#ashlesh

1. DUALITY

first i would like to point out something interesting that (so far) just happened with ashlesh: the fact that he has two different titles

for me, it speaks about ashlesh complexity as a character - he resonates in duality, joy under his influence can mean multiple things, his waters cut deep but they also veil against harm, he gives power but takes the soul

i feel like (at some point) ashlesh was closer to humanity (meaning that he helped humans thrive at the same time he fed on them, yk like cattle) than to his siblings - The Ten Kings - and that's why he was granted two titles, he seems to go beyond the "just consume" that we see from fiddle, yes he fed on humans but he understand how to do this

the devil is smarter

this of course is a past that we'll probably never know about ashlesh; if it was once written, the river of fate has likely washed it away long ago

2. AMBITIONS

despite mysterious, ashlesh seems to have a clear and audacious goal: fight the heavens

it's transparent like water that ashlesh harbours resentment towards the celestial realm above and it has a good reason: it was the celestials that trapped him

here's the story

For those who dont know, the new fiddlesticks and zoe got a small connection in lore - in one of the old splasharts, fiddle carries a key, but upon receiving his rework, it was not there anymore

so people started noticing that the key that once belonged to fiddle was now in the hands of a mischievous little (and too powerful) girl

(this lore event is also present in fiddle's biography)

but after all, what this key was for?

Carnivalnites (or Jared Rosen), the main writer behind fiddle rework, rell, viego and nilah, answered it in an old tweet (now deleted) what the key was for

note 1: "beautiful and terrible in its joy", the duality concept strikes again

note 2: by the way it's put and by the way jared talks about the "something else" (that we now know it's ashlesh), it seems that at early stages the demon of joy was meant to be a lesser demon that was under fiddle sphere of influence (this concept is confirmed by the demonology annotation image from noxus that came out with fiddle rework) but with nilah release they have since moved from this concept cause now ashlesh is one of the ten kings alongside fiddlesticks

with all this information we can confirm that ashlesh is deeply tied with targon, or more specific to the celestial realm beyond

celestial beings trapped ashlesh for some unknown reason, possibly the demon was posing some kind of direct threat to them so he had to be locked

...

my personal theory is that ashlesh got kicked from the celestial realm, tried to build up his own "kingdom" below on runeterra, but also got denied this option and the celestials locked him away as a final punishment

"She read of the mad king Viego and his tragic fall, the genesis of the first dragons, and the foundation of the universe in the Kathkan tradition."

how is this possible? cause ashlesh himself is a star that once resided on the celestial realm and upon coming to the world below, he turned into the demon we know

Ashlesha (or Āśleṣā) is the 9th nakshatra (constellation) of the Hindu astrology; it's symbol is the sea serpent and its element is water. The head of the snake (in Hydra constellation) corresponds to the star Āshleshā.

interestingly, fiddlesticks bio also mentions this strange and otherworldly nature

An evil gone from the world for numberless centuries—long enough that the warnings of a nascent humanity passed into rumor, then myth, then legend… until all that remained were simple fables. An entity so utterly alien that it defies almost all contemporary knowledge of magic.

note 3: about the "turning into a demon" part, fiddle's bio is full of "it got turned into" imageries, of men and animals transforming with demonic power, so i dare say that is not impossible for ashlesh turning into a demon;

last, but not least, to make this even joyful (and funnier) i present you all the Star Guardian Version of the story (Jared worked on Another Sky novel for SG 2022 event too, so the thematics overlap)

ashlesh the STAR of joy

remember how fiddlesticks and zoe were (also) related in Another Sky? yup yup

(i feel somehow that zoe also was the key to free ashlesh in this AU too)

with these i finish my thoughts, thank you for those who read it !