Legends of Runeterra - Everything About the Crimson Gang!

Today, I bring you everything we know about the "Crimson Gang", a fascinating group in Runeterra that includes a few of the richest cards in the game - both lore-wise and gameplay-wise.

These cards show us an important facet of Noxus lore, and their illustrations and flavor texts are full of details that make us love the League of Legends universe even more.

Let's see everything we know about the Crimson Gang!

I researched all the information in this article myself, so, if you know any further details about these cards, you're welcome to tell us in our comment section.

The Crimson Gang is a group of Noxian aristocrats that are also hemomancers - they all use, each in their own way, blood magic. These youngsters seem to be under the care, or are mentored by, Vladimir, who, though he is indeed a champion himself, shows up very little in their cards. Their flavor texts also don't reference his deeds much.

So, Vladimir can be considered a "Crimson Gang member" himself, but he doesn't have much influence among them. Our best guess is that he is like a "patron" to these youngsters, and provides them with money and housing.

These young Crimson members don't seem to have any concrete goal or objective. One theory is that they are training to become hemomancers (blood mages) to, at a certain point, fight as battle mages and revive soldiers in the Gray Legion, which we'll discuss later on.

The fun thing about them is that they all have a name, which is not that common to find in non-champion cards. Let's see what they're called.

Crimson Curator: Edvin Cortain.

Crimson Curator is what makes the Crimson archetype one of the few "nominal" archetypes in the game. "Nominal" archetypes necessarily include a card that interacts with another specific card or package of cards. In this case, he interacts with the "Crimson" name.

Poros, for instance, isn't considered a nominal archetype because Poros are a subtype: Poro. So, Poro effects refer to their subtype, and not their name.

This is different from the Crimson gang, considering Crimson Curator creates a "Crimson" unit in your hand even though there is no "Crimson" subtype in the game.

Crimson Disciple: Clara.

Clara is the newest member in the group, and that's practically all we know about her. She also keeps a Crimson Bloodletter as a pet.

Crimson Aristocrat: Kye Noradi.

Kye is The Lady of Blood's daughter. The Lady of Blood, in turn, is Madame Faris Noradi, one of the most powerful hemomancers in Noxus, and leader of the Gray Legion.

Kye's artwork shows that blood magic, besides reviving the dead, greatly influences others, as she seems to be controlling Clara.

Crimson Awakener: Feoward.

This is the character we know the least out of all the Crimson characters. We can speculate that, as he has the more stats than anybody in the group, he might be the strongest of them, but we can't confirm it.

In their artworks, Crimson characters seem to be getting ready for a ball, which, apparently, will be held at the Crimson Banquet Hall. It will be called the "Reveler's Ball", and hosted by Vladimir.

Their flavor texts and voice lines show, indirectly, that they will kill someone, feed off them, or simply absorb their blood or vital energy at this ball. But we also don't know what they'll serve at the ball itself, so this could be just their way to say "food".

Every Crimson member is extremely arrogant and talks and acts like they are being cruel all the time with others on purpose and enjoy it. They are nothing more than League of Legends' version of vampires, so they give off this "bold" vibe, with lines full of double meanings and some slightly sensual connotations as well.

Many Noxus cards reference the Gray Legion: a legion of Noxian fighters that have been revived in combat, or are infused with hemomancy to become practically immortal.

These soldiers don't fear death, as they are already dead, or just know they'll just be revived anyway if they die. This way, the Gray Legion, led by The Lady of Blood, is one of the most fearsome armies in all of Runeterra.

The main protagonist in this package of cards is Grave Physician, Dr. Esslanger, and most of the flavor text in Gray Legion cards is written from his perspective.

Dr. Esslanger, as it seems, is the one who reanimated Sion, and, in The Lady of Blood's artwork, we can see the Gray Legion traveling by cart to a Demacian outpost. There, Dr. Esslanger will demonstrate their new Noxian weapon, Sion.

The demonstration itself is depicted in Sion's own artworks:

Their tests were a success, and then we see Dr. Esslanger in action, reanimating fallen corpses on the battleground.

All Crimson characters might be genuinely evil. Dr. Esslanger's main motivation seems to be his studies, and mastering hemomancy as much as he can. But, to do that, he unfortunately needs to commit war crimes and kill thousands of people.

The motivation of the rest of the Crimson gang is, apparently, just getting more power and using it for evil.

To sum up, hemomancy revives and controls dead bodies, and hemomancers are like puppet-masters: they can influence what each of their zombies do in battle as well. A few times, these cards mention that the power of the Gray Legion itself is tied to the power of The Lady of Blood herself. She is the one who apparently controls most of the soldiers in battle.

It is also stated that the process of reviving someone is traumatic for the dead person, and they automatically become bloodthirsty and seek death again to end their suffering. But some, like Reborn Grenadier, revel in their death and enjoy this process. He, in particular, is an extremely valuable soldier as they can revive him many times in battle - he doesn't mind being used and in fact likes it.

Twinblade Revenant's flavor text states that killing a Gray Legion soldier is a like paying Noxus a favor, as they'll be revived and become stronger on the battlefield. It also states that the concept of "winning" the war against the legion doesn't exactly exist, since they can't die. Demacia really has no chance against them.

The Lady of Blood writes many reports describing how Sion and the Gray Legion experiment performed in battle, and addresses them to an unknown recipient. I wonder if LeBlanc and the Black Rose are behind all of this.

If you read this far, thank you! I hope you had fun and enjoyed reading this article.

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See you next time!