With the dev videos early in the year, Riot Games shared a lot of their plans for the year 2020 from lore-based content to skins. Alongside the given information were hints of what is to come, which is the source of my League Champion prediction. One of the most obvious hints was the next Teamfight Tactics set. A more overlooked hint was for the new champions:
“On the topic of events, the Champions team has been hard at work on two Champions that will be part of a big event this summer. The event will blossom with a new Jungler to fawn over followed by a masked Champion who refuses to die. We know it’s been a while since we dreamed up a new Jungler but we were split on what we wanted to make. Early on we didn’t know if we wanted the Champion to be a team fight focused bruiser or an agile prancing Assassin. If felt like every five minutes we went back and forth. So, did we shy away from the decision or meet it head-on? You’ll have to wait until the Summer Festival to find out. As for the masked stranger, well some demons should remain in our past.”
Considering Riot is planning on releasing more Champions that already appear in the lore, chances are high that these hints can tell us who will be coming out in the summer.
League Champion Prediction for Two Masked Characters
I haven’t figured out who the ‘blossom’ Champion may be, but I have a guess for the next Champion. The hints for the Champion are: masked, refuses to die, and is a demon that should remain in the past. We can also assume that this Champion will be a bruiser since an agile prancing assassin sounds more like the first Champion.
There are two masked people that I know of that have been prominently mentioned in the lore. The third of the Noxian Trifarix, Guile, and an ascended warrior queen from Shurima, Setaka.
Guile in the Lore
Guile is mentioned in The Principles of Strength by Anthony Reynolds. Little is known about Guile. They are even called a mystery in the short story. “The third figure—only ever referred to as ‘the Faceless’—was a mystery. This individual sat unmoving, bedecked from head to toe in a many-layered, voluminous robe. They wore a blank, staring, glossy-black mask, and even the eye-holes were obscured with dark mesh, giving away nothing as to their identity.” Guile matched the masked description but the other hints from the dev video do not match this character. Although it’s generally believed that LeBlanc may be Guile, she is even pictured on the Guile card in Legends of Runeterra.
Setaka in the Lore
Setaka, on the other hand, is mentioned multiple times. She appears in multiple stories. I’ll be focusing on the two stories that describe her: Bloodline by Graham McNeill and Where Icathia Once Stood, also by Graham McNeill.
In Bloodline Setaka is directly mentioned by name: “It is the Chalicar, the blade once borne by Setaka, foremost Warrior Queen of the Ascended Host; when enough of us remained for that name to mean something. I was honored to fight at Setaka’s side for three centuries. Her deeds were legendary, but I can see you do not know her name.”
Where Icathia Once Stood doesn’t mention her name. The story focuses on where the Void came from and the start of Shurima’s downfall. It mentions the Ascended and the leader of the Ascended, a woman will a golden helm carved to resemble a lion. The helm covers her face so it is also functioning as a mask.
From these stories, we know that Setaka is referred to as a Warrior Queen, is Ascended, is a leader, and has a gold helm with a lion face. In two other stories, another character comes up that is described similarly. First, in Varus’s biography, there is a “golden-armored warrior queen of Valoran,” Valoran is the main continent of Runeterra. Varus is sealed in a well by this person. In Dark Kin by Graham McNeill, the person that sealed him is mentioned again, this time as a flame-haired queen. I’m not sure that these stories are referring to Setaka but considering she is the only golden warrior queen in the lore, chances are high that it’s her.
A Summary of Setaka
She was the Ascended Warrior Queen of Shurima and wore a golden helm with a lion’s face. Setaka was told that she would see the day that a Shurimian Emperor ruled the world by a desert stylite. Since being told that, she fought as though she was invincible. She was brought down by monsters during the fall of Icathia, which are probably Void monsters. Nasus witnessed this. He told Sivir: “I held her as her light dimmed and I sent her to her slumber far below the sands with her weapon upon her breast.” That weapon now belongs to Sivir, who found it while looting the sarcophagus of an ancient Shuriman hero, but there was no mention of a body (from Sivir’s biography).
If Setaka is the golden warrior queen mentioned in Varus’s stories, then she reawakened at some point before Sivir, captured Varus as he was going mad, turned him into a Darkin bow, and then used that bow to fight at the cost of her own sanity. Before she lost control, she had herself sealed away with Varus in the well in Ionia. It is the same well that is in the Varus music video.
League Champion Prediction: Setaka
Bringing back the hints from the dev video, one of the new Champions will be a bruiser, is masked, refuses to die, and is a demon from the past. Now we can start connecting the dots. Setaka is masked, she wears a golden lion-shaped helm that covers her face. Since Setaka was told her future she fought recklessly as though she was invincible. This sounds like both bruiser and a refusing to die. Setaka is already looking like one of the new Champions.
Bringing in the Varus’s stories which likely mention Setaka but it could be someone else, Setaka revived after dying, another refusing to die moment. She was also turning demonic like the other Ascended after the Void and is from ancient Shurima. That sounds like a demon that should remain in our past. Even if it is someone different in Varus’s stories, Setaka still sounds like the Champion hinted at in the dev video.
The reason I can make this prediction is that Riot Games said they would bring more Champions from the lore. Setaka fits into the bruiser hints like a glove and is mentioned multiple times. I still don’t have a guess for the agile prancing assassin but they may not come from the lore.
Setaka will make a great League Champion as an Ascended Warrior Queen who was on the verge of becoming Darkin. At this point, I hope it is her and this League Champion prediction is right.
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