Odyssey || Theory time.
Aight. So. Less than 24h after the official teaser release, and I have a theory on it. Typical, I know lmao. I’ll admit I had a completely different theory about this before I saw all of this.
Anyway, let’s take a look at the splash arts for Odyssey Kayn and Sona for a minute, okay?
Here’s Kayn:
Here’s Sona:
Now. There’s a few things I’ve noticed (thanks to @sushi-okita) about them that make me question what kind of relationship they have with each other in the Odyssey universe.
First up, the golden orb, that strange gold liquid they both wield. For Sona, it originates from her etwahl; for Kayn, it originates where Rhaast’s eye should be on his scythe.
Their eyes are the same golden color.
They both have golden markings / tribal designs on their faces.
Kayn literally has one dialogue line (in the teaser) refering to an unknown female; “You took what was mine! I will find her, and I-”
Now that that’s out of the way, notice how, on Kayn’s splash art, he seems to absorb the life out of a man’s body. The color of the life-sapping liquid coming out of the corpse’s eyes?
Gold.
Just like the orb replacing Rhaast’s eye.
Kayn’s official voicelines for this new skin have also been released (and I can’t tell if he’s totally batshit insane, suffers from a superiority complex or both lol). There are many things I’ve noticed in them:
Both Rhaast and Kayn mention something called ‘aura’.
Rhaast has three voicelines aimed directly to (or refering to) Sona, telling her to ‘open the gates’ (whatever that means) and [here speaking to Kayn] “I told you to leave her ALIVE!” (to which Kayn responds there was a ‘change of plans’) and also “Face the monster you unleashed, Sona!”
Rhaast mentions that ‘gate’ twice, in the aforementioned line directed to Sona, as well as this one; “You should never have opened that gate!”
Kayn has a few lines targeted directly to Sona; “Rhaast can’t save you now, Sona!” along with “At last, Sona, the secrets of the Aura Gate will be mine!”
Both keep referencing someone called the Templar, which I believe is one way they refer to Sona. Their lines concerning this Templar person are variations of the lines they already voice towards the maven, so it’s only logical to interpret that the Templar is, in fact, Sona.
One of Kayn’s lines in particular may seem very small, but once you understand that the Templar is Sona, this line becomes key to deciphering the lore; “Captain Yasuo, why don’t you tell me where you are hiding the Templar?”
It is also worth noting that Rhaast himself refers to the Dark Star skin line quite a few times, implying that he himself is a Dark Star, and even having one or two voicelines refering to Thresh in that same context.
Based on this, we can assume a few concrete things;
Sona is a priestess / princess tasked with guarding an ancient gate leading to another dimension; her golden orb is the key to said gate.
This other dimension (to which said gate leads) is where Rhaast came from, which is where the Dark Star / Cosmic / Star Guardian skin lines exist, making the Odyssey skin line their own universe (to make things simpler, SGs / Dark Star / Cosmic are NOT in the same dimension as Odyssey).
Aura refers to a person’s life force, which Kayn needs in order to become stronger (and possibly access the gate Sona is tasked with keeping).
When Kayn harvests a person’s aura, he is strengthening both himself and Rhaast. The aura is stored within the golden orb replacing Rhaast’s eye on the scythe.
Yasuo’s crew are, in a way, taking Sona into hiding so that Kayn can never find her and access the Aura Gate.
Opening said gate would unleash the other Dark Stars into the Odyssey universe and cause their end.
If you paid attention, at one point I mentioned Rhaast had told Kayn to keep Sona alive. I think Rhaast knows something Kayn doesn’t; I’ll assume that in order to open the gate, they need a high priestess to do so. My guess is that they need a SPECIFIC aura to open the gate. More on that later.
Keeping all of the previous information in mind (I know there’s a lot, but bear with me, it will all end up making sense), we can make an educated guess as to what the possible story behind this skin line is - or, at least, we can guess as to what kind of role Sona and Kayn actually have within it. Here’s my interpretation of it based on all of the information above;
Sona is a High-Priestess, refered to as the Templar. Keeper of the Aura Gate. Her golden orb is an association of all the previous Keepers’ auras. This means ONLY a Keeper (Templar and / or High-Priestess, all three are the same) can wield this specific orb, and said Keeper is the only person who can access the Aura Gate’s power. In this universe, I believe there is ONLY ONE KEEPER. She originates from the same world as Kayn, hence their shared facial markings and eye color.
I believe Kayn and Sona have a shared past; Kayn speaks to her with such familiarity, calling her by name in most of his voicelines, that it would be illogical to think they don’t have any connection besides Kayn wanting to kill her to gain access to the Aura Gate. They may have been classmates, studying together or training together at some point. They may have been friends, or they may have been more (which would be logical considering Kayn himself in the teaser refers to Sona as ‘what was mine’ (unless that line refers to her orb) and says that he will find her).
In any case, from Kayn’s voicelines we gather that he was an Imperial Soldier before Rhaast came along. I believe that he might have been one of the best, part of the elite if you will, whom the previous emperor of their world had sent through the Aura Gate to retrieve something that might aid them in the conquering of new planets and solar systems. Rhaast was that ‘something’ the emperor had wanted them to get; a weapon forged from the dying heart of a Dark Star, corrupted through and through.
It was the sentient weapon’s corruption that turned Kayn into this insane, ambitious and power-hungry man, who overthrew the emperor to rule in his stead over the Empire, and desiring even more power had decided to take Sona as his own in order to have access once more to the Aura Gate. This caused the Templar to flee the temple -and eventually, the planet- where the now inaccessible gate resides, finding refuge with Yasuo and his crew after her spaceship was attacked by monstrous creatures following her escape from her home planet.
Although Sona has found herself surrounded by a band of misfits, she quickly understood that they could all be trusted. They all have their quirks, but they were her new family, people she needed to protect. She blames herself for the trouble she puts them through; because of her, Kayn is now after them. Because of her, Kayn has strayed from his path; because of her, he is no longer human; because of her, he has caused suffering to so many, just to find her.
Ever since she escaped, Kayn and Rhaast have been bent on finding her and have hunted down Yasuo’s ship and crew, meaning to kill those who dared take Sona away from them and, eventually, meaning to kill Sona herself, so she can never take the key to the Aura Gate away from him again.
***
And there you have it! I know, this was a loooong ass post. Have a cookie!
I’m really excited to see what kind of lore is truly behind this skin line. What do you guys think? I’m hyped as hell. I’m not sure my predictions are accurate but hey, who knows!
I really want to know you guys’ thoughts on this :3
P.S.: For those of you who haven’t heard Kayn’s new voicelines yet and have over 30min of free time to waste, here’s the link to them good lines. Some of them just made me crack up. He throws some SERIOUS shade tho lmao. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnqu0e1758c ♥
