Notkener

"Blood and vengeance." -  Renekton

Renekton is a terrifying,  rage-fueled Ascended being from the scorched deserts

of Shurima. Once, he was his empire's most esteemed warrior, leading the armies of

Shurima to countless victories. However, after the empire's  fall, Renekton was

entombed beneath the sands, and slowly, as the world turned and changed, he

succumbed to insanity. Now free once more, he is utterly consumed with finding and

killing his brother,  Nasus, who he blames, in his madness, for the centuries he

spent in darkness.

Contents

Butcher of the Sands

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Starring Champion

Mentioned Champion

Alternate Universes

References

Butcher of the Sands

Renekton was born to fight. From a young age he was constantly getting into vicious

brawls. He had no fear, and was able to hold his own against much older children. It

was often pride that led to these confrontations, as Renekton was unable to back

down, or let any insult pass. Every evening, he came home with cuts and fresh
bruises, and while his more scholarly older brother,  Nasus, disapproved of his

street-fighting, Renekton relished it.

Nasus soon moved away, having been chosen to join the elite Collegium of the Sun,

and in the years he was absent, Renekton's skirmishes became increasingly serious. On

a rare visit home, Nasus was horrified to see his bloodied young brother return home

from yet another street fight. Fearing Renekton's violent nature would see him

imprisoned or in an early grave, Nasus helped him enlist in the Shuriman army.

Officially, Renekton was too young for this duty, but his older brother's influence

smoothed away this detail.

The discipline and regimentation of the army was a blessing for Renekton. Within a

few years, he rose to become one of Shurima's most feared and capable war-captains,

and he fought on the front line in numerous wars of conquest to expand the empire.

He garnered a reputation for ferocity and toughness, but also for honor and bravery.

Nasus became a decorated general, and the two of them served in a number of

campaigns together, remaining very close despite their inherent differences and

frequent disagreements. Nasus' skill lay in strategy, logistics and history; Renekton's

lay in battle. Nasus planned the wars, and Renekton won them.

Renekton earned the title Gatekeeper of Shurima after fighting a desperate battle in

one of the mountain passes bordering Shurima. An invading force had landed on the

south coast, striking toward the isolated city of Zuretta. If it was not halted, the city

was certain to be razed, and its populace massacred. Outnumbered ten to one,

Renekton and a small contingent faced these aggressors, determined to buy time for

the city to be evacuated. It was a battle that none expected Renekton to survive, let
alone win. He held the pass for a day and a night, long enough for a relief force led by

Nasus to arrive. With barely a handful of warriors left standing, none uninjured,

Renekton was hailed a hero.

Renekton served on the frontlines for decades, and never lost a battle. His presence

was inspiring to those fighting alongside him, and terrifying to his enemies. Victory

after victory were his, and such was his reputation that some wars were won without

a sword even being lifted, enemy nations surrendering as soon as they heard Renekton

was marching on them.

Renekton was of middling years, a grizzled and battle-scarred veteran, when word

reached him that his brother was close to death. He raced back to the capital to find

Nasus a pale shadow of his former self, having been struck down by a debilitating

wasting malady. The sickness was incurable, similar to the rotting curse said to have

cut down an entire noble line in antiquity.

Nevertheless, Nasus' greatness was recognized by one and all. As well as being a

highly decorated general, he curated the great library of Shurima, and penned many

of the finest literary works in the empire. The priesthood proclaimed it to be the sun's

will that he undertake the Ascension ritual.

The whole city gathered to witness the holy rite, but the tragic illness had taken a

terrible toll, and Nasus no longer had the strength to scale the stairs to the Ascension

dais. In the ultimate act of self-sacrifice and love, Renekton lifted his brother in his

arms, and climbed the final steps, fully expecting to be obliterated in the process by

the holy energies of the  sun disc. He deemed his sacrifice a small thing to ensure

that his brother would live on. He was just a warrior, after all, albeit a talented one,
while his brother was a peerless scholar, thinker, and general. Renekton knew that

Shurima would need Nasus in the years to come.

Renekton was not destroyed, however. Beneath the blinding radiance of the sun disc,

both brothers were raised up and remade. When the light faded, two

mighty Ascended beings stood before the onlookers, Nasus in his lean, jackal-headed

body, and Renekton in his immense, crocodilian form. Their forms seemed apt; the

jackal was often regarded as the most clever and cunning of beasts, and the fearless

aggression of the crocodile fit Renekton perfectly. Shurima gave thanks to have these

new demigods as guardians of the empire.

Renekton had been a mighty war hero before, but now he was an Ascended being,

blessed with power beyond mortal understanding. He was stronger and faster than

any regular man, and seemed virtually immune to pain. Though Ascended beings were

not immortal, their lifespans were dramatically increased, so that they might serve

the empire for hundreds of years.

With Renekton at the head of the Shuriman armies, the empire's military was all but

unstoppable. He had always been a ruthless commander and ferocious fighter, but his

new form gave him power beyond belief. He led the soldiers of Shurima to many

bloody victories, neither giving nor expecting mercy. His legend spread far beyond the

borders of the empire, and it was his enemies that gave him the name Butcher of the

Sands, a title he embraced.

There were those, Nasus among them, who came to believe that a portion of

Renekton's humanity had been lost in his transformation. As the years progressed, he

seemed to become crueler, relishing the spilling of blood more than was natural, and
whispers circulated of atrocities he committed in the name of war. Nevertheless, he

was a staunch defender of Shurima, and he faithfully served a succession of emperors,

ensuring the security and greatness of Shurima for hundreds of years.

During the reign of the Emperor  Azir, word arrived that a magical being of fire had

escaped the magical  sarcophagus that bound it in its underground prison. It had

laid waste to a Shuriman town, before fleeing across the desert to the east. Renekton

and his brother Nasus set forth to recapture this legendary foe. While they were

absent, the young emperor, guided by the manipulations of his magus,  Xerath,

attempted to join their ranks and become one of the Ascended. The results were

catastrophic.

Reneketon and Nasus were a day's ride from the capital, but even so, they felt the

shockwave as the Ascension ritual went awry. Knowing that something terrible had

come to pass, they raced back to find the glorious city in ruins. Azir had been killed,

along with most of the city's populace, and the great sun disc was falling, drained of

all its power. At the epicenter of the ruin, they encountered Xerath, now a being of

pure, malevolent power.

The brothers sought to bind Xerath in the magical sarcophagus that had held the

ancient being of fire. For a day and a night they battled, but the magus was powerful,

and would not be held. He shattered the sarcophagus, and assailed them with spells

fueled by the power of sun disc, which crashed to the ground as they fought.

Knowing that they could not destroy Xerath, Renekton finally wrestled him into the

depthless Tomb of the Emperors, and bade his brother seal them inside forever.

Knowing there was no other way to stop Xerath, Nasus reluctantly did as his brother
ordered. As Renekton and Xerath fell into darkness, Nasus sealed the tomb for all

eternity.

In the darkness, Xerath and Renekton continued their battle. For uncounted years

they fought, as the once-great civilization of Shurima collapsed to dust in the world

above. Xerath whispered poison in Renekton's ear, and gradually, as the centuries

rolled on, his viperous words and the ever-present darkness took its toll. The magus

implanted the notion in Renekton's mind that Nasus had sealed him in on purpose,

jealous of his success, and unwilling to share his Ascension.

Piece by piece, Renekton's sanity cracked. Xerath drove a wedge into these cracks,

corrupting his mind and twisting his perception of what was real and what was

imagined.

Thousands of years later, the Tomb of the Emperors was opened by the mercenary 

Sivir, freeing Renekton and Xerath. Renekton roared his fury and thundered out into

the Shuriman desert, sniffing the air for the scent of his brother.

Renekton now roams the deserts, seeking the death of Nasus, the traitor he believes

left him to die. His grip on reality is tenuous at best, and while there are moments

when he resembles the proud, honorable hero of the past, much of the time he is

little more than a devolved hate-maddened beast, driven on by the thirst for blood

and vengeance.