"A New Yun" - Early Ixtal story sketch
At Riot Games, narrative writers often create “story sketches” to explore early ideation of new concepts, characters, locations, or other creative content. Below is my first story sketch for the region in Runeterra that became Ixtal, written after crafting the initial outline document that pitched foundational truths about the region.
The following is non-canon.
Synopsis: A fire/stone wielding member of e-faction reflects on the changing times and the aggression of the newly ascended Yun (e-blade)*. [NOTE: E-Blade, or Elemental Blade, was the code name for Qiyana, whose narrative at the time briefly explored her as already ruling the faction.)
Maeyl wiped the sweat from her brow and stretched. The five kilns of her open air workshop blazed happily, the flames underneath each earthen belly burning a clear yellow, speckled with small licks of white. Even as a fireheart, the heat that radiated from each kiln pressed against her, a familiar presence further mitigated by her stone magic hardening her skin. Normal flesh would blister and peel at these temperatures. Maeyl instead focused her thoughts and pushed, increasing the heat of each flame more, tuning the fire to heat the terranware inside each kiln at just the right level. Years of practice had ground her magic from effort into instinct, allowing her thoughts to meander as she worked.
Maeyl enjoyed her life as a kilnmaster. Everyone needed the practical pieces - pots and jugs and urns - and her artistic practice had also grown in renown and appreciation in recent years. Her pieces now hung in many nobles’ residences, and her greatest work - a beautiful glazed sculpture of an elder infernal drake - stood on proud display in a central room of the Fire Arcology.
But the new Yun had invoked the Decree - not called in nearly a generation - for all master elementalists and stronger to report to the Heart of Ketzlcal - and Maeyl doubted it was to continue her work creating ceramics.
She sighed and waved her hands, soothing the flames into a cooler orange, then wiped them on her apron as she left the kilns. She did not usually follow politics. The work of the Council, the shifting roster of the royal family, who the new up and coming oahli were, all felt so distant from her daily life. She hadn’t even traveled to central Ketzlcal in a season, preferring instead to send her apprentices to deliver her wares to the city center. Her quiet day to day at the outskirts of the jungle, under the familiar shadow of the Fire Arc, brought her joy and satisfaction.
But perhaps she was simply growing complacent in her age.
Maeyl shook her head, laughing to herself. If her father could see her now - thinking of herself as old! “You’re but a spry pup yet,” she could hear him scolding.
And her complacency didn’t come just from the passing of years. The prolonged peace, the relative quietness of the dragons, all meant she hadn’t wielded her flames in combat in a long while. Plus, of her stonecore powers, she preferred working with the softer, more malleable materials of clay. Her mastery of metalcraft was, somewhat ironically, a bit rusty.
Still, if the Yun invoked the Decree, and if rumors of outside interlopers were true... Maeyl would be ready.
After all, she was a Katanali* [working name of region before Ixtal). Her people had weathered cataclysms that annihilated the rest of the world. The gift of the elements ran through her blood. And even in her present soft, malleable state… she could shatter any enemies that dare challenge her Yun.