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Arcane
| “ | "Scientists seek discoveries - ways to make the world a better place! This Hextech dream of yours has the potential to do that." |
—  Viktor to  Jayce, The Base Violence Necessary for Change
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Viktor is an ambitious 
Zaunite inventor who resides in 
Piltover, working as the partner of Jayce Talis. Once brought into the Academy as the assistant to 
Heimerdinger, Viktor worked his way up from the undercity in hopes of improving lives, but his research was complicated upon discovering he was terminally ill. Nevertheless, Viktor does not let his disease stop him and he remains steadfast in finding a cure.
Background[]
Early Life[]
Years ago, Viktor was born in Zaun, growing up in a poor family and the polluted Undercity. Viktor was born with a limp in his right leg and was forced to walk around with a cane. This made it difficult for him to play with the other children, but despite his solitude and physical weakness, the young boy was brilliant and inventive, with a knack for constructing machines on the days he spent alone.
One day, when playing with a model boat in the river, Viktor stumbled upon an underground cave with a hidden lab. There, he met 
Singed, a Zaunite alchemist, who took an interest in the young boy's craftsmanship. While initially afraid of the old man, Viktor's curiosity got the better of him when he noticed a strange creature named Rio, which Singed described as a "rare mutation" that he was trying to save from death. Viktor, who quickly befriended the creature, offered to help Singed in his experiments, and the alchemist sent Viktor to collect materials for him. This partnership would not last long, however, as Viktor soon realized that Singed's method of keeping Rio alive had left her in a constant state of agony, torturing her with implants and potions to preserve the mutation's genetic material. The boy was horrified by this revelation and ran out of Singed's lab crying.
Partners in Hextech[]
Discovered by Heimerdinger, Viktor was taken to the Piltover Academy to cultivate his genius and serve as Heimerdinger's assistant. After Jayce' workshop was burglarized and exploded, Jayce's unauthorized experiments were revealed to the public. Heimerdinger sent Viktor to remove anything dangerous from the workshop, including Jayce. Jayce was arrested and trialed for illegal experimentation and endangering Piltover. While most Piltovans feared the arcane and thought Jayce's endeavor reckless, Viktor was intrigued by Jayce's ambition to master magic through science. Viktor saved Jayce's research notes from disposal behind Heimerdinger's back and went to visit Jayce.
Viktor finds Jayce at his ruined worskhop and inadvertently interrupts him from committing suicide. Viktor pledged his support to Jayce's dream to grace hextech to the masses and offers to help him with the enterprise. The two inventors bonded over their idealistic dream to improve the lives of others through technology and shared a vision to realize that dream through Hextech. Jayce made Viktor his partner and together they figured out how to stabilize the hex crystals enough to create magic. However, Jayce's materials and the rest of his research were scheduled to be destroyed, so time was of the essence to prove their theory correct with a hextech experiment. With the help of Councilor 
Mel Medarda, Jayce and Viktor snuck into Heimerdinger's lab and managed to prove the possibility of harnessing magic through Hextech.
After showing that hextech was proven to be a viable and revolutionary practice, the Piltover Council approved the development of hextech technology. Viktor and Jayce worked for the Council to create the Hexgates that revolutionized trade and transportation, and putting Piltover on the map as the global shipping lane.
During Piltover's bicentennial Progress Day, Jayce and Viktor were excited about determining the next phase of hextech. They showcased their new hextech innovations to Heimerdinger, which showed him the immediate potentials of hextech as tools for easier labor. Though impressed, Heimerdinger advised the two that they need at least a decade to ensure their inventions were safe enough for use. Viktor was disappointed by Heimerdinger's advice as people in the present were in desperate need of hextech to alleviate their suffering. Nevertheless, Viktor and Jayce made plans to showcase their hextech innovations at Jayce's Progress Day speech. However, Viktor was disappointed when Jayce followed Heimerdinger's advice and omitted the unveiling of their hextech inventions from his speech. Before the end of the day, 
a Zaunite stole one of the gemstones that was intended to be showcased during the speech event; in fear of the thief potentially weaponizing it, Jayce suggested to the Council that they shut down all Hextech operations, worrying the Councilors who have businesses dependent on the Hexgates. Mel then recommended that Jayce be instated as a Council member to better serve his goal of safeguarding the Hexgates and thus all matters dependent on it—a radical suggestion since the Council has traditionally only held seven seats. With Heimerdinger's agreement, the rest of the Council followed and Jayce became the eighth councilor.
Augmentation[]
Back at the Hexgates, Viktor argues with Jayce about omitting their hextech innovations at Progress Day and also that his new political career will distract from their hextech enterprise. Jayce tries to assuage Viktor's concerns by telling him that they will refocus on their goals with hextech in time but for now, he has to attend to his duties as a councilor. Viktor's sickness causes him to have a nosebleed and when some of his blood drops on the runes powering the hexgates, Viktor recieves a vision. Viktor comes up with a theory that the arcane speaks through hextech and thus can be made to learn and adapt to any magical function like a mage. Therefore hextech isn't limited to runes invoking specific effects to be used like tools, but rather can learn to have limitless applications. Inspired by this theory, Viktor began developing the 
Hex Core, an adaptive rune matrix that can evolve and hopefully be applied to augment the physiology of organic matter. Viktor obsessively works on the hexcore but can't seem to get it to work, and all his experiments with plants rejects the hexcore's transmutations. Eventually, Viktor works so hard that he passes out while working on the hexcore. Viktor awakens at the hospital with Jayce watching over him. Jayce sadly informs Viktor that he is dying.
After leaving the hospital, Jayce and Viktor work on the hexcore, hoping that it can cure Viktor of his terminal disease. Viktor however is pessimistic about their chances of making the hexcore workable before he expires. Jayce suggests showing the hexcore to Heimerdinger, who he thinks will have insight that can help them. When Heimerdinger sees the hexcore, he becomes afraid of it and demands its destruction. Jayce defies Heimerdinger and moves to remove him from the Piltover Council in order to neutralize him as a threat to their hexcore research. Viktor on the other hand seeks out Singed in order to get his insight on the hexcore. Singed offered him a vial of shimmer, which would make it easier for Viktor's body to accept the Hexcore's transmutations. Singed encouraged Viktor to self-experiment on himself but warned him he would violate the ethos of Piltover's scientific community, which could cost him the love of friends and tarnish his legacy. Viktor at first was certain Jayce would understand his actions, but when he arrived back at the Bridge of Progress to be picked up by Jayce, Jayce's fear of the Undercity people being dangerous and his prejudice against them soured his opinion of Jayce. From then on, Viktor hid from Jayce his plan to self-experiment with shimmer.
Back at their laboratory, Viktor inspects one of Jinx's bombs with Jayce and Councilor Mel Medarda. The three discuss the possibility of Jinx being able to develop a hextech weapon to utilize the stolen gemstone, and Mel suggests Jayce develop hextech weaponry to defend Piltover in the event of war. Viktor is vehemently against this proposal as this isn't why they invented hextech. However, Jayce is conflicted as the hostilities between the two cities are beginning to spiral out of control and he argues that they may not have a choice. Viktor accidentally triggers the timer in Jinx's bomb, hesitating in debate of whether or not he should really do it, but manages to disarm it in time. In the end, Viktor insists to Jayce that there is always a choice.
Later on, Viktor injects shimmer into himself and uses the hexcore to begin the unpleasant transformation of his body. His experiment was proven successful, as the hexcore transmuted his crippled leg into a functioning robotic leg. For the first time in his life, Viktor was able to walk and run without the aid of his cane. Emboldened by his success, Viktor proceeds to transform more of his body, even though he used up all of his shimmer. Viktor loses control of the Hex Core and was about to be consumed by it, but 
Sky Young walks in on him and tries to pull him away from the Hex Core in order to save his life. The Hex Core disintegrates Sky and uses her life force to power Viktor's transformation of his hand. Viktor awakens and is devastated by Sky's death; after reading through Sky's papers, he learns that Sky had admired him all this time and even inspired her to make the world a better place. Viktor tries to destroy the hexcore but can't bring himself to do it. The hexcore shocks Viktor via his robotic parts in response to his threat.
Viktor scatters Sky's ashes at the ravine that they used to play at as kids. Viktor attempts to commit suicide but is inadvertently interrupted by Jayce. Viktor and Jayce reconciled by bonding over their shared failure to save peoples' lives with their inventions (with Viktor's obsession with the Hexcore literally consuming those close to him and Jayce's use of Hextech weapons resulting in the accidental death of a Zaunite child). Viktor requested that Jayce destroy the Hexcore as he is unable to do so himself, and Viktor returned to support Jayce as he proposes a peace treaty with Zaun at the next Piltover Council meeting. After calming down and some convincing, the Piltover Council unanimously decide to approve the peace treaty; right before Jinx's 
missile hit the council chambers.
Appearance[]
During his time as a non-augmented person, Viktor was a white skinned, amber eyed and brown haired human with a scrawny build. Since his birth he had a deformity preventing him to walk and run naturally, needing a walking stick to move (later a walking crutch). During his time exposed to Zaunite pollution, it would greatly worsen his health conditions.
Since he started to dabble in self-augmenting hextech experiments, Viktor would slowly start replacing his body parts. First magically altered by the powers of the Hexcore with the aid of Shimmer (his right leg and hand specifically), he would eventually transition into mechanical augmentations, completely replacing most of his body parts.
Personality[]
Viktor is an idealistic, altruistic, genuis introvert with a passion for science and its ability to improve lives for the better. Growing up in the slums of Zaun as a poor, sick, crippled boy; Viktor understood the suffering everyday people had to endure by living in Zaun's terrible conditions. Viktor wanted to leave behind a legacy where he could improve the people of Zaun's lives and do good for all; he found a worthy outlet of this dream by pledging his support to Jayce's dream of bringing Hextech to the masses. Viktor would sometimes quarrel with Jayce when he feels he's being led astray or distracted from their shared dream of using hextech to improve lives.
Viktor believes that people are in desperate need of the good that hextech can provide and wants to make it accessible as hasty as possible. This sometimes leads to quarrels with Jayce and Heimerdinger, who've sometimes withheld hextech from the masses or halted its development until they could establish viable regulations for the new technology. Viktor is very bold in his pursuit of scientific discoveries and often is willing to do dangerous experimentation to figure it out or go against the ethos of the scientific community to accomplish his goals. To Viktor's credit, he has faith in himself and the genius to back it up. Part of the reason he is so hasty to usher in a hextech revolution is because of his short lifespan, and his dread that he will be unable to accomplish the meaningful good that his goals aspire to before he expires.
As an introvert, Viktor is very shy and generally doesn't approach strangers for socializing. Even as a child, he was a loner and as a student of the Piltover Academy, he was an outsider who relied on his genius and grit to make something of himself. He often defers to Jayce to act as their spokesperson for public speaking events while he supports him from behind the scenes. Due to Viktor's inability to be a public figure, Viktor is often overshadowed by Jayce as a founding father of hextech. Viktor seems content to devote all his time on developing hextech and sees its progress and the popularization of the science as the most improtant use of his and Jayce's time; with socializing and other extracurricular activities being seen as a distraction. Viktor sometimes becomes so immersed in his work that he becomes a reclusive workaholic.
Abilites[]
- Inventor: A brilliant mind, Viktor is able to invent numerous contraptions, especially those made to utilize hextech gemstones. As a founding father who perfected hextech, he is one of the leading scientists in hextech innovations.
Hexclaw: Permanently attached to his back, the hexclaw is an additional arm that's also able to shoot a ray of concentrated magical light. Originally intended as a crafting tool, it's currently used as a death ray as well as an instrument used for fixing Viktor's cybernetic augmentations.- Hex Core: It is a self-learning and evolving hextech device. It is able adapt to any situation and has the potential of becoming a sentient and sapient being.
Relations[]
Sky Young[]
Sky Young met Viktor as kids but their interactions were generally brief and in passing. Both played in the same ravine in Zaun as children but she was generally an active child that socialized with other children while Viktor was a loner that was more preoccupied with inventing mechanical contraptions. On the occasions that they were able to interact, Sky appeared to be intrigued by Viktor's inventions and Viktor seemed happy to show them off.
As adults, Sky would be employed in Jayce and Viktor's laboratory as an assistant. She was an aspiring scientist who had a crush on Viktor. She would attempt to get closer to him by offering to walk home together but Viktor was oblivious to her approaches and feelings, focusing more on his work.
Sky had a notebook that detailed her own independent research that she wanted to show to Viktor and gain his insight. However, she walked in on Viktor attempting to use the Hex Core to transform his body. It appeared that Viktor lost control of the Hex Core and was about to be consumed by it, so Sky tried to pull him away from the Hex Core in order to save his life. The Hex Core disintegrates Sky and uses her life force to power Viktor's transformation before shutting down. When Viktor regained consciousness, he is left distraught by Sky's death.
Sky's notes revealed to Viktor that she admired how Viktor worked tirelessly to make the world a better place and that he inspired her to do the same. Her death led Viktor to want to destroy the Hex Core but he couldn't bring himself to do it. After scattering Sky's ashes in the ravine, Viktor contemplated committing suicide due to his actions that caused Sky's death, but was interrupted from following through by Jayce. Viktor made Jayce promise to destroy the Hex Core while Viktor kept Sky's notebook.
Singed[]
Meeting him as a child, Viktor initially aided the scientist in saving a Waverider named Rio from dying. Later on he would find out that Rio was intentionally subjected to large doses of shimmer. Outraged by the scientist's cruel actions, Viktor would part ways with him for several years.
During the Piltover and Zaun crisis, Viktor would seek out Singed for guidance on how to get his Hexcore to cure his terminal disease. Singed offered him a vial of shimmer, which would make it easier for Viktor's body to accept the Hexcore's transmutations. Singed encouraged Viktor to self-experiment on himself but warned him he would violate the ethos of Piltover's scientific community, which could cost him the love of friends and tarnish his legacy. Viktor comforted himself by telling himself that atleast Jayce would understand him. Following Singed's advice, Viktor would alter the nature of his body and forever change the course of his life.
Cecil B. Heimerdinger[]
Heimerdinger was the person who found Viktor and brought him to Piltover to better pursue his passions as an inventor. Viktor greatly respected his mentor, becoming his most trusted assistant during his days at the Piltover Academy. However, Viktor would sometimes disagree with Heimerdinger's ideas; particularly Heimerdinger's dismissal of harnessing magic for the public good. Neverthess, both Viktor and Jayce Talis respected Heimerdinger's experience and wisdom, and would often seek his insight in regards to their Hextech enterprise.
After the trial of Jayce Talis, Viktor discussed with Heimerdinger about Talis' theories around Hextech, even suggesting that the professor would be able to finish the work. The yordle brushed off the suggestion stating that magic is too dangerous and should better be left alone. This would culminate with Heimerdinger discovering their unauthorized yet successful Hextech experiment, which proved hextech as a viable practice. Despite being impressed by their work, he urged them that this was not Piltover's future. However, Mel Medarda and the rest of the Piltover Council found the benefits of Hextech too promising to pass up, and so overruled Heimerdinger's reservations over Hextech.
During the 200th Progress Day, both Jayce and Viktor presented their new Hextech gemstone and devices to the famed yordle inventor. He was impressed by their work and told them that with a decade of careful tuning and regulations, the devices would be ready for public use. Frustrated by Heimerdinger's proposal, Viktor urged him that these inventions would be vital to saving lives in the present. Heimerdinger would even object to Viktor's Hexcore device, urging them to destroy it. Heimerdinger's misgivings made it look like he was delaying the progress of society and his obstruction to the accessibility of their hextech innovations to people that desperately needed them would ultimately strain Viktor's relationship with the professor.
Although Heimerdinger sympathized with Viktor over his sickness and tried to comfort him by saying he should be proud of his accomplishments, Viktor felt that he had much more to contribute and was dissatisfied with his legacy. Heimerdinger was not able to properly understand and comfort Viktor during his contemplation of his own mortality (being a yordle, Cecil was not able to understand mortality the same way humans did). Furthermore, he was dissapointed when his mentor condemned his Hexcore invention, and would seek to terminate his only hope to save his life.
With Heimerdinger outright opposing his Hexcore enterprise, Viktor would seek guidance from Singed, an inventor and alchemist that encouraged Viktor to explore forbidden forms of science.
Jayce Talis[]
Viktor met the scandalous inventor as the representative of the Academy after the explosion in his workshop. Initially he was indifferent to Jayce, seeing him as yet another foolhardy inventor doing dangerous experiments. However, after learning during the trial about Jayce's attempts at creating Hextech, he would start being interested in his work. Seeing the squandered potential that Piltover's dismissal of Hextech would cause, Viktor saved Jayce's journal from disposal behind Heimerdinger's back.
He would arrive at Jayce's home on time to save him from attempted suicide. After bonding over nobody having faith in them as scientists and their respective tribulations, Viktor encouraged Jayce to continue his work with Hextech and also pledged to help him in achieving the scientific enterprise. Throughout the night, the inventors would successfully figure out a way to stabilize the hextech crystals using a cranking mechanism. However, all the crystals were stored in Heimerdinger's laboratory. Jayce made Viktor his partner and using Viktor's copies of the professor's laboratory keys, the two sneaked inside the Academy to infiltrate Heimerdinger's laboratory. Their goal was to prove their hypothesis with a hextech experiment, even though Viktor was risking his future and position in the Academy by doing so. Mel Medarda discovered them trying to unlock the laboratory doors, and Viktor would defend Jayce and his work. Ultimately, Jayce and Viktor assuring Mel that hextech can be proven to work persuaded her into helping them during their nightly venture.
After their Hextech experiment proved Hextech a viable practice, the Piltover Council approved support for the development of the new technology. Both Viktor and Jayce would then continue their joint effort in innovating Piltover by first creating the Hexgates. During the 200th Progress Day, they had plans to showcase their fortified hextech crystals (along with the Atlas Gauntlets and Hexclaw, the new phase of Hextech). Viktor believes the public, especially the disenfranchised people of Zaun, urgently needs hextech accessible to everyone; thus he was disappointed when Jayce withheld the unveiling of their hextech innovations to the public at Jayce's Progress Day speech. Furthermore, Viktor was further disappointed that after Jayce was promoted to Councilor, his attention would be diverted to politics and the security of Piltover rather than focusing on how to make hextech a boon to the common people. Despite both being responsible for Hextech progress, Viktor would stay away from the spotlight, leaving Jayce to do all the larger presentations by himself (ultimately being the only one seen as the "Man of Progress").
With his ever worsening health due to once living in polluted Zaun, Viktor would try to cement his legacy (and possibly save his own life) with the creation of the Hexcore. Falling unconscious at one of his nights working in the lab, Jayce would immediately go and visit him at the hospital when he was notified of Viktor's dire state. After which, Jayce aided Viktor with his Hexcore research. Viktor's continued work with the Hexcore would lead both Jayce and Viktor showcasing the invention to Heimerdinger, who immediately objected to it and demanded its destruction. Afraid for Viktor due to his worsening condition, and frustrated by Heimerdinger's adamant determination to destroy the Hexcore that Viktor needed to cure himself, Jayce would ultimately vote the professor out of the council—thus removing Heimerdinger as an obstacle to their Hexcore research.
As tensions between Piltover and Zaun exacerbated, and as people coming from those two polarized sides (Viktor from Zaun, Jayce from Piltover), the friendship between Viktor and Jayce would become strained. Viktor was insulted and hurt by Jayce's frustrated statement regarding Zaunites being dangerous and unsafe, and also with Jayce's agreement with Mel that they may need to create Hextech weapons to prepare for a possible, future war. For a time, this would push Viktor away from Jayce, continuing his experiments with the Hexcore in private and hiding from Jayce that he has been using Shimmer and self-experimenting. After the Hexcore accident that resulted in his assistant Sky's death, Viktor felt guilt over her death. This time, it would be Jayce who saved Viktor from attempted suicide, having just returned from a raid on a Shimmer factory.
Despite being at the lowest points in their lives, Viktor and Jayce reconciled by bonding over their shared failure to save peoples' lives with their inventions (with Viktor's obsession with the Hexcore literally consuming those close to him and Jayce's use of Hextech weapons resulting in the accidental death of a Zaunite child). Viktor requested that Jayce destroy the Hexcore as he is unable to do so himself, and Viktor returned to support Jayce as he proposes a peace treaty with Zaun at the next Piltover Council meeting.
Arcane Show Appearances[]
| Season One appearances: 8/9 | ||
| Welcome to the Playground: Absent |
Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved: Appears |
The Base Violence Necessary for Change: Appears |
| Happy Progress Day!: Appears |
Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy: Appears |
When These Walls Come Tumbling Down: Appears and flashback |
| The Boy Savior: Appears |
Oil and Water: Appears |
The Monster You Created: Appears |
Trivia[]
- In the Arcane (TV Series), the mechanical arm that shoots death rays (and that Viktor uses in the game) was invented by Viktor and his partner Jayce. In the show, the arm was a Hextech device called the Hexclaw and it shot rays of light that would be able to cut and shape materials with the utmost precision. It was originally meant to aid artificers with their work.
- Viktor is estimated to be around 25 years old in the first act of Arcane and is estimated to be around 30 years old in the second and third act of the series.[1][2]
- Viktor's official height is 172 cm (5'8).[3]
Media[]
