Chapter Summaries

Taliyah and Nasus encountered corrupt impostor inspectors at the Marrow Seal Market, where Karya revealed himself to Nasus. Nasus urged Karya to reclaim the throne and explained that Zerath was a true Ascended wielding the World Runes, just as Taliyah and the others rushed over, calling the situation a misunderstanding.

• Taliyah explored the Marrow Seal Market, and Nasus confronted a merchant who tried to swindle her.
• When false inspectors tried to seize Nasus, he revealed his obsidian body and drove them off while Taliyah caught them with stone slabs.
• Karya removed his mask, and Nasus recognized him, carried him away from the market, and knelt to urge him to reclaim Shurima's throne.
• Nasus told Karya that Zerath was a true Ascended who planned to resurrect Azir and had used the World Runes, which had left his mind unclear.
• Taliyah, Yin Nuo, and Shyvana arrived on a floating stone, and Taliyah called the encounter a misunderstanding, leaving Nasus confused.

Karya confronted Nasus for withholding the danger of Zilean and the World Rune from Taliyah, then organized a search for Ryze to help seal it. With Eno and Shyvana gone to find him, Karya and Nasus turned to Shurima and Karya revealed that he had given up immortality and was being kept alive by demonic power.

• Karya scolded Nasus for keeping Taliyah uninformed about Zilean, the World Rune, and the risks of their journey.
• Nasus explained how he had traced attacks on Shurima's royal descendants to Zilean, who had captured Renekton and sought to extract his Ascended Power.
• Karya decided they needed a World Rune specialist, and Eno identified Ryze as someone who could help.
• Karya sent Eno and Shyvana to find Ryze, and Shyvana carried Eno away in dragon form.
• Karya and Nasus discussed Shurima, and Karya told Nasus that he had surrendered immortality and was sustained by demonic power.

Nasus recalled how his loyalty to Shurima’s traditions and opposition to Karya’s plans had helped shape the empire’s decline, and how every later attempt to restore it had ended in failure. Hearing Karya admit that he was near death, Nasus finally understood his teacher’s past helplessness and begged for help rebuilding Shurima.

• Karya told Nasus that he had given up immortality and was surviving only through demonic power, leaving Nasus devastated.
• Nasus’s memories revealed how he had opposed Karya’s new-energy research in favor of conserving resources and relying on the Sun Disc.
• After the Icathian War and the empire’s division, Nasus watched Shurima deteriorate despite his purges and efforts to control its expenses.
• Nasus supported Azir’s plan to abolish slavery, but the Ascension Ritual failed, Azir died, Zilean departed, and Renekton vanished into the desert.
• After millennia in the Great Library, Nasus tried to rebuild Shurima but found no worthy royal heir and saw the nation’s decline continue.
• Nasus finally understood Karya’s past choices, prostrated himself before him, and asked to rebuild Shurima.

Karya helped Nasus recover sealed memories, then encouraged Taliyah to become her own person and invited her to study under him. After leading Nasus and Taliyah out of Marrow Seal Market, Karya trained Taliyah at their desert camp to prepare for a possible fight with Zilean.

• Karya's words unlocked Nasus's sealed memories, and Nasus wept as Taliyah watched in astonishment.
• Karya told Taliyah she did not need to imitate A Zhi and asked her to consider becoming his student, though Taliyah said she already had a teacher.
• Karya haggled for supplies at Marrow Seal Market, then led Nasus and Taliyah out of the city with six camels to establish a camp.
• Karya guided Taliyah in building the camp and shared wilderness skills while Nasus watched.
• Karya assessed Taliyah's magic, prepared a study plan to address weaknesses she might face against Zilean, and began teaching her.

Karya trained Taliyah in practical combat, repeatedly exposing her weaknesses and leaving her determined to improve. Meanwhile, Eno brought Ryze to Shurima to deal with Zilean’s World Rune, and Ryze’s rapid teleportation journey ended at Marrow Seal Market, where its managers welcomed him.

• Karya defeated Taliyah in repeated training bouts and taught her to conceal her casting intent, watch her surroundings, and stay alert even when she had the advantage.
• Taliyah continued to challenge Karya, while Nasus recognized how thoroughly Karya’s deceptive combat methods exploited her many weaknesses.
• Shyvana brought Eno back to Demacia, where Eno contacted Ryze and told him that Zilean was using a World Rune in Shurima.
• Ryze agreed to deal with the World Rune and teleported Eno through several stops from Kalamanda to Marrow Seal Market, leaving them both exhausted.
• The managers of Marrow Seal Market approached Ryze and offered him food, water, and a place to rest.

Karya led the Shurimans upstream and uncovered the threat posed by a slave-trading tribe and a powerful mage tribe. With Setaqa’s encouragement, he helped the Shurimans defeat the self-proclaimed God of Mages, claim his unfinished castle, and become the region’s largest tribe; the chapter ended with Karya and Setaqa sharing an intimate moment after their victory.

• Karya learned the local language, discovered that powerful tribes controlled the river region, and led the Shurimans westward to a market.
• Karya recognized a rock mage’s skill, lured him back to camp, and forced him to reveal that a nearby mage tribe enslaved people and was led by a man calling himself the God of Mages.
• Setaqa urged Karya to fight rather than flee, and the two infiltrated the mage tribe’s construction site to map its defenses.
• Karya formed a loose alliance against the God of Mages while Setaqa and the Shurimans prepared hidden rolling-stone traps.
• The Shurimans ambushed the God of Mages; Horok killed him while Setaqa kept him occupied, and the Shurimans absorbed many people and took his unfinished castle.
• At the victory feast, Karya and Setaqa teased each other and shared an intimate encounter.

Ryze met Karya and agreed to join the effort to stop Zilean after Karya convinced him he did not covet the World Rune. After three days of training and Ryze’s return with Shyvana, the team assembled and prepared to head to Antashil.

• Nasus brought Eno and Ryze to the camp, where Karya revealed his identity and explained that he had designed the old groves and laboratories where Ryze hid World Runes.
• Karya persuaded Ryze that he wanted help dealing with the World Rune and the Vastaya controlled by it, though Ryze refused to hand the Rune over to him.
• Ryze questioned Nasus about Zilean, confirmed that Zilean wielded a World Rune, and joined the fight against him.
• Eno joined Karya and Taliyah’s training, but Karya used demonic power to overpower her during their two-on-one fight.
• After three days, Ryze teleported Shyvana back, and the assembled team prepared to travel to Antashil to stop Zilean from resurrecting Azir and recover the World Rune.

Karya led the group through the ancient tunnel he had built beneath Mount Targon's southern range, recalling its history and the failure that had left it as a personal scar. They emerged into the fertile southern plains of Shurima, where Karya welcomed them to the supposedly remote region.

• Karya explained how the tunnel had been built and why his plan for three routes through the mountains had failed.
• Eno asked why Karya had never mentioned the tunnel, and Karya told the group how Rhaast had schemed to obtain construction scrap for his research before being caught and sentenced to compulsory labor.
• The group traveled through the tunnel while Karya shared stories about its construction and Rhaast.
• Karya led the group out of the tunnel to the lush, expansive farmland of southern Shurima.

Karya and his companions crossed the Great Tunnel into southern Shurima, where Karya recalled how the region had fallen from the empire’s vital breadbasket into isolation. A village’s residents revealed themselves as sand raiders who had lured the travelers into a trap, unaware they had caught a dangerous group.

• Karya explained how southern Shurima’s importance declined as the empire found cheaper food and transport routes elsewhere.
• Karya reflected on his failed plans for the empire and the past as the group crossed the fertile plains toward a village.
• The villagers shut their gate and questioned the group, while Ryze used his command of their local dialect to gain their welcome.
• Karya and Nasus discussed why the Great Tunnel and trade with the rest of Shurima had been abandoned.
• Shyvana identified the villagers as sand raiders, and the gate slammed shut to trap the group inside.

Karya and her companions discovered that Zilean was shaping southern Shurima through mage education, bloodline politics, and a network of villages, possibly preparing it as a base for conquest. They reached Antashil determined to investigate and act before Zilean gained greater control.

• Karya, Ryze, and the others defeated the armed villagers, and Taliyah reshaped stone houses into cells while they interrogated the residents.
• Karya and Ryze learned that the surrounding region had no central ruler, while the villagers knew little of Zilean or Shurima’s history.
• Karya posed as a wandering mage at a southern market and learned that Antashil was gaining influence, newcomers from the south were seeking northerners, and local legends credited Azir with civilization.
• As the group traveled south, Karya explained that Zilean might control mage advancement and exploit clan bloodlines to unite southern Shurima under Azir’s authority.
• Karya warned that Zilean could use southern Shurima as a base for an army and potentially gain access to rune power, so the group hurried toward Antashil.
• Two days later, Karya and her companions arrived at Antashil.

Karya and his allies investigated Antashil, where Zilean’s mage towers concealed powerful defenses and pocket dimensions. Karya proposed bypassing the towers with Ryze’s teleportation and revealed a stable spatial container, leaving Ryze eager to learn how it worked.

• Karya, Eno, Taliyah, Ryze, and their companions discovered that Antashil’s ordinary residents lived under the mages’ control and that the city’s towers were fortified.
• Ryze sensed that the mage towers contained enormous interior spaces, possibly pocket dimensions created with a World Rune.
• Karya rejected Nasus’s plan to reveal himself as bait and proposed entering the pocket dimension by teleporting into a spatial container.
• Karya summoned Evelynn, Mordekaiser, and Rammus, then assigned Nasus and Shyvana to guard the demons and preserve the escape route.
• Karya took Ryze into a vast, stable inner space, where Ryze tested its resilience and Karya offered to teach him how it worked.

Karya infiltrated the Mage Tower to study its pocket dimensions and locate the hidden World Runes, while Ryze and the others waited outside. After investigating six towers, Karya prepared to enter Zilean’s private tower and used Rammus to control Zankara, a man with a secret that could be used against him.

• Ryze declined Karya’s offer to teach him, approved the infiltration plan, and received a bell that would signal when Karya was safe to teleport.
• Karya concealed himself as a stick in a vegetable delivery, then hid in an apprentice’s belongings to enter the Mage Tower’s pocket dimension.
• Karya explored the tower, learned that it was a school, and rang the bell so Ryze could teleport him back.
• Over the next several days, Karya investigated six Mage Towers and discovered where they hid the World Runes.
• When Karya could not find a way into Zilean’s private tower, he freed Rammus, who uncovered Zankara’s secret and took control of him.

Karya led Ryze, Eno, and Taliyah through Xerath’s hidden passage to locate the World Rune, which Xerath had embedded in his arcane body and stabilized with Rune trees. Xerath confronted the intruders and unleashed meteorites, leaving the group facing a much stronger opponent than before.

• Karya infiltrated Xerath’s mage tower in Zankara’s clothes and discovered a concealed passage after seeing a supervisor activate its hidden mark.
• Ryze, Eno, and Taliyah entered the tower through Karya’s small world, disguised themselves in stolen clothes, and followed Karya through the passage.
• Ryze sensed overflowing runic power and used his scroll to locate the World Rune, teleporting the group to a forest of Rune trees.
• Karya recognized that Xerath had planted the Rune trees to contain the World Rune, and Ryze confirmed that the area was saturated with runic power.
• Xerath appeared with the World Rune embedded in his arcane body, and Karya warned Taliyah to focus on surviving.
• Xerath summoned meteorites without a casting gesture and hurled them at Karya, Ryze, Eno, and Taliyah.

Karya’s group fought Zilean inside his pocket dimension, where its shifting magic properties gave Ryze an opening to attack. After Zilean broke Ryze’s spell and prepared to strike, Karya revealed a power that made Zilean’s arcane orbs vanish, then removed his mask and showed a face resembling Azir’s.

• Zilean focused his bombardment on Taliyah, but Eno distracted him with taunts and used ice magic to raise a defensive barrier.
• Zilean altered the pocket dimension to suppress frost magic and strengthen Arcane Magic, weakening Eno while boosting Ryze and revealing more about the dimension to Karya.
• Ryze completed a spell that captured Zilean’s arcane orbs and formed barriers around him, but Zilean shattered the barriers through the strength of his World Rune.
• Zilean abandoned Taliyah and Eno to attack the overloaded Ryze, while Karya stepped between them and made every arcane orb in the sky disappear.
• Karya removed his mask, revealing a face remarkably similar to Azir’s.

Karya defeated Zilean’s attempt to capture him by threatening to collapse the subspace where Azir’s remnants remained, then challenged Zilean’s belief that restoring the old empire would restore Shurima. He left Zilean with a different understanding of Shurima as a people who endured hardship and kept moving forward.

• Zilean recognized Karya but attacked him, doubting that he was the historical king until Karya demonstrated his control over space.
• Karya flooded Zilean’s subspace with sand, and Zilean briefly regained control before Karya used nested spaces to destabilize it.
• Karya threatened that the subspace’s collapse would erase Azir’s remaining traces, forcing Zilean to yield control and let him see Azir.
• Karya told Zilean he did not seek to restore the empire and asked him what Shurima was.
• Karya described Shurima as a people who survived together, rejected enslavement and dependence, and chose to keep moving forward.

Karya learned that Azir had found the coffin Karya prepared for himself and used it to contain his immortal soul, then took the sarcophagus into his care. He challenged Zilean over his uncontrolled World Rune power, leaving Zilean and Ryze arguing for Karya to decide which of them was right.

• Zilean revealed that Azir had sought to resurrect Karya and other fallen Ascended to restore Shurima, but ended up trapped in the coffin with an immortal soul and a shattered body.
• Karya criticized Zilean for clinging to Shurima's past and took Azir's sarcophagus away to keep his soul stable.
• Karya told Zilean to surrender the World Rune until he could control its power, but Zilean refused and pointed to Ryze as an alternative custodian.
• Ryze warned that Zilean would lose control of the World Rune outside the pocket dimension and that its power could destroy Runeterra.
• Zilean and Ryze argued before Karya, each trying to persuade him, while Karya sat back and watched.

After the Shuriman tribe settled in Nareumajel, Karya helped it build a stable future through farming, irrigation, writing, and welcoming former slaves. In the fourth year, he and Setaqa left for Mount Targon, hoping to gain a blessing and find a way for Setaqa to bear a child.

• Karya and Setaqa decided the Shurimans needed to learn farming, and Karya began planning irrigation works after obtaining seeds from the Skarrash.
• The Shuriman tribe freed the God of Mages' slaves and welcomed those who wished to join, growing its population to five thousand.
• Karya and the Shurimans developed written Old Shuriman and tested farming methods, eventually producing a bumper crop and establishing the tribe in Nareumajel.
• As the tribe experienced a baby boom, Setaqa remained unable to bear a child and refused Karya's suggestion that they adopt.
• A Celestial follower told Karya and Setaqa that climbing Mount Targon could earn them a blessing and Divine Power, and the pair set out west in the fourth year.

Karya mediated an agreement between Ryze and Xerath to seal the World Runes, then awakened Azir and reunited him with Xerath. The group traveled to Nugra to establish the seal, but Karya got lost while searching for the old Rune tree laboratory.

• Karya persuaded Ryze and Xerath to work together on a pocket dimension for housing the World Runes.
• Karya opened Azir's coffin, woke him, and revealed that the Shuriman Empire had long since fallen.
• Karya helped Azir stabilize his body and magic, and Azir reunited with Xerath.
• Karya, Xerath, and Ryze temporarily sealed the World Rune and carried it to Nugra.
• Karya led the group through Nugra's forest for days before admitting that he was lost.

Karya and the others found the abandoned Nugra Laboratory and began preparing it as a secure vault for the World Runes. Their work was interrupted when a bound Void creature was revealed to be Kaisa, who had fled there after a coordinated attack by Void creatures.

• Unable to find the Nugra Laboratory's entrance, Karya guided Taliyah in digging down to its ceiling, and the group spent two days dismantling its defenses before Nasus broke through.
• Karya activated the laboratory's backup power, and Ryze inspected the facility as they considered using its Nullwood fossils to store the World Runes.
• Karya proposed a spatial barrier requiring magic from himself, Ryze, and Zilean to open, and the group began preparing the laboratory for the vault.
• Karya and Taliyah started sealing the collapsed entrances while Ryze and Zilean worked on defensive arrays; they discovered an underground river connected to the outside.
• Kaisa investigated increasingly active Void creatures, but they attacked her together and appeared to coordinate their pursuit.
• Kaisa fled through the underground river into the laboratory, where Ryze's magic bound her, and Karya realized the supposed Void creature had a human face.

Karya freed Kaisa from her Void skin and learned that Void creatures had begun acting in an organized way, prompting him to investigate their new master. The Void Empress learned that the World Runes were nearby and set out to summon digging creatures to reach them.

• Karya removed Kaisa's Void skin, learned about her life underground, and heard that Void creatures had begun organizing.
• Karya recalled that a Watcher had coordinated the Void during the Icathian War as the underground river began to churn.
• Ryze blasted the Void creatures emerging from the river, and Karya and Ryze agreed to seal the waterway while secretly planning to draw out its master.
• The Void Empress received the fish's report, learned that the World Runes were nearby, and decided to summon creatures skilled at digging.
• The Void Empress recalled Rek'Sai as she rose through the water to contact her subordinates.