Original synthesis by The Rune. Sources and the limits of each account appear below.
01
A shared origin
Riot’s origin account places the ancestors of the vastaya in the First Lands. When sky-titans threatened them, certain mortals drew on the spirit realm and became the Vastayashai’rei. The vastaya descend from those beings and the mortals who lived alongside them. They are more than humans with animal features.
02
Many peoples, not one culture
An affinity with magic and animal forms connects the vastaya without erasing their differences. Their communities developed distinct traditions and ways of life. Ahri’s search for her origins, Nami’s responsibility to her people and Xayah’s struggle for hers offer different perspectives. No single champion represents every vastayan community.
03
Magic, land and coexistence
Spirit magic belongs to their environment as well as their identity. Riot’s account describes tensions when human activity changes the magical currents on which vastayan communities depend. This helps explain some conflicts in Ionia, but does not make every vastaya an enemy of humans or determine all their choices.
04
Looking from within and outside
Biographies offer individual experiences. Eduard Santangelo’s field journal supplies the view of an explorer inside the setting, whose observations and interpretations are limited by his perspective. Read it as that character’s document, not an infallible classification of every people.
