Last week League of Legends talked about how it has been planning on rebooting the lore of its universe and it looks like we are getting the first tastes of it starting now.

Riot Games has started a new event this week centered around the desert empire of Shurima. The event revolves around new story elements and also acts as a way to introduce a new champion known as Azir.

On the official page, the story behind the event was explained as follows:

A thousand years ago, the glorious empire of Shurima shone like a second sun across the desert. Its emperor, Azir, was young but ambitious – and thus easily manipulated. Azir's magus, Xerath, whispered in his ear that the ancient rite of Ascension would give the young emperor the power he craved. But Xerath stole Ascension's power for himself, obliterating Azir and reducing the gleaming capital city to ruins in the process. Nasus and Renekton, brothers and legendary Ascended heroes, stopped Xerath – but the cost was high: at Renekton's urging, Nasus entombed his beloved brother with the mad magus, to keep Xerath doubly contained in the buried ruins of Shurima for all eternity. Or so he believed. For now two adventurers seek the legendary Tomb of the Emperors...

While I am a sucker for Egyptian inspired lore, the real meat behind this update is a new game mode called Ascension. The mode places a NPC named Xerath in the middle of the map that players can defeat to get a powerful buff to their teams stats at the cost of always being visible on the map and having healing abilities effectiveness halved while the buff lasts. It should be an interesting little spin on the tradition MOBA mechanics to spice things up.

Other benefits of the event include a new skin for Kha'zix, wards and an exclusive emblem that players can earn. Champions related to Shurima are also presently available in the free-to-play rotation and have had their prices temporarily reduced.

You can play the Shurima League of Legends update from now till September 21st and can check out a new trailer for the update below.

//www.youtube.com/embed/iFIp2UOvT9E