Conquered long ago by the Shuriman Sun Empress, the Kingdom of Icathia has for a thousand years desired its freedom from Shurima. In his short story Where Icathia Once Stood, Graham McNeill tells the story of Icathia’s long-awaited uprising, the brutal response from Shurima’s vast armies, and the lengths the Icathians were prepared to go to for freedom and survival. Told through the eyes of Axamuk, a young artisan-turned-soldier, it’s a nonlinear narrative that both details the events and repercussion of the uprising, and illustrates one man’s very personal response to what takes place and what it ends up meaning.
If there’s a certain degree of inevitability to this story, given its title and also the fact that it’s listed under Void on the League of Legends Universe site, the standard of both storytelling and world building more than make up for it. In a short space of time McNeill neatly draws in enough of the history and culture of the setting for the uprising to have resonance, gives Axamuk a backstory and a connection to what’s taking place, and throws in some grim, horror-tinged elements for good measure. It’s fast-paced and action-packed but still evocative and surprisingly poignant – intriguing stuff.
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You can check out Where Icathia Once Stood for free on the League of Legends Universe website. There you can find a little more detail on how these events tie into the wider background of the Void, and see some darkly beautiful artwork that adds a nice visual element. It’s well worth checking out.