Wuju

Wuju was a mountain village hidden in Ionia's central province of Bahrl, and the birthplace of the sword art that carries its name. The Wuju style was an ancient Ionian discipline built on perfect precision and supernatural speed, and on a code of bloodless combat. Its masters held their swordsmanship too precious to share and too sacred to draw blood, so a sharpened blade was granted only to a swordsman who had proven his self-control. Founded by warriors who wished to keep their art from the world, Wuju flourished in isolation for centuries, its true nature unknown to outsiders. Its people were swordsmiths, teachers, and disciples, and the eccentric weaponsmith Doran forged blades exclusively for its swordsmen. Master Yi grew up here as the son of two swordsmiths, learning the ways of the sword and becoming known across the village as the Young Master before he had even finished his training. The village's isolation ended with the Noxian invasion of Ionia. When warbands burned their way across the provinces, Yi chose the people of Ionia over Wuju's secrecy and went to fight, and his fellow disciples followed him down the mountain. The Noxian commanders judged these peerless warriors too dangerous to leave standing, traced them back to their home, and destroyed the entire village in a single night with chemical fire that no steel could hold back. Its people and its culture were obliterated, and the natural magic of the land itself was defiled. Yi returned from the war as the only surviving disciple, to find nothing but ruins, and took up the title of master alone. He kept watch over the wreckage in penance until a monkey-like vastaya named Kong sought out the fabled combat masters of Wuju and found only Yi among the graves. Yi took him as a student and, by passing on the Wuju style, ensured the art would outlive its lost home; that student became Wukong. The village remains destroyed, a field of graves marked by swords driven into the earth, where Yi still returns to honor the dead.