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Every Runeterra's way of being a furry (surprisingly not a shitpost)

GelsominoKiller·11/26/2019, 11:36:20 PM·14 votes·9,091 views

... not entirely, at least.

Hear me out: I will go through every champion with animalistic traits and explain to you how they managed to manifest their inner fursona in the real world, 100% lore accurate. Stick with me, because I guarantee that the conclusion of this post is a_ legitimate _point of discussion.

  • Random mentions: those champions are quite unique in why they are furries. You can either read a brief summary about their transition or ignore them. Cassiopeia : cursed or something idc Elise : signed a contract with a spider god Soraka : waiting for a retcon, I guess... Shyvana : idk, dad had sex with a dragon or something. She had so many retcons I don't care to be updated. Twitch : nobody knows, nobody cares. Yuumi : literally just a cat Udyr : literally just wearing a fursuit Warwick : questionable medical procedure carried out by even more questionable mad scientist

  • **Yordles **Amumu Corki Heimerdinger Gnar Fizz Kled Kennen Lulu Poppy Rumble Teemo Tristana Veigar Ziggs just as if being a yordle wasn't enough of a disgrace, those damn midgets are supposed to have several animalistic traits (especially evident for the males). Yordles are somehow tied to the spirit realm, but Riot doesn't care to give any info on them.

  • Vastaya/Vastaya'jdghsharei Ahri Nami Neeko Rakan Nidalee Rengar Xayah MonkeyKing don't pretend any detail from me, but channeling very hard some spirit magic deep inside into you, you and your progeny turn into an half animal of your personal choice. Apparently this is also a very useful thing to do for fighting "an ancient race of titans from the skies above" as per the most recent random retcon.

  • Minotaurs: Alistar a fellow poster pointed out Minotaurs are specified not to be Vastayan, but there is no information about what they are, though. All we know is that they are furries.

  • Spirit godsAnivia Ornn Kindred Volibear goodhood comes at a cost: being a furry. Nothing is really explained about frejilordian demigods, not even if they are exclusive to freijlord; their origins remain unclear, but it is known for certain that they have deep rooted presence both in the land AND the spirit realm.

  • The Ursine loving your favourite spirit god Volibear very very much transforms you into a bear-thing abomination. It just works like that.

  • The Shuriman Ascended Nasus Rammus Renekton Azir Weirdly enough, channeling the energies of the cosmos through a gigantic sun disc gifted by the gods themselves... turns you into a gigantic furry. This has nothing to do with the spirit realm, but it is related to the cosmic/conceptual plane of Runeterra (Targon) where Platonic ideas reside. When the candidate for ascension is invested by the magic furry ray, they fuse with an abstract concept from the aforementioned plane of existence. It is stated that in that moment they could take any form, so they decide to be furries: the only logical choice. Riot justified this by saying that the ascended pick their animal totem based on which animal symbol in the shuriman alphabet represents the abstract concept they're merging with. Yeah, I won't buy that.

Now, for the serious part of the discussion: in my opinion retcons have left a gigantic aesthetic design gap for champions. Specifically, it is most striking how having animalistic features in a champion can't pinpoint a single origin. The Yordles, the Vastaya, the spirit gods are all tied to the spirit realm, but the Shuriman Ascended stand out as a white fly. Obviously this was inevitable, for Renekton and Nasus are older than the current worldbuilt lore and had to be fit in there a posteriori.

In a sense, the Vastya are bringing entities from the spiritual plane into them similarly how the Ascended did with conceptual plane entities; on the other hand the Spirit gods might be entities of the spirit realm finding a way to exist in the physical plane through a vessel exactly how the Targon gods are doing with the Aspects (Kayle Pantheon Zoe etc.).

While the Yordles are very visually distinguishable, spirit gods, Ascended and Vastaya can't be taken apart just by looks, for they are both human/animal hybrids; yet their power levels differ immensely. At least, Vastaya and Spirit Gods share the same place of origin: the spirit realm; instead Ascended and Aspects are very different despite being both related to the conceptual plane. Insult to injury, Aspects appear as normal humans, that are their vessels; spirit gods have vessels too but their appearence changes to fit the animal trope.

Even if we don't mind the incongruences above, in my opinion it's a shame that such an interesting concept as "human merged with an idea" is devolved into animalistic features. An animal is way too grounded to be the embodyment of an abstract concept. Ironically, the only Shuriman Ascended that delivers on this side of things is Xerath which is a being of pure arcane magic, and again differs completely from his peers.

I would like a lot if Riot explored the aesthetic of a man fused with an abstract concept. How would it look like?

18 Comments

Ebonmaw Dragon11/26/2019, 11:41:18 PM7 votes

Rammus is not confirmed to be an Ascended

Anyways... you forgot Udyr.

Also, Alistar(minotaurs in general) is not a Vastaya

Linna Excel11/27/2019, 8:32:05 PM3 votes

What about making the best unicorn girl Soraka your waifu?

mrmeddyman11/28/2019, 10:08:10 AM2 votes

Ascended didn't exist when Nasus Renekton Xerath were designed. Yordles were just cute mammals akin to Moogles from Final Fantasy not spirit beings. Vastaya didn't exist either. Animalistic qualities are just a very practical way to differentiate humanoid champions when you're making a new champ every 3 weeks.

The answer many questions being posed is because LoL lore was retrofitted from a bunch of disconnected concepts a lot of things simply weren't considered back then and had to be hodge podged together to form a coherent world much later.

GreenLore11/27/2019, 2:11:28 AM2 votes

A rioter actually clarified that the reason for all the ascended looking like animals was that the ascension ritual transforms your body according to your own world view and Shurima merely happened to have a lot of animal symbolism in their culture, hence why people turn into animal hybrids. So for example the golden bird might represent leadership, which is why Azir turned into one.

And to be honest, this sounds like Ascended and Aspects might be not even different beings, its just that one group is from a country with a lot of animal motifs, while the other group is from a place with a lot of astrological concepts.

Here is the post if you are interested: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/ineA9uOv-the-darkin-lores-are-incredible-i-just-have-one-question?comment=000a

rolycoly11/27/2019, 2:21:19 AM2 votes

While I agree its wierd that shurima doesn't as a whole match the other ascended, I don't agree that using "animal to represent abstract ideas" isn't a good way to go about it, mainly because the other ascended are just normal human looking people with like a couple symbols slapped on top. Kayle is basically just a lady with glowing eyes and wings. It's pretty well known that Jackals represent death, its just a shame Azir isn't like, a penguin, and renekton isn't like, a rhino, since those would symbolize themselves much better than a hawk and a crocodile.

Yordle Gunner11/27/2019, 8:12:40 PM2 votes

For the Yordle Girls like Lulu Poppy and Trist Riot needs to clarify HOW fluffy they are. In Legends of Runeterra we see a very fluffy female, but is Trist lulu and poppy very fluffy or just some fur on the edges!? Riot needs to update their models badly but at the same time they need to get it together with all of Bandle City. Personally Maybe it should be a mix? Not one thing or the other.

Firebeard11/27/2019, 1:26:18 PM1 votes

Is Azir a furry? Not sure, so I won't dispute it, but we hadn't ever seen him in his ascended form. At least, not his skin or anything. His form is hidden behind his whole get-up and mask, and that is styled after the Phoenix I believe, given its Egyptian origin. He could look like a man underneath it all.