After multiple changes to the storyline, the kingdom of Demacia – one of the iconic lands of League of Legends, is no longer as glamorous as it once was. Rebellions, wars against mages, power struggles within the ruling nobility, and the sudden death of King Jarvan III… have turned Demacia into a nation with a myriad of tangled issues and hollow, decaying values.
In Lux’s comic series, Emperor Jarvan III is unexpectedly assassinated, and Jarvan IV firmly claims that Sylas’s rebels are behind this. However, Sylas’s reaction upon discovering the king’s corpse is just as bewildered as Jarvan’s.
It seems that even this rebel did not anticipate the assassination of the king of Demacia. Moreover, Sylas himself had no intention of killing Jarvan III, as he harbored plans to capture him as a sacrificial pawn to humiliate and celebrate his own victory.
If Sylas is not the assassin, then who is the real culprit? Many opinions suggest that assassins from Noxus – the long-standing rival of Demacia – were behind this incident. The most popular theory is that Noxus exploited Demacia’s turmoil to send an assassin into the palace to kill the king, further complicating the situation.
However, it is worth noting that the time between Sylas escaping from the gallows and his forces attacking the palace was only a few days, which is an incredibly short timeframe for Noxus to make any decisive moves and seize the opportunity.
If it is not Noxus, then who could be the mastermind? A shocking theory for readers is that Prince Jarvan IV himself orchestrated the assassination of his father to ascend to the throne sooner.
The basis for this theory comes from an interaction between Tahm Kench – the ancient demon representing greed, and Prince Jarvan IV: “Only a fool does not aspire to power; let me help you seize the throne.”
On the surface, it may seem that Jarvan IV remains an upright individual, and Tahm Kench is merely mocking him as a fool. But remember, Tahm Kench is a demon capable of seeing through the greed and dark desires within the human mind. This is how he seeks prey, makes deals with them, and then devours the unfortunate when their greed reaches its peak.
Tahm Kench making a deal with Jarvan IV demonstrates a reality: The prince (now crown prince) of Demacia truly harbors ambitions for power and desires to become king.
Ironically, King Jarvan III has only one son, Jarvan IV, meaning that sooner or later, he will become the heir. However, there are also many reasons for Jarvan IV to be eager to claim the throne.
Returning to Lux’s comic, at this point, King Jarvan III has begun to waver after Sylas’s incident, showing doubt about the righteousness of the indiscriminate policies of arresting and imprisoning mages. In contrast, Jarvan IV appears to be an “anti-mage,” a leader with an extremely radical mindset against mages, as evidenced by the events following Sylas’s uprising in the Grand City of Demacia.
If Jarvan III were still alive, it is possible that he would come to a compromise with Sylas, and for someone like Jarvan IV, any compromise with rebels would be an insult to the dignity of Demacia, something he is willing to risk his life to prove and protect.
In reality, Jarvan IV is portrayed in League of Legends as a model of a battlefield hero, or in Eastern terms, a “gentleman of integrity.” However, the kingdom of Demacia is built with countless layers of profound meanings, where the glamorous, beautiful exterior is merely a facade concealing the chaos and fragmentation within the kingdom.
Jarvan IV is the “Symbol of Demacia,” and perhaps, like his kingdom, this prince also harbors dark corners representing ambition and the brutality of a key character in the game of thrones of the Demacian empire.