RIVEN

Made in constant conflict, Noxus has never had a lack of conflict orphans. Her father failed to an unnamed fight, and her mother, to the girl’s headstrong birth, Riven, was raised on a farm surrounded by the realm on the rugged hillsides of Trevale.

Physical energy and fierce will kept the children growing and working on the hard scrap of land, but Riven hungered for more than bread on the counter. She saw conscripts from regional warbands visiting the fields, year after year, and in them, she perceived a chance at the time she imagined of. When she eventually promised the empire her power, she knew Noxus would welcome her as the daughter she wanted to be.

Riven showed a natural soldier. Young as she was, her years of harsh labor enabled her to master the weight of a longsword greater than herself instantly. Her new family was formed in the heat of the fight, and Riven saw her connection to her brothers- and sisters-in-arms as solid.

So extraordinary was her commitment to the realm that Boram Darkwill himself saw her with a runic sword of dark metal, fascinated by a ghostly sorceress within his field. The defense was more complicated than a kite shield and nearly as broad—perfectly fitted to Riven’s tastes.

Not soon after, the battle hosts set sail for Ionia as a frame of the long-planned Noxian attack.

As this current war drew on, it became apparent that Ionia would not bow. Riven’s member was appointed to escort another Warband making its way through the embattled province of Navori. The Warband’s head, Emystan, had applied a Zaunite alchymist, excited to examine a new weapon class. Over countless campaigns, Riven would willingly have presented her life for Noxus, but now she saw something wrong in these other fighters—something that got her intensely miserable. The weak amphorae they took on their carriages had no purpose on any battleground, she could think.

The two warbands frequently met violent defense, as if even the state itself attempted to challenge them. During a massive rainstorm, with mud flowing down the hills, Riven and her heroes were stranded with their dangerous cargo—and it was then that the Ionian soldiers showed themselves. Recognizing the risk, Riven called Emystan for assistance.

The only answer she got was a vivid arrow, fired out from the ridgeline, and Riven knew this was no longer a battle to extend the borders of Noxus. It was to be the total destruction of the opponent, no matter the price.

The carriage was gone straight on. Instinctively, Riven pulled her sword, but it was too slow to defend anyone but herself. The chemical fire broke from the ruptured boxes, and cries filled the night—both Ionian and Noxian falling prey to a painful, horrible death. Shielded from the burning, poisonous vapors by the charm of her blade, she became an unwilling observer to scenes of fear and betrayal that would bother her forever.

For Riven, thoughts of the hours that happened come only in fragments and dreams. She treated her wounds. She suffered the deaths. But, most of all, she appeared to hate the weapon that protected her life. The words etched into its cover mocked her, telling her of all she had missed. She would discover a way to disclose it, parting her last tie to Noxus, before the daybreak.

But when the spear was finally broken, still she found no calm.

Bared of the faith and confidence that had supported her entire life, Riven decided to exile herself, roaming Ionia’s battle-scarred view. When she finally turned to the community where she had revealed the weapon, it was unveiled that her self-destructive needs had cost the life of their most respected elder, and yet Ionia contained her with compassion.

Noxus was not almost so compassionate. Although the realm had long since departed from the First Lands, it had not ignored Riven or her runic sword. After competing strongly against those sent to bring her to trial, she declined to let any more Ionian blood be dropped on her account. She abandoned herself to the commands of evasion leveled against her.

As she retreats to Noxus in chains, Riven lives haunted. Though Darkwill is no more, and the realm is rumored to have grown, she is unsure what will become of her or whether she will ever be made complete again.