Helia

Helia was the former capital of the Blessed Isles, now in ruins on the Shadow Isles.

Lore
Helia, the capital of the Blessed Isles, was once regarded the as a center of knowledge and learning, in part due to its large archive of Runeterras artifacts, both dangerous and benign. The city was located on the coast and encompassed several small islands connected through bridges going across sea canals. As a result, many parts of the city were flooded after the Ruination.

Other Related Champions

 * former Master, Tyrus, comes from Helia.

Birth of the Blessed Isles


Long before the Ruination, a chain of islands that would one day be called the Blessed Isles erupted from deep beneath the ocean. With its creation, the nature spirit was taking the form of a treant.

Maokai wandered the isles in search of life, until on a hilly isle covered in soft, rich soil, Maokai sensed boundless magic deep beneath the ground. He plunged his roots into a spring of magical, life-giving water and drank deeply. From this potent liquid, he grew hundreds of saplings and planted them across the islands. Soon the land was shawled with wonderous flora, all steeped in wondrous magic. Nature spirits were drawn to the lavish vegetation, and animals reveled in the fertile greenery.

When humans from an ancient culture expanding westward eventually came to the islands, they formed an enlightened and rich society of scholars devoted to studying the world’s mysteries. Though Maokai was wary of their presence, he saw their respect for the deep magic within the woods and occasionally revealed himself directly to those he trusted and blessed them with knowledge of the verdant isles, – even revealing the Waters of Life.

From Grief to Ruin


"Once, he was a noble king, until grief overcame his reason. In the end, it was not his blade that stole our lives." -

"The powers that govern life and death are not to be trifled with. The Shattered Crown is a king's reward for defying the shadows' embrace. I believe we are meant to ponder mortality through poetry and verse, not enslave it to our will." - Ionian storyteller

In an empire that none now recall, resided  a proud general and niece of the king. She lived by a strict code of honor, serving the throne with utmost loyalty. When the king enemies sent an assassin to slay him, Kalista saved his life.

But her act brouth the venom of the blade into the queen. The greatest priests and surgeons were summoned, but none could draw the poison from her body. The king dispatched Kalista in search of a cure. , who had recently become the commander of the Iron order though a gruesome betrayal known only to himself, taking Kalista place at her ausence.

Kalista traveled far, consulting learned scholars, hermits and mystics… but to no avail. Finally, she learned of the  Blessed Isles and set sail on one last voyage of hope.

The guardians of the capital city Helia saw the purity of Kalista’s intent, and parted the mists to allow her safe passage. She begged them to heal the queen, the masters of the city agreed. While the queen lived, she could be healed on the Waters of Life. Kalista was given a talisman that would allow her to return to Helia unaided, but was warned against sharing this knowledge with any other.

Mad with grief the king raged at those he believed were trying to separate him from his dying wife, dispatching Hecarim to quell dissent throughout the kingdom. The Iron Order burned towns and villages. Hundreds were put to the sword.

When the queen died, Hecarim chose to sour the king’s grief into hatred, seekingto lead the Iron Order into foreign lands. He would avenge her death, while earning yet more dark renown for himself.

But before they could ride out, Kalista returned. Due to his madness, the king locked himself in his tower with the queen’s festering corpse. When he learned of Kalista’s return, he demanded to know what she had found. She admitted that the cure she had found would be of no use. The king would not believe this, and condemned Kalista as a traitor to the crown.

Intrigued by what he had heard, Hecarim visited her cell, and they spoke of the pale mists that protected the islands from all invaders… and also of the inhabitants’ immense wealth, including the legendary Waters of Life.

Knowing only Kalista could lead them there, Hecarim eventually persuaded her to guide the king’s fleet through the veil that concealed the Blessed Isles arguing that if they traveled to the isles her uncle could finally find peace. Hesitantly, Kalista agreed.

And so the king set out with a flotilla of his fastest ships. However, when they were met by Helia masters, they were not allowed pass. Death, they insisted, was final. To cheat it would be to break the natural order of the world.

The king flew into a fevered rage, and commanded Kalista to slay the guardians. She refused, and called on Hecarim to stand with her… but instead he drove his spear through her armored back.

The Iron Order joined him, piercing Kalista’s body a dozen times more as she fell. A brutal melee erupted, with those devoted to Kalista fighting against Hecarim’s knights, but their numbers were too few. As she watched her warriors die, Kalista swore vengeance with her final breath. Hecarim then ordered his knights to ransack the city, looting its vaults of arcane treasures. Amid the chaos, a agreed to grant the king access to the Waters of Life—but not even this distracted Hecarim from the revelry of bloodshed, and so it was that the Ruination of the Blessed Isles would take him almost completely by surprise.

The King brought the corpse of his wife to the sacred well, but when the queen returned to life she was a horror of decayed meat and maggot-ridden flesh who begged to be allowed to die once more. Repulsed at what he had done to his beloved wife, the king enacted a spell to end their lives and bind them together for all eternity. His conjuration was successful, but unwittingly empowered by the many potent magical artifacts stored on the island, its power was increased a hundredfold.

A blastwave of magical force tore across Helia, shattering every last building and leaving the fragments suspended in searing un-light. In its wake came the Black Mist, a billowing hurricane that dragged every living creature it touched into its shrieking, roiling embrace. Hecarim tried to rally the Iron Order, hoping to make it back to their ships, but the mist claimed them one by one as they fled.

When Hecaren was taken by the mist, he and his mighty steed were fused into a monstrous, spectral abomination that reflected the darkness in Hecarim’s heart—a brazen creature of fury and spite, at one with the Black Mist and yet utterly enslaved by it.

The Undead Rebirth
The cataclysmic event had reached the order's citadel and turned everyone inside into wretched undead. While others screamed in agony, reveled in the ruin. He rose from this cataclysm as a spectral abomination, but unlike many who have passed into the shadow world, Thresh did not lose his identity. Rather, his penchant for cruel torture and ability to discern weakness was only heightened. He relished the chance to continue his cruelty without fear of reprisal, unfettered by the limits of mortality. As a wraith, Thresh could torment the living and the dead endlessly, delighting in their despair before claiming their soul for an eternity of suffering.

Even Kalista herself was not spared from undeath. When next Kalista opened her eyes, they were filled with the dark power of unnatural magic. She had no idea what had transpired and tried to cling to those fragmented memories of Hecarim’s monstrous betrayal, they have slowly faded in all the centuries since, and all that now remains is a thirst for revenge burning in Kalista’s ruined chest. She has become a specter, a figure of macabre folklore, often invoked by those who have suffered similar treacheries.

These wretched spirits are subsumed into hers, to pay the ultimate price—becoming one with the Spear of Vengeance.

Twisted Treant
When the ruination struck, Maokai plunged his roots deep into the ground and drank of the Waters of Life. Before the cursed water reached him, Maokai withdrew his roots. He howled in rage as the sacred reservoir he had entrusted to men was fully corrupted – the spiraling coils churning underwater until nothing pure remained.

Moments later, Maokai watched in helpless agony as all he knew twisted into wretched shades. His fury grew; the great beauty he had cultivated from tiny saplings fell to ruin in an instant at the careless hand of man.

The Black Mist coiled around Maokai. His body shuddered and contorted into a mass of gnarled roots and tangled branches as the mist leached life from him. But Maokai’s heartwood was saturated with the precious waters of life, saving him from the terrible fate of undeath.

Maokai realized the force of his blows could shatter the cursed spirit to dust. He flew at the breathless shapes in a frenzy, but hundreds more overwhelmed him, and eventually he was forced to retreat.

Now Maokai fights with furious vengeance against the Fallen. Some days, Maokai subdues the mist and its deathless spirits, breaking their hold on a grove of trees or a small thicket. Though new life has not bloomed in such cursed soil for an age, Maokai strives to carve havens, however temporary, free from regret and decay.

He was once tempted to try and escape the nightmare of the isles. But he knew he couldnt left the Isles, for as long as Maokai continues to fight, hope remains, for steeped within his heartwood are the uncorrupted waters of life, the last remaining chance of restoring the isles. If the land returns to its joyous state, Maokai, too, will shed his twisted form. The nature spirit brought life to these isles long ago, and he refuses to rest until the isles bloom once more.

Shepherd of Lost Souls
Since he was a small child, Yorick was always able to commune with spirits and ghosts. This ability would give him a better understanding and respect for life after death.

Tales of Yorick's visions soon spread beyond his village, and drew the attention of a small order of monks who dwelled at the heart of the Blessed Isles. Its envoys traveled to Yorick's island, believing he could become an asset to their faith.

When the Ruination ran across the Blessed Isles, Yorick watched as his order was swallowed whole by the destructive magic of the Black Mist that was consuming the land. His brothers - the monks he had grown up with - were compelled, as if under control of an unknown being, to remove the holy vials around their necks and leave themselves to the mercy of the Mist, which killed and consumed them where they stood. And though the called to him and commanded he do the same, he refused - pouring every last bit of his self-restraint in keeping himself alive as death danced around him.

The Mist clung to him, and when he awoke after the cataclysm had resided, Yorick discovered the Blessed Isles as a wasteland of decay, despair and rot. He searched for survivals as the Mist held on to him, though the holy water in the vial around his neck kept it from devouring him. Realizing he was the only survivor of the destruction, Yorick felt horror draw upon him. He tried to communicate with the spirits around him, rising from the bodies of the dead, and discovered he had over them. Though nothing but the hollow husks of beings he once called family and friends, Yorick made his resolve - to defeat the Black Mist, he would use it to his own whim, and destroy the curse with its own power.

Locations

 * Blessed Isles Bridge: This Bridge was once an impressive geometrically designed civilian bridge going across the small sea canal between Blessed Isles islands. It was destroyed after the Ruination.
 * Library Keep: Previously an an area where Helia's Library was located, after the Ruination is a mount of destroyed landscape with uncontrolled arcane energy.
 * Helia's Library: Helia's Library was once the largest and most significant libraries on Runeterra. The Library was part of a larger research area housing all the dangerous artifacts of the world. From Runic scriptures to magical tomes, its scrives
 * Vaults of Arcana: Previously a group of buildings housing one of the most dangerous artifacts on Runeterra, after the Ruination it became a confluence of dark magic.
 * Grand Gallery of Ancient Artifacts: The Grand Gallery of Ancient Artifacts was once one the most important archival buildings on the Shadow Isles. After the Ruination it ended up becoming a massive crater or uncontrolled arcane energy.
 * Celestial Vault: One of many Vaults located previously on The Blessed Isles. These vaults can only be unlocked by the Revelations of the Lunatropic Demisphere.
 * Hall of Conjunction: The Hall of Conjunction, through which all seekers must pass. It was one of the greatest repositories of the Blessed Isles, they were architectural wonders, containing innumerable secrets and sometimes dangerous artifacts.
 * Radiance of Alignments: The Radiance of Alignment, Located in The Hall of Conjuction, is a large vault entrance to the Athenaeum of Light. The knowledge within these hidden vaults would only reveal itself at specific phases of moon, angles of the sun, or alignments of starlight. The Radiance of Alignments begins the journey to enlightenment.
 * Athenaeum of Light: A place within the Hall of Conjunction, The Litanies of the Sentinels are engraved on the walls and floor of the great Athenaeum.

Fallen
Souls claimed by the Black Mist are known to some as the Fallen. While usually corporeal, they can be harmed with the right tool, such as magic, silver, or even sunlight.

Nightbloom
Nightbloom is a rare flame-red petaled flower native to the. It is virtually extinct except for a few who bushes that are cared for in garden in his mansion in Noxus. On the Blessed Isles they blossomed on the evening of the summer solstice. By morning the flowers wilted, leaving only blackened petals, not to be seen again until the following year. But for one night, they illuminated the forest with blazing crimson. If the flowers petals are plucked the remaining petals immediately curl inwards, the stem bending away as if it can express fear.

Treants
Treants are are a fusion of nature spirits (or any sapient species) and plantlife. One such species was the Omikayalan God-Willow, which essence was later transferred to the Freljordian warrior. Other example is, a nature spirit fused with the plantlife and natural magicks of the Blessed Isles.

Culture
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Architecture
The realm now known as the Shadow Isles was once replete with gardens, libraries, universities, and houses of learning. The architecture of the Blessed Isles was laden with hidden meanings and symbolism. Geometric designs, similar to those found in Piltover, were the main architectural movement on the Isles. However the Isles inhabitants incorporated other ornate elements into their constructions. With large statues, ornate buildings, The Blessed Isles was also a confluence of different creative ideas and engineering from across Runeterra. Materials such as marble, gold, plaster, granite, limestone, and clay were used in construction of its buildings. Cities were designed to keep their inhabitants safe. Because the Isles were surrounded by white mist that led unguided travelers astray, there was no need for an army. The natural magic of the Blessed Isles made its landscape incredibly fertile.
 * Vaults: The greatest repositories of the Blessed Isles were architectural wonders, containing innumerable secrets and sometimes dangerous artifacts. The vaults themselves were the most secured areas of the Isles, being protected on top of large complexly built gateways only unlockable through certain means and times of the year. After the Ruination, many vaults were destroyed due to the arcane shockwave that destroyed much of the isles constructions.

Clothing
The people of the Blessed Isles were one of the most diverse groups of people of Runeterra during the height of the Isles existence. A myriad of of different Runeterran cultures and customs shaped the islands clothing designs as well as it inspiring others later on. Just like the Isles architecture, geometric designs were a popular element in clothing designs. Regular inhabitants would ware more subdued colors and designs while the isles scholars and leaders would have far more outlandish designs. After the ruination, what remains of now undead inhabitants wear gross approximations of what they once did.

Ixtal
Ixtali culture is part of a older great westward diaspora that gave the rise of civilizations such as the magnificent Helia of the Blessed Isles. No further substantial contact between each nations was re-established after the Ruination of the Isles.

Media
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 * Related Music