Chapter Summaries

After the Battle of Blood River, Brawn Darkwill turned to the Pale Lady for help and was branded into the Black Rose’s service. Swin welcomed the cities’ reinforcements, but the Pale Lady’s trap with the Earth Dragon Lizards nearly killed him and Darius before Swin escaped with him.

• After Marshal Du Kkao fell into a coma, Brawn Darkwill begged the Pale Lady for help, and she branded him as loyal to the Black Rose.
• The Pale Lady said Gullans would teach Swin a lesson and turned her attention away from the front line.
• Swin received Branning Gullans and the Earth Dragon Lizard legion as reinforcements, then accompanied Gullans and Darius to inspect the beasts.
• Gullans revealed herself as the Pale Lady and triggered Black Powder explosions that sent the Earth Dragon Lizards rampaging through the camp.
• Swin seized Darius and flew clear of the charging beasts, while the disguised Gullans was trampled to death.

Swin foiled the assassination plot, but remained wary that the Pale Lady had learned about his demonic power. At the Immortal Bastion, LeBlanc revived Vladimir and recruited him to oppose Swin, who was advancing against Darkwill.

• Swin rejected killing the Earth Dragon Lizards, reassured their keeper, and met with Darius before the Basilich front continued its advance.
• At Elise's art salon, nobles mocked Swin and Darius until Elise stopped them and kept several guests behind to view the painting privately.
• Elise sacrificed the guests in a crimson ritual, using their blood to revive Vladimir from Cortese's portrait.
• Vladimir recognized that he had lost memories through his death and questioned LeBlanc about his past and the changes in Noxus.
• LeBlanc told Vladimir that Swin had defeated Darkwill's army and gained demonic power, then asked him to oppose Swin with Darkwill's help.

Lux's growing administration gave her more free time, but Karya used it to begin teaching her Advanced Elemental Theory. The chapter ended with Karya explaining how advanced magical knowledge had once supported everyday life in Shurima.

• At the Spring Speech, Lux announced plans for Freljord, and people began organizing their work around her promises as their trust in her grew.
• Lux found that her clerks and Hextech practitioners had reduced her workload, allowing her administration to function without her overseeing every detail.
• After Lux arranged a plan to increase sea-fish catches, Karya told her to begin studying Advanced Elemental Theory.
• Karya explained that Pure Element was the foundation of advanced magical research and that Lux needed to learn the deeper principles behind magic.
• Karya described how advanced magical theory had enabled Shuriman infrastructure and everyday technologies.

After a break from her studies, Lux received Ashe’s invitation and traveled to Borealis Port to meet her. Ashe was surprised that Lux was a young, warmblooded girl rather than an Iceblood leader, and began their negotiations by presenting Avarosa’s trade goods.

• Lux finished three months of studying Advanced Elemental Theory’s introduction, and Karya gave her a break.
• An Avarosan delegation led by Tryndamere arrived with Ashe’s invitation and a letter describing the Winter’s Claw’s collapse and Avarosa’s growing needs.
• Lux accepted Ashe’s invitation and arranged to meet her in Borealis Port.
• Lux traveled north with Northern Wanderers and Hextech soldiers, passing flower-filled meadows before reaching the run-down port.
• Ashe met Lux, reconsidered her plans based on Lux’s appearance and lineage, and tried to begin negotiations through trade.
• Ashe presented Avarosa’s new goods, including Guvask Boar bristles, hoping to trade them for supplies.

Ashe and Lux negotiated a new Northern Trade agreement, with Lux using Demacia’s knowledge of the goods and old grain to drive a hard bargain. The deal expanded trade and promised huge profits, while both women believed they had gained an advantage through the sale of adult Enyuk and Yukal.

• Lux outmaneuvered Ashe during the first day of negotiations by claiming Demacia had little use for Avarosan goods and offering low prices.
• Ashe worried that the proposed trade would not provide enough oats, tea, and tobacco, while Lux and Karya discussed Demacia’s food reserves and plans to buy Freljordian livestock.
• After calculating her bottom line, Ashe returned to negotiations ready to raise her prices, but Lux offered two-year-old oats at a lower price.
• Lux asked to buy adult Enyuk and Yukal, and Ashe agreed, believing the Avarosa tribe could profit by keeping their domestication methods secret.
• After three days, Lux and Ashe agreed to expand Northern Trade, increasing Demacia’s exports of oats, tea, and tobacco by nearly 1,200 percent and projecting gross profits of at least 100,000 standard Demacian gold coins.

After expanding Northern Trade, Lux agreed to Ashe’s request to send an Avarosan envoy to Freljord City. Months later, Lux passed the first half of Advanced Elemental Theory and used her new knowledge to treat Sephika’s Pure Elemental Erosion, successfully waking him.

• Ashe asked Lux to welcome an Avarosan envoy in Freljord, hoping to learn more about its trade and society, and Lux agreed while keeping key information private.
• After returning to Freljord, Lux struggled through Advanced Elemental Theory under Karya’s supervision and eventually completed its first half.
• Karya assigned Lux a practical exam: control the Pure Element in Sephika’s body while Karya withdrew his power to prevent the erosion from killing him.
• Lux discovered that the Monolith Shard was an artificial element rather than pure bedrock, then planned a light-based spell to expel it while Karya managed the remaining Darkin power.
• Lux and Karya carried out the procedure, replacing the Rock Element and neutralizing the Light Element and Darkin power; Sephika stirred awake.

Lux saved Sephika and received his Monolith Shard, while Jiawen III used Jarvan IV’s return and the Winged Sisters’ endorsements to strengthen royal power over Demacia’s nobles. Two Gothin nobles secretly planned to exploit Demacia’s unrest and draw Swin into a campaign against it.

• Lux assigned Sephika to the Hextech in Freljord and accepted his Monolith Shard, but Karya explained that the shard was a weapon of war rather than a tool for building canals.
• Jarvan IV returned from Mount Targon with his mind intact, allowing Jiawen III to reveal his strategy against the Noble Council.
• Jiawen III persuaded Kayle and Morgana to endorse the Lightshield Family’s rule, then used the Illuminators and the Sentu Sword to expand royal influence across Demacia.
• The Noble Council lost its ability to resist Jiawen III as the Illuminators reached into the nobles’ fiefs and one minor lord submitted to the royal family.
• Madam Gothin and Mr. Gothin entered the capital as observers, then discussed how Demacia’s civil strife could tempt Swin to set aside old grudges and march against it.

As Jiawen III’s power struggle with Demacia’s nobles drove up taxes and weakened trade, Lux saw an opportunity to protect Freljord by expanding its port and attracting migrants. Freljord’s outreach in Silvermine City persuaded struggling residents to consider moving north.

• Jiawen III’s use of the Illuminators and the nobles’ continued tax collection burdened Demacia’s commoners and shrank the Demacia City Trade Fair.
• Lux worried that unrest would damage Freljord’s trade, so she planned to accelerate the new port’s development after Eno reported contact with the Shadow Order.
• Karya suggested that Freljord use its tax-free policies and available work to attract people from Silvermine City, and Lux prepared a migrant outreach group with Sona.
• Freljord’s returning migrants repaid the city’s debt and told their old neighbors about jobs, land, and tax exemptions in Freljord.
• Silvermine City residents questioned the Northern Wanderers about resettlement and began considering moving to Freljord as taxes and hardships mounted.

Lux prepared to build New Freljord City and its harbor to house the immigrants arriving from Silvermine City, while seeking Nullstone from the Durand family. The Durand family head brought the materials to Freljord and revealed himself to be an outspoken sculptor who urged Lux to devote herself to art.

• More than thirty thousand households from Silvermine City joined the Northern Wanderers for Freljord, including Eno's parents and older brother, whom Lux and Sona welcomed.
• Lux planned New Freljord City and an ice-free harbor fifty miles south of the old fortress city, and assigned the Hextech Team and immigrants to begin construction.
• Unable to obtain Nullstone through the Noble Council, Lux contacted the Durand family and agreed to let its head see Galio in exchange for Nullstone materials.
• Mr. Durand replied that he was already bringing Nullstone to Freljord, then arrived a month later after workers had marked the new city's boundaries and prepared its foundations.
• Lux greeted Mr. Durand, who shrank from her noble manner but became talkative about sculpture and criticized her for wasting her talent on noble affairs.

Mr. Durand visited Freljord, met the living Galio, and reconsidered his ambitions after hearing Galio remember his ancestor. After Durand left with renewed artistic purpose, Luxanna received Eno’s letter proposing a return to Freljord with an Ionian expedition team.

• Luxanna sent Sona to speak with Durand, who then went to see Galio on the Colossus’s day off.
• Durand introduced himself to Galio, who recalled his ancestor and publicly revealed that Demacians had once criticized him for acting superior to his predecessor.
• After seeing Galio alive, Durand doubted that his own sculptures could match the Colossus and asked Luxanna whether a stone colossus could be brought to life.
• Durand shut himself in his inn for three days, then gave Luxanna a Nullstone figurine as a possible battlefield lucky charm and decided to return to Whitecliff City to carve a colossus.
• After Durand departed, Yiva delivered Eno’s letter proposing that she return to Freljord with an Ionian expedition team.

Lux read Eno’s report on Ionia and learned that the Placidium’s monks and elders planned to inspect Fosberons’ trade practices, while the Shadow Order’s raids had alienated the Vastaya. She and Karya decided to use Sona and Demacia’s do-gooders to manage the delegation, and Lux began planning its reception.

• Lux read Eno’s account of the Shadow Order’s raids on Vastayan temples and villages, which had left the Order isolated in Ionia.
• Eno reported that Placidium monks and elders had taken over trade negotiations and planned to inspect Fosberons for coercion, exploitation, and harm to nature.
• Eno wrote that she would split her delegation, sending guides with the inspection team while she stayed in Ionia to learn more and seek meetings with Irelia or Karma.
• Lux and Karya discussed using Sona’s Ionian identity and Demacia’s support for Ionia to influence the inspection team.
• Lux decided to recruit Demacia’s do-gooders through the Art Support Association and began drafting a reception plan built around morality and balance.

Lux secured Ionia as Freljord’s new trade partner, continued studying Elemental Golems, and moved her Winter Speech to New Freljord City. After discovering that Shadow Energy could produce humus, she helped establish a complete Hazelnut Mushroom cultivation process, bringing the North its first winter work.

• Lux and Sona concluded the cultural exchange with Ionia, which agreed to trade tea, spices, dyes, and textiles for Freljordian furs and Ochre Blue Stone.
• Lux resumed Advanced Elemental Theory and learned that building an Elemental Golem required complex Magic Circuits and control of Pure Element.
• Ionians began trading at New Freljord Port, and Lux decided to hold the Winter Speech in New Freljord City.
• The Hextech Team discovered that a Shadow Hextech User could use Shadow Energy to turn dead plants into humus suitable for growing Hazelnut Mushrooms.
• Lux and Karya opened a temporary passage to the Shadow Realm, where dead wood and leaves decayed into humus over seven days.
• Freljord prepared to begin large-scale Hazelnut Mushroom cultivation in New Freljord City during winter.

Lux convened the Hextech users in New Freljord City to establish strict safety reviews for magical exploration, research, experiments, and applications, then approved a project to domesticate Enyuk and Yukal. With Karya leading the effort, the chapter leaves the researchers ready to develop local livestock and improve Freljord’s food supply and appeal to immigrants.

• Lux gathered the Hextech users in New Freljord City and established a framework for reviewing magical work at every stage.
• The Hextech users formed a Magical Limits Committee, with Lux as its chair, to oversee research proposals and safety.
• Hextech researchers sought approval to breed and raise Enyuk and Yukal locally to provide Freljord with more meat and dairy.
• Lux approved the livestock project as a way to improve living standards and attract immigrants to Freljord.
• Karya agreed to guide the researchers, confident she could help raise Enyuk and Yukal in Freljord.

Jiawen III abandoned efforts to centralize power through political means and joined Jarvan IV and the Winged Sisters in targeting rebellious nobles, but a deadly confrontation at Dawn Castle pushed Demacia toward civil war. As the nobles fled to raise their armies, Basilich and the Immortal Bastion united and marched toward Triwell and the Gate of Sorrows.

• After more than half a year of failed negotiations and mounting unrest, Jiawen III summoned the Winged Sisters to discuss Demacia’s future.
• Jarvan IV urged the king to use force against the nobles, and Jiawen III agreed to arrest rebellious lords while offering them a chance to repent.
• Jiawen III, Kayle, and Morgana seized Nehva Korda, who publicly repented and promised to lower taxes, but then warned the Noble Council that the king intended to use force.
• At Dawn Castle, Kayle killed the Gothins and accused them of carrying a Darkin presence, sparking a violent protest that Taric and Xin Zhao eventually brought under control.
• The nobles fled Demacia City to raise their private armies, while Basilich and the Immortal Bastion made a truce and sent their forces toward Triwell and the Gate of Sorrows.

Vladimir and LeBlanc persuaded Swin to agree to a temporary Noxian ceasefire by promising that Demacia would be destabilized by civil war and the Harrowing. As the Black Mist engulfed Demacia City, Kayle tried to drive it back but was struck down by a mysterious Darkin wielding a black blade.

• Swin agreed to a conditional ceasefire with LeBlanc after learning that Demacia was in turmoil and hearing her warning about the Harrowing.
• Vladimir and LeBlanc, disguised as the Gottin couple, helped ignite Demacia's civil conflict, and Noxus suspended its own war to move toward the western front.
• The Harrowing swept inland, swallowed coastal cities and armies, and surrounded Demacia City with the Black Mist.
• Jiawen III deployed troops and tried to reassure the people, while Kayle flew beyond the walls and attacked the Black Mist with sacred fire.
• A mysterious voice mocked Kayle's celestial heritage, and a black blade struck her and smashed her into Demacia City's walls.

A Darkin in the black mist repelled Kayle and invited Demacian soldiers to undergo the Undying’s trial, while the nobles used the apparent Harrowing to march against the capital. Their rebellion left the border defenses vulnerable, and Noxian forces captured the Gate of Sorrows fortress, opening a path through the mountains.

• Kayle charged into the black mist twice and was struck back by the unseen Darkin, who declared her unqualified for the Undying’s trial and gave the Demacian soldiers a month to prepare.
• Demacian nobles learned that the black mist was a Harrowing and formed an allied army to march on Demacia City, taking control of border legion commanders and leaving the border forces neutral.
• Assassins killed or wounded the border legion commanders, creating gaps in Demacia’s defenses as the Noxian army advanced toward the Gate of Sorrows.
• The Noxians relentlessly assaulted the fortress for six days while Demacian defenders struggled without their usual militia support.
• Swain sent Sion into battle, and Sion broke through the fortress defenses; after two days of street fighting, the Gate of Sorrows fell to Noxus.

Xin Zhao entered the black mist to take Aatrox's Trial of the Undying, hoping to win peace for Runeterra. After surviving waves of undead opponents, he refused to drink the Water of Life and challenged Aatrox to appear.

• Xin Zhao told Jiawen III that he would take the trial, revealing his past as Vescerro and wishing for lasting peace across Runeterra.
• Xin Zhao prepared himself, donned his Nullstone armor, and entered the black mist as Demacia's people watched.
• Aatrox introduced himself and gave Xin Zhao a bottle of the Water of Life, telling him to drink it when he was near death.
• Xin Zhao defeated waves of undead warriors and then overcame a powerful Vastaya opponent.
• Exhausted but still determined, Xin Zhao refused to drink the Water of Life and challenged Aatrox to face him.
• Aatrox accepted Xin Zhao's challenge as the mist churned around them.

Xin Zhao challenged Aatrox, proved his skill with a powerful spear thrust, and was brought into the Land of the Undead. Aatrox explained the Void’s origins and revealed his plan to create immortal warriors to fight it.

• Xin Zhao attacked Aatrox’s knee with a spear thrust infused with Magical Aura, but the strike barely pierced Aatrox’s flesh.
• Aatrox gave the exhausted Xin Zhao the Water of Life and brought him into the Land of the Undead, where it protected him from death’s erosion.
• Aatrox showed Xin Zhao a vision of the Shuriman Empire and explained how the Void corrupted the Ascended, turning them into Darkin.
• Aatrox said he had escaped the Void’s influence in the realm of death and planned to make talented mortals immortal so they could fight the Void.

Aatrox recounted how the Void’s influence, failed rule, and Rhaast’s betrayal drove him to the realm of the dead and the Blessed Isles. By exploiting the Black Mist and gathering powerful souls, he quietly built an army for his planned war against the Void.

• After leaving Shurima, Aatrox imposed military rule over territory on Camavor, but rebellion, economic collapse, and the Void’s influence drove him to abandon it.
• Aatrox followed Rhaast, discovered his hemomancy scheme, and escaped his trap as Prince Vladimir betrayed Rhaast and absorbed his power.
• Aatrox entered the realm of the dead after Mordekaiser was banished, then struck a deal with him to divide control of the dead and their souls.
• Aatrox found the Blessed Isles and discovered that the Water of Life combined with deathly energy to create the Black Mist, which he used to recruit powerful souls.
• Aatrox accepted Viego’s trial, returned Isolde’s lingering soul to the living world, and gave Viego partial control of the Black Mist to search for her.
• Aatrox built a vast force in the Land of the Undead, gathering followers including Yorick, Viego, Thresh, Karthus, Gangplank, and several Darkin.

Aatrox converted Xin Zhao into an undead and withdrew the Black Mist from Demacia City, then sent his forces toward Icathia to fight the Void. As the city celebrated its release, Jiawen III learned that a noble rebellion and Noxian invasion had brought Demacia to the brink of disaster, and collapsed under the news.

• Aatrox discovered that LeBlanc and Vladimir had deceived him, then learned Xin Zhao had chosen to become undead and arranged for Veigar and Vex to perform the conversion.
• After the conversion succeeded, Xin Zhao joined Yorick’s unit of undead and learned they were headed to Icathia to capture Void creatures.
• Aatrox withdrew the Black Mist from Demacia City and ordered Xin Zhao and the undead Legion to prepare for their campaign against the Void.
• Demacia’s residents celebrated the end of the Harrowing while Jiawen III and Jarvan IV mourned the Grand Marshal and received news that a Noble Allied Army was advancing on the capital.
• Jiawen III learned that Noxian forces had seized Tobicia after breaking through the Gate of Sorrows, and he collapsed before he could discuss the crisis with Jarvan IV.