Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Sylas's Introduction has had more lore impact than any previous champion: Change my mind.

ModCaptainMårvelous·8/16/2019, 6:29:26 PM·21 votes·14,779 views

Sylas has been a literal wrecking ball when it comes to Demacian lore and the events within Demacia itself. While it has been spread across a few months since his release, Sylas has:

  • Made Lux come clean that she has magical ability to her brother and family.
  • Either killed J3 or (more likely) was the crux to force another party to kill J3
  • Has had J4 assume the throne so he is no longer prince.
  • Plunged Demacia into Martial Law/Civil War.
  • Mageseekers. Just mageseekers dude. You can't trust them.
  • Has given us a look into Xin Zhao's aftermath and relationship with J3.
  • Introduced us to the extended (and possibly very Lawful Neutral/Evil) Crownguard family with Tianna and her husband.

By all accounts I can't think of a single champion who has spurred this much change and character growth in a region. The only event that can possibly come close is Gangplank's rework but even then, the scale of the changes was on a much smaller scale as Bilgewater is a "smaller" region overall. Not to mention the story in Burning Tides was a little shorter and smaller than Sylas.

I'm usually critical of Riot's inability to follow-up stories but they've certainly made Demacia as a nation progress since Sylas's introduction.

EDIT: Azir is brought up a lot but I disagree with Azir. Azir's introduction wasn't a story progression of Shurima but rather resetting the story of it/retconning what occurred. A few characters did get progression (Mostly Sivir and Cass) but most of this was just setting up Shurima to be an actual nation rather than a loose collection of psuedo-egyptian ideas. Conversely, Sylas doesn't retcon or change any history but rather takes the story of the region and makes it continue in a meaningful and interesting way.

Azir is a retcon and rewrite. Sylas is Chapter 2.

47 Comments

enshine8/16/2019, 6:42:57 PM7 votes

member the massive shurima retcon that followed the release of azir ?

Laughing Fish8/16/2019, 6:41:03 PM4 votes

Impact? Sure.

Positive impact? Not so much.

It is getting annoying that Riot thinks always doing the same "twist" where the light side is actually evil is somehow adding variety.

Terozu8/16/2019, 7:07:14 PM4 votes

Lux hasn't admitted anything yet though?

Eternal Torment8/16/2019, 11:31:13 PM4 votes

If it were not continuation to argue, I would say swain did. He, while mostly dropping scattered pieces here and there, in the union of those pieces dropped some FAT bombs of lore and lore theory, which a big chunk of directly relates to Noxus.

  • We now know for sure that Marcus Du'Cuteau is dead and that Katarina is on a constant plot to kill swain, which he tolerates for his personal amusement.

  • Swain confirmed that Kai'sa was Kassadin's lost daughter.

  • Opened the gateway to the lore behind Ionia's Ancient Magic and the relicts of wars older than history documented, which I damn well hope Riot will further explore in the future.

  • Revealed that the one behind the Void is potentially one of A-sol's siblings created with the first breath of the virgin Universe.

  • has revealed the full background behind the war of Noxus and Ionia, which served as a lore-wise humiliation because Ionia didn't win, but Swain ordered the full retreat after he killed Darkwill and established the Triumvirate.

  • Gave way in forms of a Confession that the truce with Demacia is just a farce and that there is intent to spark the conflict again.

  • Confirmed that Noxus, at least since his take on the leadership, has had no association with the killing of Vastaya.

  • Revealed that the Immortal Bastion possesses secrets of powers and Magic older than Mordekaiser's rulership, one of which is the demon that he took into himself.

Honestly Swain dropped just as large, if not even larger bombs, but most of them are basically just first steps to other, separate continuations, basically half way entered progression in lore EVERYWHERE, where Sylas took one piece of lore and progressed it fully.

Never the less, All lore development has been equally amazing.

Arakadia8/17/2019, 8:00:16 AM3 votes

I can't because I agree and its great.

AbiwonKenabi8/17/2019, 2:58:35 AM2 votes

I mean, that's what happens when you have a comic surrounding you. Like, sure, its called Lux, Lux is the main character, but Sylas as the antagonist is forcing more than just Lux to act.

Also, Azir? Doesn't he seek to revive a dead empire? That would affect all of Shurima and anyone getting resources from it (mainly Noxus but also Piltover a little). A lot of Champions owe their origin to Shurima, and Azir both ended it and revived it. The Darkin went "full Darkin" in the wake of his failed Ascension, which in turn affected many more Champions (Vladimir learned his blood magic from Darkin, as one example; Kayn is another). Azir's return will continue to affect the region and its Champions: the city itself has been revived after thousands of years dormant, and that's only the beginning.

Iron Phantom8/16/2019, 8:58:48 PM2 votes

Morderkaiser has a really impactful story aswell, it's kinda because of him Noxus is the way it is.

Hayaishi28/16/2019, 6:57:20 PM2 votes

Yes he has had more impact. But it's because Riot wants it to be like that, its nothing special.

Garen is adopted8/18/2019, 12:18:49 AM1 votes

if you would read last comic you should alerdy know Sylas didnt killed J3 or ordered someone to do it, more than sure the killer was a noble too or Xin Zhao, and that is why we were able to see only it's shadow.

but hey that's just a theory, a game theory!

General Esdeath 8/17/2019, 6:10:41 AM1 votes

I'm divided between Sylas Azir and Kayn since Kayn also introduced Rhaast and we got more insight to the darkin and a retcon for Varus' story.

RyzeTheSmurfMage8/17/2019, 7:09:38 AM1 votes

Azir was more impactful from a lore pov. He brought back the best nation on Runeterra. ALL HAIL SHURIMA

14daysuspensionk8/17/2019, 10:08:27 AM1 votes

My screaming bird has made more impact than a crying baby.

ProExpertKing8/17/2019, 12:32:58 PM1 votes

Ezreal's update changed all of Runeterra

Checkmate.

Jerry SeinfeId8/17/2019, 2:01:02 PM1 votes

honestly he just affected a whole nation. And while that's quite a feat he's not the first to do so.

  • Swain took over noxus and ended the war with ionia sorta. It was started by the previous dude iirc. But he changed the way the country governs largely.
  • Leblanc pretty much runs the lands noxus is build on from the shadows, and has been doing that shit since morde.
  • Singed "I sold some bottles of chemicals once."(Ionians mad x24)
  • Azir "yeah i'mma need a biggass city to run my country here real quick."
  • Ryze "i got this nice as heck stone collection, world might blow up if someone finds it tho"

and there's more.

all in all plenty champs have affected the world of runeterra as much if not more than Sylas, some by doing alot less like singed, some by doing a ton more like ryze. The only reason they feel less impactful is that they simply haven't gotten the same amount of depth.

i think the easiest one of these to compare is ryze actually.

We got an incredible animation for ryze, featuring many iconic champions. And yet it was just a fighting montage with some small but important exposure added around the runes. He got a comic and 2 shortstories added to that too.

but in the end all these tell you is that world runes are powerfull, and ryze is trying to keep em out of anyone's hands. especially a certain fire boi's hands.

Now look at sylas. His own lore doesn't offer that much tbh. He's just some dude in prison and he escapes. We get some exposure on the anti mage system and demacia gets painted as nazi germany a "grey" actor instead of classic good guys. But here comes lux walking by, bringing her comic series along. I'mma admit i haven't gotten to those but from what i understand from boards it's pretty much just a civil war. What exactly happens isn't important. The medium used is. Multiple comic books just to focus on one part of the story, not even the whole country but just one part of it's lore. look at the ashe comics. We knew pretty much nothing about the current freljord, now we know how their damned class/political system works.

I don't blame riot for this mind you. They'd be stupid not to make a comic series around lux. She's dummy popular and honestly there's no actual reason to hate her as character. Combine that with the fact that she's related to champs like garen, xin zao, sylas, etc and you got a perfect setup. The marvel comics are an amazing thing for lore. all of em are aside from the jinx one actually, but i already gave up on getting decent lore for my girl. alot o ppl are gonna get mad over this but the next comic series should focus on ezreal. They could expose so much of the world through ezreal exploring it. 1 issue on piltover/zaun, one on shurima, one on freljord, etc...

TLDR He's not affected the lore the most, it's just the comics are capable of delivering much more fleshed out lore than our other sources.

boricCentaur18/16/2019, 6:34:04 PM1 votes

Without Kindred no one would die.