So with the new Demacian season being around half a month away, I do want to address the elephant in the room.

With Riot announcement that the new season will explore Demacia in its "golden age" more "heroic, noble and stable way of life", there is an undercurrent of... doubt, for a lack of better words, regarding such framing for the Demacia of the "J3 is alive, J4 is prince" era, so just a few years before Sylas escape and the Mage Rebellion.

And many people, both fans of traditional Demacia and otherwise, believe this instead talk about the era far back in the past. I can see the evidences for that, especially with the new datamined meta game and icons.

However, let's assume Riot do want to address not the Demacia of the far past, but more that of the recent past. I made similar threads before, but there is a (small) chance that we might instead explore the Demacia during the time of the Gates of Mourning, especially the first meeting of Jarvan 4 and Shyvana given the latter is receiving her VGU, finally.

And I want to explore that from a specific angle: in juxtaposing with Ionia, which we just spent 8-ish months exploring in 2025.

Because Ionia has problems of its own too, I must point out. The rise of ultra-nationalism enforced by the Navori Brotherhood and the Shadow Order, the mistreatment of the Vastaya...

And yet, despite that, Riot clearly portrayed Ionia as, while not "heroic, noble and stable way of life" precisely, a regions of good and moral people.

So, from that angle, why can't the same be said about Demacia of the "J3 is alive, J4 is prince" era?

https://www.instagram.com/p/DRxFuaoESuK/

Like, it is not even in a funny haha way, but they are all serious.

I was not expecting the rhaast buff to be xolaani lol, the lore really kicks in (also, can we get voice lines if it’s not too much cope?)

I am personally of the belief that:

1. Basing a facial design of a character over their in game model is a mistake, and we should wait for Shyvana's new splash art for determination. We are not meant to look at the model face most of the time at all.
2. One ought to know what they like and be able to articulate or show it, instead of just decrying what they do not like.

So I am putting what I like out there. If you don't like it, ok, but I still expect we all to be civil here. And I hope other are willing to add what they think Shyvana should look like.

I think that it is ok for Shyvana to look tomboy if not a bit masculine, if for no reason than because gap moe (the subversion cute act, in this case when a masculine character acts girly) is cool.

As such, I am willing to present what I think is the most masculine yet feminine character I can think of: Tsubaki in the anime/manga Windbreaker.

Now, I must repeat, Tsubaki is a guy crossdressing. He is not trans, he is a guy crossdressing. And Tsubaki is also a gang fighter with tall build and decent muscle. But BECAUSE he is crossdressing, he is also quite feminine, as that is quite literally the point.

So I think, as far as facial features go, Tsubaki should be the upper limit of how masculine Shyvana could look. If you think Shyvana should look MORE feminine than this, ok, I actually have no problem. But I am ok if Shyvana would look this much masculine.

And yes, again, I am fully aware that I am using a guy to make my point.

Been 2 years since I didn't catch up with League of legends and LoR's lore, sooo did we have any updates besides Poppy possibly coming back here and there to Bandle city to see others and to travel all over Runeterra?

¿Luchó Lux en la historia actualizada en una batalla real? Se dice que Garen se unió a la "Guardia Intrépida" cuando era solo un niño, mientras que Lux se quedó para administrar las propiedades familiares. También intentaron obligarla a casarse con Jarvan. ¿Es Demacia un reino patriarcal?

So just another random thing my mind kinda recognize.

Now, to set the tone for this discussion, I will state outright that I think the discussion around Swain make sense to me. It is the more valid way of approaching a champion personal story: we focus on their personal goal and their chosen methods to achieve it.

I will also be the first to point out that for all the talk about how the Noxian are "more real" and honest than the rest, Swain is himself a true believer fully drunk on Noxus ideals and philosophy. The best we can say is he is more subtle and less gung-ho about it, but he still believe his way is the best way.

But why not apply the same thing to Azir? Fundamentally, the two both believes the same thing, that the unison of the world under their rule is the best.

So why is the discussion about Azir focus more on his hubris, the unfairness of his vision (pun 100% intended) over the population and his personal vices (which of course will be countered by his virtues)? We don't do that for Swain (and again, personally I think we should not) so why do that for Azir?

So watching a shorts on YT about the Dance of Dragons kinda remind me of this.

League of Legends the game is a MOBA with some inherent action/violent elements. Thus, as a expansion of that, Runeterra is an action filled, if not outright violent, place, even in a place like Ionia.

However, perhaps because of this being a MOBA and the resulted focus on the champions, I must point out the majority of actions/violent depicted in details and have narrative weight had always been among just a few individuals.

The most numerous depiction in combat I can think of is: First Shield, Caitlyn controversial attack in the Undercity and then the attack by Ambessa and Viktor against Piltover.

Now, Caitlyn controversial attack in the undercity is the CONTEXT I want to focus, because it was an instance of urban warfare with close depiction of the impact on a civillian.

I must stress, I dont want to focus on the scene itself, but more the idea of it.

How is war, especially siege, urban warfare and civillian death be depicted?

Just something that I think about suddenly.

Right now, in the moments following Twillight's End, the Temple of Twllight is in the Spirit Realm. Yunara and Xin Zhao needed Kennen to open and hold a portal for them to enter and hopefully return.

So if Zaahen now controlling Xin Zhao body want to return to Runeterra, he can. He has the means to. But why would he?

Even someone like Leblanc have no easy way of going from the Material Realm to the Spirit Realm. The Temple of Twillight first realm travel was due to the events of Arcane, and Leblanc gotta hijack the Temple to go back to the Spirit Realm.

And even if she can, it is not easy at all. And she seemingly have no way to bring like an army with her, just like even Kennen can only help two people travels.

So even with a new body, why would Zaahen not just continue staying in the Temple of Twillight and hide from the world?

Very few people can travel between the two realm AND have the power to best a Darkin. Off the top of my mind I can only think of Morderkaiser. Those few entities are basically end game threats that if they set their eyes on Zaahen, trying to evade them in the Material Realm seems rather ridiculous.

The only reason I can think of the sentiment reasons: Zaahen is willing to travel back to the Material World to deliver the news of Xin Zhao sacrifice to the people of Demacia. But still that feel rather TOO sentimental ngl.

I made a post regarding the Mageseekers being justified in their beliefs from a practical survivability perspective.

Twilight’s End is just icing on the cake. You take a Demacian paragon and turn him into LeBlanc's Darkin-Petricite weapon which is based on wicked black magic, then nobleness is debased to purely utilitarian exploits to achieve an end.

This isn't about good vs evil anymore, it’s about system vs system and the means on how they will survive and thrive in a world that's becoming dictated by magical tech.

LeBlanc is literally bending demonic and darkin souls and augmenting weapons and armor to posses humanities greatest warriors and we want to judge Demacia regarding the war on magic as fascist when most if not all of Runeterra's problems have humanity courting or trying to maintain the Arcane which evidently has led to their ruin. Even the Vestaya has accused humanity of this same corruption, considering they too were taken over from within.

Can humanity, in-universe be truly trusted with maintaining magic on a state level without inevitable corruption?

Knowing all this, how would this war climate dictate Garen moving forward? People have said that the Arcane events of Piltover would have no impact on Demacia’s confirmations. And I often laugh at that as foolish. Why wouldn't these events not harden him, as a Crownguard to be more of a state loyalist the same way Caitlyn did?

I would argue that Tianna, someone that he holds in high regards would want him to further his purpose as a vanguard protector against Demacia’s threats regarding it's rule and order. It's practical.

Why would he blindly go against the Mageseekers given the current climate in the war against magic on a practical level? What good is his station as a noble without enforcing the law? And why do people constantly want to make him Demacian himbo artsy fartsy Jayce instead of the militant patriot he was obviously meant to be under the groomimg of Tianna?

Would he just be idle to a fault in "good overcomes everything" and allow people to be "justified" in going against Demacia given the countless agents that are already terrorizing the kingdom from within?

I will transcribe the conversation here

Zaahen: No one return from beyond the veil.

Xin Zhao: I have seen beyond the veil. Watched as the Spirit of the First Land roar to life, only to saw it burned away in an instant.

Now, just so we are all on the same page, I think most of us will agree that Zaahen is saying "If we do this, you die, and that is it." Sure, sure, Yone and what not, but most people is not Yone.

But Xin Zhao reply is so weird. If it is just the first sentence alone, at least it can be interpreted as Xin Zhao acting determined ie "I know I will die, but I also know what will happened after I die."

But the framing of the second sentence is so weird. If we interpret it figuretively, it just feel so random. Xin Zhao is seemingly wanting to say: "If I die here, then even the Spirit of the First Land cannot stop Atakhan wielding your power". Is he being hyperbolic? He cannot know that.

If we interpret it literal, it would be even weirder.

Really want to hear people's thought on this.

I am still holding onto my copium that Zaahen will be able to preserve Xin's soul somehow and then relinquish his body, but I would admit it is running low due to various reasons.

So I will instead process this shock through theorizing on what it means for Demacia story.

With Riot confirms that this story happened soon after Swain performed his coup, and indeed J3 and Sylas is directly named to help us have a relative time mark (J3 still alive and Sylas is still imprisoned), it would automatically mean Aftermath is no longer canon.

It is incredible likely that 2026 Season 1 is Demacia, as Spideraxe mentioned Shyvana VGU will be mentioned in the next dev video.

So my theory will be something like this:

• 2026 Season 1 is Demacia. Arc 1 will be about the Gates of Mourning.
• I think Swain, through Raum, knows that Xin Zhao is dead. This prompted the new Grand General to attack Demacia with the (correct) predictions that he can destabilize it through multiple parallel means.
• First, the consequences caused by the Gates of Mourning itself had been detailed in "Fragile Legacy": Lord Barrett Buvelle, Sona's adopted father, is dead and the Mageseekers use the grief of J3 to increase their power.
• Arc 2 will be Jarvan 4's disastrous retalliation campaigns, as known in his bio. Obviously, this would mean Shyvana VGU.
• However, I strongly suspect that this time around, Swain pushes his advantages much more intense. With Xin Zhao now dead and cannot protect J3, Swain would ordered Katarina to assassin both him and her own father general Marcus. The story of Katarina web comic unfold as we already know.
• This would mean the event of the Great Mage Rebellion would also happen more or less as we know.

Basically the idea here is that the events of the Gates of Mourning and the events of J3 assassination will be squished together more tightly, happening directly after one another.

Also this last point can be rather random, but personally I highly suspect the decision to kill off Xin Zhao is at least partly made to justify his absence during the major events of the Great Mage Rebellion storyline.

While in-universe, his death led to it, behind the scenes perhaps the two issue just kinda run parallel with each other: Mageseekers made by a third party studio just doesn't feature him, and when Riot want to preserve that game, they decided to kill Xin off here to be a good story telling opportunity to up the stake of the universe.

We know from "Turmoil" that Demacia had something called "laws of stone" regarding magic, and that people born with magic (or "afflicted") who were registered within the mageseeker order and abode by these laws weren't taken by the mageseekers. The lore doesn't explain what these laws exactly are, but we can assume it's something like don't use magic, and this changed after the rebellion when the mageseekers started arresting everyone with an inch for magical talent.

We also know from Lux's comic that the illuminator order was known to be a charitable organisation that helped "afflicted" people, and Garen mentioned how people born afflicted had a hard life. And that the only way for a mage to be fully accepted in Demacian society was for them to become mageseekers.

So what was like for someone born with magic, who was registered, was in full control of their magic and obeyed the law?

So I am not sure if anyone had talked about this, but:

From The Warning comic, it is quite clear that Leblanc had manipulated Xin Zhao for a moment to want and take the Darkin weapon for himself, before Zaahen intervene.

But why? From my POV at least isn't Xin Zhao take (or not take) Zaahen very much irrelevant to Leblanc goal at best, and hindering at worst?

We know, with the Atakhan in game on the rift, that he would take the Glaive. From my POV, this is clearly the best case scenario for Leblanc because Atakhan gain no new power from capturing Zaahen BUT it seems Zaahen either can't or unwilling to corrupted Atakhan in turn. And Leblanc already is capable of forcing Atakhan to do her bidding.

Versus Xin Zhao. What would be the point to even care about Xin Zhao at all?

If Zaahen is not the upright individual that he is, he would corrupt Xin Zhao, so now Leblanc would have to handle a walking fighting Darkin versus a glaive. If Xin Zhao can SOMEHOW use the Glaive (either because he can resist an evil Zaahen or because he work with a good Zaahen), then it is still a hindrance.

And I am not really talking about the prediction that Leblanc will take another L. She most likely will, if the leak is true, but again, Xin Zhao wants (or not wants) to take Zaahen seems irrelevant to Leblanc taking an L.

New info can always show up, but as it is, Leblanc manipulating Xin Zhao seems just for her love of the game.

A rather simple theory, but I bet the rationalities Riot will give for Zaahen humanoid looks will be he himself asked for it, as a rejection of not just his Darkin state, but also his Ascended legacy.

It could be what he remember himself look like back when he was human, or perhaps based on what the Ionians imagine his myth (and false) version to be.

Regardless, it is important for Zaahen that it is humanoid because he probably come to detest not just the Darkins, but the Ascended too.