((I still love Zyra. I love everything about her or I would not have rewritten her lore. But I also love Irelia and Rengar. I had to pick my priorities and those priorities were Rengar and Irelia. I have not abandoned this blog but I do not think I will have time to update often this blog (it’s been a few months anyway).

I plan to purge this blog before restarting.

We’ll see.))

#ooc

So, Zyra doesn’t have a reason for joining the League written into her lore.

I think it’s because she didn’t even know the League existed. She had a body, she was free to roam and free to kill and live and thrive.

Take a look at this map. Zyra originated in the Plague Jungles. Estatic about her new body and chance at life, she felt the need to refill herself. She’d spent centuries starved in a barren graveyard of the withered remains and dust that were her brethren. Brothers, sisters, children, lovers, they were all dead now.

She fulfilled the primal urge to reproduce and live and sustain herself and goes toward where there is life. She headed north to Kumungu, slaughtering and devouring animals she could catch, leaving their remains to feed her seedlings and grow them. She found human trails on the edge of Kumungu toward the heat of Shurima. The heat deterred her but she felt to urge to continue to travel north.

This is because the Sorceress whose magic was what she used to form her body was a League summoner. 

The only reason the sorceress could have known anything about these monstrous, long-extinct plants was if she had access to a vast database of knowledge. Where else but the Institute of War? Their summoners are the most advanced minds in Valoran. She found herself curious and stupidly went alone to see if these stories were true. She found the plant graveyard and found herself disappointed with the sight of withered leaves and crumbling roots. This sorceress was not some unwitting novice, nor was she a master but she was powerful. She let her guard down, though, and because of this one of the withered plants knew she was there and oh, it was hungry. This queen plant, the last plant alive, had the element of surprise on the sorceress. Zyra had the advantage of being the most well-preserved ‘dead’ plant, so the sorceress approached her to examine the plant shape. Using this opportunity, she sprung, using the last remains of her energy.

As I said earlier, this sorceress was not a novice, and she tried quickly to fight back, but fumbled with her spell. This spell imbued Zyra and gave her the energy to finish the sorceress off, inheriting her magical prowess in the process. Zyra then used her newfound magic to to create a body using the memories of her host. Her body is not completely human. She has no heart, lungs, or intestines. Her body is a plant. Her legs and arms are manifestations of this. The reason for her having breasts is because her host was female, and she was compelled to make these in form because she felt this is what was ‘natural’ to her host’s species. They made her uncomfortable so she fashioned a bra to support them while running and hunting. Later she utilized her form to attract male humans as prey because they found it appealing, which was better for her.

When she dies on the Fields, her original form bursts through her skin, previously repressed by her magic keeping her form humanoid, and thus keeping her alive. Her form does not last before perishing because this magic leaks away and removes any blessings she had received under it. She fires one last, incredibly deadly thorn as a revenge upon all those who remain alive.

Zyra photosynthesizes and uses water and carbon dioxide to create sugar like any other plant. She gives off oxygen as a byproduct. She does not ‘need’ to eat, not for pleasure at least. She can survive for a very long time on water and sunlight alone, but Zyra’s fatal flaw is that she does not produce her own amino acids, and this prevents her cells from preforming vital mitosis and meiosis. By consuming meat, especially in vast quantities, her body stores the animo acids of her prey for use in biological functions. She can drink or absorb liquids through her skin, it is whatever suits her fancy.

So naturally, venturing into the desert made her weary. But the memories of her host compelled her ‘home’: The Institute of War. 

She ravaged her way through caravans and oases. Her trip through the Shurima desert was long and gruesome. She was forced to take her time or run the risk of dying, something she did not plan on for centuries to come.

Upon reaching the Mogron Pass through the mountains, ever closer to the Institute, it was hard to keep her monstrous existence a secret. Gypsy rumors from Shurima traveled far and wide, and upon finally reaching the ears of the Institute, it was decided she needed to be stopped. Zyra, having not been presented with a true threat was not prepared for the powerful binding magicks of the most powerful League summoners. Oh, she fought viciously against their binds, but in the end it was futile. They drug her to the Institute.

The transformation of this monster’s personality upon reaching the Institute was astounding. During the return, the summoners found themselves bombarded with death threats, scathing remarks and pure, furious hunger. She was such a primal creature. Yet, upon returning to the Institute, she calmed. It was the sort of calming the happens to an animal when they feel they are in a safe place such as a den or nest. Zyra still acted with hostility for the summoners, fueled by hunger and distrust, but she no longer rampaged.

They were forced to feed her, for it was learned that she could not live off of photosynthesis alone and she grew weak. The summoners did not want to risk her dying on them, unknowing she could live for a long time in a weakened state by simply photosynthesizing. Blood and flesh were required to sustain her energy, so carefully the summoners caught game for her to eat, avoiding overfeeding her and making her powerful. None of these summoners, certainly not scholars, could decide just what she was. Their medical teams examined her and it was very quickly learned that she was simply not human, but as in the case of Maokai, she wasn’t just a plant, either.

When exposed to Maokai to see if he could provide any knowledge, the Ent and the plant woman were at each other’s throats (metaphorically) the entire encounter. Maokai resented her as a plant who chose a sentient, magically bound life. Zyra found him weak and useless for desiring to be a mindless tree again. It provided no new information for the summoners.

When the summoners finally coaxed Zyra to talk about herself, they were astounded. They learned what had happened to their missing summoner and found themselves at a loss with what to do. There was no way they could simply kill the last member of a now sentient species, bloodthirsty or not. Zyra never left the institute of War, even when left unattended. When fed well (by her standards and hers alone) she did not attack the summoners of the Institute. This was her home, her nest, and she had claimed it.

As long as she was theirs, they may as well have given her a purpose to distract her from the feral need to eat and reproduce.

As such, Zyra came to the League.

#league of legends #leagueoflegends #zyra #lore