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twistedtwistedtwisted · 2 years ago

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Jax’s Species

Lots of people think Jax is a troll and a small number think he’s a human mutated by the Void. One of those things is completely wrong and has been for a while, the other I disagree with for various reasons so I’ma put my thoughts on the subject on Tumblr for posterity.

So first up; Jax is definetly a non-human. This was always kinda ambiguous in the original lore he had, with the idea he was changed by the Void in some way like Kassadin; a human champion with blueish skin due to the Void. It wasn’t a leap to imagine Jax’s skin colour and fewer-than-normal digits were similar, especially given Jax was one of the many champions with a totally blank box of a backstory. However there were some wrinkles that popped up in to this in the post-reboot landscape of Runeterra.

This was mostly localized around the Void update that was done when Kai’Sa was released. This update to the Void made it so Void-Corruption as a concept didn’t exist, as to be touched by the Void meant getting fully erased by it, or being the coccoon from which a Voidborn would grow out of.

This was also coupled with the short story “Where Icathia Once Stood”, one of the best short stories Riot has ever produced. In it Jax, known back in his days as an Icathian citizen as Saijax, is a member of the restored Kohari order, and the story specifically doesn’t mention any of his weird traits like his purplish skin or different digits. Given it was not a result of Void corruption, and also wasn’t worthy of noting by the characters in the story, it meant his anatomy was likely natural, and more than that, it was normalized to the point of not being noteworthy.

This effectively meant that Jax was non-human, and that whatever his species was, it was normalized enough in Icathia that there was no need for the characters in the story to discuss it.

So Jax as non-human was solidified here, but then a new idea cropped up; that he was a troll of some variety.

This made some sense at the time, as Trundle shared the traits of a fully non-human skintone and also the same amount of digits on his hands and feet as Jax, so it spread very easily. It was further corroborated when Riot revealed the existence of sand trolls in Shurima offhandedly in the Ezreal sort-of-VGU. Suddenly there were now canonical trolls living in Shurima, and their specified location wasn’t too far out from Icathia itself, which helped out a lot.

That was the prevailing theory for a while, and still is, however it doesn’t jive with me as it stands, for a specific reason that came after this.

In early 2020, over a year after the reveal of sand trolls existing, Jax recieved a bio update that expanded on his backstory fully, and it actually did work to seperate him from trolls a bit. It specifies that he is a member of a “long-lived people”, and also that his father was physically present for the conquering of Icathia. Given Jax was present for Icathia’s fall, that puts 900 years between a single generation of Jax’s species, and trolls have never been noted as having a specifically long lifespan in any lore before or since this.

Given that the bio was published significantly after sand trolls were revealed to exist, it makes little sense for Riot not to go out and confirm that Jax is a sand troll if he indeed is one. Given what his bio says instead, it implies Jax is not such a troll, but instead of a different non-human species, one that goes unnamed (probably because Riot hadn’t figured one out for it yet at the time. Making fantasy names can be hard).

There are other details as well, like Jax not being nearly as stupid as literally every troll we’ve ever seen, and also lacking the kind of growths that trolls have (frost trolls have rocky protrusions while the only non-Freljordian troll we’ve ever seen, Gene, has twisting branches growing out of him) that I feel add to this.

This doesn’t stop Riot from actually being confirmed a troll later; it could be a cultural thing that he’s not stupid like Freljordian trolls, he still has the same digit count, and the new concept art they’ve shown has these weird silver stripes over his arms that could be like the rocky growths? (I find it hard to tell) But all in all I think as it stands Jax is more likely to be part of a distinct species from trolls.

The only question now is whether Riot will actually discuss what that species is when his VGU rolls around. Given the sparseness of any lore updates, and Jax already having an up to date bio, I find that doubtful, but hey, a man can dream.

Anyway those are my thoughts on Jax’s species cuz I spend too long thinking about Jax’s species. I would be pretty happy with either outcome; I dig troll Jax cuz I love trolls either way, so while I prefer him being his own species if he is a troll I’ll still be winning in the end ^^

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