Atakhan

On Summoner's Rift, Atakhan manifests as a towering, Void-corrupted beast that appears in one of two forms depending on the flow of the match. It occupies a wall alcove on the top side of the map, where it serves as a game-altering neutral objective. Felling it grants a dramatic power spike, rewarding the team that can bring the creature down and shifting the balance of the Rift in their favor. In the wider lore of Runeterra, Atakhan is a demon bound to the events of the Trials of Twilight. He first surfaces in Xin Zhao's nightmare, a vision from "Beginning of the End" in which the demon is seen wielding the Darkin Glaive amid a destroyed Demacian throne room. The dream reads as a premonition, and it fixes Xin Zhao's attention on Atakhan as the threat to come. That fear was engineered. The vision was almost certainly an illusion sent by LeBlanc, who used the demon as a smokescreen while she pursued the Darkin weapon for a host of her own. Atakhan leads a demonkin horde, and the lesser Azakana spirits that move with it act as further diversions, luring the priestess Yunara from her post so the glaive and the Darkin sealed within it, Zaahen, could be freed. LeBlanc's tie to the demon runs deep: after the events of "A Demon's Hand," it was Atakhan who revealed the weapon's location to her, and she is able to command him. The confrontation comes to a head when Xin Zhao and Yunara face the demon directly to stop him from claiming the glaive. Yunara, who once sealed the Darkin away, vows to seal it once more, while Xin Zhao warns the ancient being that its age has passed. Atakhan's rampage frames the season's conflict, even as the true struggle unfolds in the shadows behind it.