writinghextech

[writinghextech]

i love writing about hextech because despite it being a revolutionary piece of technology that fundamentally changed the lives of every main character, the writers were so incredibly disinterested in exploring the actual mechanics of it. they literally don't tell you jack shit about it other than that it uses magic crystals for energy and uses runes to give that energy a specific function. but i can make up whatever the fuck else i want about it. the specific order of runes also matters? sure! you have to make calculations to maximize efficiency because magic isn't meant to be channeled by steel? whatever! the world's my oyster because the writers didnt even bother cracking it open

[writinghextech]

Would anyone be interested if I put together a post on how to write a scientist/engineer/techy/smart-guy type character? What would y'all want to know?

[writinghextech]

How does HexTech work?

Hello friends are you ready to nerd out with me? I have been inspired by @writinghextech to analyze Hextech. And so here I am writing a post about that.

Arcane is very clever in how they communicate to us how Hextech works. They do it in two different scenes in season 1, episode 5.

It's actually Jinx that explains Hextech to use first.

"It's all about these runes. They form some kind of math-y, magic-y gateway to the realm of heebie-jeebies. And this... turns it on."

The second scene that tells us how Hextech works is with Viktor:

"What if we've been looking at it backwards? We've been trying to discover runes that invoke specific effects and then molding them to a useful function - tools, as you like to put it but - but, if the legends are true mages aren't bound to single functions. It's said that Arcane speaks through them."

Here, Viktor is theorizing about the Hexcore and how the runes and gemstone could evolve on their own. But through these two scenes we learn two things:

The runes interact with the gemstones, causing a reaction

Jayce and Viktor find runes that invoke specific effects and then turn that reaction between the runes and gemstone into tools

The stones give off power. They react to force and I also think they react with metal and organic matter, we know this because of Sevika and Viktor. Without runes present, their raw reactions are just powerful blasts of energy.

But when you add the runes, they can have specific effects. Everytime the energy of a gemstone flows through runes, they glow. I'm sure you've noticed some of them, but the runes are everywhere.

After Caitlyn shoots a hole through it, Jinx puts them on her blaster. Caitlyn's rifle has runes inside of it, as well as on her bullets. Viktor carves the runes on himself.

The Hexgates have runes on the outside and inside, seemingly with no pattern or reason. The canisters that contain the gemstones have runes surrounding them.

When Jayce is building his hammer, it seems like the heat of molten metal interacts with the runes somehow and they glow. Another case showing that the gemstones respond to pressure, force, or metal. (This first picture which is a cool af shot slides into the handle of his hammer)

I believe that the stones give off energy. I think that metal or organic matter acts as a conductor to the gemstone. The gemstone interacts with the runes and then there is the desired effect.

The runes do nothing without the gemstone. So they're kinda the battery. But they're also the on/off switch. Perhaps the runes are the equation and the gemstone is the equals sign? Idk exactly which one effects the other.

So. What do the runes mean?

I have no fucking idea.

have tried looking it up without going too deep into League of Legends gameplay info. But as far as I can tell, only 6 of the runes have names: precision, domination, sorcery, resolve, inspiration, and acceleration. The acceleration rune is the one given to Jayce that leads to all timelines, all possibilities. The other five are used not very often. They're (almost exclusively) used on the Hexcore (which I want to make a separate post about)

If someone knows of a Hextech runes dictionary, that would be great. But as far as I can tell, there just isn't anything like that. But even not knowing the name/information on every single rune in the show, we can get a bit of an understanding of how it works by looking at these little details :D

[writinghextech]

Writing Femoral Anteversion

From someone who has it! I figured people who're writing Viktor (or anyone else you'd like to bestow this condition onto) might find this helpful.

For anyone who doesn't know, Viktor is theorized to have severe Femoral Anteversion in his right leg. Mine is not quite as severe as his is, but it's enough to cause problems. Currently my condition has me considering buying a cane at the ripe old age of 22, which is a few years younger than Viktor was in Season 1 Act 1.

Femoral Anteversion looks like this:

This can happen in one or both legs. I have it in both, but it's far worse in my left leg. Viktor's seems to be mainly in his right leg. To be clear, this is NOT the same thing as his lung disease, though it likely exacerbates that disease a bit. The anteversion very likely worsens the problems with his back, but isn't necessarily the cause. Now, lets get into it!

What is Femoral Anteversion?

A wonderful post by @ihavea-natural-curiosity explained that all here, so I'll leave it to that person to explain what it is.

What is it like to have Femoral Anteversion?

Depending on the severity/treatments done for it, it can range from barely noticeable to a constant pain. If we put that on a scale, I'd say my right leg is at a 2-3, and my left is at around a 7-8. Viktor is likely at a 9-10 on his right leg. 8 on a good day.

General Pain Sites: mainly are in the knee, the hip, and lower back. Pain is worsened by long periods of standing, or long periods of sitting. Basically if its in one position for too long, it hurts. For me, it's difficult in school when I have to sit for a long time, and at work, where I stand a long time. Viktor may have more flexibility as he can stand or sit at his job whenever he wants, though if he's low energy that day, sitting for a long time may be his only option.

If standing for too long: (for me that's more than half and hour to an hour, for Viktor it may be more like 15 minutes), pain will start in the lower back, typically on the side of the bad leg, and with each step that spot on the lower back will pop. It's rather uncomfortable, doesn't relieve much pain the way popping a joint normally does. Pain from standing too long tends to be in the lower back, below the kneecap, and on the side of the hip, in the center between the front and back half of the body

If sitting for too long: typically the pain sites change slightly depending on the position, but often it's in the back of the hip, the lower back, and above the kneecap. Sometimes there may also be awkward positions sitting when trying to keep weight off that leg, which ends up hurting your upper back or shoulders too.

Painless: The only position I've found to be completely painless when in it for a long time is laying down on my back, with a pillow under the knees. Takes ALL the strain and weight off of those joints so it doesn't hurt. Only annoying bit is sometimes the REST of my body gets tired of being in that position anyways. I really only do this if it's hurting pretty bad that day because I can't really do anything while laying down like this. Even being on your phone is annoying cuz your arms get tired eventually.

Treating Femoral Anteversion

There's a bunch of treatments for it, the main ones are physical therapy, a brace, and a surgery. Typically none of these are needed because this usually happens in children, most of whom grow out of it. In the people who don't, physical therapy, a brace, and/or surgery may be needed.

The Brace

They usually hug the thigh as the problem is in the femur, the thigh bone. The reason Viktor likely doesn't have one of the top two may be either:

1. Pain, the braces can be rather painful, and with anteversion as severe as his it may have been too much

and/or

2. It may have interfered with his back brace. The bottom brace doesn't work as well, but it is certainly far better than nothing.

To be clear, the most comfortable position for someone with femoral anteversion to be in is with their toes pointed inward. So the brace is not necessarily actually for comfort, it is for overall health. They're rather painful as it forces you're muscles, tendons, and literally bones, to be in a different position than they are naturally. Braces for adults would also have to be worn most hours of the day, and likely forever. In children the brace is taken off after they have grown enough that the anteversion is corrected, but in adults they are done growing, so it must be worn as much as possible.

Generally a brace is not actually the go-to form of treatment for adults, as physical therapy works better and is less uncomfortable for the patient.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy for femoral anteversion will look like a lot of leg exercises to strengthen the outer leg muscles that will help correct the direction of the femur. It's very possible Viktor does these, or did them when he had the strength. When his disease got worse he may not have had the energy, but if he ever saw a PT in Piltover to help with his leg then they likely had him do exercises every day, possibly in the morning and at night with how severe his case was.

Stopping the exercises would likely mean the leg returns to its previous condition, as the muscles would no longer be maintained and would grow weaker again with time. In which case, the brace would help, and is possibly why Viktor has a brace in act 2 of season 1, but not in act 1.

Surgery

This surgery is called Femoral Osteotomy, and is a rather invasive one as it will change the direction of your whole femur, thus the direction of your whole leg. People often need walkers after this surgery, and can definitely come with complications. The reason Viktor didn't get this done is almost certainly because of his disease. A lung disease increases the risk of complications exponentially, especially with something as invasive as this surgery.

Disclaimer: I personally haven't actually had any of these treatments because I cannot afford them at the moment, though I'm hoping to go into physical therapy soon. The treatment order tends to go PT, brace, and surgery as a last resort.

Daily Life with Femoral Anteversion

Honestly, for most people with this, there's not much difference. They may not even feel any pain. My right leg technically also has femoral anteversion, but rarely hurts. But for people with a more intense case, like my left leg, or Viktor's right leg, there's a few things that can be different, so here's a list of some things that I do because of my femoral anteversion, that might be interesting to include in your writing:

Constantly correcting the direction of the foot. It becomes an unconscious correction after months of practicing, but occasionally it will still happen that you have to consciously move and correct it

Some days hurt worse than others! It can be just how you wake up that morning, or it can be due to activities done that day

Constantly cracking the bad knee. Especially when sitting or standing for too long. I crack my knee probably every few minutes or so when I'm standing for more than 5 minutes

Leaning elbows on a table, crossing the legs at the ankle, and leaning the torso side to side to get a stretch in the hip and potentially pop the lower back. Even deeper stretch by letting the elbows go below the table top and balancing by holding onto the table with just the fingertips.

When turning around, forgetting to move the bad leg too so it ends up turning almost completely backwards. This doesn't hurt, but as soon as I do it I often think "Aw fuck I'm not supposed to do that". Sometimes this makes you trip too.

Tripping over the bad foot when it gets in the way

Massaging or gently hitting the bad knee and hip to help the pain

Preemptively taking painkillers when anticipating a lot of walking or standing. May also do this for sitting, like on a plane or long train ride

It's hard to pop the hip but when it does happen it's both rather painful and instant pain relief. Very similar to popping a shoulder that's been annoying all day

Getting something warm to put on the knee and hip to help with pain. My favorite thing is the Warmies stuffed animals, the added weight feels good too

If without a cane/crutch, or somewhere to sit, then leaning heavily on tables, walls, and railings when in pain. Limping when you can't do that

Pushing the bad leg out to the side to get a good stretch in the hip (In the sexual sense, having the knees spread far apart for a long time would end up painful. Shorter sessions will be fine, but the best positions for something lasting a long time would be ones where the bad leg can be resting on something at a 90° angle or wider at both the hip and knee. A pillow under the knee works perfect. If on top, the person would likely end up leaning on the good leg, and leaning on the bed/a pillow/the other person with their arms to take the weight off the bad leg)

Constantly changing sitting position, generally every 5 minutes, give or take depending on how bad the pain is that day

Sleeping on the side with a pillow or blanket between the knees

Would secretly really really love for someone else to massage your leg because it's so difficult to get the right spots by yourself, especially in your hip.

Aaaaand that's about it! Feel free to ask any questions!

[writinghextech]

Lost my mind for a bit and put on an explanatory video about quantum physics (y'know for fanfic purposes and to further my understanding of what jayvik are doing in their lab ☠️)

and I want to contradict that one post that was going around yesterday:

THEY WOULD BE SOLVING SO MANY DAMN EQUATIONS 😭

OH GOD NOT THE WAVE FUNCTION 😭 HAVE SOME MERCY

[writinghextech]

So, I wrote a whole long post about funding and patent ownership and how it would impact Jayce and Viktor’s work, but Tumblr ate it and I refuse to rewrite it right now because I hold a grudge.

If you ever need to know what kind of paperwork to have them frustrated over in the background, or why they’re still not rolling in money, let me know.

Instead you’re going to get some fun institute culture and tidbits for flavor, to adapt at will. This is based on my personal experience and is going to be written for humor, but I assure you—it is true.

Welcome to the ridiculous side of working with scientific geniuses.

First thing to know—research institutes are often incredibly siloed. That means that the people working on intelligent systems rarely know what’s going on in chemical engineering. You have your division and you know your own project(s), and maybe what some of what your friendlier coworkers in your own division are working on. Unless there is a specific RFP (request for proposal—see my now nonexistent funding rant) that requires collaboration, you’re usually deep in your own projects.

So the institutes I’ve worked for try to foster collaboration by dragging everyone in a division together to get them describing the barebones basics of their projects.

Now, most scientists I’ve ever worked with are introverted neurodivergent nerds (I am absolutely including myself) and dread this sort of forced interaction. So, how do they pull this off without making it mandatory?

Food.

The Cake Is A Trap

Imagine you have been holed up in your lab or office the entire day. You have a cup of stale coffee and, if you thought about it in the morning, maybe a sandwich in a mini fridge.

It’s after noon, and suddenly you are assailed with the smell of actual food. Something catered if you’re lucky, or even just pizza and cookies—the kind of thing you would scorn from managers in retail as ‘employee appreciation’ can absolutely still be scientist bait.

One by one, heads pop out of offices like prairie dogs warily sticking their heads out of holes. An assistant is sent to research what’s available and gives the scoop on what food there is.

You have been captured.

For forty-five minutes or so, in exchange for an actual meal that you neither have to pay for nor leave the building for, you are encouraged to give a thumbnail description of your work so that everyone can feel like a team. You volunteer your principal investigator to do the talking, stuff your face, and maybe something interesting comes up from another team and you say ‘we should talk about this.’

Your division head feels very accomplished. You scurry back to your lab or your office.

Food is always bait. And it almost always works.

The Lab Is A Cult

Everywhere I’ve worked, every lab has its own culture. You will see cyber security labs with pirate flags covering the glass or Spy Vs Spy figures you’re supposed to greet. You will walk into an intelligent systems lab and there will be a propaganda style poster that reads “Only You Can Prevent Skynet” and people salute it before executing a command. You will see a small pile of candy stacked on top of a piece of equipment in an engineering bay—it is not for you, it is a bribe to keep that machine working.

These are rational, brilliant minds… and in the comfort of their lab they have developed incomprehensible in-jokes and complex superstitions.

Do you watch an experiment because if you look away it will fail, or do you let it do its thing so you don’t jinx it? Is there a mascot to the lab, some outdated prototype or random trinket that now is integral to the operations? Do you hold a funeral for broken equipment or do you shame it as a warning to other equipment? Do you all turn at once to look in horror at someone who says ‘so far so good’ and keep something wooden in the lab to make them knock on?

You enter with skepticism into every lab and judge them for the specific eccentricities… and then you perpetuate them and find yourself adopting them.

You are now an apostle of the lab traditions. Do you believe the scripture of the horrific looking Troll Doll that is older than you and is passed down for luck?

No.

Are you going to risk it?

Also no.

Your Office, Your Playground

In a building full of other neurodivergent nerds, your office is a canvas for you to project all of your other special interests onto. Your research may be your life, but the LEGO replica of Frodo’s trek through Middle Earth that wraps around the walls of your office is your passion. The cardboard cutout of Darth Vader with a cowboy hat perched on his head may raise eyebrows, but they can take it up with him. The vintage wind-up tin toys may be absurd when you’re working on advanced robotics, but they’re where you got your start. The models you built of past projects may be outdated, but they are your children now.

Then there’s the practicalities. Do you believe that a catastrophic system failure could delete all of your work? Good thing you have built a fortress of two inch binders full of every bit of research you have ever done. And if you’ve been there long enough, you may even have to carve a path through it to the postage-stamp sized area cleared just for your chair. Your assistant dreads the impending day that you retire and they have to sort through your important work on railway technology from forty years ago.

You keep a hanger with a full change of respectable clothes and your lucky suit jacket hanging on the back of the door. Just in case someone needs you to look presentable.

Any important meetings are going to happen in a conference room somewhere anyway. Your office is yours, and you owe no one an explanation.

…But come on, it’s better if they ask, so you can infodump.

I could keep going. I may keep going. But please enjoy these real-life examples of scientist absurdities while I decide if I’m going to rewrite the practicalities too.

I hope that these spark ideas for you. Go forth. Write mad scientists. And know that they are fully aware that they’re eccentric and embrace it enthusiastically.

[writinghextech]

It’s so funny seeing non-science people write scientist characters. specifically when arcane fans write Jayce and Viktor and they’re in the lab just talking about “solving equations.” exquisite.

yo who up solving they equation

[writinghextech]

As someone who spent years working at a research facility, I periodically feel like dropping lore about what working with geniuses like Viktor and Jayce would be like.

Sky Young’s role as an assistant to Viktor could frequently become translating scientific jargon into something the average Piltovan would understand and find interesting. While Viktor and Jayce may be very excited about their breakthroughs, when a scientist gets rambling about their work they frequently are faced with glazed over eyes and polite nods.

Unless someone boils it down to basically just the selling points and future practical applications, no one gets excited. Look at the reaction to journal articles written for other scientists compared to articles written for magazines and newspapers for people with a casual interest and understanding.

As an assistant, a lot of the work is translating “nerd” into normal human language. This is critical when you’re looking for grants (or in Piltover, sponsors) or are preparing for speeches, presentations, and speaking points for social engagements.

We’ve seen that by season 2 when Jayce encounters Ekko, he’s gotten better at it as he explains the Wild Runes.

Now I’m tempted to share some of the eccentricities of the scientists I worked with because it can flavor a fic. And figuring out which of the projects I could adapt into a fantasy steampunk setting.

[writinghextech]

An important part of Jayce and Viktor’s story that some people tend to forget is that they don’t have nearly as much input on hextech as some people think they do. Like yeah they made it but they have to grovel in the dirt to get the funding to continue making it. They are not the ones in charge, not by a long shot. Jayce talks about how they always have to do what the council asks of them (building the hex gates, stabilizing the crystals, etc) and how they’ll finally take back hextech for themselves once they fulfill their demands (they don’t even get the chance to do that!). If they even thought of trying to provide hextech to the undercity before that, they’d definitely be immediately shut down.

Jayce was extremely influential at hextech’s prime, yes, but he will NEVER be on the same level as the ones who fund his and Viktor’s work because they are old, old money and he was born as the son of a lower house. Though the Talis crest flies during progress day, the hex crystals are held in a case with a Kiramman crest. Hextech wasn’t theirs, really, and it’s why Piltover continued to rise to even greater heights while Zaun was left in the dust to rot.

[writinghextech]

Fanfic Worldbuilding Rec: Catafalque

Ao3

author's tumblr: I am guessing @hexhomos but lmk if not and I shall untag you

rec source: @jaynovz

[writinghextech]

Fanfic Worldbuilding Rec: Partners in Crime

Ao3

author's tumblr: ? (unclear if they have one - if you know it, lmk and I will tag them

rec source: @jaynovz

[writinghextech]

Worldbuilding Fanfic Rec: High Hawk Season

Ao3 (available to logged in users only)

author's tumblr: ? (unclear if they have one - if you know, lmk and I will tag)

rec source: @jaynovz

[writinghextech]

Worldbuilding Fanfic Rec: Differential Burdens in Displacement

Ao3

Author's tumblr: @yallstar

Rec Source: @jaynovz

[writinghextech]

Oooo okay okay. I’m not a scientist I know nothing. But I have thoughts about it from a story perspective.

I think the Hexgates didn’t open until like a year before S1 A2. The excitement around Jayce and Progress Day seems new. Jayce has only been in the spotlight for a couple months so the novelty of it hasn’t worn off.

We also have to remember that they went from this

To this

In 7-10 years.

And with all respect to them, I don’t think they have a fucking clue how they did this in the first place.

So.

Step one: figure out what they did and how they did it

Step two: prove the council that they can create something profitable. They’ll get to saving lives later, right now they need to focus on getting funding and not getting banished.

Step three: council will demand something profitable and that the crystals are stabilized to be less dangerous

It takes them 7-10 years to do all of that.

Also step four is to learn about the Arcane in general. I imagine there weren’t any textbooks to use. I wouldn’t be surprised if they travelled to other continents to learn about it (as far as I’ve heard, the rest of Runeterra isn’t as adverse to magic the way Piltover is).

So yeah I wish I had more science stuff. I hope others can contribute. But these are my thoughts about what might’ve happened in the years in between. Mainly acknowledging how long everything would’ve taken and that, unlike many fanfics write, I believe their success with the Hexgates was quite new to them when we see them in Act 2. But that’s just my theory :)

I agree with all of this, especially the part where V and J don't know why it works :D a decade is NOT very much time in the grand scheme of things.

Some interesting worldbuilding questions here:

What else was going on to change Piltover public opinion about magic in those 7-10 years?

Who was the J. Jonah Jameson to Jayce Talis/Hextech?

Are the Hexgates publicly owned, or privately? How much does it cost to teleport an airship, for the person purchasing the service? How much does it cost to teleport an airship, for the parties providing the service? Is this service taxed, if at all? How are those taxes spent?

What impact does the Hexgate have on infrastructure? We know it intersects with water and air infrastructure for the undercity from 2x03, but what about the impact on the power grid?

Heimerdinger mentions a renaissance in the humanities (arts, philosophy) in Piltover - what's the story there?

Another aspect of this, that I would have to defer to someone with more classic lore knowledge: how much knowledge of magic is readily available to the public in any part of the world, given the Black Rose is interested in a monopoly of mages?

Thank you @doggrowth ! so excited to hang and speculate with you :3

[writinghextech]

It’s so funny seeing non-science people write scientist characters. specifically when arcane fans write Jayce and Viktor and they’re in the lab just talking about “solving equations.” exquisite.

yo who up solving they equation

[writinghextech]

FAQ - Solving Equations

what is this tumblr for?

improving the general consensus of whatever J and V get up to in between pining and yearning in s1. The idea isn't to set up a canon that's right or wrong, just improve worldbuilding, or give writers a shortcut to writing hextech in a way that ~seems~ believable and lets the partners look ~Very Smart~.

who is invited to contribute?

anyone. send a post, send an ask. If you're a scientist and know what ~SCIENCE~ might look like day to day, feel free to send it in. If you have experience with safety and testing protocols that J and V probably ignore on the regular, tell us what you think. If you have an opinion about the height of the desks they should be bending each other over, send that in. If you have blacksmithing experience and want the record straight on exactly the kind of injuries Jayce needs Viktor to bandaid? Send. It. In.

what topics are you interested in?

literally anything you have experience with or speculation you have on Hextech. How do runes work? What are the little flappy things on the prototype in 1.03? Where do hexgems come from? What kinds of paperwork are they filling out? What ACTUALLY HAPPENS at a networking event?

you keep mentioning walla walla, what's that?

imagine that you are on stage and want to convincingly A) look like you're saying something and B) create a small amount of noise that gives the aural impression of a murmur. So you, an actor, might mutter something like "walla walla, peas and carrots" to project the vibe of conversation, without otherwise interrupting the meat of the story happening on stage.

In this context, it's about giving the set enough dressing and the characters enough to do to give the impression of ~SCIENCE~, and perhaps offer opportunities for characterization.

Are you making fun of writers who don't have subject matter expertise here?

No. We're all interested in the same thing (jayvik) and that happens in a specific context. Understanding that context offers opportunities for worldbuilding and characterization. Let's speculate and have fun together.