Who they are
Nidalee lives in the jungle around Ixtal.
Their story belongs to Ixtal. Elemental mages hiding behind a wall of shifting jungle.
Their story, step by step
- Step 1
Raised by cougars
Nidalee was abandoned as an infant in the jungle between Ixtal and Shurima. A pakaa packmother adopted her, and she grew up hunting with teeth and claws as an honorary pack member.
- Step 2
Strange visions
As a teenager she had spontaneous half-transformations with fever and visions of two figures whispering to her. These hint at a vastayan heritage, though her origin remains unknown.
- Step 3
Becoming packmother
When Kiilash hunters invaded, her adoptive mother fought to defend the pack. Nidalee felt another heritage rise and turned from a cougar into a humanoid, seized a javelin and drove them off. Her mother died of her wounds, and the pack accepted Nidalee as its new leader.
- Step 4
Neeko and Kuulcan
As packmother she learned traps and healing salves. She freed the vastayan Kuulcan from a hunter's trap and hunted the poacher with him. The shapeshifter Neeko joined the pack, and they grew very close, but Neeko felt drawn to the outsiders' towns and left.
- Step 5
Poachers
After Neeko escaped capture by poachers led by Captain Rowain and returned, Nidalee learned how widespread the poaching was. She and her pack ambushed the camp, killed most of the poachers and freed the captured animals.
Turning points
- Her first transformation to protect the pack
- Taking her adoptive mother's place as packmother
- Neeko leaving
- Ambushing Rowain's poachers
Where their story stands now
Nidalee remains packmother of the jungle and fiercely guards her territory. The identity of the voices in her visions and her feelings about Neeko are still unresolved.
Who they are tied to
Where this fits in the story
- Ixtal · step 1
A wall of jungle
A magical barrier keeps outsiders away by changing weather and moving terrain. Few people have seen Ixtal from inside.
- Ixtal · step 2
The Axiomata and the arcologies
Different arcologies specialize in different elements: one in fire, rock and magnetism, another in water, ice and steam.
- Ixtal · step 3
Leaving the empire
Ixtal was once part of the Shuriman Empire and withdrew after witnessing catastrophic wars, including a clash between the Ascended Ne'Zuk's Monolith fortress and the Void.
- Ixtal · step 4
Back in the world
After millennia of isolation, Qiyana's actions exposed Ixtal to Piltover. The Ixtali still see other nations as upstarts and pretenders.