Icathia

Icathia is a lost city in the southwest part of Valoran.

Lore
Icathia itself is considered mythical by most, though those who believe it once existed were certain that the sands had long since devoured whatever remained. The believers generally agree that the lost city was located somewhere in the southern half of Valoran, though details beyond this are almost entirely unreliable hearsay. Many explorers have struck out to discover Icathia, but the only fact their findings universally corroborate is that just about everywhere south of the Great Barrier is malevolent, ominous, and spooky.

One of the only two living individuals to have been to Icathia and whose testimony may be considered anything more than mere delusion is. It is said that he found his way to the forgotten city following the scant breadcrumbs hidden in ancient texts. Within a decaying cyclopean city, Kassadin found secrets of the kind that he will never share - secrets that made him quake with fear at the visions of things to come that were thrust upon him. The power of the place threatened to consume him forever, but Kassadin took the only route available to him in order to survive - he let the Void inside him. Miraculously, he was able to overcome the alien urges that went with it, and he emerged as something more than human.

The other individual that's said to have been to Icathia is. He claims to have traveled there at the urging of an unknown entity that he alone, as a gifted seer, could sense. The main substance of his report of Icathia, besides his demented visions of the yawning chaos and his communion with the entity that beckoned him thence, consists of an alien geometry of a ruined city adorned with bizarre crumbling obelisks and the giant decaying idols of dark and horrific gods. As he looked upon them his eyes, seeing what others cannot, and what none should, were filled with the essence of the Void.

Trivia

 * Icathia is likely based off a lost Arabian city named "Iram of the pillars" which has been mentioned in the Quran, and later on became a significant subject in H. P. Lovecraft fictional works. As such, many void related elements in LoL's lore appears to draw inspiration from Lovecraft. Malzahar finding Icathia parallels with Lovecraftian character Abdul Al'hazred finding Iram.