Runeterra's Power Rankings: The Top 10 Most Powerful Beings

#10: Viego, The Ruined King

Viego's power is a cataclysm born from a millennium of unresolved grief and obsessive rage. He is not merely a wielder of magic but the source of a sentient magical plague, the Black Mist, which blighted an entire continent and now threatens the world. His power is absolute, driven by a singular, unwavering focus that knows no bounds. As he himself states: "No price is too great. No atrocity beyond my reach. For her... I will do anything."

The novel Ruination reveals that even as a mortal king of Camavor, Viego possessed a powerful, uncontrolled soul magic tied to his obsessive emotions. When his wife Isolde died, he led his formidable army to the Blessed Isles, demanding the impossible. When the masters of the isles refused to perform the forbidden ritual of resurrection, Viego’s reaction demonstrated the terrifying scale of his mortal will and authority, unleashing his knights upon the peaceful inhabitants.

"Denial was a language Viego did not speak. He had been denied his queen, and he would not be denied again. Not ever." (From the novel Ruination)

Forced into the ritual, the resurrected Isolde, horrified and in pain, stabbed Viego through the heart with his own enchanted blade. The resulting explosion of magic was not just a random accident; it was the violent birth of the Black Mist from Viego's own unleashed soul. The novel describes this apocalyptic moment explicitly:

"It was the king’s spirit, unleashed. It was his rage, his pain, and his obsessive, possessive love given form. It was the Black Mist, a physical manifestation of his grief and his rage, and it poured from him, a torrent of soul-blasting, necrotic magic." (From the novel Ruination)

This connection means his power is as limitless as his grief. Viego can casually overwhelm entire cities, not through brute force, but with effortless command over his own cataclysmic nature. When assaulting a city to retrieve one of Isolde's artifacts, he demonstrated this absolute control:

"Stop,” says Viego, raising a single hand once more. The Mist, the wraiths, the horrors, the fighting—everything seems to freeze on the Ruined King’s command." (From the color story SHE)

In this moment, a chaotic siege halts instantly at his whim. He then slays the city's defender, raises him as an undead servant, and vanishes. Recent events have shown this power unleashed on a global scale, and his potential for destruction remains boundless, fueled by an obsession that will never fade.

"Legions will fall before him only to rise again in his service, continents will be swallowed by living darkness, and the world will pay for every moment of happiness it stole from an ancient ruler laid low by all-consuming love." (From his biography)

#9: Skarner, The Primordial Sovereign

Following his rework, Skarner's power is established as foundational, making him a literal and political pillar of Ixtal. His might is not merely that of a colossal monster but of an ancient sovereign whose authority has shaped a nation for millennia. His power is absolute, rooted in several key domains.

The Architect of Ixtal

Skarner's mastery of terramancy transcends combat; he is a creator on a civilizational scale. As a revered protector, he single-handedly pulverized a massive rockslide to save the early Ixtali, but his greatest feat was one of creation. His biography states he "used his earthen prowess to help build the cardinal arcology of Ixaocan," the very heart of the nation. This city-scale terraforming places his elemental control in the highest possible tier, as he can raise fortresses as easily as he can level them.

The Continent's Watcher

From a specialized chamber deep beneath Ixaocan, Skarner's power grants him a form of quasi-omniscience. His biography confirms this chamber was "designed to amplify the vibrational threads across the continent." Through this seismic perception, he felt the arrival of the first human settlers, sensed the rising tensions of the Shuriman empire, and witnessed the world-altering devastation of the Rune Wars. This makes him an ever-vigilant guardian, capable of detecting threats from anywhere on the continent, granting him unparalleled strategic awareness.

The Will of a Nation

As a founding member of the ruling Yun Tal caste, Skarner possesses immense societal and political power. His authority is not just respected; it is law. After witnessing the endless corruption and destruction of the outside world, it was Skarner's influence alone that sealed his nation's fate for centuries. He "convinced the Yun Tal to withdraw from the world, shielding their lands with magic and lies to hide themselves away." His word carries enough weight to enforce a multi-generational policy of absolute isolation upon one of the most powerful magical nations in Runeterra.

His colossal physical might, combined with his elemental magic and ancient authority, makes him Ixtal's greatest protector. However, his festering paranoia now twists this immense power into a terrifying internal threat. His devotion is so absolute that he would destroy his own people to "save" them, making him a catastrophic force waiting to be unleashed. As his own history warns, he will do anything to protect Ixtal...

"...Even if that means becoming the root of their destruction, himself." (From his biography)

#8: Ryze, The Rune Mage

While widely considered one of the most adept sorcerers on Runeterra, Ryze's true power is defined by the apocalyptic burden he carries. He is the sole guardian against the World Runes—artifacts containing the raw magic that shaped creation, each one powerful enough to unmake the world. His centuries-long quest is fueled by the horrifying memory of the Rune Wars, where he personally witnessed their unrestrained power.

"The earth fell away beneath them, the bedrock itself seeming to retch and squeal, while the sky above them recoiled as if mortally wounded... destruction on a scale so massive that it defied all physical sense." (From his biography)

To prevent this from ever happening again, Ryze has been forced to make impossible choices and pay an unbearable personal price. He has defeated and killed his own master, Tyrus, after he was corrupted by two World Runes. He watched his apprentice, Kegan, be consumed and reborn as the fiery entity Brand. His grim calculus was laid bare when he confronted an old friend using a Rune to protect his village of ninety-two people from certain death. Ryze's response defines his harrowing purpose:

"How many are in this village?” asked Ryze.
“Ninety-two,” replied Yago.
“And how many are in the world?” (From the color story An Old Friend)

He then killed his friend and left the villagers to their fate, taking the Rune to safeguard the billions of lives across Runeterra. This mission would be impossible for any lesser mage, but Ryze's personal power, augmented by centuries of exposure to raw magic, is immense. He has battled those empowered by the Runes, "clashing with powers the world had not seen in ages," and has always emerged, victorious and resolute.

Ryze is a living lockbox for Armageddon. His true power lies not in the devastating spells he can cast, but in the world-ending magic he actively resists and contains every single day. He is a lonely, walking cataclysm who, through sheer force of will, keeps the world from tearing itself apart.

Shards of History

Shard of Madness: The god-warriors of Shurima were thought peerless. Perfect. But years of war against an unstoppable foe eventually bowed their spirits, then broke them entirely. Xolaani and Aatrox turned on each other in a dispute that soon threatened Runeterra's very existence.

Shard of Betrayal: Of all the wrongs Ryze had witnessed in his time on Runeterra, this cut the deepest. How could his own master, who inculcated in Ryze the virtues of control and patience, lose himself so fully to the World Runes? How?!

Shard of Violence: Ryze watched on as the mindscape before him constructed itself. Before him. the Icathians warred with Shurima in a desperate bid for freedom. Ryze knew too well what came next, but watched on regardless. Cruel purple tendrils burst out, engulfing the battlefield. Icathia reached for freedom, but in the darkness, unleashed the Void upon Runeterra.

Shard of Hope: Love. A fog that blinds the wise to reason, and that rids the patient of patience. Ryze watched on as the King lowered his beloved beneath the waters, and closed his eyes as the screaming began. Ryze felt the cold grip of undeath spread through the room, then beyond. All for love.

Shard of Reverence: Lust for power seemed a common trait among the Runeterrans. Even Targon's revered few craved it, and so when they realized that simple flattery could bring them the power of the stars themselves, they didn't hesitate.

#7: Mordekaiser, The Iron Revenant

Twice slain and thrice born, Mordekaiser is less a being and more a monument to sheer, unbreakable will. His power is not a gift or an accident, but a conquest. Upon his first death, the warlord Sahn-Uzal was met not with a glorious afterlife, but with an empty, gray oblivion where lesser souls faded into nothing. But as his biography states, "Sahn-Uzal refused to fade." Through pure rage and ambition, he held his spirit together against the entropy of the afterlife, eventually mastering its secrets and orchestrating his own return.

Mordekaiser’s greatest feat was not returning to life, but conquering death itself. He has subjugated the afterlife, forging it into his personal domain, Mitna Rachnun—the Death Realm. This is not a place he discovered; it is a dimension he created. As his color story, The Final Reign, describes: "Where there was nothing, Mordekaiser forged his own reality." He uses the very essence of damned souls as raw material, the "building blocks and mortar of his Afterworld," making him an absolute god in a realm of his own making.

In his domain, he is supreme, but even in the mortal world, he is a near-unstoppable force of necromantic and martial might. He is dismissive of mortal magic, once standing stoically against a torrent of powerful sorcery meant to obliterate him and his prize. He scoffs at those who cannot see the intellect behind his power, stating, "You mistake brutality for ignorance." His second lifetime was spent accumulating forbidden knowledge, making him a master of multiple arcane disciplines.

"Few other beings can claim the mastery of spirit, death, and mortal magics that he holds." (From the color story The Final Reign)

His iron armor is but a vessel; his soul is anchored to his Death Realm, making him functionally immortal. His ultimate goal is to merge his kingdom with the living world, claiming dominion over every soul in a final, eternal reign. Ancient beings who remember his earlier conquests live in terror of this day, because as his history warns, "they know of no way to stop him."

#6: Zoe, The Aspect of Twilight

Zoe's playful demeanor is not a mask for her power; it is the terrifying engine that drives it. As the Aspect of Twilight, her very purpose is to be an agent of cosmic change, and she is so intrinsically tied to the fabric of existence that her power requires no conscious effort. Her champion page states, "Her mere presence warps the arcane mathematics governing realities, sometimes causing cataclysms without conscious effort or malice." She is a walking paradox whose childlike whims can rewrite the laws of the universe.

The fundamental concepts of time and space are her playground. Her biography confirms she can "traverse the streams of time with only a thought" and journey to dimensions at the edge of mortal comprehension. From her eternal perspective, the most catastrophic events in Runeterra's history are amusing anecdotes. The apocalyptic reign of Mordekaiser was the time of "the big armored meanie," the Ruination was a "Spooky Ghost Party," and the world-breaking Rune Wars were simply the "War for Sparkly Rocks."

This careless attitude extends to her use of force. In her color story, Meet Zoe, she tries to befriend some villagers who attack her out of fear. Her response was not one of anger, but of casual, overwhelming annihilation. She summoned a meteor that created an implosion and a secondary explosion, which...

"...thundered through the guards and their tower—annihilating the area into a fine dust." (From the color story Meet Zoe)

She wields reality-warping abilities with the nonchalance of a child playing with toys, utterly unaware and unconcerned with the consequences. The greatest danger Zoe poses is this unpredictability. After obliterating the tower, she casually mused that the crater she created might lead mortals to a nearby World Rune, concluding, "It would probably be funny if they did." She is not evil; she is a being of pure, amoral chaos, whose games could doom civilizations.

#5: Fiddlesticks, The Ancient Fear

Fiddlesticks is not a demon; it is a primal horror, an entity so ancient it predates history, magic, and the very concept of demons. It is a fundamental force of the universe given a crude, terrifying form. Born from the dawn of existence, its biography describes it as "The terror of all living things, given life in that first terrible scream of creation. A demon before demons were known." It is an evil so old that all direct warnings of its existence have decayed into children's fables, shared across every culture in Runeterra.

Fiddlesticks does not hunt bodies; it hunts fear. It is a psychological predator, drawn to paranoia and terror, which it feeds upon and amplifies until entire communities collapse into madness. Its most horrifying weapon is its voice—a ghastly mimicry that "croaks in the stolen voices of the dead," turning familiar sounds into instruments of psychic torment. As one survivor described the feeling of its mental assault, it is like a "pin twisting inside your head... pulling something out of you. Something it wanted." (From the color story Voices).

To encounter Fiddlesticks is to have one's sanity unmade. Its purpose is not merely to kill, but, as its champion page states, it is dedicated to "shattering the minds of those unlucky enough to survive in its wake." The creature itself is a reality-warping nightmare, a formless evil that builds itself into the shape of our deepest fears. The crows of smoke and fire, the lopsided form, the scraping scythe—these are not what it is, but a reflection of the terror it has found.

It is an "entity so utterly alien that it defies almost all contemporary knowledge of magic." It cannot be reasoned with or truly fought; it can only be survived, and even that is a curse. Fiddlesticks is the embodiment of fear itself, and once it knows yours, it never lets go.

#4: Bel'Veth, The Empress of the Void

Bel'Veth is not a creature of the Void; she is the Void given singular consciousness and horrifying purpose. A living dimension, she is a ravenous intelligence born from the raw data of an entire devoured city. Her existence represents the end of reality as we know it and, as her champion page states, "the beginning of a monstrous reality of her own design."

Her mind is her most terrifying attribute. Having absorbed the lives, memories, and histories of countless souls, her biography confirms that "Bel’Veth’s mind contains millions of years of perfectly preserved knowledge, giving her near-omniscience." This translates into an unbeatable strategic advantage. In the time it takes a skilled tactician to form a plan, her mind processes "hundreds of millions of possibilities... in the span of a single second." (From the color story Pinwheel).

This unfathomable intellect is backed by overwhelming physical might. She can shift at will from a humanoid form to a dimension-filling leviathan whose teeth are the size of grown adults. When confronted by the veteran Void-hunter Kai'Sa, Bel'Veth moved so fast she couldn't be processed and proved immune to all harm. Kai'Sa unleashed her entire arsenal of missiles, energy beams, and cannons upon the Empress. The result was described with two words:

"No effect." (From the color story Pinwheel)

Bel'Veth's goal is not simple annihilation, but total assimilation. She seeks to consume all of Runeterra and repurpose it into her own reality—the Lavender Sea. When asked what she is, she gives a simple, definitive answer that redefines the nature of her entire kind: "I am the Void." Her ambition is so vast that she intends to consume not only our world, but also her own god-like progenitors, the Watchers.

She is an ever-expanding, ever-learning cancer metastasizing at the heart of reality. To Bel'Veth, her victory is not a goal to be achieved, but as she calmly states, an "unshifting absolute."

#3: Kindred, The Eternal Hunters

Kindred are not spirits or gods; they are a fundamental constant of the universe, the literal personification of death itself. They are not merely powerful—they are inevitable. As their legends describe, they are "the white embrace of nothingness and the gnashing of teeth in the dark. Shepherd and the butcher, poet and the primitive, they are one and both."

Their authority is absolute and transcends all cultures, borders, and even the power of demigods. From the honorable Demacian who turns to face Lamb's arrow to the terrified Noxian pursued by Wolf's hunt, their presence is a shared, universal truth. They are an inescapable force of nature, and their biography states this plainly: "Denying Kindred is to deny the natural order of things."

Their power is expressed through a simple, brutal duality: a choice offered to all living things at their final moment. Those who accept their end are granted a swift, merciful release from Lamb's silvered bow. Those who flee are subjected to Wolf's exhilarating and violent chase, a hunt from which there is no escape. One cannot truly fight or defeat Kindred, only delay the inevitable. Even the wretched souls of the Shadow Isles are not free; their state of undeath is merely a "waking nightmare" before Kindred inevitably comes to claim them.

Their strength isn't measured in destructive capability, but in their conceptual finality. Their hunt is eternal, their purpose singular, and it will not cease until all life has ended. As Lamb herself promises Wolf, there will always be more to hunt...

"Until the day there is only Kindred." (From the color story Forest for the Trees)

They are the period at the end of every sentence, the silence after the last note is played. Kindred is the ultimate and unavoidable end to all things.

#2: Bard, The Wandering Caretaker

Bard is a celestial being whose power is so immense and fundamental that he perceives reality itself not through sight, but as a universal song. He is a primordial entity who existed in the silence before creation. For Bard, his biography states, "the wondrous firmament is a symphony of mystic, ambrosial music." He witnessed the forging of the first stars as the first notes in this grand opus, a perspective so vast it is nearly incomprehensible. A mortal who was briefly granted this cosmic awareness described it in awe:

"Bard opened up the cosmos wide to me! / I felt Beginning, End, and In Between... / No human witness had there ever been, / But I alone did hear the act take form." (From the color story Testimony of the Balladeer)

Bard's purpose is to maintain the harmony of this symphony. He was drawn to Runeterra because its chaotic, powerful magic had become a dangerous "dissonance" threatening to damage the entire composition of the universe. He acts as a cosmic "caretaker, retrieving anything out of place and returning it to where it can do no further harm." To mortals, his actions—like taking a village's cherished artifact—may seem random or cruel, but he is operating on a scale that prioritizes the safety of all existence over the wants of a few.

The scale of the threats he manages is a direct measure of his power. He intervenes only when faced with reality-ending dangers, such as the misuse of a World Rune or the silence threatened by the Void, which is described in his lore as a "gaping maw, / An empty soundless pit devoid of light" that seeks to end the song of creation.

Bard operates on a plane of existence far beyond the comprehension of most beings, manipulating time, space, and cosmic energy to preserve the harmony of all that is. His power is not measured by the battles he wins, but by the universe-ending apocalypses that never happen because of his silent, wandering care. He is the guardian of the music of creation itself.

#1: Aurelion Sol, The Star Forger

At the absolute apex of the power hierarchy sits Aurelion Sol. He is not a god or a demon; he is a primordial cosmic entity, "Born in the first breath of creation," whose very purpose is to fill the void of space with celestial wonders. The universe itself is his canvas, and galaxies are his brushstrokes.

From his perspective, Runeterra and its inhabitants are utterly insignificant. In his own words, their grandest civilizations are "savages," their endless wars are "tediously similar," and their gods are beneath his notice. Even the mighty Aspects of Targon who enslaved him are, in his eyes, "dispassionate and incurious things, contributing little to existence." He operates on a scale where planetary affairs are trivialities. His power is that of creation on an astrophysical scale; he forges stars, describing each as a unique masterpiece, like "cosmic snowflakes burning in defiance of the infinite dark."

While bound by a magical Targonian crown that leeches his power, a brief moment of defiance offered a glimpse of his true, terrifying might. Tasked with sealing a Void rift, he unleashed a fraction of his power by creating a new star in Runeterra's atmosphere and detonating it. The effect was apocalyptic:

"Trees splinter. Rivers evaporate. The mountain walls of the valley crumble... Across this pitiful globe, my radiance turns darkest night to blinding day." (From the color story Twin Dawns)

In that single act, he permanently scarred the planet, annihilated a god-warrior (Pantheon), and demonstrated a level of power that is simply incomprehensible to mortal beings. The price for this brief display of freedom was the forced destruction of one of his distant stars—a testament to the cosmic scale of the magic required to simply punish him.

His only limitation is the crown, and its magic is fading. The cosmic beings who tricked and bound him, who once commanded him, now feel a new emotion as they sense his growing freedom. As Aurelion Sol himself notes, that emotion is "Fear." He is the power of creation itself, and when he is finally unbound, the universe will be his to command or unmake.

Honorable Mention: Zilean, The Chronokeeper

Zilean presents a unique paradox: he wields one of the most powerful forces in existence—time itself—yet is simultaneously a prisoner of his own mastery. His power grants him a form of omniscience that is nearly unparalleled. His perception is so vast that, as his champion page states, he has traveled from "Runeterra’s mysterious creation, all the way to its seemingly inevitable ending." He doesn't just predict the future; he has already witnessed it, along with every other moment in history.

Zilean's single greatest display of power was also his most profound failure. As the Void was unleashed to consume his homeland of Icathia, he performed a feat beyond any other mage. In a desperate act of preservation, he "did the impossible. He removed the entire structure from time." (From his biography). While this saved a fraction of his people from being erased from existence, it failed to save his homeland and inflicted upon him the very curse that defines his limitations.

This curse, a state of "chrono-displasia," means that, effectively, "Zilean now exists everywhere, and always has." However, this god-like perspective also makes him "only too aware of the consequences of trying to bring about change... sparking other unexpected destinies—often conflicting, and almost always more dangerous." He has the knowledge to avert the end of all things, but is shackled by the very power that grants him this sight, fearful that any intervention could create an even worse timeline.

He is a tragic figure of immense, yet tragically constrained, power. His might is undeniable, but his inability to act decisively without risking cosmic catastrophe is what places him just outside the top tier of Runeterra's most powerful beings.