The Story of Skarner
The Brackern are among Runeterra's oldest beings — ancient scorpion-like creatures who lived in the Shuriman crystal wastes, communing with each other and with the world through crystals that contained their collective memory. Skarner is one of the last of them, and the crisis that has nearly destroyed his people is one with a very specific cause: Piltover discovered that Brackern crystals make excellent power sources for Hextech devices, and began mining them.
What Piltover didn't know — or chose not to investigate — was that the crystals weren't inert minerals. They were the living memory of an ancient civilization, and extracting them destroyed the Brackern who depended on them. Skarner watched his kind disappear one by one as the mining operations expanded. He has sent the others into a deep hibernation to protect what remains of their consciousness while he fights to recover the stolen crystals and free his people.
He is working through official channels — through treaties, through appeals — while also being entirely prepared to do considerably less diplomatic things if those approaches fail. The crystals powering Hextech devices across Piltover contain pieces of Brackern souls. Getting them back requires dismantling aspects of an economy an entire city is built on. Skarner has the patience of a species measured in geological time, and he is not giving up.