Who is the most powerful darkin
Welcome, Lore-Lovers, to the mystical realms of Runeterra, where darkness lurks and power manifests in the form of the enigmatic Darkins. As we delve into the League of Legends universe, prepare to unveil the secrets of the most formidable and awe-inspiring beings. From the shadows, these Darkins rise, each with a story as ancient as time itself. Buckle up, as we embark on a journey through the epic tales of the most powerful Darkins that shape the very fabric of this fantastical world.
Opening
Darkin ranking
As the title suggests, this is a video in which I will rank the darkins by their power in an ascending order, so for sure I may be wrong from your point of view and I am barely waiting to know your opinion on this in the comments. Without further ado, let's start with our first darkin and the least powerful in my opinion.
Anaakca
Anaakca - the darkin spear it is said that she is somewhere in Eastern Freljord and her vessel is a Winter's Claw scout (Winter's Claw is the dominant tribe in the Freljord with Sejuani being it's warmother). About the darkin spear we know that it is made of True Ice. Sometimes, Anaakca is mistakenly written Anaacko. From the conversation between the Warmother Sejuani and this scout, we have learned that the scout intentionally wanted to sacrifice himself by using the darkin spear in time of war saying that "Better a scout is lost to darkness than all of our people." No one is sure what happened right after the scout took the spear, but we know that after some time, Anaakca went south through the Freljord to destroy a Demacian outpost. Let's now move from a spear to a more eccentric weapon.
Praa
Praa - the darkin Fan is another special darkin, being imprisoned in the Spirit Realm and his host is a dragonling. His general's call stirred him from slumber. As his senses came to him, Praa found himself looking through a weighted veil to a lush, unfamiliar land. Slowly, inexorably, he stepped through the divide, and buried his feet in Runeterra's soil once more. For Aatrox. For victory. For peace. For death. Shen was sensing Praa's calls in the Spirit Realm, he knew not to follow the call but he feared that in the end the darkin will draw enough attention in the Spirit Realm so that someone or something will free him. And from a fan we move to another weird but very cool weapon.
Styraatu
Styraatu - the darkin Harp has a miner as a host, a miner who discovered her buried deep within Zaun. As the Targonians pondered where they should scatter the Darkin weapons, one of their kind suggested the lands that would become known as Zaun. Buried deep within the walls of the cavernous and winding passageways would be perfect, they assumed. Far from human reach. But not Chirean. In this land of technology, Styraatu plans to seek knowledge and destroy or dominate everything she can make her powerful enough to go south and join her general, Aatrox. Let's now go to a weapon more popular than a fan or a harp. What do you say about a scythe?
Rhaast
Rhaast, also known as The Darkin Scythe, is the weapon of choice for Kayn, the Shadow Reaper. A sentient Darkin scythe, Rhaast is wielded by Shieda Kayn, Master Zed's second-in-command to the Order of Shadows. Slowly corrupting the young Kayn from within his prison, Rhaast hopes to one day become powerful enough to take over Kayn's body and become the malevolent overlord he was always meant to be. Like the other Darkin, Rhaast was born a warrior in the ancient Shuriman empire, who underwent an Ascension ritual before the great Sun Disc to become a god-warrior. The Ascended were forced to fight the forces of the Void at Icathia, but when the emperor Azir was killed and Shurima fell, the Ascended were left without a master, and in the Great Darkin War, Rhaast sided with the corrupted Ascended who used the forbidden blood magic for world conquest. But not all darkin needs to be in an offensive item, some of them also like the defensive ones, like the next one.
Joraal
Joraal - the darkin Aegis was a formidable soldier that has become a mighty Ascended in Shurima. His defensive abilities were so good that even for the God-Warriors he seemed impervious to attacks. But as we know, war with the void came, and not even Joraal was able to defend his mind from what was to come, falling into madness in the end. He is imprisoned inside his shield being placed somewhere in Demacia and guarded by the noble house Fortis. The son of this family heard the cries coming from inside the shield, and in the end it touched it, giving freedom to the darkin imprisoned inside and becoming his vessel. If Demacia has a darkin, for sure Noxus must also have one.
Naganeka
Naganeka - the darkin Ballista has as a host a Noxian beast and it is also called Naganeka of Zuretta or Noxus Darkin. She serves Aatrox and shares the hatred against Xolaani, seeking her death. The darkin Ballista was safely hidden in the eastern stepes of Valoran, being too barren to feed or home the noxians. But as the empire needed to expand, they stumbled across various tools and weapons in this land. In the end, the darkin ballista was uncovered, and somehow Naganeka managed to control a beast. Our next darkin is a unique one, not just because of his weapon of choice, but because of the fact the he has not one, but two human vessels.
Varus
Regardless of what he would later become, Varus was once a paragon of loyalty and honor. A skilled archer of the ancient Shuriman empire, he was appointed as a temple warden in the eastern states, and he held this duty sacred above all else.
During the earliest stages of the war with Icathia, even though it lay far from that cursed place, Varus' homeland was attacked. While other wardens abandoned their posts to join the defense of the outlying villages, he alone remained, screaming in anguish with every arrow he loosed--for he had chosen to uphold his oaths rather than return home to protect his own family.
Emissaries from the Ascended Host found him kneeling in solemn meditation amid the corpses of his foes. It was said that his cold gaze unsettled even the god-warriors themselves, and yet, in recognition of his noble sacrifice, Varus was offered a place in their ranks.
As one of the great Ascended, he was utterly consumed by his pursuit of vengeance against the Icathians, and the voidling horrors they had unleashed. It is likely that Varus did not even fully comprehend Shurima's ultimate victory in that war, so twisted had his mind become, nor the empire's fall centuries later. Atrocity after atrocity blurred together, leaving him as a withdrawn, callous killer, reshaped and sent into battle countless times by his degenerate brethren. Even the sea is not spared of darkins, as the next one likes very much the waters.
Ibaaros
Ibaaros - the darkin harpoon is somewhere in Bilgewater being also called the Champion of the Dunes, he lifted himself through the water after being somehow able to find a vessel with uncertain identity (a sea monster or some kind of vastaya). Legends of his existence has spread through the Bilgewater and we also have some rhymes about Ibaaros:
"Steer clear, steer clear, of the strait of Daray,
Where the waters whisper and the winds betray,
Where sea beast and bird so seldom foray,
For fear o' the darkness deep 'neath the strait of Daray."
No matter how pure do you think the land of the yordles is, it seems like it was not spared of a darkin presence, as our next darkin is one of the Bandle City's trees.
Baalkux
Baalkux - the darkin staff is serving Aatrox and it is now somehow imprisoned while at the same time controlling a big tree and the flora around it in Bandle City. After imprisoning him, Targonians thought it would be a good idea to place the darkin staff in Bandle City because it is hidden from any other race besides yordles, and the yordles will know to stay away from this potential threat. But what Targonians did not think of, is that Baalkux managed to somehow control the tree (because of the magic it had) and the flora around, we do not know if it is possible to walk anymore or just manifest through the world by using Bandle City's magic but it is certainly still a threat.
Now it's pretty clear that no one is spared from becoming a darkin vessel, not even a pack of wolves.
Naafiri
In the pitch black Shuriman night, few sounds are as terrifying as the howls of the dune hound. Those who hear their piercing call on the arid wind know to keep a hand on their sword hilt, and their horse well rested, for the ravenous packs that rove these sands will chase whatever game they can find in their desert. For centuries, Naafiri remained in a crypt, her spirit bound to an ancient throwing dagger. Unable to move or speak, the weapon lay inert as her soul pondered the past: Naafiri was powerful, having almost led the Darkin. How easily she could have bested any of them in combat to become their rightful ruler... yet how easily she'd been tricked by that awful Aspect, Myisha, and cursed to embody these inanimate steel blades.
As time goes on, we approach more and more powerful darkins, the next darkin is so powerful that the Targonians themselves wanted to guard him.
Horazi
Horazi - the darkin lodestone is another darkin loyal to Aatrox and enemy of the so-called "coward" Xolaani. This darkin is burried inside an orb made of star metal and it is a special case of imprisonment because the Targonian themselves took the imprisoned darkin to Targon. Somehow the darkin has discovered a way to tempt even a Targonian protector and it is now possessing a golem. She has amazing magic abilities through which she glimpsed the secrets of the cosmos and learned about the infinite passage of time that preceded and followed her existence.
Let's get down from the skies to a special Island, known by two different names, depending on the period of time you're referring to, the Blessed or the Shadow Isles.
Taarosh
Taarosh - the darkin halberd was hidden in a place that is now forever gone and unknown to the world as it was back then, the Blessed Isles. He sensed the land changing when the Ruination happened and he found himself in a new land, now called the Shadow Isles.. Now it is heard that Taarosh has a new host, a very powerful one, a dragon of the Shadow Isles. He is in third place because he was very close but did not succeed to kill the darkin in the second place, Xolaani.
Xolaani
Xolaani - the darkin Bloodletters was the daughter of a healer. Her birth coincided with an auspicious solar cycle, and the presence of a previous incarnation of the Aspect of the Protector. At the time, Icathia's mages had begun to rebel against Shurima, using the Void as a weapon. Xolaani followed her parent's path and became a healer, trying to save as many lives as she could with an ancient form of hemomancy. Seeing firsthand the suffering brought by the war, she spoke out against it, holding the leadership accountable for waging pointless wars. While the Shuriman emperor would likely have prevented her Ascension, the priests of the Sun Disc deemed her worthy of Ascension. Xolaani successfully completed the Rite of Ascension, becoming a powerful Ascended God-Warrior, but as we all know, Xolaani was not spared after the Icathian wars, and she became a darkin too. Her vessel being Jun, one of Master Yi's disciples.
Her power comes from her hemomancy through which she wanted to force her fellow Darkin into her servitude, believing that the only way to end the pointless wars was to forcefully unite the whole world under her control. But there is a darkin who resisted her powers, the one that is the most powerful in my list, and this is, Aatrox.
Aatrox
One of the first to be granted the gift of Ascension at the end of his life.During this time, he was loyal to the Shuriman Empire and had served it for all his life. He was noble and would not hesitate to help his fellow soldiers in battle. In ancient times, long before desert sands swallowed the empire, a mighty champion of Shurima was brought before the Sun Disc to become the avatar for a now forgotten celestial ideal. Remade as one of the Ascended, his wings were the golden light of dawn, and his armor sparkled like a constellation of hope from beyond the great veil. When he Ascended, he was given a heightened role in the military. He participated in the battle against Icathia and helped drive back the Void from the region around it, a battle that in the end corrupted him too, and he became the darkin we know today. But he is so powerful that he could kill the Aspect of War, leaving Atreus free to wonder without the aspect controlling him. Excepting Xolaani and a few of her disciples, all the other darkins in this list served Aatrox, and they considered him to be their general. So his power is the one that demanded this respect from the others. Of course, we know that Xolaani managed to take control of a lot of darkins in a huge battle they had, and almost destroyed Runeterra if Ryze did not use his runes to stop her, being able to defeat even the Aspect of Justice, but Xolaani did that by controlling the other darkins that couldn't defeat her. In a one to one battle against Aatrox I think Xolaani will lose.
Closing Words
And there you have it, Lore-Lovers! The mesmerizing saga of the mighty Darkins unfolds. If you've been enchanted by the tales I've woven, don't forget to share the magic with your fellow lore enthusiasts. Like this video if the stories of the Darkins resonated with your inner lore-seeker. Subscribe to our channel for more epic adventures through the rich narratives of Runeterra. Until next time, may your curiosity be insatiable, and your love for lore eternal. This is Liandrug, signing off. Share, like, and subscribe for more tales from the League of Legends universe!
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