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We lost ourselves. Lost our dream.

In the pursuit of Great, We failed to do Good.

Viktor (also known as the Herald or the Machine Herald) was a main character of Arcane. Determined, ingenious, and courageous, he came from the Undercity to become an inventor and created Hextech alongside his partner, Jayce Talis. As his health worsens he struggles with a desperation to cure himself and those in Zaun by using Shimmer and studying the Hexcore, which eventually causes him to become the Machine Herald and lead a cult.

Biography[]

Season 1[]

Viktor was born in the Undercity, where the less than ideal environment attributed to the development of his disability. Later on, in his teenage years, he was found by Heimerdinger, who offered Viktor the position of his assistant in Piltover.

As a child, Viktor was excluded due to his disability. Born with a malformed leg and needing a cane to walk, his mobility issues inhibited him from playing with other children. Despite his loneliness, he was incredibly intelligent. He fostered an engineering talent, even creating a working model steamboat that he completes and tests within a flashback at the start of When These Walls Come Tumbling Down. In this episode, he meets Sky for the first time as a child, watching him as he tinkered with the boat.

After placing the boat in a stream to test-run it, the current of the water pulls it downstream faster than Viktor can keep up with. Demonstrating recklessness even as a child, Viktor chooses to follow the stream down into a dark, cave, where he finds it in the hands of Singed, a scientist who is attempting to preserve the life of a mutated Waverider named Rio.

Praising Viktor for the quality of his invention, Singed allows Viktor to assist him in caring for Rio, feeding her what appears to be an early, raw variant of Shimmer.

After finding Rio in contorted in pain and hooked up to a series of machines, Viktor is horrified. Singed claims, "The mutation must survive," - but Viktor is unaccepting of his ethos and runs away.

How Heimerdinger discovers Viktor is unclear. Still, somewhere in his late teens, Heimerdinger encounters him and takes him under his wing, allowing him to study at the University of Piltover. Viktor goes on to become his assistant as Dean of the Academy.

While investigating on Heimerdinger's behalf, Viktor first meets Jayce Talis, a fellow scientist whose illegal research is interrupted and exposed by a robbery. Viktor risks stealing Jayce's notebook from Heimerdinger's office and seeks Jayce out to discuss its contents with him. After successfully talking a suicidal Jayce off the edge of his destroyed apartment, Viktor reassures Jayce that hope is not lost.

When you're going to change the world, don't ask for permission.

Viktor, to Jayce Talis, Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved

Jayce and Viktor begin working in what is presumably Viktor's office, discovering that the gemstones Jayce acquired can only operate under a much higher frequency. Jayce expresses a desire to explain his discovery to the council, to which Viktor retaliates they have an absence of proof. After realizing his equipment will be destroyed the following day, Jayce is devastated - leading Viktor to suggest breaking into Heimerdinger's lab to retrieve it.

Once they arrive at the lab, Viktor and Jayce are caught by Mel Medarda, who, after being convinced by Jayce's speech, allows them one night to impress her by allowing them to stay, while she distracts an oncoming security guard.

Years later, Hextech blows up in popularity. Viktor lives in the shadow of Jayce, who is at the center of the public eye. Viktor had made a new creation called the Hexcore, which he venerably studies. One night as he studies the Hexcore, Viktor-already looking sickly-collapses at his desk. It is revealed that he is terminally ill, and his prognosis only spurs his drive to continue in his research, dedicating himself to discovering the workings of the arcane.

Heimerdinger visits him in the fissures, and Viktor tells the yordle how he worried that knowledge of his contributions would fade away soon after his death.

In a bid to prolong his longevity, he seeks out the doctor, who gives him a vial of a shimmer variant, which he takes in conjunction with exposure to The Hexcore. His bad leg is healed, and he is able to walk for the first time.

Spurred on by Mel Medarda's influence, Jayce considers using their technology to create weapons to defend Piltover, to which Viktor is vehemently opposed.

Later on Viktor reaches out to the Hexcore, which begins glowing and flashing wildly. Sky walks in on Viktor, and in a desperate attempt to save Viktor's life, pulls him away from the Hexcore. However, she is vaporized in the process, leaving Viktor with immense guilt.


He visits his childhood lookout spot in Zaun to scatter Sky's ashes in the river where he first met her. He hesitantly contemplates suicide, but Jayce appears behind him. They talk, and reminisce about the time they spent together at the Distinguished Innovators Competition. Viktor asks Jayce to destroy the Hexcore, to which he hesitates, but eventually agrees.

Viktor joins Jayce at the council where he announces Jayce's deal with Silco in making Zaun an independent nation, when Jinx's rocket hits the council building and leaves Viktor gravely injured.

Season 2[]

Jayce rushes Viktor to their lab in attempt to save his life. Jayce grabs the Hexcore, and fuses it with Viktor's body. This locks Viktor in a magical cocoon that transforms his entire body into an arcane-altered form. When Viktor awakes, he breaks out of the cocoon and wakes up a sleeping Jayce. Jayce hugs Viktor and grabs him a blanket, when the two get into an argument about the Hexcore-now inside Viktor-and how Jayce had revived him. Viktor leaves, saying their paths had diverged long ago.

Viktor goes to Zaun where he sees all of the suffering of its citizens. There, he sees a vision of Sky leading him throughout the streets. Some Shimmer addicts including Huck follow him. When Viktor arrives at his destination, the Shimmer addicts threaten him, however Viktor places his hand on the Huck's forehead in a flash of purple light, and cures Huck of all his Shimmer ailments and reverts him to a younger, healthier body.

Viktor begins to heal any and all the people willing with the help of Sky's vision, and steadily builds a commune full of the cured people.

Later, Viktor uses Salo's body, one of which he cured from a Shimmer addiction and paralyzation, to go to the Hexgates and take some of the modules in the heart of the structure. Viktor talks to a transformed Jayce where he offers to talk in person. Jayce ends up murdering Salo.

Viktor meets with Vi, Jinx, Isha, and Vander to try and cure the latter. He uses his powers to explore Vander's mind with Sky, where he eventually uncovers the man's memories.

Singed shows up to the commune, where the two talk about Vander's state and body. They disagree, and Singed leaves to return to the Noxian army.

Later, Jayce kills Viktor with a blast from his transformed Mercury Hammer.

Stuck in another cocoon, Viktor relies on the blood Singed gives him to live. He talks with Ambessa Medarda, and agrees to transform any soldier she gives him in return for her help escorting him to the Hexgates. He uses one of his followers-who has now been transformed into mechanical dolls-to enter the council building, where he attempts to persuade Jayce into becoming partners once again. Jayce rejects him, and Viktor begins to fight him and Mel. He looses, causing him to allow Singed to transform him and his followers.

He says goodbye to Sky, claiming he would miss their talks. Sky fades away, and Viktor begins to transform into the Machine Herald. His body elongates and transforms unnaturally, he grows a "third arm" on his back with three claws, and his face splits in two with a mask growing in the middle. He transforms the rest of his followers, along with Vander.

He travels and arrives with the Noxian army to Piltover, where he is transported in the cocoon. He leaves the cocoon sometime in the battle, and meets Jayce in the heart of the Hexgates. He uses a spell with his third arm to place all of the compartments of the heart back, and begins to fight Jayce as he travels to the top of the tower. Once there, he brings Jayce to the Hexspace along with everyone else in the battlefield. Viktor begins the process of his Glorious Evolution. Ekko comes up to the two on his hoverboard, and throws a wild rune at the two.

Jayce, freed from the mind control, begins to tell Viktor about how all he wanted was his partner back. Viktor shrinks down in the Hexspace, and the two hug. Viktor sees the barren future Jayce had been sent to and what would come from his actions, along with seeing his alternate self give Jayce the rune that had started it all. Viktor tells Jayce to leave, but Jayce joins Viktor in destroying the rune.

The two are absorbed into the rune, and dissipate.

Characteristics[]

Personality[]

Viktor is a driven and innovative scientist with an altruistic passion. Due to his disability, Viktor's childhood was spent isolated and separate from other children. This led to strong introversion in his personality as well as a relative lack of understanding of social cues, as seen when discussing Jayce's notes on Hextech with the previously suicidal Jayce Talis.

Throughout Season One, Viktor becomes increasingly ambitious in his endeavors, from stealing Jayce's notes to breaking into a lab to experimenting on himself. There is also a hint of ego in this side of his personality, he speaks dejectedly to Professor Heimerdinger of a failure in securing his "legacy". He confesses he fears that his contributions will be "short-lived".

However, in Act 2, his actions mainly revolve around Jayce's actions.

Appearance[]

Viktor is a caucasian man of average height with pale skin, moles, brown hair, and striking amber eyes. In Act I, he can be seen in the University of Piltover's uniform of a long-sleeved burgundy shirt with golden buttons, a white waistcoat with dark grey lining, and diamond-shaped white buttons. He also sports a white tie tied in an Atlantic knot (unlike Jayce's red tie-from this, we can presume that ties are indicative of status at the University, as Jayce is a student and Viktor is the Dean's assistant), as well as dark grey trousers and shoes. While he is shown to use a wooden cane, he is without it in certain scenes, suggesting he does not completely rely on it to walk yet.

By Acts Two and Three of Season One, Viktor's physical stature strongly reflects his health. His hair is longer and less well-kept, he has more prominent and shadowy eyebrows, and his skin is so pale that it almost takes on a blue tinge in some lighting. Due to a significant loss of weight, his clothes appear more crumpled, swapping his burgundy shirt for a brown pinstripe one often rolled up to the elbows, an off-white and grey waistcoat with longer tails and an angular pattern across the front. He also now uses a crutch instead of a cane, impeding his gait and giving him a hunched posture.

In Season Two when Viktor emerges from the Hexcore cocoon, his body is transformed into a machine-like form. His eyes transform in between an array of colors as well. Just like his leg and hand from Season One, his skin is now a stringy purple metal-like texture. Purple glows from underneath this skin, which fades into Viktor’s natural skin color at his cheeks. Gold metal is strewn throughout his skin, mostly on his torso, neck, joints, and arms. He wears the blanket Jayce gives him as a cloak, which becomes his main outfit in Act 1 along with his cane which has an arcane-infected texture.

In Act Two, Viktor now has longer hair with blonde tipped strands by his ears. The cloak he wore in earlier episodes is now wrapped around his body and strapped together with white belts and golden adornments. His cane is now more similar to a staff, with the handle curving into a more circular shape with golden accents.

Transformed into the Machine Herald, Viktor’s face is split in two to make room for the geometrical ”mask” in the middle of his face. The eyes on the mask are glowing orange, and the tips of the mask are gold; along with multiple other gold accents across his body such as the ones on his wrists, shoulders, back, and feet. In this form he is much taller and lankier, with his torso being somewhat separated from his legs at the hips with large indents in between the two parts. Viktor has a third arm coming out from his back with a three fingered “claw” at the end. Each of the fingers is tipped in gold with the middle of the claw being a purple glowing circle. This claw is used for arcane magic. Viktor’s cane is now completely transformed into a staff, with the top of the staff being used to hold the wild rune. His cloak is also tied around his neck, with the cloth underside being red.

Abilities[]

Gallery[]

See Viktor/Gallery

Relationships[]

See Viktor/Relationships

Trivia[]

  • Viktor and the Mysterious Mage are the same person, but from different timelines.
  • According to Christian Linke, one of the co-creators of Arcane, he confirmed that both Jayce and Viktor have disintegrated.[1]
  • In a Polygon interview with the executive producer of League of Legends, Paul Bellezza tossed around the idea of Viktor's ending in Arcane not being definitive when asked about League Viktor's death. He states, "so like the audience, we have to interpret what the show showed us of Jayce and Viktor's conclusion."[2]
  • Amanda Overton, co-writer of Arcane, confirmed in an interview that they were writing Jayce and Viktor to have a "loving, brotherly relationship” but also said that she understands other fan interpretations.[3]

Appearances[]

Season One appearances: 8/9
"Welcome to the Playground":
Absent
"Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved":
Appears
"The Base Violence Necessary for Change":
Appears
"Happy Progress Day!":
Appears
"Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy":
Appears
"When These Walls Come Tumbling Down":
Appears
"The Boy Savior":
Appears
"Oil and Water":
Appears
"The Monster You Created":
Appears
Season Two appearances: 7/9
"Heavy Is the Crown":
Appears
"Watch It All Burn":
Appears
"Finally Got the Name Right":
Absent
"Paint The Town Blue":
Absent
"Blisters And Bedrock":
Appears
"The Message Hidden Within The Pattern":
Appears
"Pretend Like It's the First Time":
Appears
"Killing Is a Cycle":
Appears
"The Dirt Under Your Nails":
Appears

References[]

ve Characters
Main Characters
Ambessa MedardaCaitlyn KirammanCecil B. HeimerdingerEkkoJayce TalisJinxMel MedardaSevikaSilcoSingedVanderViViktor
Other characters
AmaraBabetteBenzoCassandra KirammanChrossClaggorDeckardEloraFinnForeign PrincessGertGraysonGustove JowlerHuckIrius BolbokIshaJannaJulesKino MedardaLeBlancLestLorisMadam MargotMaddie NolenMarcusMyloOrianna ReveckRenRenniRenni's SonRictusRioSaloScarShoolaSky YoungSmeechStebThieramTobias KirammanTorman HoskelVernXimena Talis
Alternate Universe characters
BenzoClaggorEkkoGertMyloPowderSilcoVanderViViktor
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