Spirit Magic

Spirit Magic flows from the Spirit Realm, a mirror dimension that has existed as long as Runeterra itself, reflecting the emotions, beliefs, and life force of every living thing. Because all living beings carry a spiritual essence, those attuned to the realm can draw on a vast reservoir of power. The boundary between the two worlds is not uniform; where it grows thin, spirit magic seeps into the material world and runs unseen beneath the ground as hidden currents of arcane energy. Nowhere is that veil thinner than in Ionia, where magic flows freely and its wielders are strongest. Ionia's tradition of balance teaches respect for the natural flow of spiritual energy. When Noxus invaded and shattered that balance, the corruption took form as azakana and other malevolent entities. The flow can also be perverted: at a mountain temple, Rakan and Xayah found a crystal quinlon inverted from its purpose, no longer tempering wild magic but actively leeching power from the landscape and the spirit realm, letting only the darkest magics ebb out. Its practitioners are varied. Udyr communes with the primal animal spirits of the Freljord. Ahri draws on the spiritual essence of living beings through her Vastayan connection. Aurora, a Vastayan from a tribe of Freljordian carrot farmers, was born seeing both realms blended together and hops between them to strike enemies, turn invisible, and trap foes in rifts that fuse the worlds. Yone, killed and returned from the Spirit Realm, walks between worlds hunting azakana, the demons born of negative emotion. The same power turns dangerous when balance fails. As a child in Navori, Syndra's rage erupted as dark orbs that leached spirit magic from the world and drained a sacred ghost-willow of its life, severing her village's tie to the Spirit of Ionia; that Spirit later bound her in slumber beneath Fae'lor. Zed unlocked a malevolent shadow form during the Noxian invasion, and the undying Mordekaiser prizes a Tome of Spirits that hums with the power. Bound to all life, Spirit Magic is versatile but demands harmony: turmoil or corruption can turn it against its wielder, and it fades wherever the natural world is despoiled.