The League of Legends universe is incredibly deserving of countless spin-offs and story-based games. Its depths of lore are over a decade in the making, so it's uniquely suited to support countless interlocking stories based on-and-around its 162 (soon to be 163 with the release of Milio) champions. Among them, Sylas, a mage-assassin top/midlaner, will be one of the next characters to have his story explored — and I couldn't think of a better choice for a game protagonist.
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story will be an action RPG from Digital Sun, the same studio that created the rogue-lite Moonlighter. The trailer and the official website give us some hints about the plans for The Mageseeker's plot, but most of the information about the upcoming game can be pulled from what we already know about Sylas's backstory and the nation in which he lives.
First and foremost, Sylas is a revolutionary. He's an escaped convict trying to free the oppressed mages of Demacia, the nation in which he was born. And what's better than a Les Mis-style tale of drama, freedom, and intrigue to fill out an action RPG? The game preview gave us some insight into what we'll see: Fights with Demacian guards in the streets, boss battles against existing League characters (Garen and Morgana seem to make an appearance), and recruiting missions to attract mages from around The Great City of Demacia to his cause, all to lead them in the final siege we saw in the 2020 Season cinematic.
Sylas's identity as a League champion gives us some insight into potential for the game mechanics themselves; after all, he's already got a fully canon kit just ready to be expanded into an RPG's setting. Beyond his ability to detect other mages, Sylas is uniquely capable of stealing a mage's power for his own. All he has to do is touch them, and he's able to co-opt their abilities and use them himself, sometimes even surpassing the original user's capabilities.
Sylas's physical weapons of choice are the same shackles that once held him captive; he chooses to continue to wear them as a symbol of his own liberation, and a sign that he has come to liberate others. They also make for a pretty badass fighting style. As cool as it is in League of Legends proper, I can't wait to see it more fully fleshed out.
Sylas's backstory, however, is the true reason The Mageseeker has the potential to shine. For the uninitiated, here's a quick history lesson (no spoilers, no worries!). Sylas of Dregbourne was born in Demacia, one of the major regions of the League of Legends world known as Runeterra. It's a nation that prides itself on its justice and lawfulness, built primarily on a single tenet: Magic is very, very dangerous.
The Great City of Demacia is even built entirely of a combination of marble and petricite, a wood that can absorb and dampen magic. The ruling class's fear of mages led to the creation of a police force called the Mageseekers. They're sort of like the Chantry in Dragon Age, and the core antagonists of the upcoming game. They seek out mages to imprison, kill, or enlist in their search to find other mages. The only way to exist safely as a mage in the nation of Demacia is to seek out your own kind, and that's where Sylas comes into the story.
When Sylas's powers were discovered as a young boy, his parents convinced him to turn himself into the Mageseekers. He was able to sense the magical abilities in others around him, which made him the perfect tool for rooting out hidden mages. However, Sylas soon realizes that many of the people he's tasked with finding are just like him.
This is what eventually leads to his imprisonment, and in turn what eventually leads him to start his revolution against the powers that be. That seems to be where we find Sylas in the trailer for The Mageseeker. He's ready to free himself from prison and free those around him from their metaphysical shackles.
The story itself is the perfect setting for an action-RPG. Thematically, it's a treasure trove of topics relevant to today's world: Oppression, revolution, freedom, and the expression of one's self in the face of those who'd hate you for it are all at the forefront of Sylas's story. I want to know the ins and outs of the character who, so far, has been primarily explored from the Demacian side. Even one of the in-game tool tips references Sylas by saying that, since Lux (another young mage hiding her true potential within Demacian walls) trusted him, she inadvertently caused the deaths of quite a few Demacians.
It's hard not to get excited about seeing one of League's greatest anti-heroes come to life — and the chance to explore Lux's backstory and her connection to Sylas's revolution is hard to pass up, too. I can't help but hope we get the same kind of character development we saw in the League of Legends' series Arcane; There's no official release date for The Mageseeker yet, but supposed to be coming very soon — Spring 2023, in fact. Until then, I'll be brushing up on my League lore and searching the Rift for clues on what's to come.