Irelia Couldn't Make Sense of It

In Irelia's eyes, Jarvan IV was undoubtedly a wise ruler. He had taken up the reins of power at a time of military defeat and answered the call in a moment of crisis. He had ascended the throne when the Noxians launched their massive invasion, then won a decisive victory at the Battle of Tobicia. Afterward, he had smoothly declared himself emperor. He was at the height of his power.

Although Irelia had her own differing opinions about Demacia's later campaign against Nazumah, the subsequent fracture of the Noxian Empire seemed to show that she and Jarvan IV had been quite alike on the battlefield, but completely different away from it.

Irelia's failures had come mainly from what happened away from the battlefield, so she had come to Demacia partly to learn.

And in Demacia, she really did learn a few things.

Someone else might have learned how to win the army's support, how to command a great host, or how to establish authority through victory.

But Irelia... had learned something a little off track.

Few would have guessed that the first lesson Irelia learned in Demacia was about suppressing magic.

It seemed a little counterintuitive, after all. In Ionia, the Land of the Newborn, magic was a common part of daily life. Unlike Demacia, which at the time still maintained its ban on magic, Ionia was filled with sects that taught its use, and temples everywhere often explained how to wield it.

For the Vastaya, even more so, Ionia's spiritual energy was the source of life. Many Vastaya rites of reproduction were tied to magic.

Demacia, with its ban on magic, could maintain its own order through Nullstone.

But without magic, Ionia would probably descend into chaos.

Of course, that was the "normal" way of looking at things.

Lady