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A point I’ve thought of before, but Mongolians were a brutal expansionist empire and they heavily incorporated other cultures into their fold. Just saying.

New Noxus and the Paradox of “Tolerant” Imperialism

Riot is moving in an entirely new direction with Noxus after the retcon of 2014. That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Old Noxus was flawed, relatively one-dimensional, and subject to a fair share of complaints - chief among them being the exaggeratedly “evil” nature of the state, from the necromancy, to the demonic possession, to the actual, literal skull mountain.

(Goodnight, sweet prince)

The problem is not that Riot has made Noxus into a fun-loving, puppy-hugging, benevolent bastion of love and acceptance in its rework. This post isn’t about any personal objections to the new direction of the lore. It’s about a fundamental misunderstanding, rooted in long-standing European cultural norms and history, of the nature of imperialism and - and - oh no, you’re already scrolling past this, aren’t you.

In simpler terms: The problem isn’t that Riot has turned Noxus into a bastion of love and acceptance. The problem is that Riot has turned Noxus into an aggressively expansionist war-machine, and seems to think that it is still, simultaneously, a bastion of love and acceptance.

Here are the facts. First, Noxus is still, in Riot’s own words, an aggressive expansionist empire - that hasn’t changed, although it has been upgraded in the new lore from “city-state” to full fledged “empire”. Its expansion strategy resembles that of several historical empires, in that it either allows cities or civilizations in its path to surrender to Noxian rule or conquers them by force. Once a people have been conquered, Noxus does not allow them to continue going about their business as usual while simply levying taxes or taking other benefits, but instead restructures them to align with Noxian ideals and customs, up to and including establishing literal monuments to Noxian dominance in their cities. This is important. A people conquered by Noxus do not remain separate or distinguished from the whole, but instead are immediately considered Noxian, and are expected to adopt Noxian culture and customs accordingly. That comes with Noxus’s rule. These are not arguments - they’re facts, drawn strictly from material on the official Universe site.

Also on the official Universe site is the proposition, repeated multiple times, that the people and cities conquered by Noxus are afforded the opportunity to grow and become better or stronger by virtue of becoming part of the empire. The argument that a conquering nation is somehow doing right by, or doing good things for, a conquered people is older than dirt. There are several different terms for it, pertaining to different time periods and areas of the world. A commonly known one, “the white man’s burden”, specifically refers to the erroneous, imperialist argument that the titular white man has an obligation to rule over non-white people (often colonized nations) in order to “civilize” them or somehow give them a better life. Variations on this ideology were used to justify all sorts of horrendous things, from aggressive missionary endeavors, to the conquest and subjugation of indigenous peoples, to slavery. But the white man’s burden is a relatively new idea, in the grand scheme of world history, while imperialism and the concept of a “benevolent” conqueror are very, very old. 

There’s nothing wrong with Riot casting Noxus as an imperialist empire. It’s an interesting historical context to have and it opens the doors to a lot of different storylines. It’s also relatively faithful to the original design of Noxus as the premiere warmonger in Valoran. The problem is what Riot’s doing with the other half of Noxus’s rework.

Once again, I’ll start with facts. In the same sentence where Riot described Noxus as “warlike” and “expansionist”, they added that the empire is also “unusually inclusive”. In a section labelled “culturally inclusive”, they describe that conquered people can “embrace[] their conquerors’ way of life” and be judged on their worth… or be “crushed without mercy”.

(I took a screenshot because I was afraid that you wouldn’t believe me.)

The problem here is that that isn’t what culturally inclusive means. A culturally inclusive society is one in which people of different cultures are treated equally, not one wherein people of different cultures are forced to assimilate to a dominant one to avoid being crushed without mercy. To get even more granular, a culture can be defined as a set of social behaviors and norms upheld and practiced by a group of people. Some very simple elements of American culture might be consumption of fast food, or the coming-of-age ritual of learning to drive a car. Some not-so-simple elements are a belief in the “American dream” (aka the idea that if you work hard enough for long enough, you will rise in economic status) or a sense of American exceptionalism

A basic element of Noxian culture is the belief in strength (which, to Noxians, means any sort of physical or non-physical prowess in a valuable skill, valuable being defined as “something that can make Noxus better”) as the primary valuation of a human’s worth. Another appears to be tolerance of originally non-Noxian people, as long as they adequately assimilate to Noxus’s regime.

That is an interesting idea for a fictional culture. It is not, however, in any way compatible with ‘cultural inclusivity’. In order to continue expanding, building its army, and existing as it wants to, Noxus needs the people it conquers to abandon their own cultures and adopt Noxus’s own. Maybe they don’t have to abandon small rituals from their own cities like, for example, eating fast food - at least, we don’t have evidence of that. But they do have to abandon whatever fundamental value systems they already have (and yes, every people in every society already have one, I promise) and adopt Noxus’s. 

Or be crushed. 

Without mercy.

The problem here isn’t Noxus as a culture, or as a fictional state. It would actually even be acceptable for Noxians specifically to believe that they are a highly inclusive, tolerant state - that’s very common of people living in imperialist nations, and thus very believable. The problem is that Riot is writing the lie of the “benevolent, culturally sensitive conqueror” as a fact, when it’s not only patently false in Noxus’s case but also shows a staggering sort of ingrained cultural bias in the draftsmen. 

The problem is not with the subject of the art, but rather with the perspective. The problem is the artist.

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The Noxian Grand General by exia xiaotong

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Yep… Dunmer inspiration is back full force.

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Commission done for @originalantrox of their vampire babe, Shyvana. ♥

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i’m reeally in 20s jazz mood (thanks to ‘smiling man’)

now hazbin is a cartoon about how people from different eras gathered in hell to dance jazz, forget everything else.

charleston for charlastors swing for boomer/millennial

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Banners, round 2! This time for the Traitor Legions

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Lord Vorx commands a warband of the Death Guard Traitor Legion. Cover art by Johan Grenier for the novel The Lords of Silence by Chris Wraight.

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Me irl

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I don’t think there’ll ever be a day when I don’t want to collect a Nurgle army. Paintjobs and conversions by the Monster Merchants. 

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Miss April; Miss Catachan

by Georgy Stacker

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Doom Slayer-Small Details

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Inquisitormunda tox container. Step by step for your pleasure. Please note the white leds.

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I have reason to believe these were blamm’d in the purge as well, so here they are again. Commissioned Chaos Lord Dominator in Word Bearers and Alpha Legion variants.

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something that forgets what his hands are for when they aren’t shaking.

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being an adult is just like. oh shit toothpaste is expensive. oh shit popcorn is expensive. oh shit cat food is expensive. oh shit gas is expensive. oh shit water is expensive. oh shi

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:^

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Does Charlie and Alastor go dancing in old clubs or something similar to it

Dancing Club Carlastor

I love drawing him witch ponytail haha

Hazbin belong to @vivziepop

Question by @ask-sakura-haruno-blossom-queen