Tomb of the Emperors

The Tomb of the Emperors is a vast necropolis buried beneath the sands of Shurima's capital, where the emperors and Ascended warriors of the ancient empire were laid to rest. Its passages are guarded by traps and heaped with the treasures of the greatest empire Runeterra has ever known, and of the many raiders who have sought to plunder them, few have returned alive. The tomb's darkest chapter began with the failed Ascension of the young emperor Azir. Persuaded by his magus Xerath to attempt the ritual, Azir was betrayed at the moment of transformation. Xerath stole the Sun Disc's power for himself, Azir was obliterated, and the capital was swallowed by the desert. The Ascended brothers Nasus and Renekton arrived too late to save the city, and finding they could not destroy the newly remade Xerath, now a being of pure malevolent energy, Renekton wrestled the magus down into the Tomb of the Emperors and called on his brother to seal them both inside. Nasus refused at first, desperate for another way, but there was none, and with a heavy heart he committed Renekton and Xerath to the fathomless darkness. For uncounted centuries the two stalked each other through the lightless depths while Shurima turned to dust above. Xerath whispered poison in Renekton's ear, convincing him that Nasus had entombed him out of jealousy, and piece by piece Renekton's sanity cracked. The seal was finally broken when mortal scavengers rediscovered the tomb. Renekton thundered out into the desert hunting his brother's scent, and Nasus, far away, knew at once that Xerath was free. The breach also set Shurima's rebirth in motion. During an expedition into the tomb, Cassiopeia Du Couteau betrayed and fatally stabbed the mercenary Sivir, and Sivir's royal Shuriman blood triggered the resurrection of Azir, who used the Sun Disc's power to save her life. Sivir's ancestral crossblade, the Chalicar, an ancient relic tied to the Sun Disc, is held to be the key to the tomb itself.