Shadow Isles
Champion Lore

Vex

the Gloomist

In the black heart of the Shadow Isles, a lone yordle trudges through the spectral fog, content in its murky misery. With an endless supply of teen angst and a powerful shadow in tow, Vex lives in her own self-made slice of gloom, far from the revolting cheer of the “normie” world. Though she lacks ambition, she is quick to strike down color and happiness, stopping all would-be interlopers with her magical malaise.

Vex splash art
Vex splash art
Origin & Background

The Story of Vex

Vex is a yordle who ended up in the Shadow Isles — specifically in the Black Mist — because it was, by her assessment, the most appropriate place for someone with her disposition. Yordles are supposed to be warm, curious, and communal. Vex is gloomy, antisocial, and genuinely delighted by doom in ways that made her an outlier in Bandle City long before she found her way to the most miserable place in Runeterra. The Mist suits her. Everything there is appropriately unpleasant.

Her magic works through shadow — her own and the environment's. She can manipulate darkness as a physical force, project her personal shadow as a weapon, and pull dark energy from the environment around her. In the Shadow Isles, this makes her significantly more powerful than she would be anywhere else. She is aware that the Isles are technically a horrifying realm of undeath and existential despair. She considers this a feature.

She was recruited by Viego during his campaign to restore his dead queen, which provided her with a purpose that aligned with her existing preferences: helping with something deeply dark and doing it from an appropriately gloomy environment. The fact that Viego's plan went catastrophically wrong and ended with her in a considerably more complicated situation is, she acknowledges, annoying. She is dealing with it. By which she means she is sitting in the dark and being quietly furious about the interruption to her preferred gloom.

Key Connections

Relationships

Viego
Former Employer
The Ruined King whose doomed quest she assisted — a man whose obsessive grief produced an environment she found professionally comfortable.