Demacia

Demacia is a city-state on the western part of Valoran.

Lore Edit

Along the western coast of Valoran, the human city-state of Demacia shines as the continent's paragon of virtue amongst all the other human settlements. The residents are always striving to sharpen their bodies and minds in the pursuit of absolute justice.

Culture Edit

The people of Demacia are driven by their common cause to disseminate benevolence and order for the betterment of all beings throughout Valoran. They view malice and selfishness as a disease which should be expunged from the psyche of humankind. Those who come to Demacia and choose to settle within the borders of the city-state are expected to share the ideals and virtues of its citizenry. Those who seek personal gain at the expense of others quickly find themselves ostracized… or worse.

Life in Demacia is not one of placid utopian dreams. Since the Demacian people pride themselves as the moral vanguards of Valoran, they adopt seemingly draconian measures to ensure that their moral code remains the only code by which one may live within the city-state. Crime in any form is harshly punished: there are no misdemeanors within Demacia. Some detractors of Demacia (who criticize far from the reaches of the city-state) claim this as proof of its inherent hypocrisy. Demacians counter this argument by pointing out that their justice system incorporates benevolence and mitigation into its verdicts. No one is punished without fair and just consideration of the circumstances involved. While others may continue to criticize the harshness of Demacian law, the Demacians stand by their convictions.

Government Edit

Demacia is run by a constitutional monarchy, wherein the King of Demacia serves as the head of state and an elected council serves as the legislative body. While the king is a strong ruler, he is kept in check at least partially by the Demacian Council. The current King of Demacia, Jarvan III (a.k.a. Jarvan Lightshield the Third), works earnestly with the Demacian Council to ensure that the sanctity of the city-state remains pure and true. Since the rule of Jarvan I, there has never been an attempted coup or rebellion of any kind in Demacia. The king serves not only as the political leader of the city-state, but also as the commander-in-chief of its military.

Noble Houses Edit

As a monarchy, Demacia is governed by various royal families, regulating the city-state primarily as members of the Demacian Council. While many of the Noble Houses have ruled for generations, they are treated as any other citizen under the nation’s strict laws and are not exempt from them. They may even be treated more harshly under the law as they are meant to serve as shining examples of how Demacian citizens should conduct themselves, publicly and privately.

House Lightshield
House Spiritmight
House Crownguard
House Buvelle
House Vayne
House Laurent

Military Edit

GarenSquare — Garen, a soldier of the Demacian military

The Demacian military is one of the strongest in all of Valoran, and until recently it was the only force capable of holding back the hunger of the military machine that is Noxus. Noxus has been the sworn enemy of Demacia since both settlements were founded hundreds of years ago. Their conflict is, at its core, a moral one. With such a night-and-day division of moral philosophy between Demacia and Noxus, it is not hard to see why Demacia views its military requirements as a vital necessity for survival. Every Demacian citizen is required to serve in its military for no less than three years. Even after this time, most Demacians remain on active status in the city-state’s military reserve.

The resolve of Demacia's military is alternately celebrated or despised, but always respected. Their "zero tolerance" moral code is strictly upheld by civilians and soldiers alike. In combat, this means Demacian troops may not make excuses, flee, or surrender by example. Thousands of great heroes have risen and fallen on the bloody battlefields between Demacia and its preeminent rival, Noxus.

As an indoctrination tool, the Demacian military utilizes The Measured Tread, a handbook which outlines the city-state's ideology. Quotes from the book include:

"Death is inevitable; one can only avoid defeat."
"To fight for justice in the name of Demacia."
"Victory for our allies, defeat for our enemies, and justice for all."
"When Demacians march forth, ridding Valoran of the evils of selfishness and greed under the pristine banner of justice, we know who we are and what we fight for, unapologetically."
"In our eternal forward march, we must stomp out evil all across Valoran wherever it may grow. Leave no stone unturned: the roots of one ignored weed will inevitably corrupt the whole of the garden.”

Appearance Edit

Demacia is a shining beacon of hope for humanity, and as such the city is the visual representation of this concept. There is a clean and pristine feel and look to the city. Towering spires litter the skyline of Demacia. White stone and marble are the materials of choice in the construction of Demacian buildings. Majestic flags fly high along the parapets of the city. The city walls virtually gleam with power and nobility. The capital itself sits next to a natural port, with the majority of the other towns resting on a plateau.

Link to the League Edit

Demacia was one of the first supporters of the League of Legends, though its concerns were less for the planet’s stability and more for diminishing the Noxian threat to Valoran. Demacia sent its best students of magic to the Institute of War, with some of them becoming master summoners. Demacia holds its own in the Field of Justice, and this has subsequently eased the massive expenditure of resources otherwise needed to maintain its military force. The post-League Demacian military is as strong as ever, though it has shifted its focus from that of a standing invasion force, ready to re-conquest Noxian acquisitions, to that of an impenetrable bastion, secure and vigilant across its entire dominion.

History Edit

Piracy Strikes Demacian Navy Edit

The DSS Excursion - a cargo sloop of the Demacian Navy - was reported lost at sea, an apparent victim of piracy. All hands aboard are currently missing, and no demands were made of the Demacian government for their return.

The Excursion was bound from Freljord to Demacia laden with unspecified trade goods, according to a spokesperson for the Demacian Navy, when audiopathic contact with the sloop was ultimately lost. After twenty-four hours of communications silence, rescue vessels were dispatched to the Excursion's last reported location.

The Demacian investigation of the ship's disappearance - led by Demacian Captain of the Guard and Champion of the League, Garen - reported that some of the logged cargo of the Excursion had been jettisoned into the Conqueror's Sea approximately twenty kilometers from the vessel's last reported position. Other debris located near the jettisoned cargo was divined for analysis, revealing that the Excursion had been attacked and boarded while en route to Demacia.

Further divination did not reveal the identity of the perpetrators of the attack, though it was gleaned that the attack occurred at night when most of the Excursion's crew was in their quarters. The investigation has further revealed that magic above maximum potency as dictated by the League was used in the attack, and necromancy is believed to have been used based on the evidence divined. As a result, the League dispatched a team of investigators led by League Champion Kayle, the Judicator.

The whereabouts of the DSS Excursion remains a mystery to this day.

Sivir's VacationEdit

Sure she's deadly. She wouldn't still have the title “the Battle Mistress” if she wasn't. Sure she's survived multiple attempts on her life at the behest of the Noxian High Command. Sure she's hotter than a summer day – that red and gold outfit certainly provides her with plenty of space to move. Nevertheless, our lady Sivir may have come up against a force she won't be able to overcome!

For those whose memory is less than stellar, Sivir was arrested last October after going for an alcohol-induced joyride in a hex-tech conveyance, terrorizing her two passengers and a host of pedestrians. She was arrested by Demacian authorities shortly afterwards, if you remember the hype, and she stood trial just the other day.

Judge Haley Suede took pity on Sivir's "I'm just a lonely girl with personal problems" defense and sentenced the Champion to 90 days in a Demacian penitentiary, with time spent in the Fields of Justice not counting towards her sentence.

Listen, I love our Champions – they pay my bills – but one thing I can't stand is the way they're given special dispensation by the courts. If I'd done the same thing, I would be in jail for the next 18 months, and not in a cushy part of the prison.

Oh well. Position has its privilege, but we'll have to see how a jail term interferes with her duties to the League of Legends. More on this as it develops.

Demacian Miners, Trapped in KalamandaEdit

An earthquake rocked the village of Kalamanda yesterday evening, causing the collapse of a mithril mine and trapping twelve Demacian miners underground. Rescue efforts began shortly after the mine caved in, though no announcement of progress has been made by the village. No other damage in Kalamanda was reported. The collapse occurred during the early morning work shift at the #1 Loadstone Mining Consortium (LMC) mine, which is the site of Demacia’s primary mineral extraction operation in Kalamanda. Reports from miners who narrowly avoided the accident indicate that there was initially a low rumble that rapidly grew louder emanating from deep within the mine. Shortly after the rumbling started, the main mine shaft began to shake, and it eventually collapsed. The fates of the twelve miners still trapped underground remain unknown. The tremor also released huge pockets of magical energy into the atmosphere, prompting immediate concern that the area is rapidly becoming unstable. League officials descended upon Kalamanda en masse, studying the causes and effects of the catastrophe. Finger pointing began immediately across Valoran; rumors that the quake was caused by the rampant influx of unregulated mining operations and environmentally unsafe mining practices by Zaun have been raised, along with wilder accusations that the quake was deliberately triggered.

The Loadstone Mining Consortium is a mining company owned in part by the Demacian royal family. It had just conducted safety inspections of all its facilities in Kalamanda before yesterday’s events. “There is no reason whatsoever that the #1 mine should have collapsed at all,” commented Winston Garnersham, chief overseer of the LMC’s Kalamanda operations. “Although the earthquake was unpredictable, the magnitude of the shock was not great enough to cause a collapse. That mine checked out across the board; were it even remotely unsafe, we would have shut it down. We are not in the business of risking the lives of our employees for profit.”

The League has offered assistance to Demacia in its rescue efforts, as have the small contingencies of Piltover and Ionia. Help has even been offered by the Noxian delegation in Kalamanda – a surprising move considering the animosity between Demacia and Noxus in recent years.

Katarina, champion of the League and the Noxian High Command’s representative in Kalamanda, issued the following statement in light of the accident: “Our well-wishes go out to the miners who are currently fighting for their lives in the collapsed Loadstone mine. Such business is dangerous, especially when companies may be tempted to risk the lives of others in unsafe working environments. In the future, Noxus would be willing to share the expert safety practices of Noxian mining operations with the other city-states working in Kalamanda.”

The vast mineral wealth uncovered last year in Kalamanda has been steadily exploited by city-states and independent miners alike. Demacia and Noxus are the two city-states with the largest presence in Kalamanda, with both setting up military outposts near the village. The village’s elders have stated in no uncertain terms that they are looking to establish an exclusive contract with a single city-state for future mineral exploitation, though no final decision has been made in that regard. Both Demacia and Noxus are thought to be the leading contenders for securing exclusive mining rights in Kalamanda.

An Ancient Mystery In RuneterraEdit

Hey, everyone. Ezreal here.

Normally, I wouldn't ask for help. I've come across a lot of interesting relics in my travels, but never anything like these.

I've gathered everything on my desk for all of you to take a look. The important thing is that these relics were found all over Runeterra, and they date from different and completely unconnected eras. The thing is... they all share one similarity: they show a dark figure, clearly inhuman, wielding a jagged blade.

This is a mystery I'm not sure I want solved. From what I can gather so far, this dark figure has been at the center of many bloody conflicts and tales of war. What do you think? Who is this figure, and what role has he played in Runeterra's history?

Oh, and if you really want to hear some of the stories about these things... I'll tell them, but some of them aren't pretty.

Take a look at this. It's a stained glass window from Demacia.

Don't ask me how I got it. I'm going to give it back, I promise. I'm borrowing it for research, and they'll never know it's missing. Demacians never stop talking about light, so what do they really need a window for, anyway?

Look closely. See the shape in the center with the wings and the jagged sword? That's the figure I've been seeing everywhere.

This is the first artifact that really got me thinking. It's not that old, and it can't really go back more than a few generations at most. I asked around, and nobody knows what the figure is or if he has a name. They all agreed on one thing though: whoever this figure is, he's clearly someone worth remembering to be immortalized like this.

But why does he appear in so many other places? So many of these artifacts are ancient, and some are from lost civilizations so old they don't even have names.

How is that possible?

This statuette is from Noxus.

Yes, Noxus. You know how I feel about Noxians, but their city is full of history. It'll take more than dark magic, guards with massive axes, and a creepy bird guy to keep me from exploring the most important places in Valoran.

Noxus is full of these kinds of statuettes. Usually, they're made as tributes to the nation's greatest heroes, but this one doesn't look like any Noxian war hero I've ever heard of. I know of plenty, too, believe me: pick up any Noxian book and it's probably a way-too-lengthy chronicle of some hero's life, conquests, and the size of their weapon. I wouldn't have looked twice at this one if I hadn't recognized the figure.

Here's the thing that's really nagging me... what's Noxus doing with statues of a figure that shows up in Demacian art, too?

When

I noticed the similarities between the Demacian stained glass and the Noxian statue, I had to know more. I pulled as many books as I could out of the library at Piltover's academy. There are some sections there restricted to everyone but academy graduates. I could have gotten in on my own, but I didn't want to burn any bridges, so I had

Jayce help me out. Everyone loves that guy.

The smaller one is a book of Noxian war poems. Most of what's inside is standard Noxian military fare, but the blade on the cover captured my attention.

The big one right here is an old book of fables and stories. Not all of them are entirely true, but one of them caught my eye. The character in the story is an arrogant general leading his warriors into battle and winning with ease. He has the last of his enemies cornered, but…

you know what they say about pride before a fall.

A great warrior—that's right, our dark figure—appears in the battle. The arrogant general's enemies, men on the verge of death, are inspired by his presence. "They rose from their knees as though he'd lit their very blood aflame," it says. "The shamed general watched as his men were cleaved by an army that had begged for mercy just moments before. His enemies had become murderers and butchers. As they closed on him, the general could not be certain whether they were still men at all."

Shurima's been gone for centuries. It's hardly anything but dust now, but the ruins that remain show a massive civilization that once thrived in the desert. I have no idea what happened to the empire. It seems like it vanished without a trace... but that's a whole different mystery.

I found this urn in a tomb there. From the look of the place and some of the carvings on the walls, it was the final resting place of a great Shuriman warlord who led a battle against impossible odds. He and his men should have gone out in a blaze of glory, but somehow, they won. Just a handful of warriors defeated thousands of enemies who rose against them.

It's no wonder they'd immortalize that kind of victory on the walls of a tomb, but what is this dark figure doing on the urn? What part did he play in this battle? I just don't get it.

You can carve plenty of interesting things out of the Freljord's ice. That place has always been a battleground, so I wouldn't have thought twice about digging up a dagger like this one if it weren't for two things. One: check out the etching in the metal. Look closely enough and you'll see the same serrated design found in the rest of these relics. Two, well… the dagger's hilt is carved from human bone.

Here's where it gets more interesting. The tribesmen of that region say the figure on the blade is a legend, a "warrior-savior" who appeared during a battle against a hated rival tribe several years ago. They'd almost lost the battle, but the warrior appeared and led them to a crushing victory over their enemies. They left no one alive, but when the tribesmen went to celebrate with their champion, he'd already vanished. They say that - in his memory - they took the bones of their enemies as trophies.

It sounds like a similar story to the one from the Shuriman tomb. Both tell of a warrior who appeared and turned the tide of a great battle... but at a gruesome cost.

This Ionian woodblock was carved long before the war with Noxus. They're rare nowadays, but they're always more or less the same. They all depict things of beauty: landscapes, monks in meditation, the stars and the night sky, all of that "enlightenment" stuff they're always on about. All of them... except this one.

I've never seen anything like it. It's that same dark figure with that same blade - and the worst thing - I don't think those red stains are ink...

I got lucky with this one. I found it stuck between the pages of that huge book. It's not the same paper, and it's pretty damaged. Maybe someone got to this research before me, but they didn't get as far as I did.

In the image, it looks like these men are revering a statue of the dark figure. The statue itself looks like it's half-unearthed. It might not even be something they built, but something they found.

What is it about this figure that drove these people to be so devoted to him?

I won these coins off a certain

Card Master whose name I won't say... and whose real name I don't even know. I'd lost every single hand up until this one, and the one time I beat him, of course he'd bet completely useless old coins. I can't spend them anywhere in Valoran. At least I've found a "use" for them now. It took me a while to realize it, but that's the same

jagged blade on these old coins.

Finally, there's this pendant to the right. It's very, very old, and I have no idea where it originally came from. That's the dark figure's face right there in the metal. Whoever he is, he's been around for a really long time.

That's all I've collected so far. So… what do you think? Who is this figure, and what does his presence mean?

I know one thing: I never want to meet him...

Trivia Edit

The city-state motto for Demacians is, "Demacia: now and forever."
A common battle cry among Demacian champions is, "Demacia!"

City-State Champions Edit

Champion	Ties
Fiora, the Grand Duelist	Birthplace; elite sword fighter, House Laurent
Galio, the Sentinel's Sorrow	"Birthplace"; former guardian of Durand
Garen, the Might of Demacia	Birthplace; leader of the Dauntless Vanguard, House Crownguard
Jarvan IV, the Exemplar of Demacia	Birthplace; Demacian Crown Prince, House Lightshield
Lux, the Lady of Luminosity	Birthplace; prodigy from the College of Magic, House Crownguard
Poppy, the Iron Ambassador	Residence; yordle emissary from Bandle City
Quinn and Valor, Demacia's Wings	Birthplace; common-born; Demacian elite ranger team
Shyvana, the Half-Dragon	Residence; member of the Demacian Elite Guard
Sona, the Maven of the Strings	Residence; famed Demacian musician,adopted into House Buvelle
Vayne, the Night Hunter	Birthplace; renowned Demacian vigilante, House Vayne
Xin Zhao, the Seneschal of Demacia	Residence; steward of the Lightshield Dynasty

Associated Champions Edit

Champion	Ties
Brand, the Burning Vengeance	Captured by Demacian forces
Hecarim, the Shadow of War	Terrorized Demacian villages
Sion, the Undead Champion	Executed by Demacian forces
Sivir, the Battle Mistress	Spent time in the Demacian penitentiary
Swain, the Master Tactician	Seeks to kill Jarvan Lightshield the Fourth
Twisted Fate, the Card Master	Former card shark
Urgot, the Headsman's Pride	Desires revenge on Garen Crownguard
Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer	Dating with Lux Crownguard

External Links Edit

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/learn/lore/demacia

Places in Runeterra
Valoran	League City-States	Bandle City Bilgewater Demacia Freljord Ionia Noxus Piltover Zaun
	Other Areas	Blue Flame Island Kalamanda Howling Marsh Icathia Ironspike Mountains Kumungu Lokfar Mogron Pass Mount Targon Plague Jungles Serpentine River Shadow Isles Shurima Desert The Institute of War Urtistan Voodoo Lands
	Fields of Justice	Crystal Scar Howling Abyss Magma Chamber Proving Grounds Summoner's Rift Twisted Treeline
Continents and Dimensions		The Glade Valoran The Void