League of Legends Mobile Game depicting Jinx. Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

As the series Arcane: League of Legends sweeps the views of Netflix, I cannot help but jump on board. As a previous casual player and fan of the show, I needed to do a post about Latin in this world.

League of Legends

Photo by ELLA DON on Unsplash

So, what is League of Legends? League of Legends is a competitive, fast-paced action-strategy game in which you play a “character” or champion in a team of 5 to defeat another team of 5 by destroying their base’s nexus before they destroy theirs. I am a visual learner – so I would recommend checking out their official video.

Arcane

The 2021 animated series is set in the past relative to the League of Legends universe and serves as a prequel to the game and retells the origin stories of several characters from Piltover and Zaun. I don’t want to give away anything so I recommend checking out the official trailer.

League of Legend Champion Names with Latin Roots and Roman Culture

Image by Vinson Tan ( 楊 祖 武 ) from Pixabay

1. Aatrox: from the Latin atrox meaning fierce, savage, bloody. heinous, cruel, severe
2. Lux: the Latin word, lux, for light.
   1. Lucian: The meaning of Lucian is ‘light’, which comes from the Latin name Lucianus. It is a male-given name that is taken from the word ‘lux‘, meaning ‘to light’ in Latin.
3. Nocturne: derived from Nox for the night, nocturnus is an adjective for nightly or nocturnal.
4. Anivia: originally a word of Latin origin “niveus / nivea / niveum” for snow white.
5. Leona: the word comes from Latin and means “lioness”.
6. Sona: the Latin means “sound.
7. Varus: Varus means “bent outwards, bow-legged” in Latin,  a cognomen to describe persons with the anatomical deformity that bent their legs outwards like bows.
8. Diana: Diana is the goddess’ Roma name for the Greek Artemis. Goddess of the hunt and moon.
9. Pantheon:  the name of the famous building located in Rome. The place was once the center of the city, to make offerings to the Gods.
10. Vi: While her name is actually Violet, her nickname Vi and a corresponding tattoo of VI relate back to her days in prison as inmate 516. V is Roman Numeral 5 and I is Roman Numeral 1 and together – VI they are 6.
11. Jinx: the Latin word iynx, also spelled jynx, as ‘j’ and ‘i’ are the same letter in Latin (learn more about this in this blog). The Latin iynx came from the Greek name of the wryneck bird, iunx, associated with sorcery; not only was the bird used in the casting of spells and in divination but the Ancient Romans and Greeks traced the bird’s mythological origins to a sorceress named Iynx, who was transformed into this bird to punish her for a spell cast on the god Zeus.
12. Aurelian Sol: sol is the Latin word for sun and aureus is golden. So their name means Golden Sun.
13. Karthus: The name Karthus resembles Medieval Latin Carthusianus, from toponym Cart(h)usia, ultimate Proto-Celtic *katus “battle” and *rīxs “king”

Until Next Time

Well, I am sure there are plenty of other nooks and crannies where Latin and Roman culture lie within League of Legends – and honestly, there were quite a few Greek and Hebrew references.  However, this was really fun and I hope you all learned something new or at least something to chat about at the next family gathering with a “did you know…”