 PM1 votes

Imo, Varus' lore will be updated and since it is going to be a drastic change from his old lore, to him being connected to the Darkins, a rework is very possible. As such, it is possible that the name of the bow is Varus and not the person anymore. Rhaast refers to him as Varus when he is being friendly with him, because they have a history together. However, when killing him, he calls him demon pants, this because he isn't killing Varus, he is killing the host, whose name he does not know. Just my counter argument on why I think Varus is the bow.

MYXYN7/20/2017, 2:24:54 AM1 votes

they should make a skin for varus when he is like fully consumed by the corruption. This could also give us the name of his bow.

FlameHalbrdOkido7/20/2017, 5:14:31 AM1 votes

The bow could have been corrupted by the void and thats why its purple. Perhaps the void corrupted weakened it and rendered it inert and thats why it hasn't taken over Varus yet and we don't hear it speaking.

The void could make sense: He has the darkin color themes red and black, but he has purple too and thats the void color theme.

Another idea that that Varus and the Darkin bow have entered in a mutual agreement or that their goals just ended up aligning. This being the case the Bow only partially corrupts Varus and grants him some power, or they are sharing control.

But u also gotta remember Varus is an old champ, he came out before Aatrox, and that means Darkin's didn't exist when he was made and Riot's writing was not as good. It just so happened that his theme fit so well that Riot decided to make him a darkin, they literally took a champ and tweaked his identity a bit.

Sooooo, somethings are not gonna line up as well or make as much sense.

I can see the Bow as either conquest or pestilence, there's gud evidence for both. But I DON'T see it as Vengance, because thats Varus' goal. If it really were vengeance then that would getting into Kalista's theme almost: VARUS wants vengeance which is different from the weapon which uses infection and corruption to help Varus achieve his goals. None of the bow's abilities or themes have ANYthing to do with Vengance. U guys get my drift on that?

Nixtarma7/20/2017, 4:03:41 PM1 votes

The horseman idea is a strong one. As has been said by other posters, conquest fits the most technically because of the bow, but the names "Chain of Corruption" and "Blighted Quiver" suggest pestilence to me, which I think still works, as Pestilence as a horseman is derived from the original Conquest.

That being said, Varus does not really make good on a disease archetype. If they reworked him, maybe. Still, the elements are there.