Void

This Article is in accordance with the version 0.94 of Runarcana RPG

“Screaming into existence with the birth of the universe, the Void is a manifestation of the unknowable nothingness that lies beyond. It is a force of insatiable hunger, waiting through the eons until its masters, the mysterious Watchers, mark the final time of undoing. To be a mortal touched by this power is to suffer an agonizing glimpse of eternal unreality, enough to shatter even the strongest mind. Denizens of the Void realm itself are construct-creatures, often of only limited sentience, but tasked with a singular purpose - to usher in total oblivion across Runeterra”

Over the centuries, many mortals from the world above have answered the Void's call or been dragged down against their will. There are those among them—few and far between—who have survived the encounter... though not a single one of them returned unchanged.

In the abyssal darkness, deep underground, it is believed that the first great Void creatures to walk the surface of Runeterra now lie, dormant and unseen. If that is true, then they have waited patiently through the millennia, and it must surely now be time for them to rise once more.

Although it has generated many of them, no horror of The Void is exactly the same as another. Their supernatural forms are as varied as they are terrifying; however, they are all motivated by insatiable hunger, and the mysterious pulsation of their hearts is what makes them move forward relentlessly.

Some legends suggest that when the first life forms of the Void emerged in Runeter's air, the cubs of the Void were usually pale, fibrous, and flexible. As they age, parts of their shape become darker, resembling a shell, rigid enough to defeat virtually any weapon.

Far beyond the known lands of Valoran, at the deepest and darkest points beneath the world, servants of the mythical Watchers are attracted by the power of the World Runes.

The threat of The Void hovers throughout Runeterra, from Targon to Shurima, through Freljord and even into the depths of Zaun, the closer to the abyss and darkness, the closer to accessing the Void or layers of it.

Icathia

In the past, there was a city called Icathia, a magocracy, with free citizens ruled an cared for by the Mage-Kings.

Axamuk, the last of the Mage Kings, was the final ruler to fall before the Shuriman Sun Empress when she led her golden host of men and gods into the kingdom of Icathia. Icathia remained a vassal state controlled by Shurima for a thousand years, its people subjugated and enslaved.

The Icathian thaumaturges were the magicians of the earth and the rock, charged during the last days of the city to dig out a weapon that would turn the tide in favor of the nation.

A great and terrible battle was fought against the Void before the walls of the ancient Icathia. In the end, the lands around the ruined city became devastated areas, and even its existence was swept away from Shurima's maps. There was a hope, perhaps naive, that the horrors released there would one day be forgotten.

One of the few ways to fight The Void is to let it starve. Without any organic or magical supplies around, the Void's material growth slows down - until it finally enters a state of numbness.

On the outskirts of Icathia is located The Rupture, the greatest evidence of the rise of The Void from the depths of the earth, in an era long forgotten. Although both brave and curious have repeatedly tried to discover more about them, only the most stubborn explorers would venture into the dark spaces of the depths.

The Fall of Icathia

At the start of the Icathian rebellion against Shurima, the reformed Kohari order was rebuilt with the objective of retaking and liberating the city. The city was full of screams from all sides, while angry mobs chased and murdered every Shurimans officer they could find. The resentment for centuries of humiliating laws designed to eradicate Icathian culture - as well as the brutal executions of those who violated those laws - reached its peak on a bloody day filled with violence. No matter the function and importance, all those who served the Sun-Emperor were killed.

The effigies of the Sun, symbol of Shuriman domination, were torn from the rooftops and crushed by the crowds in applause. The Shurimans writings were incinerated, and their treasures plundered while the statues of the past emperors were desecrated in a last act of rebellion.

The day after the massacre, an army of bricklayers and thaumaturges were erecting freshly dug granite blocks in the city, ten thousand men and women were recruited to defend the city, mostly armed with axes, picks, and spears and wearing beaten leather armor.

Three high-level infantry blocks formed most of its front line. Shurimans corpses were impaled on stakes stuck in the ground, and carrion birds surrounded the top. Priests surrounded these stakes, and each of them drew complex patterns in the air with their stellar metal staffs.

The Sun-Emperor soon went to Icathia with five armies, each with tens of thousands of men, siege machines, wizards, and at the heart of the armies, Nine Ascended, divine warriors armored in bronze and jade.

During the bloody battle that would decimate the Icathians, the pavilion exploded with traces of light. Purple energy ties ripped through the sky and lashed it like waves breaking reality. The force of the explosion threw everyone to the ground. The sky, once bright and blue, was now the color of a week-long bruise. The unnatural twilight dominated. A nightmare light, purple and blue, suffocated the world, pressing from above and blossoming from somewhere below.

A chasm that bled purple light was torn between the Shurimanes, and Setaka was taken by lashings of matter. She fought to free herself with violent movements of her sword, but the power of The Void was too much for her. The pulsating, bright light spread over his body like a hideous cocoon. Slippery coils rise from the earth or from the air itself to seize the flesh of mortals. Men and women were dragged and involved, bodies dissolved as the tentacles of dirty energy dominated them.

At the end of the battle, the city was devastated by The Void, its inhabitants consumed by the rift or dispersed, and the land was marked forever by that event.