What Varus and Pallas could have been

Let's start by saying that I'm truely disappointed by Varus's new lore.

What made the character click for me was the tragedy of his story: a man who was forced to make an impossible decision did what was morally right, but ended up paying the ultimate price, losing his loved ones and himself.

Riot Dinopawz stated that one of his core themes was "doing the unthinkable to save the one(s) you love", but I disagree. Old Varus didn't throw himself into the pit because he wanted to save someone; he did it because he was a man with nothing to lose. There was neither heroism nor hope in his actions, only grief giving him purpose. It was his lust for vengeance that ultimately caused his corruption, which metaphorically represented the impact of his traumatc experience on his inner self.

Varus' tale was the narration of how evil can be born from common men, who were once good, caring and dutiful people. Anyways, even though Varus was past beyond salvation, there was still hope for redemption. If not for him, for the darkin he hosted inside his body.

But how could have Riot written this story? Well, in my opinion, if they just slightly modified and expanded upon his old lore, not only we could have kept Varus' tragedy, but we could have also got the depiction of a darkin that subverted the common expectation.

1. Turn the corruption inside the pit of Pallas into a darkin.
2. Have the darkin tempt for millenia the guardians of the pit with promises of unlimited power, with everyone eventually falling for it before being stopped (even through the use of lethal force) at the last second by one of their fellow guardians, much to the darkin's amusement.
3. Have young Varus be completely unmoved by his allurement, granting him the respect of the elder guardians and causing the darkin to become frustrated, but also slightly impressed by his resoluteness.
4. A few decades later, Pallas is attacked by Noxian invaders. Varus is left alone to protect the temple, while the other guardians go defend the village. Varus is torn inside, fearing for his family, but he ultimately decides to follow the path of balance, honoring his duty and putting his trust into his fellow men.
5. A platoon of Noxian soldiers reaches the temple, but Varus manages to kill them with his bow.
6. Realizing that something bad must have happened if Noxians managed to reach the pit, he decides to walk out of the temple and sees his village engulfed by flames.
7. Varus runs towards his home as his horror grows, seeing the corpses of his people scattered along the road, including those of elders and children who were trying to flee from the invaders.
8. Now fully striken by panic, Varus finally reaches his home and finds the dead bodies of his wife and child, still hugged together. His mind breaks. Without even crying, he takes the pendant that he once gave his wife and walks back to the temple, while more Noxian ships can be seen on the horizon.
9. Varus reaches pit. The darkin tries to taunt him, but he's unresponsive. The darkin feels his grim resolution and his bloodlust, feeling intimidated for the first time in millennia.
10. Without speaking a word, Varus dives into the pit. The darkin is extremely confused, but he doesn't hesitate to fuse his essence with the human, trying to take control over his body in order to escape from his prison.
11. He manages to penetrate inside Varus' consciousness and starts to mold his body after his original one, but, after feeling his new arms clutching a pendant, his mind gets instantly filled with Varus' memories of his family. The shock causes him to lose focus, which makes Varus take control again.
12. The darkin is furious, realizing he's still a prisoner, locked inside a cell made of human flesh. Varus finally speaks, promising the darkin that he'll completely surrender his body once every single Noxian is dead. The darkin senses that Varus isn't lying and accepts the deal: he wants to exterminate mankind in order to avenge his own kin, so it doesn't matter to him whether he starts from Noxians or anyone else.
13. Over the course of time, the darkin develops an interest in Varus. He recognizes in him the very same thirst for vengeance that drives him, which makes him somewhat relate to him. Sharing the same body also causes him to experience Varus' emotions and sometimes to relive his memories as well, which makes the darkin grow ever more empathetic towards him.
14. Anywyas, the enactment of Varus' indiscriminate revenge has opposite effects on the two of them: while Varus falls deeper and deeper into the abyss, slowly losing his humanity and becoming ever more distant from the man he once was and that the darkin almost came to respect as an enemy, the darkin gradually becomes more self-aware, realizing that the revenge they seek is ultimately purposeless, being nothing but another metaphorical cage where one becomes prisoner of his own self.

Boom, you've kept Varus' tragedy, you've gained a darkin whose character arc is completely different from Aatrox and Rhaast and you've subverted the trope of the good man tempted by his inner demons.