TALES OF RUNETERRA: IONIAN
ZED THE MASTER OF SHADOWS
Cruel and merciless, Zed was the leader of the Order of Shadow, an organization he created with the aim of militarizing the Ionian traditions of magic and martial arts to persecute the Noxus invaders. In times of war, despair made him open the image of—a dangerous, destructive, and powerful spirit magic. Zed mastered the forbidden technique to destroy anything he perceived as a threat to his country, or his new order.
Behind the curtain of Ionian harmony lies the story of those left behind. For Zed, his story begins as a child on a cold floor in the Kinkou Order sorority house.
Brought by Great Master Kusho himself, Zed found his place inside the ancient temple. He devotes himself to understanding Kinkou's spiritual teachings, quickly getting ahead of his peers both in terms of combat and lessons. However, he felt overshadowed by another person's— son, Shen. Although Zed's abilities shone through in all the techniques he perfected, he lacked the emotional balance Shen possessed. But the two disciples became like brothers.
One day, they travel with their teacher to track down the famous Golden Demon. When they finally manage to capture this dreaded “monster,” which is then revealed is just a man named Khada Jhin. The young Zed lunged with his sword raised high, but Kusho stopped him, and he ordered Jhin to be imprisoned.
Upon returning to their temple, Zed's heart is filled with hatred, and he begins to struggle with his lessons. He is haunted by memories of the horrific murders committed by Jhin, and the mounting tension between Ionia and the royal forces of Noxus hnaya exacerbates his thinking. While Shen begins to pass down his father's nature, Zed refuses to let the noble values of balance stand in his way of punishing evil.
He ventured into the temple's hidden catacombs, and there he found a beautiful black box. Although he knew it was forbidden for anyone but the leader of the order, he peered inside.
The shadow rules Zed's mind, fills his bitterness with feelings of hatred for the weak, and chooses ancient dark magic.
Returning to the light of the temple, he encountered Great Master Kusho directly. Zed asks Kinkou to attack the Noxus invaders with all their strength. When Kusho refused, Zed left the order that had raised him.
Gathering his own new priest, he returns to the Kinkou temple, where he meets Kusho. The old man pointed his weapon at Zed's feet, ordering his former student to leave behind a shadow in order to go in a more balanced direction.
Shortly thereafter, Zed returned to the steps of the temple. In one hand, he grasped the box—and in the other, his knife filled with fresh blood.
Kinkou's society is shocked, they fall when Zed's fighters kill them. He then took control of the temple, he established the Order of Shadow, and began training his preacher by the path of darkness. They carved his flesh with shadow tattoos, they learned to fight with the way of darkness within him.
Zed took advantage of the ongoing war against Noxus, and the suffering it brought to Ionian society. At the site of the massacre near the Epool River, he meets Kayn, a child fighter from Noxus who is clutching a farmer's sickle. Zed saw the boy as a weapon waiting to be honed, and he nurtured him as his personal disciple. From the young priest, he saw a purity of purpose that equaled his. Inside Kayn, Zed saw the future of the Order of Shadow.
Although he made no peace with Shen and the rest of Kinkou, now scattered throughout the province, they found an unstable harmony at the end of the war. Zed understood that what he had done could not be undone.
A few years later, it was clear the balance of the First Lands had been disrupted, perhaps for all eternity. For Zed, the consequences of spiritual harmony are unimportant—he will do everything to see the Ionian victory.
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