Viego/Trivia

 Gameplay

 Collection

 Audio

 Patch history

 Past versions

General

• Viego's official visuals were first revealed in the Ruined King announcement trailer, however the character existed in the lore since Hecarim's and Kalista's biography updates in 2014.
• His champion theme features a segment of the song Blade of the Ruined King by  Pentakill.
• Viego is possibly inspired Spanish viejo (lit. "old") and Diego, considering that his kingdom being inspired by Spain and Camelot.
  • There are also the Spanish surname Viego and parish Viego in northern Spain.
  • Isolde (~ Iseult) referrences Iseult of Ireland from the chivalric romance Tristan and Iseult
    • Possibly from Proto-Celtic *Adsiltia "she who is gazed upon" or Germanic Ishild or Ethylda
• The first three new champions following Viego's release were directly tied to his return and continued his story with each release.

Development

• Viego is voiced by Sean Teale.
• Viego's placeholder model in development was a recolored Original Jarvan IV.
• Viego's codename in development was Ruined King.
• At some point during development, the following icons were used as placeholders:
  • Senna's Mist Wraith icon for his in-game icon
  • Senna's Absolution icon for his Passive
  • The original Blade of the Ruined King icon for his Q
  • Pyke's Bone Skewer icon for his W
  • Morgana's Dark Binding icon for his E
  • Fiora's Lunge icon for his R
• The gameplay hook for Viego was to create a champion who could possess other champions.
• Viego is manaless because Riot felt it would be difficult to keep track of mana between transforms.
• Several scrapped Viego spells include:
  • An ability that allowed him to possess allies and move them around the map.
  • An ability that created pools of black mist.
  • An ability that allowed him pass through walls with black mist.
  • A passive where he would start the game with the item Blade of the Ruined King on his inventory. The item would have its old slow passive, and Viego would have to collect souls to make it stronger. This would also change his sword visually, starting as a small dagger that eventually would turn into his current sword.
• Viego has a younger visual design because a young, vain king would likely be someone to damn the world in hopes of bringing back their lost love as well as to subvert the trope that kings are old and wise.
• Viego's visuals were inspired by goth rock and heavy metal singers.

Lore

Original Viego

• Viego was in his 20s during the first Ruination.
• Viego's country, Camavor, was located east of the known map of Runeterra.
  • Viego's country is based on a combination of early modern period Spain and Camelot, his name was chosen to reflect this origin.
  • The country was originally hinted in Viego's voice lines to be called "Camaveia", however that voiceline was cut due to "cama véia" meaning "old bed" in Brazilian Portuguese. The new official name of the kingdom was later revealed in his champion insight.
• Viego is the "Ruined King" because he was emotionally ruined when Isolde was killed, which caused him to trigger the Ruination.
• The black mist corrupts people and makes them look altered and monstrous. Viego controls the black mist and not vice versa, so he hasn't been corrupted by it at all and become monstrous like other Shadow Isles beings.
• As mentioned in the Riot Report of February 2021:
  • After being stabbed by Isolde, Viego actually died and fell into the same state as a normal person would, not knowing all the details that happened shortly before. During that state, he still grasped the general ideas (though not in details) of the events that happened.
  • Viego's form is distorted by his delusion and personality.
  • Viego's magic is something he doesn't even fully understand, it is deeply tied to Helia and the Black Mist. The Black Mist is parasitic in nature and rips life, bringing souls to an undead state.
  • The Blade of the Ruined King is a royal weapon passed down from kings to kings. When a new king incarnated, it would absorb part of their soul in order to revive them should they get fatal injuries in battles. When Isolde stabbed Viego in the heart, the magic of the blade tried to revive him at the same time with the magic of the blessed water, but due to the soul part inside the blade itself, it could not do it. The cycle of the healing magic caused a feedback loop that became overloaded and finally caused the Ruination.
    • The version of the blade that appears in the game is its physical form after being affected by the Ruination, while the blade Viego uses is more of a soul life version as he remembers it.

Quotes

Original Viego

• ▶️  File:"Why, Isolde? Why do you hide your face from me?" OriginalCircle.png is inspired by Psalms 44:23, "Awake, O lord, woulds’t thou reject us forever? Why do you hide your face and forget us?".

Skins

Original Viego

• When recalling, Viego starts wearing full body armor and a helmet.
• The triangle in Viego's chest is where Isolde stabbed him with his own sword unleashing the Ruination.
• The Blade of the Ruined King is based off the Zweihänder, a German long sword.

Lunar Beast Viego
Chromas: Catseye, Obsidian, Rose Quartz, Ruby, Tanzanite, Turquoise, Vitality

• This skin shares the Lunar Beast theme with:
  • Lunar Beast Alistar
  • Lunar Beast Annie
  • Lunar Beast Aphelios
  • Lunar Beast Darius
  • Lunar Beast Fiora
  • Lunar Beast Jarvan IV
  • Prestige Lunar Beast Fiora

Relations

• Viego's older brother was the previous king of Camavor and the father of Kalista, making her his niece. Viego became the king after his brother died in battle.
• Viego's wife is a seamstress named Isolde.
  • Viego was selfish, self-centered, young, immature, and had a lot of power. So when he saw someone as beautiful as Isolde, he had to have her. She accepted because she was a commoner from a conquered country.
  • It is uncertain if Viego truly loved Isolde or loved that she was his because he was raised to take anything he desired. Regardless, he doted and focused on her and ignored his duties as king.
  • Viego’s love for Isolde is characterized by utter obsession to the exclusion of everything else, and driven by a lack of understanding of any motivations other than his own.
  • Isolde stabbed Viego with his own blade after he resurrected her. The magic of the waters and the ancient sword caused Ruination which turned the Blessed Isles into the Shadow Isles.
• Kalista is Viego's niece and was his most trusted general in life.
  • Despite being her uncle, Kalista and Viego were around the same age and friends for a long time since he was largely ignored in favor of Kalista's father.
  • When her father died and Viego became king, his negative traits were worsened and they began to drift apart, however she was still loyal to him.
  • Kalista managed to protect Viego from an assassin, but resulted in Isolde getting poisoned instead. She would set sail in order to find a cure, but found it too late and was imprisoned as a traitor for her failure.
  • She was eventually convinced by Hecarim to lead Viego and their army to the Blessed Isles for the Waters of Life. When the masters of the island refused to let them use the water, Viego ordered her to kill anyone who opposed them. Kalista refused and was stabbed by Hecarim before her forces clashed with the Iron Order.
• Hecarim was the leader of the Iron Order, a brotherhood of knights which vowed to protect the king's lands.
  • Under Viego, Hecarim and the Iron Order acted as the king's enforcers and quelled growing dissent after Viego began neglecting his duties.
  • Hecarim and his knights accompanied Viego to the Blessed Isles. They held off Kalista's forces and pillaged the city while Viego attempted to heal Isolde.
• Gwen was created by Isolde and she associates him with the pain of Isolde being taken away from her.
  • She opposes Viego because of the pain he has caused in his search for Isolde.
• Thresh led Viego to the Waters of Life where he resurrected Isolde.
• Although Viego calls Vladimir his uncle in game, they are only distantly related due to both descending from the royalty of Camavor.
  • At some point after being taken by his Darkin master, Vladimir started sending customary, yearly letters to his original kingdom. After Isolde was poisoned, a grief stricken Viego refused to respond, not knowing Vladimir had the power that could have saved her.
• Senna was cursed due to her contact with Isolde, leading to her being relentlessly hunted by the mist. Later, she learnt the truth about the mist during her time inside Thresh's latern. After being freed from it, Senna and her husband Lucian are determined to defeat Viego.
  • After Senna escaped the latern, Thresh would wake Viego up.
  • Upon finding out about Senna's relation to Isolde, Viego confronted her and Lucian and separated Isolde from her body.
• Maokai and Yorick are hunting for Viego in hope of restoring the Blessed Isles.
  • Part of Isolde may be inside Yorick's Maiden based on Viego's and Gwen's in-game interactions.
• In his return to Runeterra, he unleashed harrowings in multiple regions which were repelled by multiple champions including Darius, Olaf, Poppy, Samira, and Vayne.
  • Viego manages to possess multiple champions, such as Draven, Karma, and Shyvana.
• During the events of Ruined King, Ahri, Illaoi, Braum, Miss Fortune, Pyke and Yasuo set sail to the Shadow Isles to confront Viego in order to protect Bilgewater.
• While it's not directly confirmed, it has been implied Mordekaiser may have a certain level of awareness about Viego's actions and is waiting to benefit from them once he decides to return.
  • It has been confirmed if they were to directly fight, Mordekaiser would likely win.