Zaun
Summary
Zaun is a large, undercity district, lying in the deep canyons and valleys threading Piltover. What light reaches below is filtered through fumes leaking from the tangles of corroded pipework and reflected from the stained glass of its industrial architecture. Zaun and Piltover were once united, but are now separate, yet symbiotic societies. Though it exists in perpetual smogged twilight, Zaun thrives, its people vibrant and its culture rich. Piltover’s wealth has allowed Zaun to develop in tandem; a dark mirror of the city above. Many of the goods coming to Piltover find their way into Zaun’s black markets, and hextech inventors who find the restrictions placed upon them in the city above too restrictive often find their dangerous researches welcomed in Zaun. Unfettered development of volatile technologies and reckless industry has rendered whole swathes of Zaun polluted and dangerous. Streams of toxic runoff stagnate in the city’s lower reaches, but even here people find a way to exist and prosper.
History
Events
Rooted in its Shuriman origins as Oshra Va'Zaun, it was once a humble Shuriman vassal city, a coastal port with peripheral importance. Oshra Va'Zaun flourished as a center of trade and commerce due to its position on the isthmus, but its fortunes shifted dramatically over the centuries.
After the fall of the Shuriman Empire, Oshra Va'Zaun gained its independence for the first time in its history. Its grew larger over time, now free to flourish for its own ambitions. This independence would last nearly a thousand years before the Darkin took control.
During the rise of the Darkin, Oshra Va'Zaun fell under their dominion, becoming a stronghold and a staging ground for their conquests. The settlement was renamed Kha'zhun, a term symbolizing its subjugation. The city endured centuries of cruelty under Darkin control, its people and resources exploited. Only after the Great Darkin War ended, when the Darkin were finally sealed or destroyed, did Kha'zhun reclaim its identity as Oshra Va'Zaun, shaking off the shadows of its oppressors.
The city’s leaders initiated a grand engineering project to open the isthmus between Valoran and Shurima, creating a canal system that would transform the region into a central hub of global trade. However, the project backfired catastrophically. The River Pilt, a massive waterway central to the project, overflowed during construction, sinking much of Oshra Va'Zaun beneath its polluted waters.
During this period of despair, the city was plagued by noxious gases and chemical hazards that threatened to destroy what remained of life in the region. According to legend, the Shuriman goddess Jan'ahrem, also known as the "The Storm's Fury," descended upon the city to save its people. Using her divine control over the winds, she swept away the deadly fumes, giving the citizens a chance to rebuild.
Jan'ahrem’s intervention not only saved the city but also became a pivotal moment in Zaun’s spiritual heritage. Over time, as the city changed and evolved, the goddess became known as Janna, a protector of the downtrodden and a symbol of hope for Zaunites.
After a decade of reconstruction, the city was rebuilt and renamed Zaun. While it lacked the glory of Oshra Va'Zaun, it emerged as a resilient industrial hub, driven by its citizens' unyielding determination. This new Zaun capitalized on the partially opened isthmus, fostering trade despite its harsher living conditions.
Zaun’s renewed prosperity attracted wealth and trade to the isthmus, but this also sowed the seeds of division. The city’s wealthiest elite established a new district on the upper levels, distancing themselves from Zaun’s polluted and overcrowded lower tiers. This district, named Piltover, grew so prosperous and influential that it eventually declared itself a separate city, claiming dominance over the entire isthmus. Piltover became known as the “City of Progress,” drawing international trade and innovation, while Zaun was left behind as a neglected and oppressed undercity.
Culture Heritage
While its ancient Shuriman origins have largely been forgotten, remnants of that past still echo faintly in the belief of Janna. However, the Zaun of today is defined not by its history but by the raw struggle for survival under Piltover's oppressive and uncaring thumb.
Zaun is a city of survivors. Its people endure extreme poverty, crime, and addiction, as well as the physical toll of toxic air and polluted water. This has cultivated a culture of grit and bitterness, where Zaunites take every advantage they can from each other. Many Zaunites carry a deep-seated resentment toward Piltover, the prosperous city above that profits from their labor and innovation while ignoring their suffering. This tension fuels a fierce independence among Zaun’s people, who take pride in their ability to thrive in a world that seems determined to crush them. Despite the many rivalries within Zaun, many unite against the meddling of Piltover’s enforcers.
Zaun is known for its disturbing but groundbreaking inventions, often created with limited resources and fueled by the daring of its people. The city’s culture encourages unregulated experimentation, resulting in both astonishing technological advancements and devastating accidents. Chemtech, the rival to Piltover's Hextech, is a mixture of chemicals and engineering. Steriods, poisons and endorphins are the signiture powerhouses for Zaun’s inventions since the lack the access to Hextech crystals that Piltover has monopolized.
Geography
Landscape and Climate
Zaun is a sprawling, industrialized undercity built into the lower levels of the prosperous city of Piltover. Its landscape is a chaotic mix of cramped neighborhoods, towering factories, and labyrinthine tunnels, all shrouded in a dense haze of toxic smog. The city is characterized by its harsh environment, shaped by centuries of unchecked industrialization and chemical experimentation.
Factories and chem-labs dominate the city’s skyline, belching noxious fumes and spilling waste into the environment. Rusted pipes and leaking machinery are omnipresent, adding to the sense of disrepair and danger.
Zaun’s streets are narrow and overcrowded, teeming with makeshift markets, cramped homes, and repurposed industrial spaces. The city’s lack of regulation has led to a haphazard and sprawling design, with structures often stacked precariously atop one another.
The air in Zaun is heavy with pollutants, a constant haze of chem-laden smog that obscures the sun and creates a perpetual twilight. Breathing in the open air is hazardous, though many Zaunites have no choice but to risk breathing it in. Natural light struggles to penetrate the city’s dense smog, leaving Zaun in a state of constant gloom. Instead, the city is illuminated by flickering chem-lights, neon signs, and glowing chemical runoff, creating an eerie, otherworldly ambiance.
Natural Resources
Zaun is rich in underground deposits of chemically reactive minerals used in the production of chemtech and other experimental technologies.
These materials are often harvested recklessly, contributing to the city’s environmental degradation. Zaun’s culture of survival extends to scavenging and recycling discarded materials, particularly from Piltover. Scrap metal, old machinery, and even chemical waste are repurposed for new inventions.
The Fissures are a large cavern of materials that Zaunites dangerously mine. The metals and minerals are desirable to both Zaun and Piltover but the dangers often leave only Zaunites risking their lives to dig within them.
Demographics
Population
Zaun is densely populated, with millions of inhabitants packed into its vertical, multi-tiered cityscape. The Sumps, or lower levels, house the majority of Zaunites, often in overcrowded, makeshift housing. The majority of Zaunites live in poverty, struggling to survive in the polluted and crime-ridden undercity. A large working class is employed in factories, chem-labs, and other industrial sectors, often under hazardous conditions. Criminal syndicates hold significant power in many neighborhoods, shaping the social and economic dynamics of the city.
Zaun is a melting pot of cultures, with a significant population of refugees, exiles, and migrants from regions like Noxus, Piltover, and Shurima as well as races of Vastaya and Yordles.
Religion
Traditional organized religion is nearly absent, replaced by a patchwork of spiritual beliefs, local legends, and community practices. For many Zaunites, faith is less about dogma and more about survival, solace, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world.
Janna, the Storm's Fury, is the most prominent figure in Zaun’s spiritual landscape. Revered as a protector of the downtrodden, she is seen as a benevolent force who watches over the city’s most vulnerable. Shrines to Janna can be found in hidden corners of the city, often adorned with offerings such as flowers, scraps of cloth, and glowing chem-lights. Once purely a divine figure for sailors who prayed to her for fair winds, many Zaunites today pray to Janna for clean air, protection from harm, or relief from their struggles, viewing her as a symbol of hope.
Culture
Traditions and Festivals
Social gatherings are rarely glandular and often just consists of small neighborhoods gathering in local establishments to bond with each other. Zaunites try to keep low profiles away from Chem-barons and Piltover enforcers, making large festivals scarce if any at all.
Vendors decorate stalls with chem-lights and offer discounts, while artists and musicians perform in the streets. Zaun has a pulsating music scene that reflects its chaotic, industrial nature. Rock and punk are dominant genres, with performers channeling the raw energy of the city into their music.
Local bands use abandoned warehouses as repurposed stages, complete with makeshift lighting rigs and rickety sound systems. Small bands play along the winding alleys of Zaun, using improvised instruments or even the rhythmic clanking of machinery for accompaniment. Though, don't be too easily distracted as street displays are usually ploys for theft or scams.
Some nightlife venues, such as nightclubs or brothels, use chemtech to heighten sensations, offering unique thrills that mix danger with pleasure.
Food and Cuisine
Zaunite cuisine is rich and flavorful, featuring heavy use of spices, fermented sauces, and oily textures to mask or enhance the taste of low-quality ingredients. Local specialties include chem-grilled skewers, infused with experimental seasonings, and deep-fried shroomcakes, a popular snack made from edible fungi grown in Zaun's darkened alleys.
The lower classes often rely on nutrient-dense slurries or soups made from scraps, while the wealthier residents indulge in rare delicacies imported from Piltover or created in Zaun's alchemical kitchens. Zaun's food culture thrives on the streets, where vendors hawk everything from savory buns to experimental confections, blending the industrial city's resourcefulness with bold, unforgettable flavors.
Arts and Music
Zaunite music is raw and energetic, blending mechanical sounds with street rhythms. Percussion often features improvised instruments like repurposed metal, steam pipes, and gears, creating a soundscape that feels industrial and alive. Genres such as industrial punk, grimy jazz, and experimental electronic music are popular, reflecting the city's inventive spirit and struggles. Street performers, underground clubs, and music halls are common venues for these diverse sounds.
Found-object art, graffiti, and industrial sculptures dominate the scene, utilizing discarded machinery, scrap metal, and toxic paints to create striking, provocative works. Neon lights and bioluminescent materials are frequently incorporated, giving Zaun’s art an eerie yet vibrant glow that mirrors the polluted but dynamic environment.
Government & Politics
Political System
Zaun's political system is a fragmented and decentralized network of power controlled by various influential individuals and factions, rather than a unified government. The city operates as a chaotic meritocracy where might, wealth, and innovation dictate influence. Leadership in Zaun is often unofficial and fluid, with power shifting between chem-barons, industrial magnates and gang leaders.
Leadership
The most prominent power players in Zaun, chem-barons are wealthy and ruthless individuals who control vast industries, resources, and criminal enterprises. They often clash with each other for dominance while maintaining a fragile balance to avoid total chaos.
Organized crime plays a significant role in Zaun's governance. Gangs and syndicates often enforce their own rules in specific neighborhoods, sometimes in collaboration with or opposition to chem-barons.
Foreign Relations
Zaun’s foreign relations are heavily influenced by its unique position beneath the towering city of Piltover. Unlike most nations or regions, Zaun lacks direct access to external powers, as Piltover's control over trade routes, infrastructure, and cultural exchanges effectively isolates Zaun from meaningful international engagement. This trapped position makes Zaun more insular and less subject to outside influence compared to other nations.
Zaun’s trade system thrives largely in the shadows, where its economy is propped up by illegal or criminal dealings. The undercity's vast array of chemtech, black-market Hextech, and dangerous alchemical concoctions draw interest from not only Piltover but also outside powers seeking an edge. Unscrupulous merchants and crime lords broker deals for volatile substances, weapons, and forbidden technologies, often smuggling these goods to distant lands in exchange for rare materials or illicit funds.
Economy
Industry
Central to Zaun's economy, chemtech integrates alchemical and mechanical advancements. Includes prosthetics, weaponry, medical devices, and energy sources. Often exported to Piltover and other nations as both lifesaving tools and military equipment.
Factories mass-produce goods, ranging from machines to refined metals and chemicals. Production of alchemical substances, including potions, stimulants, and industrial chemicals.
Exports and Import
Zaun relies on importing raw materials and resources to sustain its industry, including ore and metals for engineering and factory production, Food and water due to the polluted environment making agriculture and water sourcing difficult.
Zaun exports both legitimate and black-market goods, including chemtech devices ranging from medical tools to weaponry, alchemical substances like drugs, stimulants, and volatile chemicals for industry and illicit markets, machinery and tools with specialized tech not found elsewhere and weapons that are custom-engineered firearms and chem-based explosives, often sold to mercenaries and armies.
Currency
Piltover and Zaun have been using paper notes, symbolizing Valors. The note is an agreement of the payment of Valors at a later date, along with a number on the note signifying how many Valors the note is worth. Notes are created using special paper techniques, to prevent forgery and create a decorum of using notes within the cities. Notes come in values of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 Valors. Notes are currently only accepted within the two cities.
Tourism
Landmarks
The Sump is the heart of Zaun's industry, where the smog and pollution are thickest. It houses massive factories, chem-labs, and refineries.
The Grey is a misty, eerie layer of pollution that pervades the city. It gives Zaun its iconic, foreboding aesthetic but is also toxic to breathe for extended periods.
The Fissures are bright glowing mines whete precious metals are extracted. Their glow can be quite majestic looking.
Activities
Zaun is a breeding ground for illicit and less savory activities. Brothels, chemical bars and dangerous gambling are all found within the undercity. For the most dubious of characters, Zaun can be seen as a haven for those who are looking to blend in or avoid the law.
Overall, very few tour the streets of Zaun for the reason of visiting the broken city. Outsiders visiting Zaun are doing so for money, for refuge or for illegal dealings.
The World Beneath
An Underground Business
A loose alliance of convenience exists between the chem-barons, powerful individuals who each control an area of the undercity. It is they and their thugs who keep Zaun from descending into chaos.
Hexdraulic Conveyors
Travel between Zaun and the surface usually entails a long and tiring climb, but towering elevators do exist that allow for much swifter transit. The largest among the public descenders has been nicknamed "the Rising Howl" by both Zaunites and Piltovers.
Private Hexdraulic Descender
Public Hexdraulic Descender
Boundary Markets
The levels between Zaun and Piltover are home to thriving markets and Commercia halls. These areas are the most cosmopolitan of the cities, where people from all walks of life and levels of society can be found.
Tower of the College of Techmaturgy
Rising into Piltover
Breather Station
Entrance to shimmer bar below.
Promenade Level
The upper reaches of Zaun exist alongside the lower districts of Piltover, though the differing architecture means the two could never be confused. This is where the wealthy of Zaun gather to shop, dine, and trade goods and supplies from below.
Entresol Level
Sump Level
Promenade Resident
Promenade Couriers
Horticultural Merchant
Rebellious Genius
A Culture of Invention
Though there is brutal functionality to the bolts and rivets of Zaun's structures, its inhabitants still manage to craft breathtaking wonders that pierce the smog and reach for the sky.
Iron & Glass
Most of Zaun's larger structures are crafted from lattice ironwork, forged in seething foundries or wrought from scavenged material discarded from above. Even though the undercity lies far below the surface, it is far from gloomy - chem-lights, polished steel, and carved sunwells bring light to the depths.
Chemtech Research
Denied the funds and means to craft hextech, Zaun's researcherrs instead use potent chemicals to power their creations. Chemtech performs like hextech, but is far more dangerous, toxic, and explosive.
Integral Exo-Philtrator
Sump-Gas Nebulizer
Reusable Esophilters
Backstreet Hextech Deals
Hex Carbine
Mechanician
Chemtech Researchers
Dangerous Living
The Glorious Evolution
While many Zaunites choose to live in Piltover's polished but upright shadow, Zaun is seen as the home of true genius. Some prefer to regard their bodies as tools, to be optimized and experimented on, to achieve their ambitions. They willingly opt in to powerful - and only occasionally monstrous - upgrades and prosthetics.
The Zaun Gray
Zaun has few restrictions on its industries. To outsiders, the atmosphere of the undercity is thick and heavy, with a burning, chemical aftertaste. However, Zaun may not be completely to blame, since the production of synthetic Piltovan hexcrystals is rumored to be a heavy contributor to the Zaun Gray.
Vibrant Life Teems in Zaun's Depth
Shimmer Trafficker
Assassins For Hire
Chem-Jack
The Sump
Sump-Scrappers
Nothing is wasted in Zaun, and even the toxic hinderlands of the Sump can be churned for salvage. This environment is too hostile for unprotected humans, so the sump-scrappers make a modest living by wading through the waste looking for anything of value.
Chem-Punks & Sumpsnipes
The short life expectancy of Zaun's workers results in a great many orphans. Though the majority of troublemaking youth gangs from in the lower reaches of Zaun, their members come from every level of the city, and Piltover too. These chem-pinks and sumpsnipes can be found begging, stealing, or earning a coin in places where their small size is an advantage. Despite the grime and hardship, the people of Zaun tend to be relentlessly hardy - proud of their home and their freedom to explore every avenue of invention.
Sump-Breather With Gray-Helm
Chem-Barons
Aloose alliance of convenience exists between Zaun's powerful Chem-Barons, powerful individuals who each control an area of the city. It is they and their thugs who keep Zaun from descending into chaos.
Baron Velveteen Lenare
A chem-baron with many business interests in Piltover, Lenare deals mainly in research into golem technology. Her ravaged body was dying, so she had her head transplanted to a hextech-powered replacement. She visits Piltover regularly for fluid baths, and blood/oil transfusions.
Baron Wencher Spindlow
Once a lowly lieutenant, Spindlow murdered his boss and took over his empire. Armed with a pair of shock-batons, he is a ruthless killer who sees murder and mayhem as tools of the trade.
Baron Saita Takeda
Takeda has made no secret of his disdain for his fellow chem-barons. Claiming lineage from an exiled caste of warriors from a distant land, he has plans far beyond his own territories and interests.
Baron Petrok Grime
Zaunite Language
Due to Piltover and Zaun being international trade ports, every type of language can be heard around its docks.
Over the course of its history, Zaunites / Piltovans have formed their own terms and slang:
- All-night bender - Phrase describing one who has spent a long night under the influence. "Bender" is also real-life slang.
- Apprenta - Apprentice.
- Bells - Term for the hour. Example: Eight bells = 8:00
- Burn-off - Smoke from combustion.
- Chem-burnt - Experiencing negative effects from being exposed to toxic compounds too much.
- Chem-fumes - Chemical gas, smoke, or vapor.
- Chem-stunted - Experiencing negative effects from being exposed to toxic compounds too much.
- Crawl-hatch - Opening in the sides of pipes or ducts for maintenance and manual cleaning.
- Chem-punk - Derogatory term used for a trouble maker, or gang member from Zaun.
- Dram-dealer - Person who sells dram.
- First rule of the Sump - Only marks go in through the front door.
- Foundlings - Orphans.
- Foundling home - Orphan Home.
- Go pound a sump - An insult.
- The Gray - Term used to describe Zaun's thick chemical atmosphere.
- The Gray Lady - The holy patron saint of the Glorious Evolved.
- Grayout - Massive pollution of The Gray.
- Grey-pox - Illness caused by The Gray.
- Head up top - Phrase meaning "Go to Piltover".
- Hereabouts - Phrase used to describe a person's current location.
- Hex-mechanics - People who work with hextech.
- Horticulturalists - People that tend to cultivairs.
- Janna's mercy! - A Zaunite exclamation used in cases of extreme danger, a plea for help.
- Lung Blight - Illness caused by The Gray.
- Mark - A thief's target.
- Name day - Birthday.
- Not even a plague rat's brown cough - Basically so silent you could hear a pin drop.
- Orderly - A caretaker.
- Physicker - phyiscian, or doctor.
- Piltie - Derogatory term for Piltover natives.
- Pipework - pipes that make up a network.
- Sawbones - Zaunite doctor.
- Skirl - Term used to describe a shrill, wailing sound from pipes.
- Snipe - A derogatory term for a Zaunite child.
- Stilt-walking sump-scrapper - A salvager who uses stilts to stay above the toxic gases and sludge of the Sump.
- Sump-raker - A derogatory term for a person from the Sump level.
- Sump-scrapping - The act of salvaging items from the Sump level.
- Sump-snipe - A derogatory term for a child from the Sump level.
- Sump-scrappers - People who make a living salvaging items from the Sump level. Also known as a Sumper.
- Sump-sucker - A derogatory term for a person from the Sump level.
- Sure as gray follows day - Phrase signifying certainty.
- Tallyman - Person who sells merchandise on credit, especially from door to door.
- The cliffs are muttering - A reaction to small earthquakes.
- Techmaturgy - Field of study combining technology and magic.
- Trencher - A derogatory term for a person that lives in the Undercity, a.k.a. Zaun.
- Toxic runoff - Poisonous liquid drainage.
- Uppside - Term for Piltover.
- Well-heeled - Phrase used to describe those well off, named for their state of the soles of their shoes not being worn down, or the type of shoes that wouldn't last long in the muck below.
- You ken? - You know?
Being connected, both Piltover and Zaun have formed similar writing systems and numerals used throughout the two cities. While having a common writing system used for general communication, a specific writing system, both elegant and rough, is used for numerous applications. Its symbols are used for alchemical works and scientific equations.
The cities use several different numerical symbols for its mathematical and time measurements. This is due to Piltover and Zaun being key trading hubs for both north and south continents. However, the common numerals used in Piltover and Zaun resemble that of Roman numerals.
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