In a video today, Riot has possibly teased the next region being added to Legends of Runeterra - Shurima.
The video in question is a teaser for the upcoming Friday stream that will be showcasing what is to come for Season 2021 in League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, Wild Rift, and Teamfight Tactics.
At the ten second mark, an image briefly appears of a two-headed creature with background details that scream Shurima; Sand, golden statues, and stone temple architecture are all great giveaways that we're looking at the ruins of an empire's former glory.
Shurima in the Legends of Runeterra Client
A single image isn't everything we're using to determine the validity of Shurima joining Runeterra in the next expansion.
Last year, we datamined region icons and Shurima was a big part of that list! It is one of the few icons for a region that has not yet been added to the game which gives us more credibility towards Shurima arriving in Legends of Runeterra sooner rather than later.
Champions of Shurima
Using the client, although a great sign of what is to come, and a teaser that appears for a few frames in a video, isn't enough to do this tinfoil hattery justice though. That's why we need to look at the Champions!
Each of the 8 other regions in the game right now have 6 released Champions, though their lore in the universe still provides us with many to come. Each of these regions will be receiving at least two new champions this year, one in each set, meaning whichever region joins up, next will need to have at least 8 available characters. Looking at the unreleased regions, here's what we have:
- Ixtal: 6 Champions
- The Void: 8 Champions
- Shurima: 9 Champions
Seeing as how Shurima has the most of the bunch, it would only make sense to introduce this region first so that they can work around holes in the other sets of champions. If Riot continues the same pacing that we've seen in the past year, this gives Shurima a solid start to 2021 and 2022, with 7 champions arriving in the first set of this year and the remaining 2 arriving in the 2 sets that follow it. Remember, Runeterra releases a Set over three Expansions which has a release time of 6 months. They have also said they will add two new regions this year, one with each Set.
These three bits of information lead us to believe Shurima is going to happen and we're all happy to board that hype train.
So, who are the champions of Shurima that we'll see in Legends of Runeterra?
- Amumu - The Sad Mummy
- Azir - The Emperor of the Sands
- Nasus - The Curator of the Sands
- Rammus - The Armordillo
- Renekton - The Butcher of the Sands
- Sivir - The Battle Mistress
- Skarner - The Crystal Vanguard
- Taliyah - The Stoneweaver
- Xerath - The Magus Ascendant
Comments
All I know about LoL comes from LoR. But these characters certainly look cool!
I noticed something else important in the trailer: The LoR clips showcase "The Ruination"! I think this is an indicator that the next event will be a Ruination-style event, coinciding with the release of the Ruined King game and The Ruined King coming to LoL! My personal dream is that the event will focus on the Ruination and maybe give each region an event card that shows what would happen if that character was caught in the Ruination (kind of like the new LoL skins). They would be what-if cards, similar to the Death Knights in Hearthstone, meaning that they are alternative universe without breaking the aesthetic of the region! I'd honestly love seeing things like a Ghost version of Corina or a spooky-looking Windfarer hatchling. Honeslty, the potential is limitless and I think it could add a lot of really cool cards to LoR.
We're definitely expecting a lot of stuff about the Ruined King, on Friday; TBD exactly how much of it spills into LoR.
For everyone not read-up: a big part of Shadow Isle's lore is this arrogant king that basically caused The Ruination and black mist, making SI what it is today. His name is Viego, and he's going to be the next new champ in League of Legends released this month. LoL has also just revealed some new skins, "Ruined Karma", "Ruined Draven", and "Ruined Shyvana". We also know there's a big RPG-style single player game, The Ruined King, coming out early this year too which seems like it's going to be all about him. Finally, if you watch to the end there's a long scene of Senna (her backstory is she's killed by Thresh and her soul is imprisioned in his lamp but miraculously makes it out and is somewhat reborn / somewhat undead) hearing the following:
"The Mist...he's close...ruination...VIEGO!"
Personally, my money is on another cross-game event built around TRK -- and I think that'd be pretty cool.
The ruined king is a BIG deal, it's true all the LoR content was with SI cards and we can see Senna in the end (for LoR only people: she is a SI champion, the version in game is before she was captured by Thresh).
There will probably a cross game event of SI and maybe also the release of the turn based RPG :)
Yeah you're definitely right that we have no idea how much content LoR will get related to the Ruined King, it's entirely possible that they just wanted to tease him for LoL and decided that using the LoR "Ruination" card would be a good way to do that. However, given that they're making a big deal out of the reveal affecting all their games, I would expect some amount of content around it for LoR. At the minimum I would expect some cosmetics, but I'm really hoping for a small card set like K/DA.
I'm going to guess at Azir's interactions/dialogue.
Azir: "Shurima. Shurima Shurima Shurima. Shurima!"
I am hyped for Azir there's no way he isn't on the first release he is THE Shuriman champion.
"Like the sun, Shurima always rises!"
"Shurima will once again stretch to the horizon."
"Shurima is where all paths converge."
"The power of the sun lives in Shurima."
"Everyone will know the name Shurima."
"There is no future without Shurima."
"There is only Shurima. All else is but a mirage."
Clearly he hangs out with Disciple of C'Thun.