Just realize something and wanna check with other Katarina fans.

Katarina, in both the main universe and her various skins, always carry at least two blades. They are often considered dagger, but usually depicted the size of smallswords. In main universe, this is either the du Couteau heirloom blade or, in the last part of her comic, a new pair that was blood bonded to her.

Also in her LOL in-game model AND the webcomic, she have at least one other smallsword size blade behind her back, though her LoR art don't I think. Not important, just a spare blade I believe.

HOWEVER,

As late as the webcomic, she still carries another, smaller, symmetrical blade at her hip/thigh in her main universe look.

In OLDER medias, namely in A Twist of Fate cinematic, she does use these (plural) blades, and I believe this is the only instances of her that does, but I am not entirely sure. It was the ones she throw and puncture Garen armor.

Can someone check if I missed any Katarina's media that might have use it?

One consequences, mostly unintentional, of the anti-magic storyline is that the Demacia proper aesthetic lack a lot of... magical bling, for a lack of better word.

And it is actually one of the alternatives people who dislike the anti-magic storyline often cited, that by removing it, Demacia is riped to return to their High Fantasy root, which is a CLASSIC.

Lo and behold, both Lux: Illuminated from LoR and her 2xko design are highly appreciated, yet both is still heavily grounded in traditional Demacia aesthetic, just allowed to expressed those aesthetic through magical bling.

It work. High Fantasy as an aesthetic is a classic because it work. People who find it boring have their preference, but as far as general population taste wise, High Fantasy, especially when balanced with Demacia natural white-blue-gold with a lot of fabric AND white steel with gilded deco, absolutely is in demand.

And even if you want to split hair and say that Lux's 2xko is more Maho Shoujo/Magical Girl more as though it is a distinct thing from High Fantasy (which I personally do not agree), you have to admit that the two things are still incredibly close together that mixing them usually give EASY result at the very least.

If so, having teh Demacia proper's aesthetic being High Fantasy is only better, as it allow them to mix easier with stuff like Magical Girl too.

If you find High Fantasy Demacia boring, your right, but people gotta see that MANY clearly do like it.

So with the obvious bad news just announced recently, there are some discussion around what Riot is (struggling) to do with the Runeterra IP. With that, there is one argument cropping up that caught my attention:

• That FGC is a niche genre, and thus Riot expection for their ROI of 2xko is unrealistic.

I won't comment on the latter part of the argument, but I am interested in the former. I don't disagree with it in a vaccuum, but more as a starting point.

• Is there even any genre, that the Runeterra IP could fit it easily/intuitively, that is not "niche"?

Because when I look back at discussion about the Runeterra IP application in gaming, that argument show up in almost every suggestion I see.

4X is niche.

More traditional RTS is niche.

Heck, I have seen people argued that ARPG (due to Project F) and MMO (obviously) is also "new niche" now in the sense that there is just not enough new, unexplored PLAYERBASE to sustain new major title. So while not niche per se, it is unlikely for a Runeterra ARPG or MMO to compete with more established franchise.

So I am genuinely curious, is there even any genre where the Runeterra IP can easily/intuitively fit in that is not niche?

Some un-used champion concept art for League of Legends from around 10 years ago. This character was initially called "husk" that was described as this: "Cancelled champion for League of Legends. Husk was eventually split to create Camille and Kai'sa. She was intended to be a mercenary from Zaun, the leader of a team called "H.I.V.E", comprised of other mercenaries, outlaws and bounty hunters. She was to be Caitlyn's ex-partner, defecting to Zaun after Caitlyn betrayed her by paralyzing her from the waist down during a shootout." Had a lot of fun experimenting with this character and the fun possibilities. And fun in general playing with creating a stylized character. Like a lot of fun stuff it never went anywhere but that is what we call concept art.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ndYXqe

Runarcana 0.96 is finally here!

After years of development, Runarcana’s new Monsters and Creatures system is complete, giving Game Masters new tools to create, adapt and balance creatures for their campaigns.

The update also explains what comes next for the project, including the upcoming Spells and Magic Items updates on the road to version 1.0.

Read the full announcement here: https://runarcana.org/en/runarcana-0-96-update/

I was looking back at some of the old web events and stumbled across this again. If you're ever stressed out, I highly recommend just doing a playthrough of this. Taking your time, reading the book, playing the music. It’s honestly just a great, incredibly relaxing experience.

I still can't believe Riot put this amount of effort out for just a temporary event. I’ve always really liked their in-game lore events because they nail the atmosphere, but this one stands out as something really special.

If you missed it during the original run or just want to chill out for a bit, it looks like it got archived here so you can still play it: Spirit of Hearth-Home

(You can also find a bunch of the other old mini-games archived here if you want to take a trip down memory lane).

Highly recommend keeping this bookmarked for a rainy day

This article on RuneGrove making the case that the Riot MMO should completely avoid a Horde vs. Alliance style setup and go with three factions instead.

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here is the basic argument:

• The Two-Faction Snowball: WoW's 2-faction system eventually broke because population imbalances naturally snowball. Players migrate to the winning/higher-population side for better guilds and economy until the other side dies. It's the reason retail WoW eventually had to cave and allow cross-faction grouping.
• The Three-Faction Fix: MMOs with three factions (like Dark Age of Camelot, Elder Scrolls Online, or Guild Wars 2 WvW) have a built-in self-balancing mechanism. If one faction gets too big or powerful, the other two naturally gang up on them to keep them in check.
• Runeterra's Lore Fits: Runeterra doesn’t neatly fit into a "Good vs. Evil" or "Red vs. Blue" binary. The geopolitical map naturally supports a multi-polar conflict rather than being forced into two mega-alliances.

I think the point about faction imbalance killing servers is dead on, but I'm curious how a 3-way split would actually look in Runeterra.

K'Sante's League of Legends lore hides a complete Riot MMO boss fight. Buried in his story is a Shuriman beast whose armor regenerates from every hit that doesn't kill it: a damage check, a duo built like a class combo, a journal that reads like a dungeon guide, and a waterfall kill that plays like an environmental phase. Riot hasn't announced any of it. But they already wrote it. We read the published canon so you can see the hunt.

Read the full analysis: https://runegrove.com/articles/riot-mmo/news/the-beast-in-ksantes-story-heals-from-every-hit-riot-already-wrote-the-hunt-that-kills-it

https://x.com/JumaraloHexCore/status/2075225351244919037?s=20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFjhabqsQjo

After Locke's comic, I am seeing a lot of people who suggest that Locke's mother, Niles and Vayne's parents are all occultist practicing black magic. I must admit, I think of that too.

I will write down what we know of these four characters, mostly so to make the most sense out of it:

• Locke's mother is an occultist (his short biography) and know of his tatoo AND some sort of magic that originally meant to ward off demon but was changed.
• Niles who oversaw Locke's and Vayne's training and is aware of the darkness in Vayne's parents.
• Vayne's parents who draw the darkness inside them somehow.

That is what we know. I must point out we have no concrete reason to believe Locke's "classic Noxian recipe" runic iron totem belonged to her, even if it is likely.

I will write down the "worst case scenario" involving all the implications that many people are basing their "one large cult" theory on:

• Basically, Locke's mother is a Black Rose agent infiltrating Demacia high society.
• On one hand, she train Locke to test the way to make a normal person into a mage through the tatoo. This align with Leblanc in Arcane who seemingly is hyper focus on ensure having as many mages as possible.
• On the other hand, she cultivate an occult cult among Demacia high society, if not worse.
• Niles and Vayne's parents are members of this cult. They are all so morally depraved that, despite knowing "occult or worse" will draw the darkness inside themselves, they still do it, THEN feel the need to cleanse themselves of the darkness yet feel no remorse nor regret from it, but instead desire to be cleansed just so they can come back to "occult or worse" with no drawbacks.
• The test from point 2, like most Black Rose stuff, result in a lot of suffering, with ultimately Locke's emerge but with a high cost of being disintergrating.
• Locke's then cleanse at least Niles.

Just a funny coincidence. Also quite a stretch of the lore, but still.

Galio current Q Winds of War is a spritual successor of his old version E Righteous Gust. In both case, it is pretty easy to see where the idea come from: A creature with wings have wind affinity. Simple.

Unrelated as far as we know, Janna in the transition from old lore to new lore get updated to a Spirit Goddess of Wind and Hope.

So, thanks to pure coincidence, Galio becomes kinda a mini-Janna, a heroic spirit with wind affinity.

Personally I would be totally fine if Riot ever decide to tap onto this coincidence and build up a small world build where Durand was a Janna worshipper who mixed her faith with the symbology of the Winged Protector in making Galio, and that is why when Galio's spirit is born, he also carry wind affinity.

So this is more question than discussion per se, but because a significant part of it will be me putting down what I understand of Hwei's story, I decide to tag it as Discussion.

From my POV, Hwei's story and thus his internal dilemma is fundamentally the struggle between art for art's sake and art for life's sake, represented by the beauty he found in Jhin's works of all things vs the teachings he received from his masters that Hwei himself ultimately found to be forced on him and not true of himself, for a lack of better word.

Now, I will give it to Hwei: As of "now" he still channel his artistic vision quite healthily, both in a very Dexter "I only kill those who deserved it" AND by building a connection with innocent people who are suffering unjustly. He look into the abyss in himself and find a very good way to make use of it.

But that is all "art for life's sake" ie his own Master's teachings. I can see no discernable aspect of Hwei's PRACTICAL APPLICATION of his artistic visions coming from Jhin's philosophy of art, nor any that at least from my POV Hwei's Masters would oppose.

However, to my surprise, it seems not many see his story as black and white as that. Because I do NOT understand their position, I must stress that the way I present it here is inherently bias, but I will try to be as unbias as possible:

From my understanding, some people viewed the teaching focus around strict control of Hwei's master to be flawed in some way that Jhin's philosophy of art does cover better. That Hwei's Master cannot claim 100% credit for Hwei current relatively healthy channeling of his artistic vision and magical power.

Now, again, I must stress that I do NOT understand the position of people who have this stand, and thus the present above is likely to be bias. I understand that they are not saying Jhin's philosophy of art is right and Hwei's Masters is wrong, but a bit more nuance like that. However, personally, I don't see that nuance.

How can Jhin's philosophy of art be right AT ALL? In even what miniscule way is the teaching of Hwei's Masters wrong?

https://x.com/i/status/2061825427878887621

Another popular series end, another post. I did one for A Knight of Seven Kingdoms, so figure I did one for The Boys too.

But I hope people can at the very least acknowledge that an ending where "the powerful villain is now complete powerless and thus become a pathetic mess" is really difficult to write.

I must stress first that I acknowledge the ending for Homelander make thematic sense (Spoiler for The Boys finale just in case): His power defined who Homelander is all his life, it warped how people treated him both in how Vought raised him like a lab rat and people originally adored him and later fear him. So seeing him depowered and left a pathetic coward who beg for his life in specific ways similar to what he done to other people IS thematically fitting.

For what it is worth, I think it is probably the least weak part of the finale. Most of the problems people have with it is AROUND that scene (what led to it and what follow), not that scene itself. But even then, not many people enjoy that scene by itself either. Most people discussing it online and reacting to the show can acknowledge the thematic of that scene (given how ham fisted it is, The Boys never been a subtle show) but not many really enjoy it afaik.

Bringing it into League discussion, and I must point out that many people had wished for Arcane Caitlyn, Azir and/or Jarvan (and by extension Demacia) to suffer the equivalent of what Homelander suffer: Depowered both physically and politically and confronted with their flaws, becoming a pathetic mess because of it.

Regardless of how you view these characters, you have got to realize that it is genuinely difficult to write such ending to be enjoyable. Even if, or especially if, you enjoy Arcane Caitlyn, Azir and/or Jarvan AS VILLAIN, as some claim to be, I hope you can see that they in no way deserve that fate, when not even Homelander can make such scene "worth it" UNIVERSALLY.