League of Legends' post-Arcane story unleashes a new champ and sets up a Noxus plot

If you watched Arcane on Netflix, you may think that the plot is done and over with. After all, the show is over with season two and we got our conclusion. Surely, that marks the end of the story, right?

Well, if you've been playing League of Legends — and it's understandable if you're not — you may have missed out on the post-Arcane narrative following LeBlanc and her secret weapon hidden in the First Lands of Ionia.

Today, Riot released a new cinematic called Twilight's End, which shows Xin Zhao and Yunara confronting the demon Atakhan in the grove of Ionia. They are on the cusp of failure when Xin Zhao breaches the spirit realm and pleads to the god warrior sealed away to return and defend Ionia. Xin Zhao seemingly sacrifices himself, Atakhan is defeated, and Zaahen emerges.

LeBlanc seems very pleased with this turn of events, and notes that now she knows how to kill demons, and then turns to her mysterious ink wall. There, we can see a massive bird – doubtlessly the demon Raum, grafted to Noxus's current leader and LeBlanc's nemesis Swain.

That's a lot to take in, so here's a brief summary of the story so far. LeBlanc meddled in the war between Piltover and Zaun and she was able to eliminate her rival, Ambessa Medarda. But Ambessa's mage daughter Mel rejected the secret society of the Black Rose. Eventually, Piltover and Zaun were forced to unify against Viktor's glorious evolution, and the region is now in an uneasy peace. Mel's homeland of Noxus, however, is a hotbed of skullduggery and conspiracy, and so she has returned home to reclaim her family's seat of power and investigate LeBlanc.

All of this played out over the relaunched seasonal structure of League of Legends starting with season one during which we got: the Bite Marks and A Dark Gambit cinematics, along with animations, in-client metagames, and motion comics like The Reckoners, The Root of Empire, Demon's Hand, Bringer of Ruin, and The Fourth Principle.

This led into seasons two and three, where we met the Ionian shrine maiden Yunara and the re-worked seneschal Xin Zhao. The two, plagued by visions of ruin, underwent the Trials of Twilight. Their journey is depicted in the cinematic Beginning of the End, the in-game event The Battle of Koeshin, and the motion comics Pilgrimage, The Devoted Shrine Maiden.

There are still questions to be answered: is Xin dead? A host for Zaahen? A bunch of cherry blossom petals floating in the spirit realm?