Hi, I'm Joon Hyung Ahn. I'm a World Building Artist here at Riot Games.
And I'm Odin.
Yes, that's my real name.
And I'm a writer.
So today we want to talk about Ionia.
It's the region where champs like Zed, Karma, Irelia and many others come from.
So Ionia is a place where people attempted to live in harmony with nature,
but also with magic.
Now, because Ionia is so infused with magic
and the borders to the spirit realms are so thin here,
that radically affects Ionians everyday lives
and culture in some really cool ways.
So like, if you wanted to build a house in Demacia right
you would cut down a tree, turn it into planks,
then like nail those wooden corpses together.
You wouldn't do that in Ionia.
You would probably upset the tree spirit.
And that could have repercussions for you and your family
and further generations.
So instead you would contact like a wood weaver
who would try and convince the tree
to grow in a way that's beneficial for you.
And then that way, you can live together.
The tree gets to live and you get a pretty sweet condo.
Of course that means you might wake up one morning
and find your house has grown in the night
and suddenly you got some high ceilings.
Or a branch has moved in the night
and now you're trapped inside your own bedroom.
So because of natural magic,
Ionians have a totally different relationship with permanence
and their surroundings than other places.
For example, there's these rivers of grass in Central Ionia
that flow and move with the tides of magic.
And there's these people called Landfishers
who can collect all the grains and fruits
that are the result of these sorta magical tides.
If they're in tune with that magic.
Yeah, the landscape and the culture are also affected by the spirits.
For instance, there's a coastal region called Azure Farms
and at certain times of the year,
people might give offerings and gift to the local sea spirits
and if those offerings are appreciated,
thousands of yellow crabs might walk onto the beaches
and just wait to be captured later in the year.
Magic in Ionia can also affect you in smaller ways.
So if you were in a city at a market and you bought a sun apple,
you discover that that fruit can warm you and can even tan your entire body
just as soon as you bite into it.
Another thing that makes Ionia different
from the rest of Runeterra
is spirits and creatures abound in the wilds here.
Some of the things are fierce and incredibly dangerous
but many others can be helpful
like the giant Luonn Kon seen built in a dam here.
The region is also home to the largest Vastayan population in Runeterra.
That's those half-human half-animal folks like
Ahri, Rakan and Xayah.
The Vastaya are here because most of the Vastayan race
originated on the borders between Ionia and the spirit realms
and they need magic rich environment to survive.
What I love about Joon's painting of a Fauhwoon tribesman
sort've looking over these magical Quinlon things
is it actually captures the feeling that a lot of Vastaya have.
They're very unhappy and uncertain with the way that humans are using magic.
Of course, the humans have good reasons for this.
The world is changing and the Noxus empire invaded.
Now Noxus wasn't the first nation to attack Ionia.
With it's lack of centralized government and standing military
it's been a tempting target for a long long time.
But the people of Ionia have been able to stay disorganized
and not meet violence with violence
because the land itself always proved dangerous to invaders.
Sweeping supplies away in sudden storms
or scattered enemy troops in its dense soul altering forest.
But the Noxians weren't like their other foes.
Noxians solve problems brutally.
So when land turned out to be a problem,
they hired this Zaunite chemist to make chem bombs.
And they just started wiping out huge areas of the land
causing mass extinction of creatures and killing a lot of innocent civilians.
When the Noxian did this, a few people in Ionia
decided they were no longer happy just being defensive.
They start using magic offensively and fighting back.
And then, at the bridges, at the Placidium of Navori,
in what would become one of the most defining battles of the war,
a fourteen year old mage dancer named Irelia
nearly wiped out all of the enemy high command.
Her heroism inspired the nation to take action.
The Ionians managed to drive the Noxians almost completely
out of their nation.
Previously the people had these illusions
that if they just live in harmony with nature,
everything would always be okay.
But now they had experienced the true horror of war.
So this means Ionia is at a turning point
and the divions within that nation are polling against one another.
On the one side, there's traditionalist like Karma and Shen and the Kinkou Order.
And on the other side there's radicals like Zed and the Navori Brotherhood.
Actually, we're not going to go into that right now.
Yeah we'll have more stuff coming that will delve deeper into those factions,
the Vastaya, and what has been going on in Ionia since the war.
Thank you so much for watching.
Oh and for more info and art, be sure to check out the Universe.
Thanks.