When the upcoming League of Legends champion Kayn was announced, players were thrilled to have another Darkin champ hitting the Rift. The only Darkin champion that we’ve had up until Kayn is Aatrox, a champion who hasn’t been in a great spot in quite awhile, but some of Kayn’s voice interactions with other champions hint that there are more Darkin champions to come, and there might even be some additional Darkin champs currently in the game.
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Since Aatrox was released back in 2013, speculation from players has run wild trying to figure out who the other Darkin champs were. It was stated during Aatrox’s release that he was one of five Darkin entities, so that means that there’s now three unaccounted for. There were a couple of reasonable guesses, one of which was that Varus was actually a Darkin despite being released in 2012 before Aatrox.
That doesn’t mean that his lore can’t be revisited though, as Varus certainly fits the bill for what a Darkin champ might look like. His lore could easily be tweaked to add in some clear-cut Darkin components that would make him the third Darkin with only two more to go.
Community speculation has run wild again since the reveal of Kayn, and a lot of it can be challenging to sift through if you’re not caught up on your League lore. You can go ahead and fully watch the above video, or fast-forward to around the 1:30 and 7:33 points to see the most interesting voice lines. If the Darkin lore connection is still a bit fuzzy, we’ve broken down some of the basics surrounding the Darkin and why it’s very likely that Varus is one of them as well.
The Darkin Are The Weapons, Not The People
While many might confuse Aatrox’s human form as being the Darkin — which isn’t entirely wrong, because it technically is at this point — the Darkin beings are actually found inside the weapons themselves. That’s why Aatrox is also officially referred to as “The Darkin Blade.”
These Darkin are “sentient weapons,” as described in League lore, weapons that offer great power but also come at a tremendous price. The wielder of the weapon can become overwhelmed by the weapon itself and can be consumed by the entity. You can see the end result of this process in the champion Aatrox. Aatrox is the name of the sword the champion carries, a weapon that fully engulfed its wielder, thus leading to the physical, humanoid Aatrox that we (rarely) see on the Rift.
Further proof of this transformation process can be seen in Kayn’s design where he’s got two possible outcomes: Either he controls his weapon, or the weapon controls him.
The Relationship Between Kayn And Rhaast
Kayn’s reveal marks the first time that we’ve seen both the human wielder and the Darkin weapon named apart from each other. Kayn is a human assassin from Ionia training under Zed as a member as the Order of the Shadow, another relationship that can be seen in the previous interactions video. His weapon, Rhaast, is a sentient Darkin scythe that speaks up occasionally in-game, much more so if you complete the transformation to go full Darkin.
Because Kayn still wields his weapon and fights against its corruption, Kayn is likely a solid indicator of the situation that whoever used The Darkin Blade, Aatrox, initially. Similar to Kayn, they likely had two possible outcomes, the result of which was the humanoid form of Aatrox. Players have the option to choose either side when playing as Kayn with trade-offs to each evolved form.
It’s also worth noting that the names of the current sentient weapons, Aatrox and Rhaast, show some similarities. They both have the double “a,” and names of League’s champions can sometimes be similar depending on their origins; think of the Void champs, such as Kha’Zix, Rek’Sai, Kog’Maw, and Vel’Koz. Varus doesn’t have that double “a” in his name, but that’s likely because his bow hasn’t been named yet.
Varus Wields A Darkin Weapon
Varus, another Ionian champ, was charged in his lore with protecting an Ionian temple that housed an “ancient pit of corruption.” When Noxian forces attacked his nearby town, Varus chose to defend the temple instead. After the town was destroyed, he dipped into the vile power in the temple to assist him in his quest to avenge his fellow Ionians by pursuing all of the Noxians involved in the attack.
The archer’s lore is a bit less in-depth than some of the newer champions’ stories and doesn’t offer quite as many connections to other champs, but lore can and has recently been updated for many champs, so it makes sense that Varus could have his altered a bit to confirm that he does indeed wield a Darkin weapon that was housed in the temple.
As far as Varus’ physical appearance goes, he definitely shows signs of what could be Darkin-related corruption. The purple and black blemishes creeping up his arms and legs match the appearance of his bow, so it’s pretty safe to say the supposed Darkin contained in the weapon is asserting its influence on Varus. Varus could be the end result of winning his battle with the Darkin, or he could be similar to Kayn’s neutral stage before he evolves.
During Kayn’s voice interactions, taunting an ally Varus will result in Rhaast saying “We find Aatrox, and it’s a party of murder. A murder party.” Goofy quote aside, he doesn’t specifically name Varus, so this is some strong evidence that he’s perhaps talking to Varus’ unnamed weapon instead.
Who Are The Remaining Darkin?
So if Kayn/Rhaast, Aatrox, and perhaps Varus are the three Darkin champs we know of currently, who are the remaining two? Theories from the beginning have indicated that there might already be more Darkin champs in the game, some of the most-discussed suspects being Jax and Brand.
Jax certainly doesn’t look humanlike — he’s got three fingers after all — so there could be something else going on there, but it seems a bit underwhelming to have a Darkin possessing a lamppost. Brand also touched a pillar of fire in his lore and became corrupted, but without an obvious weapon, he doesn’t really fit the mold. Neither of these champs have specific voice lines from Kayn/Rhaast either.
Some have also speculated that the Darkin model the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, especially with Rhaast referring to himself as “Death” and Aatrox as “War,” leaving two more horsemen and their leader, the final Apocalypse Darkin, remaining.
Riot Games’ Meddler said that the League team is enjoying seeing all of these theories, and some of them are actually very close to being correct.
“Some theories that are pretty out there, or speculative, and some ideas that are pretty accurate,” Meddler said about the speculation. “Makes for fun reading.”
