The assistant to the Dean of the Academy confiscates his work and Jayce is arrested by the wardens for conducting unauthorized research. A break in at his workshop causes one of his hex crystals to shatter, blowing up his workshop and causing the wardens to launch an investigation into his research. Such power often comes with consequences, and the production of synthetic crystals is rumored to be a heavy contributor to the Zaun Gray.Ī Clan Kiramman apprenta, by the name of Jayce Talis, begins secretly experimenting with a way to harness magic through science with the hex crystals, inspired after being saved as a child by a mage. Utilizing certain shadow investments in chemtech and runic alchemy, the Ferros family brought to market the less powerful, but easier to procure, synthetic hex-crystals. The creatures Elicia Ferros found, the Brackern, were not an unending resource, and Camille's family had to look for ways to augment the crystals they had accumulated. Her sacrifice was celebrated, and it set an expectation that is still reflected in the Ferros family motto today, “For family, will I give.” Camille's Great-Great Aunt Elicia lost an arm, and nearly her life, during one such early expedition. These first hex-crystals, or “first crystals,” contained power normally reserved to those born with innate magical ability. The Ferros family gained most of its wealth through a rare crystal harvested from a creature native to the sands of a distant valley. This brought immense wealth to the city and likely led to Piltover's construction and elevation from Zaun, as the ruling families were in control of the taxes and trade produced by the Sun Gates, leading to the formation of the actual merchantile clans.Ĭonstruction of the Sun Gates led to great changes in eastern Valoran and the eastern seas, as Noxus was from this point on able to more easily pool together resources from across its empire without needing land travel, and Bilgewater's pirates found the seas brimming with trade ships waiting to be plundered, feeding in to the criminal underbelly of the city. In order to regulate the river passage they were built over, the Sun Gates were constructed, forcing all transport through the waters to be regulated by Zaun. She has yet to leave Zaun following this event.Įventually, Zaun was rebuilt. Janna, empowered by the prayers of Zaun's people, arrived and blew away the gas, saving many lives and being eternally remembered by Zaun's denizens, converting her from a goddess of faith for sailors to a guardian deity for Zaun.
In what seemed to be an accident, the bombs triggered a series of earthquakes that completely destroyed the isthmus and sank large districts of Zaun and thousands of its citizens, while also leaking poisonous gas into the city's surviving areas.
The plan involved using thousand of chemtech bombs to crack open an area of the land so that a cavern could be created, but the results were catastrophic. Zaun finalized its plans to destroy a portion of the isthmus connecting Valoran and the Southern Continent, allowing for safe sea passage between eastern and western Valoran. Ziggs was hiding with Heimerdinger and met Jinx in the Paint the Town comic, both being in love with explosives and made a quick friendship untill Ziggs stopped Jinx from killing people.Zed tried to track down Jhin in Piltover and Zaun.Viktor is a former friend and now adversary to Jayce.
2.2 Discovery of the First Hex Crystals.