Let me start off by saying you don’t need to play or know anything about League of Legends to enjoy Arcane. I’ve played League of Legends and know almost zilch about their lore, but I do love Arcane.
The Arcane TV series is available on Netflix now and follows the history and lore of some of the main characters in Riot Games’ League of Legends. For fans the show is a delight, for newbies, it’s an introduction to the rich and complicated world of Arcane.
The TV series is set in a gorgeous fantasy-steampunk world. That follows the heartwrenching story about two worlds, two sisters and their bonds and division. Everything is rich in lore and artistically told. And what we see in Arcane has only just scratched the surface of all the LoL lore.
Spoiler Warning for Arcane
Jinx | Pow-Pow | The Loose Cannon
While most look at Jinx and see only a mad woman wielding an array of dangerous weapons, a few remember her as a relatively innocent girl from Zaun—a tinkerer with big ideas who never quite fit in.
The deuteragonist of Arcane Jinx is known as the havoc-wrecking, manic and impulsive criminal from Zaun in the present day. She is everyone’s manic pixie girl waifu and if you play her in League of Legends then you’ll know just how dangerous she is. She wields an arsenal of deadly weapons that leave mayhem, panic and bright explosions in her wake.
Jinx is chaotic pandemonium at the best of times, but there was a time before she became Jinx when she was known as Powder. Powder was orphaned at an early age along with her sister Vi. They’re left to fend for themselves and come together to form a makeshift family with Vander, Mylo and Claggor.
Time goes on and the family struggles together stealing what they can. Until one day they cross the bridge to Piltover and steal something that will change the world. Hextech. For their crime, Vander gives himself up in order to shield the children. And in a botched attempt of rescuing everybody Powder ends up setting off a homemade bomb that kills Vander, Mylo and Claggor.
Overcome with grief Vi calls Powder a Jinx and leaves her. Leaving her open to be adopted by the crime lord Silco. Where she’ll grow up causing mayhem around Piltover and Zaun. Only occasionally being thwarted by her sister or the sheriff.
Powers
- Inventor/Engineer, Excellent Shot, Shimmer Enhancement
From a young Powder has always enjoyed inventing and engineering weapons and contraptions. It started off as time-release bombs, to now full-scale explosions. She is also capable of quickly reverse engineering technology with just the aid of a research journal, being the first Zaunite to properly utilize Hextech gemstones in a device.
Her enhanced physiology comes after a fight with Ekko. In an attempt to save her life, Silco has her body imbued with shimmer. Leaving Jinx permanently altered with shimmer further deteriorate her mental state but give her enhanced strength, speed and durability.
Violet | Vi | The Piltover Enforcer
Everyone who encountered Vi knew she could talk—or punch—her way out of trouble. More often than not, she chose the latter.
Violet or more commonly known as Vi is the older sister to Powder. Orphaned at a young age she was the defacto leader of the kids in the family. She’s often called in to protect Powder from any of her slipups. But there’s only so much she can do to protect Powder from herself.
Growing up as orphans in the Hope House orphanage, Vi and Powder know nothing of what happened to their parents. They assume that they died in one of the industrial accidents that were, sadly, all too common in the undercity. As she grew older she, Mylo, Claggor and Powder form a gang to scrape, scam and swagger their way around.
On the day that Powder blows up the factory and kills their family, Vi labels her as a Jinx. But before she has time to regret it she’s taken away and for the most part, disappears. Rumours circulated between the gangs that she had been killed in a huge explosion in the heart of the undercity, or that she had turned her back on her friends and struck out for distant lands.
The truth, however, finally came to light when a vicious gang whose murder sprees had spread topside—were brought down by a respected sheriff of Piltover and her new ally – Vi. The former gang leader was now in the employ of the Wardens, and she was sporting a pair of brand-new Hextech Atlas prototypes.
Powers
- Brawler, Atlas Gauntlets
Vi has always been able to punch her way out of trouble. She can take a punch and land one too. Able to take on even the most hardened of enhanced shimmer criminals. If you play LoL then you’ll know that Vi is one of the God-tier Junglers out there, she’s definitely recommended if you are looking to boost your lol rank.
With her Iron Gauntlets, she can really pack a punch, so to speak. Later on, they’ll be upgraded into the Atlas Gauntlets. These Gauntlets are augmented by Hextech and considerably boost Vi’s strength and dexterity.
Jayce Talis | Councilman Jayce | The Defender Of Tomorrow
Jayce Talis is part of the noble House Talis in Piltover. An engineering house famous for the design of the collapsible pocket wrench.
When Jayce was a child, Jayce and his mother, Ximena, got caught in a dangerous blizzard. Ximena collapsed as they were travelling. A young Jayce tended to his mother and called out for help. Fortunately, a robed, hooded mage noticed that they were in distress and came to their rescue. The mage used a crystal to power a teleportation spell and teleported them to the safety of a warm flowery field. The mage then gave young Jayce the used-up crystal as a memento. Ever since that moment, Jayce became fixated on magic and theorized that the type of crystal he was given was the key to harnessing magic.
Following that dream, Jayce would eventually learn how to harness magic as a form of technology and revolutionise the world as we know it. In the form of Hextech.
All was going well with Jayce, he was elected to the Council of Piltover, and he was working with his friend and partner Viktor. That is until Viktor began to use their technology for a much more nefarious purpose and Jayce was forced to use his innovations to destroy.
Powers
- Inventor, Mercury Hammer, Mercury Cannon
Jayce has always been a brilliant inventor and has come up with many devices over the years. As the person who perfected Hextech, he is one of the leading scientists in Hextech innovations.
One of his main weapons is a Hextech hammer that he uses to defend Piltover from the upheaval of Zaun and his old partner Viktor. The hammer can transform into a powered great hammer that has the hammer’s head and pommel enhanced so that its ability to deal with heavy blows is intensified. Ir it can transform into a blaster that can shoot lightning orbs. It can also emit an electrical field that surrounds Jayce and knocks back and electrocutes nearby enemies.
Caitlyn Kiramman | The Sheriff Of Piltover
“To be the best hunter, you have to be able to think like your prey.”
Born into a wealthy and influential merchant family, Caitlyn could choose to do anything but instead becomes an Enforcer. Her story varies from the Arcane version with her parents in the TV series not supporting her career choice because they deemed it unworthy of the elite. In the League of Legends lore, her mother encourages her to look outside the prestige and politics.
Growing up together with Jayce Talis, a sponsored youth of the Kiramman family. Their paths often cross and he treats her with older brotherly affection. They remain on good terms in the present day with their favourite pastime being sniping challenges.
During her years growing up her house one day gets robbed and her parents kidnapped. This would be her first foray into detective work and using her skills she was able to rescue them. She was however unable to capture the ringleader who remains at large til today.
Renowned as its finest peacekeeper, Caitlyn is Piltover’s best shot at ridding the city of its elusive criminal elements. She is often paired with Vi, acting as a cool counterpoint to her partner’s more impetuous nature. How such an unlikely pairing came about—and been proven so effective—is the subject of wild rumour and tavern speculation among their fellow Wardens, as well as those they haul away to jail.
Even though she carries a one-of-a-kind Hextech rifle, crafted by her parents. Caitlyn’s most powerful weapon is her superior intellect, allowing her to lay elaborate traps for any lawbreakers foolish enough to operate in the City of Progress.
Heimerdinger | Professor Heimerdinger | The Revered Inventor
A brilliant yet eccentric scientist, Professor Cecil B. Heimerdinger is lauded as one of the most innovative minds and esteemed inventors Piltover has ever seen. Relentless in his work to the point of neurotic obsession, he is fascinated by mysteries that have confounded his contemporaries for decades and thrives on answering the universe’s most impenetrable questions. Though his theories often appear opaque and esoteric, Heimerdinger believes knowledge should be shared and is devoted to teaching all who desire it.
Not much is known about Heimerdinger’s early life in Bandle City. At some point he would venture out from the Spirit Realm to Runeterra, eventually arriving at the port city of Zaun. Being inspired by seeing a scientist, Heimerdinger would become a genius inventor, contributing to the construction of the Sun Gates.
He is considered as one of the founding fathers of Piltover. Including one of the founders of Piltover University, with his statue adorning the entrance to this prestigious school.
Ekko | The Boy Who Shattered Time
Ekko the genius boy inventor. He grew up on the streets of Zaun with Powder and Vi. Born with genius-level intellect, Ekko constructed simple machines before he could crawl. After the big explosion in Zaun that made him lose Vi, Powder and Vander he got together with the other lost children of Zaun to form the Firelights.
This isn’t shown in the Arcane TV series, but one day he stumbles upon and stray Hextech and upon some creative engineering manages to tear a hole in the fabric of time. Working together with his other paradox copies he manages to repair and harness the crystal’s temporal powers.
Ekko’s time-bending antics have made him a person of interest to some of Zaun and Piltover’s most inventive, most powerful, and most dangerous individuals. But his only interest is in his friends, his family, and his city. He dreams of the day when his hometown rises up to dwarf the so-called City of Progress when Piltover’s golden veneer will be overshadowed by the towering ingenuity and relentless spunk of a Zaun born not from generations of privilege, but from sheer daring.
He may not have a plan yet, but he’s got all the time in the world.
