Who they are
Taliyah is a champion from Shurima.
Their story belongs to Shurima. A fallen empire of living gods, waking up again.
Their story, step by step
- Step 1
A weaver's child with stone magic
Taliyah was born in Nasaaj Village in Shurima to a nomadic weaving and herding tribe. At six she found her stone magic while chasing a lost goat to a cliff edge. Her grandmother Babajan reassured her frightened parents that the Great Weaver watched over her.
- Step 2
The ceremony
At her coming-of-age ceremony she danced with stone, and a pillar rose out of control and hurt her mother. Believing she was dangerous, she ran into the night. Her father found her and urged her to face her power, so she returned and completed the ceremony deliberately, with her whole tribe standing as her teachers.
- Step 3
A search for a teacher
She left home to find a true teacher and headed west toward Targon. Noxian soldiers promised her acceptance in Noxus, but she grew uneasy among its politics. When a captain ordered villagers buried alive and she refused, she was thrown overboard, which left her afraid of water.
- Step 4
Yasuo
She met Yasuo meditating in a shrine and accidentally triggered an avalanche. After saving him, and after learning from a bird and a lion encounter to lean into her power instead of fighting it, she became his student. He taught her to master stone magic and pointed her toward the Freljord when they parted.
- Step 5
Home and the risen city
Around seventeen she hurried back to Shurima. Near Vekaura she nursed a wounded Sivir back to health and helped protect survivors when Xerath's army attacked, alongside Nasus. Inside the newly risen Great City she touched the walls and felt the agony of tens of thousands of voices from Azir's failed Ascension and Xerath's betrayal.
- Step 6
Fighting the Void
Unable to find her tribe, she traveled with Void-displaced Shurimans including Samir, Kadira and Zaifa, whom she saw as family. Around twenty-four she met Kai'Sa tracing a huge tunnel bored by voidborn creatures, and the two fought Lamplights together. At Xolan they faced Xer'Sai, and Taliyah sealed a pit against Rek'Sai with the statue of Xolaani.
Turning points
- Finding her stone magic as a child
- Refusing the Noxian captain's order
- Learning to lean into her power with Yasuo
- Standing with Kai'Sa to hold Xolan
Where their story stands now
Taliyah is in Shurima, defending it from the Void and treating her power as a gift. She has not been reunited with her parents or tribe in the lore, and she still carries the trauma of what the stones showed her. Her uncertain trust in Azir and the Void's spread remain open.
Where this fits in the story
- Shurima · step 1
The Ascended and the Sun Disc
The Sun Disc floated above the Circle of Ascension at the capital's center, turning the desert fertile and giving warriors the power to ascend. The Ascended led Shurima's expansion for centuries.
- Shurima · step 2
Icathia
After centuries of domination the Icathians rebelled. Facing defeat, they unleashed the Void, and the Ascended sealed its rifts at tremendous cost.
- Shurima · step 3
Xerath's betrayal
Xerath betrayed Azir around 2000 BN and the empire collapsed. Nasus had earlier locked away his brother Renekton, who had gone mad, and Xerath's betrayal freed him.
- Shurima · step 4
Azir returns
Azir was resurrected when Sivir, his last descendant, bled into the sacred sands. He restored his fallen city, and the new Shurima is reshaping the politics of the whole world.