Who they are
Taliyah grew up in the rocky hills near Icathia, in a nomadic tribe of herders and weavers. Even as a little girl she collected colorful stones, and the earth itself seemed to reach for her. When she was six, she spent a whole night searching for a lost young goat, and when she touched the rock to save it, power flooded through her and the canyon wall came down on top of her. Her father, the head herder and leader of the tribe, found her under a blanket of woven stone, but she hid the truth so her parents wouldn't worry.
The tribe's children showed their gifts in a dance under the full moon. At hers, Taliyah lost control: a huge braid of stone rose up and crashed down, her mother was hurt, and the girl ran off into the night. Her father found her at dawn and talked her into finishing the dance. She wove a stone in which everyone in the tribe could see themselves, but no one could teach her to control her power, so she said goodbye and set out alone.
The Noxian army promised her a teacher, and she passed under the Noxtoraa, the empire's iron gates. A disgraced captain took her by sea to Ionia to use her as a weapon, and when she refused to wipe out a sleeping village, he threw her overboard. Taliyah survived, and in the mountains of Ionia she met Yasuo, whose sword commands the wind, and learned balance from him. When she heard that Azir had returned as an Ascended emperor who wanted to enslave the tribes, she left her teacher and headed for Shurima to protect her people.
