KAYN

THE SHADOW REAPER

Noxian by birth, Shieda Kayn and others like him were conscripted as child soldiers, a

cruel practice employed by only the most devious commanders in Boram Darkwill’s

empire. Following the disastrous battle at the Placidium of Navori, the invasion was

deliberately reformulated into a protracted war of attrition. Ionian compassion was a

weakness to be exploited—their warriors would hesitate before striking down a

supposed innocent. Thus, barely able to lift the blade he had been given, Kayn’s first

day in battle was also expected to be his last.

Striking against the province of Bahrl, Noxian forces landed at the mouth of the Epool

River. Kayn and the others were a reluctant vanguard, facing disorganized bands of

locals defending their home from these returning invaders. While his young comrades

were cut down or fled the battlefield, Kayn showed no fear. He dropped his heavy

sword and snatched up a fallen sickle, turning to face the shocked Ionians just as the

Noxian regulars swept in from the flank.

The carnage was staggering. Farmers, hunters—even a handful of vastaya—all were

butchered without ceremony.

Two days later, after word had spread throughout the southern provinces, the Order of

Shadow came upon the grisly scene. Their leader, Zed, knew this area had no tactical

significance. This massacre was intended as a message. Noxus would show no mercy.

A flickering glint of steel caught his eye. A child of no more than ten lay in the mud,

leveling his broken sickle at the master assassin, bloody knuckles straining white. The

boy’s eyes harbored a pain that belied his age, yet still burned with all the fury of a
hardened warrior. This tenacity was not something that could be taught. Zed saw in

this child, this abandoned Noxian survivor, a weapon that could be turned against

those who had sent him here to die. The assassin held out his hand and welcomed Kayn

into the Order of Shadow.

Acolytes traditionally spent years training with a single weapon of their choosing, but

Kayn mastered them all—to him, they were mere tools, and he was the weapon. Armor

he viewed as a cumbersome burden, instead cloaking himself in shadows and slaying

his enemies with quickness and stealth. These swift executions instilled fear in the

hearts of those fortunate enough to be spared.

And as Kayn’s legend grew, so did his arrogance. He truly believed that one day his

power would eclipse even that of Zed himself.

This hubris led Kayn to embrace his final test: to seek out a darkin weapon recently

unearthed in Noxus, and prevent it from ever being used against the weary defenders

of Ionia. He accepted without hesitation, never questioning why he had been chosen

for this task. Indeed, where any other acolyte would have destroyed the living scythe

known as Rhaast, Kayn took it for himself.

The corruption took hold the moment his fingers closed around the weapon, locking

them both in a fateful struggle. Rhaast has long awaited the perfect host in order to

rejoin its darkin brethren and lay waste to the world, but Kayn will not be easily

dominated. He returns to Ionia in triumph, convinced that Zed will name him the new

leader of the Order of Shadow.