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Rell The Second Grave
Rell
Rell (Universe)Rell (Universe)
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Rell (Trivia)Rell (Trivia)

The product of brutal experimentation at the hands of the Solid Rose Clasic Faction Colors Black Rose, Rell Rell is a defiant, living weapon determined to topple Noxus Crest icon Noxus. Her childhood was one of misery and horror, enduring unspeakable procedures to perfect and weaponize her magical control over metal... until she made a violent escape, killing many of her captors in the process. Now branded as a criminal, Rell attacks Noxian soldiers on sight as she searches for survivors of her old “academy”, defending the meek while delivering merciless death to her former instructors.


RellSquare"Forge your heart into something strong. Unbreakable."  Rell
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Background[]

Early Life[]

Born in Noxus Crest icon Noxus, Rell's father was a military footsoldier while her mother was an heir to a now fallen noble house, causing Rell's childhood to lack the usual gilded upbringing that other noble children have in Noxus. At a young age, Rell's innate magic sparked; an ability called ferromancy that allows her to manipulate metal. Because of the uniqueness and rarity of this power, Rell's parents saw an opportunity to regain influence within the Noxian nobility and attempted to apprentice Rell with many powerful mages in hopes of getting Rell promoted as a magical elite within the Noxian military. Though the apprenticeships failed, the sorceress LeBlanc LeBlanc took notice of the young girl's magic abilities and visited her parents, striking a deal with them to enroll Rell within an academy run by the Solid Rose Clasic Faction Colors Black Rose.

Black Rose Academy[]

Rell was enrolled into the Roseguard Academy[1], a boarding school for mages, hidden far away from the Noxian capital. Rell became the star pupil of her school and was visited by her parents on rare occasions, who expressed how proud they were of her. At the age of eight, Rell was forced into her first sparring match against one of her classmates, defeating him easily. While her sparring opponent was never seen again, the academy's staff painfully grafted a magical sigil onto Rell's skin, amplifying her magic. Rell trained within the academy for years and honed her skill in using her magic with martial combat, growing powerful with every sparring match she won and every sigil applied to Rell's skin. Overtime, most of the other students came to fear their turn to fight against her, with some even growing to hate her. One particular student, a boy named Gabriel who had the power to shape dirt into tiny fauna, actually befriended Rell and often comforted her as she recovered from the academy's abuse. Unfortunately, he would be instructed to combat against Rell next, forcing her to fight her only friend as he disappeared soon after, fueling her rage against the academy.[2]

After a particularly barbaric duel on her sixteenth birthday, Rell became up with her mysteriously brutal training. She tore through the academy's guards and faculty to venture into a forbidden wing of the school, discovering the academy's horrifying truth-that her classmates had been Nullified. The students, now called Null, were emotionless, mindless husks that had their magic forcibly extracted from their bodies and turned into the same magic sigils that branded Rell's body. Rell then confronted the academy's headmistress only to discover that it was her own mother, who ensured that everything she did was for Rell's own sake.

In a fit of rage, Rell unleashed her full power and destroyed the school, ripping the building apart and using the metal to form her impenetrable suit of black armor. Bursting through the door with a lance and steed she constructed with her powers, she killed most of the staff and freed as many classmates as possible.

Modern History[]

Life as a Fugitive[]

Rell Teaser 01

A Noxian wanted poster calling for Rell's capture.

Many classmates, including the Null children, fled after Rell's violent escape. In a bid to conceal the horrific acts that occurred within the academy, the Black Rose swiftly embarked on a mission to recapture the Null and eliminate any trace of the institution. Moreover, their utmost priority was the retrieval of their most valuable asset—Rell herself—who the Black Rose named a notorious fugitive and a threat to the empire. Plastered across Noxus, an array of wanted posters depicted Rell as a formidable criminal, with most Noxian soldiers seeing any mission to apprehend her as a death sentence. Promising substantial rewards to those capable of apprehending her, the posters advised individuals to deliver her to the nearest empire building marked with a signature Black Rose.[3]

Rell has emerged as a self-proclaimed defender of the meek and a violent insurgent, leading a relentless rebellion against both the Black Rose and the Noxian government. Because of the empire's willful disregard of the horrors that happened within the academy, she rides valiantly through the streets of Noxus atop her formidable iron steed and consumed with hatred against the entire nation. Her sole focus now is to dismantle the very foundations upon which Noxus stands and rescuing any survivors of the academy, most notably the Null.

Recent events[]

A warband in the outskirts of Noxus, lead by a former instructor of the academy named Instructor Lukas, managed to locate Rell and attempted to detain her. A minotaur soldier knocked Rell unconscious by tossing a boulder at her, but she woke up soon after and formed her metal steed from raw ore out of the ground. Rell easily killed the entire warband in a whirlwind of metallic shards and grabbed Lukas, who revealed that Gabriel, Rell's Nullified friend from the academy, was located at the nearby camp. Rell instantly crushed him to death and rode towards the camp to free Gabriel.

Rell The Second Grave

Rell standing above Gabriel's gravestone, which she decorated with crude metal statues of animals in his honor.

Unfortunately, once at the hidden camp, Rell found Gabriel's malnourished corpse, as the Black Rose's warbands usually neglect the Null once they're detained. Pained by the discovery, Rell buried his body and created a gravestone out of metal, using her powers to decorate it with crude animal statues in his honor.[2]

At some point, a compound near the coastal settlement of Qualthala in the southern jungles managed to successfully detain Rell and at least one Null. Fortunately, Rell managed to escape by tearing her cell and the compound apart, leaving a mess of metallic shards and a hole leading into the jungles, presumably escaping alongside whatever Null was imprisoned there as well.[4]

Appearance[]

Rell is a dark-skinned teenage girl with yellow eyes and bright blonde hair with some highlights of yellow. She typically wears a light suit of armor with leather pads on the shoulders, hips and knees. Her left hand has a torn arm sleeve with leather padding, while her right arm is sleeveless and covered in pieces of metal branding her with magical sigils. She wields her metal lance in her right hand and makes it glow a deep orange-yellow whenever she heats it up. Her mount is a metal construct shaped into the form of a horse thanks to her ferromancy magic.

When Rell leaps off of her mount, she reshapes it into an even heavier set of metal armor that goes over her current outfit. Her heavy metal armor has a massive chest plate, knee guards, pieces of metal floating at the sides of her legs and a huge, spiked shoulder guard on her left shoulder.

Personality[]

Rell is impulsive, restless and aggressive. Her trauma at the Black Rose's academy, combined with her young age, has made her vengeful and misanthropic, having a distrustful attitude towards most people and feeling no hesitation to kill anyone that threatens her or whoever she's protecting. She feels pure hatred for the Black Rose and all of Noxus, blaming them for tall the atrocities she witnessed in the academy and expressing her hatred for everything about her nation, ranging from the politics to the people and even to the very land itself. In spite of this, she's very passionate about rescuing and protecting any of her surviving classmates from the academy, most notably the Null whom she feels deep guilt over. Though Rell struggles with connecting and socializing with most people due to her temper and distrust, she's shown to be capable of romantic feelings and has been easily flustered by both males and females she's attracted to.

Abilities[]

  • Magical Physiology: Rell was born with natural magic abilities and has trained them since childhood with the most talented instructors in the Black Rose academy. Her abilities could eventually grow more as she expands her knowledge of magic and hones her skills in it.
    • Sigil Magic: Due to the experimentations of the Black Rose within the academy, Rell has been branded with sigils made of magical energy extracted from her own classmates. These sigils, once branded on Rell's skin, enhance her magic even further and instantly give her further strength and control of her abilities.
    • Ferromancy: Ferromancy: Rell possesses the ability to manipulate metal, an incredibly strong power rarely seen in Runeterra. Having been trained by the Black Rose since childhood, she is capable of ripping ore straight from the ground, superheating metal, twisting it into different shapes and even crushing opponents with their own armor. She has shown capability of even tearing down entire buildings with her powers, as she did with the academy once she escaped.
      • Metal Mount and Armor: Metal Mount and Armor: Rell has such control over her ability that she is capable of manipulating metal into the shape of her signature steed that she rides across Noxus, stomping on and crushing anyone in her way. Along with that, she can use this same arrangement of metal pieces to form an impenetrable suit of black armor around herself.
  • Lance Proficiency: Lance Proficiency: Rell is skilled in the use of her blunt lance which she forms out of her metal magic. In close combat she almost exclusively uses her lance, which she is capable of superheating in order to strike with even more force.
  • Combat Mastery: Thanks to years of training within the academy and many brutal sparring matches against her classmates, Rell is incredibly tough and resilient in combat. By utilizing her magical abilities, she is capable of striking with immense force and running down opponents easily.

Relations[]

Solid Rose Clasic Faction Colors Black Rose[]

The Black Rose were the organization that initially took Rell in to the Roseguard Academy under the guise of training her to be an elite in Noxus's army. However, Rell eventually realized the horrific truth of their experiments on her and the other classmates in the academy, such as their experimentation with sigil magic that turned most of Rell's classmates into the Null.

Rell has a deep hatred towards the Black Rose, and all of Noxus for that matter, because of what they did to her and her classmates within the academy. Now, as she rides across Noxus, she hunts down any remaining faculty that survived her escape and is set on brutally killing any of the Black Rose she manages to find. In response, the Black Rose have made many efforts to try and detain Rell, sending all manners of bounty hunters bounty hunters to capture her for their plans in stopping the menacing Mordekaiser Mordekaiser.

LeBlanc LeBlanc[]

LeBlanc is the one who initially took notice to Rell's particular mastery with metal magic. After visiting Rell's parents, she offered a deal with them to take Rell into the academy and train her to be the Black Rose's living weapon, promising to make Rell an elite in the Noxian army and granting their noble house more political power in Noxus.

Though she hasn't personally encountered Rell since her escape, she is most likely responsible for the many efforts to detain her.

Parents[]

Rell's father was a Noxian footsoldier while her mother was the heiress to a noble house that has since fallen from grace. Though technically nobles, Rell's family didn't enjoy the lavish lives that other members of the Noxian nobility would have due to their lowered political power, causing Rell to often be frustrated. Once she showed her magical talent in ferromancy, Rell's parents instantly saw an opportunity to return their noble house to greatness and convinced Rell to try and hone her magical abilities and eventually become an elite within the Noxian army. Though most of their apprenticeships failed, LeBlanc approached the couple and offered a deal to take her under the Black Rose academy, turning Rell into a living super weapon and in exchange granting their noble house more power. While Rell trained in the academy, her parents would seldom visit her but would always express how proud they were of their daughter despite the brutal treatment Rell faced while training in the academy.

Once Rell escaped on her sixteenth birthday, she discovered that the horrific experiments with the Null and sigil magic had been the orders of her own mother, who had been the headmistress of the academy this entire time. Now, Rell has a vicious hatred for her parents, but most particularly her mother, as she often mocks her mother's saying-"excellence is measured in sacrifice."

Null[]

All the Null are the product of the Black Rose's experiments with sigil magic, with each of them being a former classmate of Rell's that she was forced to fight. Once defeated, these kids would have their magic forcefully extracted from their bodies and placed into a sigil, branded into Rell's skin.

Because of the guilt she feels for the experiments and because she personally knew these Null kids in the past, Rell is dedicated to finding and freeing these Null before the Black Rose can detain and hide them away. One particular Null named Gabriel was a dear friend of Rell, but she unfortunately found him dead in an encampment on her quest to find and save him.

Samira Samira[]

Rell and Samira have not met, but Samira is very aware of her due to the fact that she has gone on many missions to locate and detain Rell under the orders of her boss Captain Indari, who is secretly working alongside LeBlanc.

Most recently, Samira was sent on a mission to retrieve Rell from containment in a compound near Qualthala, but had arrived too late as Rell already escaped alongside the Null. Despite this, Samira is incredibly intrigued by Rell, unaware of the truth behind Rell's origins.

Mordekaiser Mordekaiser[]

Rell is completely unaware of Mordekaiser and has never met him, but her training with the Black Rose is the product of their plans to turn her into the perfect 'living weapon' to use against Mordekaiser as a contingency once he returns to the physical realm. This is most likely due to her particularly rare and powerful ability to manipulate metal, which is what Mordekaiser's physical, armored body is mostly made of.

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Biography

Starring Champion

Rell The Iron Maiden
EditImageReference

Noxus Crest icon

Video

The Iron Maiden (Video)

An armored metalmancer fights back against those who betrayed her.

Rell The Second Grave
EditImageReference

Noxus Crest icon

Short Story

The Second Grave

By Jared Rosen

Rell thought about the Null often.

Mentioned Champion

Samira Daredevil Impulse
EditImageReference

Noxus Crest icon

Short Story

Daredevil Impulse

By Michael Luo

The weapons shop looked grimy—just the way Samira liked it.

Alternate Universes

Star Guardian 2022 Promo 01
EditImageReference

Runeterra Crest icon

Game

Another Sky

By Jared Rosen, Taylor Dinwiddie, Ty Sheedlo

As a new generation of Star Guardians prepares to fight back the forces of chaos, rising star Akali finds herself wracked with doubt. Does she have what it takes to be a Star Guardian? Or will the darkness she senses inside spell doom for her and her friends?

Battle Queen Crests
EditImageReference

Runeterra Crest icon

Short Story

Battle Queen Crests

By Cat Manning, Jared Rosen

To be a Battle Queen is to see with open eyes. As you complete Keystone Crest Missions, you’ll be rewarded with a story of nobility.

Star Guardian Everything Goes On
EditImageReference

Runeterra Crest icon

Music Video

Everything Goes On

By Porter Robinson

Together with some familiar faces, a new generation of Star Guardians ascend to battle a looming threat. But even when confronted with eternal darkness, their hope burns brighter than fear.

Akali StarGuardian Shadow of a Doubt
EditImageReference

Runeterra Crest icon

Video

Shadow of a Doubt

Star Guardians have a brilliant light, but some stagger in the darkness. Can Akali escape her own nightmares?

Trivia[]

  • Rell was first mentioned in Samira's Samira's story, Daredevil Impulse, prior to her reveal.
  • Rell is 16 years old as mentioned in her biography (as of 996 AN).
  • Rell is implied by her voice lines and multiple Rioters to be bisexual.
  • The academy that Rell went to is unknown, but according to the flavor of the card LoR Non-Champion Non-Spell Indicator1 Ravenbloom Conservatory, it might be called Roseguard Academy.
  • As revealed in her lore live Q&A:
    • Rell's parents come from very different parts of Runeterra, making her biracial.
      • Rell is half black.[5]
    • Rell shapes her mount as a horse instead of a basilisk as a form of rebellion against Noxus Crest icon Noxus' military system.
      • Rell's horse does not have a name. However, in the Star Guardian universe, Rell's horse is named "Sebastien". It is up to interpretation as to whether Rell's horse is named as such in other universes.
    • Her armor is partly extracted from the ground, partly from other people's gear, so it sometimes has steel, pig iron, and various other alloys depending on what's available.
    • Rell's power is largely not electromagnetic based. At the moment, it's unlikely that she is capable of pulling metal from inside others' bodies.
    • Rell likely does not have knowledge of Mordekaiser Mordekaiser. Her connection to the Iron Revenant was kept secret during production to enforce this speculation.
      • Currently Morderkaiser has not given attention to Rell yet either.
    • Rell could defeat Mordekaiser's Mordekaiser's physical metal form, since he's not aware of her or her power, but he could just retreat to the death realm to reform, likely without a metal armor.
    • While there is no concrete answer on whether Rell's power works on Demacia Crest icon Demacian steel, it can be inferred that should a Demacian group of soldiers try to fight Rell, they will fail miserably and swiftly.

Change log[]

Character blurb
23 Nov 2020 (during V10.24) Added.

References[]

See also[]

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