Zaun — official Riot artwork

Regional history

Zaun

An undercity of brilliant invention, chemical risk and people surviving beneath progress.

Artwork · Riot Games

Zaun · official regional illustration · Riot Games

Watch before you read

Zaun in motion

Official films · play here

Cinematic · Riot Games

Ekko: Seconds

Ekko’s short cinematic makes time, danger, and everyday survival in Zaun tangible.

Riot Games · complete regional overview

Zaun

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.

End of this reading

A lived-in world

Places & life in Zaun

Promenade LevelRiot Games

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.

Riot Universe · regional archive

City of Iron and GlassRiot Games

City of Iron and Glass

Most of Zaun's structures are crafted from lattice ironwork, either forged in the many seething foundries or wrought from scavenged material discarded from above. 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.

Riot Universe · regional archive

Chem PunksRiot Games

Chem Punks

Though the majority of troublemaking gangs form in the lower reaches of Zaun, their members come from every level of the city, and Piltover too.

Riot Universe · regional archive

Baron Velveteen LenareRiot Games

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.

Riot Universe · regional archive

Chem-BaronsRiot Games

Chem-Barons

A loose 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.

Riot Universe · regional archive

Baron Wencher SpindlowRiot Games

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.

Riot Universe · regional archive

The history of the region

Follow what happened here

Personal stories

Champions of Zaun

Stories connected to Zaun

Associated through the archive’s characters; some journeys continue beyond this region.

The source archive

Sources & further reading

Riot’s regional overview and place descriptions are preserved with attribution. Regional accounts describe their publication period; later stories can change the situation.

  1. Zaun · Riot Universe ↗
  2. Ekko: Seconds ↗

Official publication

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