Storyline

Factions is played in a series of storylines. Each storyline features a different set of factions. We have a fresh round of sign-ups for each storyline, and Summoners do not have to stick with the same faction across multiple storylines.

The current storyline is Nyroth.

The Story So Far

A synopsis of the overall Factions storyline up to this point.
See Previous Storylines for past scoreboards, lists of factions, and similar information.

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Part I: Mirrorwater

A magical meteor of liquid metal falls from the heavens. The Freljord wins control of this artifact and swiftly puts it to use.

A special dispute arose before the League of Legends when a strange meteorite crashed in neutral Council territory. The meteorite formed a crater filled with an eerie silver pool, radiating alien magical energy and (some say) speaking telepathically to those who looked into this “mirrorwater”. A fierce five-way contest between Demacia, Ionia, Noxus, Piltover, and the Freljord ensued.

The (briefly) united tribes of the Freljord prevailed, and took the mirrorwater with them to their frozen homeland. It was divided up between the three tribes. The Avarosan (led by Ashe) used it to create a mighty fortress. The tribes of the Winter’s Claw (led by Sejuani) fashioned it into weapons and began threatening the Demacian border. And, while spreading stories about strange potions to breed a new race of mage-trolls, Trundle slipped most of his prize to his patron, Lissandra of the Frostguard. Lissandra poured the mirrorwater into her icy underground pools, hastening the day when all the world would be covered in ice.

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Part II: Ceruleana

Demacia tips the cosmic balance sharply toward Order.

Up from the frigid ocean between the Shadow Isles and the Freljord arose a mystical island of blue-silver ice, soon named Ceruleana. (Unbeknownst to all, its origins lay in Lissandra’s enchantments.) The nations of Valoran fought for control of the island and its power. Sensing that it could be used as a portal into the Freljord, the Shadow Isles entered the tournament as well.

Ultimately, the might of Demacia prevailed. Its clerics sanctified the island’s dark energy and channeled its power toward Order. The island’s magic manifested as a mysterious sea goddess who adopted the name “Ceruleana” as her own. She granted Demacia her favor and the ocean’s might. Swift currents sped the Demacian fleet across  Valoran.

Ionia strenuously protested Demacia’s meddling with the cosmic balance of Order and Chaos. Every action, Karma warned, has a reaction, and Demacia had brashly tipped the scales.

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Part III: Discord

Runeterra’s balance is violently restored with a Void onslaught.

Ionia’s warning proved prescient. The ascent of Order provoked a corresponding surge in Chaos. A dimensional rift split the cursed sands of Icathia, and Malzahar led forth a legion of demons from the Void. Monsters such as Cho’gath, imprisoned at the Institute of War, broke free and rampaged through Valoran. The perverse, chaotic magics unleashed by Malzahar disrupted the balance of life and death itself: undead hordes clawed out of their graves and joined the Void assault.

The nations of Valoran combined their forces in a pitched battle against the Void at the gates of Noxus. Repelled at great cost, the Void’s legions retreated to Icathia, which has become their stronghold.

The battle devastated Noxus. Much Noxian territory is now Void-contaminated and uninhabitable, teeming with poisonous magic and haunted by demons from beyond.

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Part IV: Shon-Xan

Noxian refugees from the Void War settle on an Ionian island. War breaks out. Ionia wins, and the already battered Noxian military is broken.

After the devastation of the Void War, over one hundred thousand Noxian refugees fled their polluted lands in search of new homes. A large contingent sailed to the Ionian island of Shon-Xan and set up a settlement in the wilderness, invoking the Council’s humanitarian laws for protection. Ionia swiftly protested, calling this a new Noxian invasion, and mobilized its navy. A battle ensued, and the Noxian fleet was victorious. Ionia prepared to mount a land defense. Realizing that battle would likely destroy the port, both sides agreed to League arbitration. Ionia was victorious, and the remainder of the Noxian refugee fleet was forced to depart, leaving only a small and ill-supplied settlement.

Resisting Irelia’s demands that Ionia deploy its army to wipe out the settlement, Karma ordered Ionia’s standing military to respect the Council’s ruling that the settlement was protected by humanitarian refugee law. Nonetheless, it appeared that soon Ionia would have won a League decision ordering the refugees to leave.

As Noxus stood at the brink of defeat, its cunning Grand General set in motion a nefarious strategem. Ninja assassins from Zed’s Order of the Shadow killed several key Ionian military and civilian leaders, and Ionia fell into panic. Karma accused Noxus of collusion with Zed and mobilized the Ionian military to remove the Noxian settlers, declaring that their actions had waived their humanitarian immunity. Anticipating a Noxian counterstrike, Ionia deployed its forces to reinforce the ports, but Noxian troops bypassed the blockade with Zaunite war-zeppelins. Several elite Noxian legions airdropped into Ionian territory and drew battle lines around the settlement. In a final effort to avoid full-scale war, Karma convinced the Council to convene a second tournament. If Ionia prevailed, Noxus would be forced to withdraw under threat of Council intervention. If Noxus were victorious, open warfare would surely erupt. After a hard-fought battle, Noxus won.

War raged through Shon-Xan. Elite Noxian shock troops devastated the still-disarrayed Ionian military and established a foothold as they awaited reinforcements by sea. However, Demacia intervened, obliterating the Noxian fleet (which sailed with a massive complement of army regulars and armed refugees) and deploying Demacian troops to take back Shon-Xan. The tides turned.

Meanwhile, Ionia won several important victories in the League of Legends. Eventually, Ionian diplomats were able to convince the Council to issue an edict that all fighting cease by sunset on March 28. In one final day of bloody combat, Noxus and Ionia each sought to secure what objectives they could before the League intervened. Ionia ran down and destroyed the remnants of the Noxian legions that had wrought so much havoc during the counteroffensive. Through the deployment of terrifying Zaunite biochemical weaponry, Noxus was able to keep the flag flying over the settlement’s walls when the sun set, though many Noxian soldiers and civilians within also succumbed, and the land around the settlement was ruined.

Ionia had destroyed the Noxian war machine, now in shambles and no longer a threat to the nations of Valoran. Though Noxus had been driven from Ionia’s shores once again, the League recognized the refugees’ ownership over a small patch of blighted land on which the hungry and battle-ravaged settlement still stood.

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Part V: Hextech Revolution

A new Void-touched hextech energy source brings revolutionary technology to Valoran. Zaun ascends to power.

The Void’s contamination spread into the Shurima Desert. It mingled there with the ancient magics of the Shuriman ruins, charging fields of sand with arcane power. This pyrikhos (“dark sand” in Shuriman) was studied and found to be a potentially revolutionary hextech energy source. Piltover, Bandle City, Zaun, and Demacia came before the League of Legends, seeking adjudication as to the ownership and control of this new discovery.

Zaun stunned all of Valoran with its meteoric rise to power. Scorning the caution with which Piltover and Bandle City investigated the dark sand, Zaun seized its opportunity to harness this new power. Viktor and Singed have created the HexKorps, a mechanized techmaturgical army powerful enough to rival even Demacia’s battle-hardened soldiers. A ruthless Zaunite megacorporation sabotaged Piltover’s labs, killing thousands and destroying their hard-won research.

Curious yordles used a pyrikhos bomb to unseal an ancient floating pyramid in Shurima, inadvertently awakening the Lich Queen Nefara. Her undead armies nearly destroyed Bandle City, but the combined forces of Bandle City, Piltover, Zaun, and Demacia defeated them in a pitched battle.

The pyrikhos enabled the creation of astonishing new technology. Jayce designed a levitating train system, the Velocitronic Rail, which allows overnight travel between Demacia and Piltover. The yordles of Bandle City used the dark sand to concoct fuel for their Mothership and voyage to Runeterra’s moon. Zaun constructed a network of warpgates allowing for instantaneous transit between gates and founded a uniquely Zaunite school of psi-magic through the use of pyrikhos-infused arcanoelixirs.

Demacia warned that to tamper with the energies of the Void was to invite disaster. Its worst fears were realized when Ceruleana proclaimed a prophecy of apocalypse — unless Demacia immediately destroyed Zaun’s pyrikhos mines, she said, a Void rift would open and destroy Runeterra. King Jarvan III, after consultation with Demacian Summoners, ordered the Demacian army into battle against Viktor’s HexKorps; Piltover and Bandle City resolved to fight alongside their ally. The clash soaked Shurima’s sands with blood. The arrival of Noxian reinforcements led by Grand General Jericho Swain, as well as Void swarms commanded by the mad prophet Malzahar, broke the might of Demacia and sent its armies into rout. In the aftermath of the battle, Zaun and Noxus realized that Demacia had been right all along, as Malzahar proclaimed the advent of the Void’s demonic hordes and countless yellow eyes filled a purple sky. Zaun fought to retake the mines, with King Jarvan valiantly charging back into the fray with his surviving soldiers to fight alongside their mortal enemies in a desperate bid to save Runeterra. In the end, Zaunite science was able to close the portal and avert the apocalypse.

Zaun ultimately prevailed on the Fields of Justice, and was awarded the lion’s share of the pyrikhos, as well as primary rights to regulate its use internationally.

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Part VI: Nyroth

A mysterious continent is discovered to the west of Valoran.

The yordles of Bandle City, having refueled their Mothership with the “dark sand” found in Shurima, traveled to the moon and became the first Runeterrans to look down and see their planet in its entirety. From this celestial vantage point, they saw a strange distortion to the west of Valoran. Further investigation revealed the distortion to be an illusion screen concealing an entire continent, soon dubbed Nyroth.