Diana Fled the Solari Temple in a Trail of Death

The Solari Teach That Every Light but the Sun Is False

The temple on the eastern slope is the Solari’s seat, and its priests stand ready to fight any light but the sun.

The Solari Temple is the seat of the Solari, the order that worships the sun on Mount Targon. Our Atlas builds its entry on Temple of the Solstice, which is Riot’s own gallery text for the building:

The entrance to this Solari temple on the eastern slopes of Mount Targon is carved from gold-veined marble. During times of strife, a priest or scribe might meditate in an outer sanctum for weeks without food or water, subsisting merely on the divine sustenance provided to them by the sun.

From Riot’s gallery, Targon: Temple of the Solstice

Riot’s gallery for the Solari says what the priests there teach. They believe “the sun is the source of all life”, and that “all other light sources are false, and a threat to the future of their people.” The gallery takes that belief to its end:

Disciples are guided in the strictures of their faith by temple priests, who preach that if the sun was ever to fade, the world would be swallowed by darkness. Accordingly, the Solari stand ready to fight any who would extinguish its holy light.

From Riot’s gallery, Targon: The Solari

That rule is why the Solari Temple works as a dungeon: canon has already sent one person through it carrying another light. Diana, an orphan the temple raised, came back past its guardians to the high priests’ chambers, was denounced there as a heretic, and fled leaving a trail of death. Leona, the Solari’s greatest champion, came home to the dead.

The Temple Raised Diana and Tore the Moon From Its Books

Diana grew up inside the temple, and the subject missing from its libraries was the moon.

Solari hunters found Diana as a baby between her frost-claimed parents, strangers to this land. Her biography says what they did next:

The hunters brought her to their temple, dedicated her, and raised her as a member of the Tribes of the Last Sun, known to many as the Rakkor.

From Diana’s biography

Night’s Work, a Riot short story about Diana, opens on where her eyes went as a child:

Night had always been Diana’s favorite time, even as a child. It had been that way since she was old enough to scramble over the walls of the Solari temple and watch the moon traverse the vault of stars.

From Night’s Work

Then she went looking for the moon in the temple’s books:

She spent her evenings digging through the libraries, devouring texts with only pale moonlight to read by.

When Diana began to notice tomes had whole chapters torn from them, and all references to the moon seemed missing, the teachers assigned harsh punishments, intending to exhaust her into devotion. Likewise, her fellow acolytes distanced themselves from her and her questioning.

From Diana’s biography

One acolyte stayed with her. Leona’s biography says none doubted Leona would one day become one of the Ra’Horak, the holy warriors of the Solari, and she spent her nights arguing with Diana:

The two would debate late into the night, with Leona hoping to persuade Diana that everything she could ever want was there in the faith, waiting for her to accept it. Though she failed to win Diana over, Leona did find a friend.

From Leona’s biography

Diana Found the Sun and the Moon Drawn Side by Side

A hidden alcove, Riot’s Lunari gallery and an old hymn all put the two lights together.

Diana found the missing subject outside the library:

Then, one glorious night, Diana discovered a hidden alcove deep within the mountain. Moonlight spilled against its walls, revealing imagery of the sun, of soldiers armored in gold alongside silver-clad warriors, and matching imagery of the moon, atop Targon’s greatest peek.

From Diana’s biography

She took it to Leona as proof that the sun and the moon were not enemies. Leona told her to stop, and her biography gives the reason: “Seeking to protect her from the ire of the other Solari, Leona made Diana promise to abandon this search. Reluctantly, Diana agreed.”

The Lunari are the moon-worshipping faith of the mountain, and Riot’s gallery for them opens on what the Solari did to them:

Branded by the Solari as heretics, the Lunari worship the silvery light of the moon.

From Riot’s gallery, Targon: The Lunari

The same entry adds that they worship in secret, and that some claim that, long ago, “the two groups lived in peace, worshipping the heavens as one people.”

The light the Lunari keep is the moon’s, and it is their belief, not the temple’s. Our encyclopedia’s entry for Lunar Magic says what that power is: “Lunar Magic draws its power from the moon and the celestial forces it represents: mystery, change, dreams, and the tides.” It also records what the Solari made of it: “The Solari, who worship the sun, declared the moon's power heretical and persecuted the Lunari who kept faith with it.”

Canon has a myth for that split too, printed on two Legends of Runeterra cards. The Golden Sister and The Silver Sister share one song, the Hymn of the Hours:

"From the heavens

Two beings came:

One was robed in silver's glow,

The other clad in golden flame..."

- Hymn of the Hours

"...Though both were formed of cosmic light,

They fought, for they were too alike.

And so these two split night from day,

So each could always have their way..."

- Hymn of the Hours

From The Golden Sister and The Silver Sister

Canon never says the hymn is about the Solari and the Lunari. Our read is that it tells the same split from the sky: two lights that fought because they were too alike. The sisters’ recorded lines put Leona and Diana on either side of it:

Diana makes the old-peace claim to Leona in another recorded exchange, and Leona does not accept it:

Why Leona and Diana Fought at the Summit

Diana climbed for answers, Leona climbed after her, and each came down carrying a rival Aspect.

Diana broke the promise. She had reached the end of what the Solari knew, and her biography says where she went next:

Increasingly, Diana felt certain there was only one place she could go for answers: the top of Mount Targon.

From Diana’s biography

Leona made the same climb, and her biography says “Her training, willpower, and concern for Diana was all that drove her on.” At the top, both were taken by Aspects, the celestial beings that choose mortal hosts on the summit. Diana first:

After a rapturous moment, a pillar of moonlight slammed into her and she felt a presence taking hold of her, sharing glimpses of the past, and of another Rakkor faith called the Lunari. Diana realized this presence could only be one of the legendary Aspects… and she had been chosen as its host.

From Diana’s biography

Then Leona:

Leona was forever changed, imbued by the Aspect of the Sun. Destiny had selected her, and it was her duty to protect the Solari in the times to come.

From Leona’s biography

They fought because neither would go the other’s way:

It was then that Leona saw Diana, clad in gleaming silver war-plate, a strange reflection of the golden armor she discovered herself now wearing. Diana begged Leona to join her, to seek out answers the Solari could not offer. Leona demanded they return home, and present themselves for the priests’ judgment. Neither conceded, and they finally felt the weight of the weapons in their hands.

Their combat was swift, a blistering clash between sun and moon, ending with Diana’s crescent blade at Leona’s throat. But, rather than delivering the killing blow, Diana fled. Devastated, Leona descended Targon and hurried to her elders.

From Leona’s biography

Diana’s biography gives her reason for running: “Fearful of losing herself to the Aspect’s power, Diana ultimately fled down the mountain.” They still talk about it when they meet:

Diana Went Back to the High Priests, and Leona Came Home to the Dead

Diana pushed past the Ra’Horak to tell the priests about the Lunari, and they called her a heretic.

Diana went down the mountain to the Solari, more certain than ever that she had been right to question their teachings. Her biography says “It was time to confront them, and show the error of their ways.” Then:

Pushing past their Ra’Horak guardians, Diana burst into the chambers of the high priests. They listened with mounting horror as she told of what she had learned of the Lunari… and then they denounced her as a heretic, a blasphemer, and a peddler of false gods. Rage filled Diana, amplified by the Aspect within, and she embraced it in a terrible burst of moonlight. Startled, she fled the temple, leaving a trail of death in her wake.

From Diana’s biography

Leona arrived after it was over:

When she arrived, she found slaughter. Many Solari priests and their Ra’Horak guardians were dead, seemingly slain by Diana’s hand.

From Leona’s biography

Leona’s account says seemingly; Diana’s own says she left a trail of death. The survivors, Leona’s biography adds, “were awed by the presence of two Aspects now in their midst”.

Leona’s vow closes her biography: “She has sworn to find Diana, to preserve the dominance of the Solari... but also to help her old friend control the Moon Aspect’s power before it destroys her.” Their champion cards pick up from there. At level two, Leona’s card says “She knew she would find Diana fleeing down the mountain, retreating before the light of the sun.” Diana’s card says “She knew Leona would find her--she was counting on it.”

Diana’s own line about that night, and the two of them on heresy:

The Solari Still Punish Heresy

Their soldiers guard a heretic’s prison, their shields turn the rising sun, and the Lunari wait for night.

The Solari cards in Legends of Runeterra show how that law is kept. Solari Soldier, a card whose flavor text is one guard’s shift, is set at a prison:

As the sun warmed him, he stood watch at the heretic's prison, ignoring the soft pleas that quickly turned to bitter silence.

From Solari Soldier

Solari Shieldbearer, another Solari card, writes a whole fight in four lines:

"Foolish, not to come under the cover of night." The Shieldbearer straightened. "Lay down your arms, and come peacefully."

The Lunari crouched in silence, readying her curved blades once more.

So be it.

The Solari readied herself in turn, lifting her shield to reflect the rays of the rising sun.

From Solari Shieldbearer

Diana and the Solari Priestess have the same argument whenever they meet:

The Lunari answer by waiting for the dark. Cygnus the Moonstalker, a Lunari raider’s card, is set the night before an attack:

The Lunari waited for nightfall and the safety it assured. The path ahead seemed deserted, but Cygnus knew the Solari camp lay just beyond. He gestured, and the others quietly fell in line behind him.

From Cygnus the Moonstalker

Riot’s gallery Hope for the Future names what all this has cost in one clause: “the countless Lunari slain by Solari over the years”.

Our Atlas files three cards under the temple itself. Eye of the Ra-Horak is a Solari Priestess’s prayer: “Let the sun shed Her light upon us. Those who are weak and unworthy will cower before Her gaze!” The Veiled Temple is the Lunari temple fortress also called the Marus Omegnum, and Mystic Vortex carries Old Gaff’s tale of a temple that vanished in a flash of light.

The Vaulted Road, Riot’s Tales of Runeterra short film for Targon, opens on an escape. The first line is a shout, “The Prisoner! She's gone!” The next line is “The Solari will be here soon. And the Lunari already are.” The way out depends on the sky: “When the moon blocks the sun, our path to freedom will be illuminated at Dragon's Roost.”

What This Means for the Riot MMO

Our read: run the temple room by room in the order Diana’s story gives it, with light deciding the fights and Leona at the end.

Riot has shown no zone, dungeon or raid for its MMO, so none of this is announced. If Riot builds the Solari Temple from this canon, the instance already has its rooms and its order, because canon names the rooms and Diana’s story moves through them: the gate and outer sanctum, the libraries, the Ra’Horak guardians, the high priests’ chambers. Our read is four wings:

Wing 1: The Gold-Veined Gate

The gallery gives the entrance and the first room: gold-veined marble, then an outer sanctum where a priest might meditate for weeks without food or water, living on the sun. Our read is a first pull of priests who live on sunlight and keep healing while it reaches them, so the party has to block the light before it can kill them. The Solari Shieldbearer’s trick belongs at the door: shields that reflect the rising sun make the opening fight a dawn fight.

Wing 2: The Libraries

This is where Diana found tomes with whole chapters torn out and every reference to the moon missing. Our read is that the wing’s loot is the torn chapters. Each page a player recovers fills in what the Solari removed, and the full set opens the hidden alcove where the walls show soldiers in gold alongside silver-clad warriors.

Wing 3: The Ra’Horak

Diana had to push past the Ra’Horak to reach the high priests. Sun Guardian, a card whose inscription is a summons, gives the wing its mini-boss: “Shining guardian, your wrath burns like the noonday sun. Come forth and punish those who would trespass on this sacred place.” The Charger, a horned celestial the Solari battle prayer calls on, gives the guards a summon: “Let the thunder of our shields ring out like the thunder of his hooves across the horizon!”

Wing 4: The High Priests’ Chambers

The last room is where the high priests denounced Diana and where Leona found the dead. Our read is that Leona is the final boss, because her biography leaves her as the guiding light to her people and sworn to find Diana. Her cards and the temple’s galleries already give the fight its rules:

• The gaze. Eye of the Ra-Horak promises that the weak and unworthy cower before the sun’s gaze, so a gaze phase punishes whoever stands in the light when it lands.
• The flare. Solar Flare’s flavor is “The closer they stretch toward the heavens, the more the sun will burn them.” Our read: a strike that hits hardest on players standing highest on the room’s tiers.
• The aperture. Riot’s gallery for a Solari prayer shrine in the Sunward Temple says “This particular shrine was constructed to align with major recurring celestial events, each one framed perfectly by a carefully placed aperture.” Our read: the boss room phases as the light moves through its own aperture.
• The eclipse. The Vaulted Road’s escape waits for the moon to block the sun, so the exit opens only in an eclipse phase and the fight ends there.

The Temple’s Encounters

Sun Guardian

Wing 3

Why it is a raid boss: Its inscription asks it to punish those who would trespass on this sacred place.

The Charger

Wing 3

Why it is a raid boss: The Solari battle prayer calls on him: let the thunder of our shields ring out like the thunder of his hooves.

Leona

Wing 4

Why it is a raid boss: Her biography leaves her sworn to find Diana and to preserve the dominance of the Solari.

Loot: Sun-Forged Gear and the Torn Pages

• Sun-forged weapons. The Solari Sunforger’s focus “harnessed the sun's brilliant rays into a powerful enchantment for his weapon.” Weapon enchantments charged by daylight fit the temple.
• The Locket. Our encyclopedia lists the Locket of the Iron Solari as a sacred Solari relic that “projects a protective shield of golden sunlight.” That is the instance’s signature drop.
• The torn chapters. Wing 2’s pages are the lore reward, and the only drop that shows the moon the temple removed.

Our read. The canon gives the run two directions. Run it the way Diana did and the Solari are the enemy, from the gate to the chambers. Run it the way Leona came home and the job is the one her vow names, finding Diana. The rooms are the same either way, and so is the light that decides each fight.

Who Carries the Blame?

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None of this is confirmed. Sources: Riot’s biographies of Leona and Diana, the short story Night’s Work, Riot’s Targon galleries, the card text and recorded lines quoted above, and our Atlas entry for the Solari Temple. A RuneGrove lore read.