Vision | Swain Theme Lyricised | League of Legends

Lyrics + Vocals + Mixing + Editing by nebulus
Instrumental + Animated Classic Swain Splash Art + Tyrant Swain Splash Art + Additional Footage by Riot Games
If anyone knows who animated the Tyrant Swain splash please let me know, I could only find uncredited versions of it.

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Lyrics:
Noxus arise
To glory untold
Behold all the wise,
the wily and the bold,
Brought into the fold

Noxus avows
Our vision as one
To none do we bow
Til red shines the sun

Noxus, adorned
With iron and blood,
Where weakness is scorned
Through strength we guard our land beloved

For a strong will is needed; dark be the passage
And the strong will be heeded - hark, hear their message clear

Cunning, cognisance, and courage
Are the path by which we flourish
Winged eyes hold every vantage
Soaring on the winds of war
Winds that dread my whispered name
For war with me is not the same
Battle is a different game
When raven calls are keeping score

Dissidents call us usurpers
Feeding soldiers to the furnace
They don’t see the dire purpose
Worth committing treason for
In the eyes of fallen pikemen
Growing on their souls like lichen
I beheld a vision; I can
Now see what the demon saw

Lurking deep beneath the state
An evil bleeding green awaits
The day that he is free to sate
A neverending need for more
Colonise, consume, and conquer
Corvids cry in callous concert
All concede to what I conjure
As I coat the streets in gore

Noxus aflame
The ravens shall reign
But I am the bastion
That keeps them restrained
I’m the chain of command given form
An empire reborn
Noxus alone
Shall weather every storm

Til red is all we see

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Broke: putting a rap verse in a league champ theme
Woke: putting a poem in a league champ theme

... I probably should’ve specified that the three remaining songs for this year would not be released monthly and that I would instead be working on them all at once and releasing them as a cluster. Welp. Here’s the first. The second is already almost done. The third will be just me taking it easy. Something a little more for myself.
To kick it off, time for my main (and his best skin) (objectively) (there is no argument to be made otherwise). What better motivation to do your best audio production work yet than feeling the all-seeing demon you pledged your soul to 3 years ago watching over your shoulder the entire time? Tried to invest more focus into improving audio again this time, like the Ryze theme. Not that I had much choice when it came to Swain; his splash is too close-up for a Carven Cavalry style video and he doesn’t have enough cinematic appearances for a Minutes Per Second style video (*cough* Noxus political drama Arcane season when).
I find it strange that Tyrant Swain, from the alternate timeline where Raum takes control, has green magic while canon Swain has red. It leads me to believe that Raum’s magic is naturally green and Swain himself turned that magic red, intentionally or otherwise, to better represent Noxus. Raum’s green magic then strengthens his potential lore connection to Mordekaiser, who I assume is the one who imprisoned Raum in the Immortal Bastion in the first place... just something to think about. I only really considered it when I was almost finished writing the song, but I knew from the start that I wanted the quiet section in the middle to “canonise” Tyrant Swain to a degree, by treating it as a potential future that Swain’s visions have shown him. He and I have that in common: we always think ahead. Maybe a bit too far for our own good.
Oh and shoutout to the one incorrectly looped frame of animation every 30 seconds that Riot left in for me to manually fix, gotta be one of my favourite genders. But hey, at least I can actually fix that by just duplicating the previous frame, unlike certain audio blunders (@ whoever mixed Galio’s theme).

[nebulus]

ALSO I'M DOING AN END/BEGINNING-OF-YEAR UPDATE VIDEO/Q&A, PUT YOUR QUESTIONS IN COMMENTS HERE OR IN TWITTER DMS OR SOMETHING
PREFERABLY QUESTIONS THAT AREN'T "WILL YOU DO [CHAMPION]??"
THANK

[samu]

Song like this are why i love League of Legends. This really brings the fantasy of what Swain is to live.

[ysgbkbr]

as a Swain main, i totally feel the glory of Noxus in that song

FOR THE EMPIRE

[zarthes]

Sweet jiminy jim jams I've had this on repeat for, gods know how long. This evokes a powerful emotion in this humble Swain main. I love this so much.

[razzz]

I clicked on this with impending cringe, but it was halted. This is impressive and rare.

[velosid]

Absolutely phenomenal. I shall listen to this song on loop every time i play Swain.

Bless the Algorithm.

[umbertus]

How do you find such INCREDIBLE lyrics and power in the voice ideas? These two things combined really feel like how Swain must be seen in the lore : He is fucking scary, hold a fucking demon in him, control an army of ravens that eats the fucking souls of the dead and learn theirs deepest secrets so that Swain can truly understand how the world really works (and know of stuff nobody should know about...such as the void, etc.). Phenomenal. Thank you for showing what Swain *really* is. It's perfect. You have the military aspect, the demon / occult aspect, the powerful and scary aspect, the vision aspect...Just perfect. How do you find your lyrics?

[dhoineSuezSauer]

For some reason this makes Swains Theme sound even more Soviet and I love it. Till the sun shines red indees

[ethanlim]

everyone stand for the noxus national anthem

[thewangdynasty]

1:23 the words here were spoken with such power and eloquence:
from this part, would I see the fear of an enemy in league when swain e roots and ults from an unwarded bush. They can then sense the inevitable,

as a swain main, I say that I am indeed impressed ;))

[rosem]

1) this is wonderful
2) you should drop an hour-long version

[himisuda]

bro this is such a banger, this is the type of music i want to hear the red army choir sing

[captaineflowchapka]

absolute banger
good understanding of the lore
the dread, of teh future, the insignificance of the present, the need for the game sah that good

[lsqxnzn]

This video made me pick up swain and I'm maining him now. I like the video a lot more now, the lyrics are perfect for swain and how it feels to play him. I think the addition at 1:23 is perfect and made me question how i see swain's character, it made me remember he is a general that knows everything that's happening in runeterra, every little terrifying aspect about their world yet he persists in making sure his country can outlast these terrors. I love this song and it made me adore swain's and noxuses (if that's how you say it) story much more.

[theengineerguy]

Late to the party but the inital anthem of the lyrics is so powerful, it sounds like an actual anthem the Empire has!

GJ!

[agusstine]

THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME! Your voice gives me CHILLS and the lyrics are so on point, , , I'm a Swain main since always and I feel this personally so beatiful, it scares me how you made it so creepy and dominant.
I listened to your other songs too and these are awesome, keep it up man! Your work is a great 💯/💯!

[DontKnow-hrmy]

I wish the Algorithm would have passed me that one earlier

[the_soggster]

Whenever I want to really go full try hard on a champ I play their theme song. This should boost my WR by at least 2% over the normal version. Thanks

Edit: I listened to this while I played after watching a mid guide basically. I got the music drop at 2:00 alongside a tripple kill into ending the game as the last alive lmao. For Noxus bb

[daf]

Omg I feel so silly for not finding this sooner.
Amazing details I loved:
1) Raum coming into the picture with the line of "a green evil", the voice changes and then corrupted Swain appears
2) use of the word corvids xD
3) I keep them restrained, goes back to red
One of the best pieces of content I've seen centered around Swain, and my name in LoL is literally LilSaneSwainMain so that says something.
Keep it up, awesome stuff!!!!

[olgierdvoneverec]

Love this as a Swain main. Noxus will rise! Also I would love to see Mordekaiser and Aatrox themes next.