The Ruination was an exciting advancement of League of Legends' overall lore, but the new champions released in tandem were even more exciting. These new champions include someone related to the "Sentinels of Light" (a Demacian hunter guild that Senna and Lucian are members of), a Yordle who travels to the Shadow Isles, and the long-awaited side character known as the Viego, The Ruined King. However, a fourth champion has been teased with The Ruination event, and she comes as a bit of a surprise: Isolde, Viego's wife and queen of a long-lost kingdom.
Viego's release as a champion had been predicted for years. This is because of how big a role the character played in the history of the League of Legends universe, known as Runeterra. Viego is the direct cause for the creation of the Shadow Isles, the Harrowing that often blights the islands of Bilgewater, plays a huge antagonist for the mysterious god Nagakabouros and his ancient story is tied in with those of multiple other champions. His mission to unleash The Ruination worldwide also uncovers ancient secrets in other fan-favorite nations like Noxus, Ionia, and Demacia.
However, what no one expected was for Isolde to play a huge part in the event and be a future champion. After all, since Viego was seen for years as a side character to other champions like Kalista and Hecarim, Isolde was seen as a side character to his side character. Little did League Of Legends fans know that Isolde might quite literally be the key to Viego's plans. Here's the scoop on everything on Isolde so far, including her story, her theme and a possible theory.
First thing's first, not much is known as factual about Isolde. This is because she is not mentioned too often in the related stories of Kalista, Viego, and Hecarim. The unnamed kingdom that all of these champions come from was long forgotten in Runeterra's history. Currently, all that is known about Viego's kingdom/nation is that it is East of the Shadow Isles, it is currently in ruins, Viego spent all of the countries money and the champion Vladimir is from this Kingdom.
Vladimir does not mention these lands too much since he was sold off by his father (a previous king of these lands) to the Darkin, who taught Vladimir how to be immortal via blood magic. Vladimir was also sold off long before Viego was even born and crowned king, so he would know nothing about Isolde. Chronologically speaking, Viego's kingdom existed long before the Rune Wars, making it one of the most ancient empires in Runeterra's history alongside Mordekaiser's Immortal Bastion and Shurima. The only thing that is factual about Isolde is that she is dead and was a peasant seamstress when Viego fell in love with her and took her as his queen.
Riot Games' own champion teaser supports this. In many of Riot Games' explanation videos that introduce new champions or events, Riot Games tends to be very "punny" when hinting or foreshadowing. In Riot Game's dev video titled "Champions in Season 2021", Ryan "R3ve" Mireles uses lines like "tie in" and "tailor made." This is hinting at Isolde's champion theme and design. Furthermore, her teaser image shows a ghastly sewing needle and thread attached to some sort of ribbon with a symbol of the ancient kingdom. The Devs also state they are aiming to make her a magic damage-focused champion who may or may not be loyal to Viego.
With all of these clues that the developers are providing for Isolde's champion when applied to her story and Viego's, this makes a whole lot of sense. Not only was Isolde a seamstress to begin with, but it is theorized that she has been split into pieces and Viego is searching for them. The story goes that Isolde was caught in the crossfire of an assassination attempt on Viego's life because he was a neglectful king. Viego did all he could to try and save her, but she still died. His grief drove him into madness, and in a last-ditch attempt, he submerges her rotting corpse in the sacred waters of the Blessed Isles.
These waters bring back Isolde in a painful, horrified, tormented and distorted undead state. In her pain and confusion, Isolde stabs Viego with his own ancient sword through his heart, and the magic of the waters clash with the ancient sword. This causes a massive explosion of corruption that traps everything it touches into a frozen state of undead, creating the now cursed Shadow Isles. After that, it is unknown what really happens to Isolde. Viego is resurrected on the Shadow Isles thousands of years later, coincidentally after Lucien saves Senna's soul from Thresh's lantern.
It turns out that Thresh may have been harboring Senna's soul because of her "curse." When Senna was young, she had accidentally come into contact with some of the Black Mist (A ghastly fog born of the Shadow Isles' magic) that washed ashore amongst pieces of a shipwreck. After she was corrupted by the small bit of magic but not killed, the undead constantly hunted Senna. It is later revealed that this "curse" is actually Isolde's soul, hiding inside Senna's body.
This is all seen in League of Legends' "The Ruination" cinematic trailer, where Viego attacks Senna and Lucian by himself. As Viego extracts Isolde's soul from Senna's body, a peculiar wail can be heard. It sounds like either the wail of a child, which would reveal something disturbing about her marriage to Viego, or a terrifying wail of pain and torment. Interestingly enough, it does not seem like Senna is Viego's only target for Isolde; Yorick also appears to be on his list.
Just as Viego recognizes Isolde within Senna, he also seems to recognize Isolde alongside Yorick. This is proven by both of Viego's in-game voice interactions. When he sees Senna and Yorick, he calls out to Isolde to come back to him. This reveals that Isolde is definitely in multiple pieces - the soul that hides in Senna and something that is attached to Yorick.
The only thing that had seemingly attached itself to Yorick against his will is The Maiden of The Black Mist. A tormented entity that Yorick believes to be born from The Ruination and also acts as his ultimate ability in-game. This definitely reflects Isolde's theme as a seamstress and Viego's quest to revive her. One thing is for certain, Isolde's story will fill in the gaps in Runeterra's ancient history and questions about other champions.