Navori

Navori is a province of Ionia, spanning the western portion of the Ionian Mainland. It is the most populous of Ionia's regions, home to farming villages, esteemed schools, sacred gardens of wild magic, and the renowned Placidium of Navori. It remains inhabited, though its people carry the scars of repeated Noxian invasions and the internal strife that followed. The Placidium of Navori is the province's most storied site, a gathering place for Ionia's most respected performers and a stronghold guarding its monasteries and sacred gardens. Xan Irelia came here as a girl to study the traditional silk dances, then returned as a fighter when the war reached her home. It was at the Placidium that the Noxian general Jericho Swain seized the defenders as hostages to lure their reinforcements into a trap. Irelia freed herself, cut down a dozen of Swain's veterans, and struck down the general himself. This victory, remembered as the Great Stand at Navori, made her name known across Ionia and marked a tipping point in the war against Noxus. The occupation left Navori deeply wounded. Admiral Duqal's fleet quartered its officers in seized homes, and Noxian patrols and reprisal sweeps moved through the villages long after. A resistance formed across the province, and the fighting scattered its people, claiming warriors such as Riven, who was believed lost somewhere in the region. Even after the war ended, the First Lands fractured, and rival factions turned on one another. From this turmoil rose the Navori Brotherhood, warriors marked with tiger tattoos who went from village to village abducting the young and able to swell their ranks. A faction of them, the Order of Shadow bearing black tattoos, seized temples and harvested forbidden shadow magic, tainting the balance and letting corrupted spirits seep through from the spirit realm. Navori's underground fighting pits also gave rise to Sett, the half-Vastayan brawler who fought his way from their floors to become their champion and eventual owner.