Hi, my name is Maisie and I'm a concept artist on the Worldbuilding team
Hi, my name is Rayla,
and I'm one of the writers on the Worldbuilding team.
The last time we did our Targon update, we kind of gave a...
broad, high level overview.
So this time we're going to dive into the details
that bring the faction to life.
As you might know,
Mount Targon is located far away from any major civilization.
The mountain itself is formed not just by geological processes,
or tectonic plates pushing against each other,
it's actually formed by magical forces pulling the mountain upwards
from the top.
So all across Runeterra,
people have heard of this legendary mountain
and the brave souls who have managed to climb it.
So throughout Runeterra's history, there have always been those
who have felt the calling to make the
pilgrimage to Mount Targon.
Because Mount Targon is such a mythical place,
so many people are drawn to this region.
They see the divine, celestial patterns in the rock,
and many people believe that
the shapes of the rock could not have been formed by any group;
they were formed by divine beings.
When we were developing Targon,
we wanted to make sure that the geography of the region
was well represented and balanced between
harshness and livability.
So, visually when we first look at Targon,
our instinct might be to say
this is a faction all about wind and rocks and snow.
In actuality, the lower slopes actually contain a lot of greenery
that can support an ecosystem of animals and people.
Especially in the summer,
when the meltwater from ice at the higher elevations
trickles downward and forms these lush green oases.
So it might not be the most comfortable of lifestyles,
but it's definitely somewhere you can survive in.
Those who live at the base of the mountain are called the Rakkor.
They're an ancient people,
who long ago have felt the divine calling of Mount Targon
and have decided to settle on its lower slopes.
This is the tribe that would-be climbers assimilate into
in the process of acclimatizing to the area.
The Rakkor have evolved these specialized traditions,
and have this vast wealth of knowledge for survival in this very harsh climate.
So nearly everybody on the base of the mountain
is somebody who believes in the sun as this deity.
They're part of this religion known as the Solari.
The Solari believe that the sun is the source of all life
and that all other light sources are false.
There's also an elite warrior arm within the Solari
known as the Ra-Horak.
And Leona is their commander.
So there's another religion on Mount Targon as well
known as the Lunari
This is a much smaller group because they've been persecuted for generations
by the Solari.
And they actually have to hide in enclaves around the mountain.
So one example of a Lunari person is Diana
who was actually raised Solari,
but encountered these hidden, forbidden texts,
that talked about these moon worshippers.
So she was condemned as a heretic by the Solari,
and she's now trying to bring the Lunari back to power.
So at the top of Mount Targon is a portal to another realm
where there are these divine beings knows as Aspects.
These Aspects are celestial beings that sometimes will
imbue mortals with divine power, if they deem them worthy.
And these Aspects are embodiments of different concepts.
Like for example, Pantheon is the Aspect of War,
Diana is the Aspect of the Moon, Leona is the Aspect of the Sun.
And they - they gain power from these celestial entities as well.
So because being chosen by an Aspect
is such a dramatic and life shattering event,
many of the Rakorran elders actually encourage
members of the tribe to try and make the climb up the mountain.
It's an extremely rare occurence for anyone to make it
to the top of the mountain, much less be chosen by an Aspect.
So, something like this would occur perhaps about once in a century.
Most climbs start with a leaving ceremony,
when a climber crosses an ancient and sacred threshold,
and says goodbye to everyone and everything he's ever known.
So, once we leave the safety of the lower slopes,
the climber is going to face a lot of physical hazards,
like deadly ice and deep crevasses.
And they're going to face rapidly intensifying weather.
Some of the unique things that we might come across as a climber would be
a frozen lake perhaps that has been pulled up
vertically by the force of the mountain moving upwards over the centuries.
So, as the climber moves upward,
the terrain is going to become vastly more vertical,
and this is when the influence of magic becomes more prevalent.
The land forms are going to become more twisted and alien-like,
and the climber might start hallucinating
with unresolved fears, desires or memories coming back as visions
to haunt them.
And this is the Aspect's way of using the mountain
to test the climber's worthiness before they reach the top.
So you can see this play out in Taric's comic on Universe,
where he ascends the mountain and he encounters each of these different zones
on his ascent.
He also encounters both physical and spiritual tests
as he has these hallucinations that he has to fight against.
Every aspect of the climb is so dangerous,
that many people die on the mountain and their bodies are left there.
Because of the magical gravitational pull of the rock,
the bodies are actually subsumed into the rock formation
becoming these weird, grotesque shapes
that serve as warnings to future climbers.
Most people who ascend the peak
and are successful enough to survive that journey
actually see nothing at the top, they just see empty rock.
But in the event - in the very rare event that a celestial actually does
choose that person and deem them worthy to imbue with their power,
the mountain opens up at the top and there's this spectacular light show
that everybody on Mount Targon can see it -- from the bottom.
Because this event is so rare,
the fact that Pantheon, Leona, Diana and Taric have all become Aspects,
is a sign that the Targonians perceive a great threat to Runeterra.
Zoe is a little bit different from the other Aspects in that she doesn't ascend
the mountain and she doesn't go through a test of the mountain on the ascent,
she actually goes through a test at the base of the mountain.
She was chosen by this trickster god, this Aspect of Twilight.
And she was chosen because she was kind of this precocious child.
And the fact that the Aspect of Twilight is present on Runeterra now
means that great change is coming to the land.
We're going to be publishing these new images of Targon on Universe
and we're really excited to welcome our new Targonian champion Zoe.
If you'd like more stories about Leona or Diana,
their bios are also available on Universe.
Thank you guys for watching and please leave us your comments!
Thank you!