Who they are
Heimerdinger is a yordle inventor and the founder and dean of Piltover's Academy. He is also an ally of the Firelights in Zaun.
Their story belongs to Piltover and also touches Bandle City and Zaun. The city of progress, built on top of the city it ignores.
Their story, step by step
- Step 1
A yordle among humans
Heimerdinger was born in Bandle City. He witnessed a catastrophic magical event that devastated Runeterra, which led him to help found Piltover as a refuge from magic. Inspired by a scientist he met, he turned to science and became one of the city's most celebrated inventors and the dean of its Academy.
- Step 2
Teacher and judge of talent
He worked with the alchemist Corin Reveck, later Singed, until Reveck's unethical experiments to save his daughter Orianna came to light. Later he found the gifted Viktor in his steel refuge above the Sump and gave him a full scholarship, and he mentored the ambitious Jayce Talis, who reminded him of himself.
- Step 3
Hextech and the warnings
When Jayce's unauthorized hextech research was discovered, Heimerdinger warned him of magic's danger and tried to stop it. Viktor, inspired by Jayce, helped finish the experiment anyway. Mel Medarda and other councilors overruled Heimerdinger, and hextech reshaped Piltover through the Hexgate.
- Step 4
Removed from the Council
As the longest-serving councilor he grew more alarmed. When Viktor built the hexcore, which Heimerdinger saw as resembling an ancient apocalyptic power, he demanded its destruction. Jayce interrupted him and moved for his forced retirement, and the Council agreed.
- Step 5
Learning in Zaun
Heimerdinger moved to Zaun and met the young inventor Ekko, who impressed him with a hoverboard. Ekko's remark that people need what lets them live, not just survive, changed his outlook. He mentored Ekko and looked into corruption at the Firelight tree, helping uncover an Anomaly under the Hexgate.
- Step 6
Into the Anomaly
The Anomaly carried Heimerdinger, Ekko and Jayce into other realities. He later helped build the Z-Drive and, at the end, stayed outside its protective bubble to boost the Anomaly's power, saying he had truly lived. He then vanished, and his seat on the Council stayed empty.
Turning points
- Helping establish Piltover after witnessing a magical catastrophe
- Opposing hextech and losing his Council seat
- Learning from Ekko in Zaun
- Choosing to stay outside the protective bubble
Where their story stands now
Heimerdinger never returned to Piltover, and his fate is unknown. Revisionist councilors have tried to erase him from the record. Whether he survived, found a way back, or kept any link to the people he left behind is not answered.
Who they are tied to
Where this fits in the story
- Piltover · step 1
A port destroyed and rebuilt
Around 772 AN a canal project went catastrophically wrong and destroyed an old port city. Piltover was rebuilt above, and Zaun below.
- Piltover · step 2
The Sun Gates
The opening of the Sun Gates around 789 AN made merchant clans rich and set the pattern of wealth in the north of the city.
- Piltover · step 3
Hextech
Jayce Talis and Viktor turned research into hextech, and Piltover became a global center for innovation.
- Piltover · step 4
From the Day of Ash to open war
The Day of Ash was a massacre that followed undercity revolutionaries' push for independence. Years later Jinx attacked the Council, Piltover occupied the undercity and a brutal war followed. It ended in an uneasy new arrangement that gives Zaun representation.