| “ | Noxus prizes strength above all else. But sacrifice is the mark of a true warrior. | „ |
| ~ Ambessa's views of strength and sacrifice. |
| “ | Mel: Piltover is not your testing ground. Ambessa: I only accelerated the process you started. Mel: I wanted to protect the city from people like you. I can't believe you start a war just to cover your ass. Ambessa: I would set the world ablaze to protect our family. Mel: Oh, I stopped being your family the moment you cast me out. Why? Why did you do it? Ambessa: Because you weakened me! I couldn't endure the look in your eyes whenever I made the decisions, the necessary decisions to keep us safe! |
„ |
| ~ Ambessa revealing her reasons for banishing Mel. |
General Ambessa Medarda, also known as the Matriarch of War, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Silco) of Riot Games/Netflix's 2021 animated series Arcane, which is set in the League of Legends universe. She is also the titular main protagonist of the 2025 novel Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf.
Ambessa is the leader of the Medarda Clan and the estranged mother of Kino and Mel Medarda. A Noxian warlord who firmly believes in the idea that "might makes right," she is notorious for taking an aggressive approach in both diplomatic and military situations. Even though she is a staunch and devoted supporter of the Noxian Empire and its violent warmongering ways, Ambessa is revealed to be a woman at heart who wants to keep her family safe at all costs.
After discovering the existence of Hextech and realizing its potential for war, Ambessa arrives to use the conflict between Piltover and Zaun to obtain Hextech in order to satisfy her personal agenda and quarrel with the Black Rose, resorting to extreme measures to achieve her goals. She is the arch-nemesis of Mel and Caitlyn Kiramann, as well as the latter's former mentor.
She was voiced by Ellen Thomas.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
In General[]
- As a Noxian warlord, she has a long history of committing numerous conquests in order to expand the Noxian Empire, earning her a dreadful reputation as a result. She even off-handily mentions to Amara people have "lost their heads" for less than being "plain annoying" to her when the two are having a "meeting".
- Despite the high heinous standards in the series, Ambessa ultimately stands out for being a normal and experienced warlord whose only resources are a personal legion of hardened and skilled soldiers at her disposal and being one of the most heinous characters in the series, due to actively pushing Piltover and Zaun into war (something even Silco didn't want), turning Caitlyn into a dictator and oppressing hundreds of Zaunites, and attacking both cities in the finale.
Background[]
- When Ambessa was young, she went on to subdue a drakehound matriarch during the Medarda trial of strength, ignoring to Ta'Fik and Zoya's pleas for help as they were attacked by drakehound pups. This ultimately led to the death of Zoya, and Ta'Fik's hatred towards Ambessa, which led to him alinging with the Black Rose in an attempt to kill her.
- Despite being in a loving relationship with Azizi, it is revealed that she cheated on him with a man named Rudo, who was a member of the Black Rose, leading to Ambessa's pregnancy with Mel and the Black Rose setting their sights on her and her family.
- She conquered the Binan Family estate in the jungle near Kumangra, in hopes of winning Grand General Boram Darkwill's favor, since the Binan Family is connected to Ionia, which is being invaded by Darkwill.
- When Mel was younger, Ambessa took her daughter to the castle of a newly ousted regime to discuss how to reform the governing system and then summoned Lady Mion of the Binan House and had Mel order her sentence. Despite Mel's pleas for her release, she decapitated the final member of the royal family, claiming that a "wolf has no mercy," an act that traumatized Mel for the rest of her life, including as an adult.
- She had Rell Canwell execute one of Ta'Fik's daughters Ginthara, while revealing her intentions to use Tivadar as a hostage to ransom, simply to send a message to Ta'Fik and delievr her justice for Azizi's death.
- She killed Ta'Fik after defeating him, stabbing him in the heart in front of a grieving Tivadar. She later kills Tivadar by slicing her throat, as she believed that Tivadar would've become her enemy after killing her father in cold blood.
- Due to Mel's pacifism wearing her down as well as in an attempt to protect Mel from the Black Rose, she sent Mel away to Piltover to oversee family interests, an act that made Mel embittered towards her mother, which was made even worse since she found out that she killed Tivadar.
- After refusing the Black Rose's offer to return her son in exchange for Mel, Kino was killed as a result. A contributing factor was Ambessa's reluctance to forfeit the opportunity to transform Mel into a potent weapon for her own use.
Arcane[]
- After learning about Hextech, she travels to Piltover to acquire it and use it as a weapon against the Black Rose.
- To gain Piltover's trust, she has been attempting to persuade the council to declare war on Zaun, thereby inciting further conflict between the two nations.
- After Jinx's attack on the Piltover council, which resulted in several casualties, she escalates the conflict between the two countries by orchestrating an attack on the council's memorial, allowing Renni and her group to infiltrate and attack it, intentionally allowing casualties to mount up before her and the Noxian's intervened to make themselves look like the hero's.
- She would then betray Renni by slitting her throat, as part of her scheme to incite the conflict between Zaun and Piltover and to look like a hero to Piltover's eyes and gain their trust.
- Following the failure to capture Jinx, she would incite further conflict between Piltover and Zaun by blaming Amara's death (which Ambessa had caused) on a group of Undercity assassins in order to persuade Piltover to appoint a general to govern Piltover and impose martial law until the Undercity issue was resolved. After seeing Caitlyn Kiramann's potential and her desire for vengeance against Jinx for killing her mother, she used that desire to manipulate her and elevated her to the position of general of Piltover.
- After that, she would declare martial law in Zaun and establish military checkpoints in the Undercity, which would gradually repress the populace more than the Piltover enforcers ever did. Her right-hand man, Rictus, would personally lead a number of these repressions.
- Had Rictus torture people for information.
- Additionally, she and Caitlyn had anyone who supported Jinx arrested and imprisoned; the total number may have been in the hundreds.
- She also proposed the idea to weaponize Hextech by using Stillwater Prison as a laboratory.
- To ensure Caitlyn didn't abandon her position as general, Ambessa had Maddie seduce Caitlyn into a relationship to ensure the latter's loyalty.
- She tried to run an experiment on the hextech crystal, which ended in a failure and vaporizing a scientist after activating a machine that the crystal was attached to.
- After learning about Warwick after the prison massacre, she takes a keen interest in the monster and recruits his creator Singed into her inner circle, promising to provide him with the resources he needs to save his daughter.
- After discovering Caitlyn's betrayal and Rictus' demise by Warwick, she orders her soldiers to attack and kill her, Vi and Jinx, leading to a brutal conflict in Viktor's broken comune that got several of her men killed by Warwick and Vi seriously injured, with the fight only being stopped due to Isha's sacrifice.
- She then joins forces with Viktor, agreeing to grant him access to the Hexgates in return for her soldiers' mutations and an army that will never die.
- In preparations for her invasion, it is even revealed that she has been utilizing Shimmer on a number of her soldiers, causing them to change into more powerful and dangerous individuals.
- She dismisses Mel's entreaties to halt her plots (even slapping her in face at one point), asserting that her motivation to stop the Black Rose is not a desire for vengeance but rather a fear of the threat they represent.
- While Viktor makes his way beneath the city streets to finish his mission, she leads the attack on Piltover and the Hexgates as a diversion, killing hundreds in the process (including several enforcer's she personally slaughters in battle), in the hopes of using Viktor's power to bolster her army.
- Before her final fight with Caitlyn and Mel, when she had dozen's of members of the Piltover army ready to be executed, Mel begged her mother to spare them if "has any care for [her] at all", but Ambessa refuses and calls Mel out for "still being a fox", leading to Mel dismissing her mother as "no Medarda."
- Ordered her army to shoot down Jinx's airship as she and the Zaunites arrived to help Piltover.
- During her duel with Mel and Caitlyn, she cuts out the latter's eye and attempts to finish her, before Mel calls LeBlanc to intervene.
What Makes Her Inconsistent[]
- Despite being a brutal and ruthless Noxian warlord, Ambessa is ultimately too tragic and sympathetic to be NPE, as she not only loves her family and wishes to protect them, but she also suffers from tragic events that has deeply affected her.
- Both her music video Blood, Sweat, and Tears and her novel Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf reveal that Ambessa was once a young innocent girl, but her experiences in Noxus transformed her into a ruthless fighter in order to survive and defend her family. And even as time goes on, there are moments where Ambessa laments about the loss of her innocence.
- It is also revealed that her parents used her without caring about who she was, which indicates that Ambessa's parents were abusive towards her.
- She is shown to sincerely love her family and is devoted to protecting them at all costs. This includes:
- Her grandfather, Menelik, who raised Ambessa when she was young, and she shows great respect towards her grandfather and even worries for his health. Ambessa honors him when he dies, and she even becomes irate when Ta'Fik accuses her of killing Menelik.
- Her husband Azizi, whom Ambessa has a loving relationship with. When he is killed by the Black Rose, Ambessa is shown to be heavily embittered by his demise.
- Her children, Kino and Mel. Despite her strictness and sometimes being abusive, Ambessa genuinely loves her children and cares for their safety, even trying to send them away in fear of the Black Rose targetting them. She even shows moments of vulnerability around Mel from a certain time. Despite sacrificing Kino's life, Ambessa deeply regrets her decision, calling it a mistake she cannot take back.
- She has a strong bond with several people, such as:
- Her right-hand man, Rictus, placing a lot of trust in him, and even working and training with him. She even shows concern for him whenever something bad happens and is relieved to seen he is fine. When he is killed by Warwick, she show to be saddened by his death and even takes the time to bury him, vowing to avenge his death.
- Her lover, Rudo. Despite her intial coldness towards him after reuniting with him, Ambessa is still shown to genuinely love him. After Rudo's death, Ambessa is shown to be furious about his death.
- Rell Canwell, whom Ambessa took on as her protégé. Ambessa greatly cared for the girl, and even thinks of adopting her into her family, even showing concern for her from time to time. When Rell is taken by the Black Rose, Ambessa is shown to be furious and was even dedicated to saving her.
- She is shown to be a respectful and honorable warrior who is quite affable towards the people she respects, mainly for their strength and courage.
- She is a well-meaning extremist because, in spite of her vicious deeds, Ambessa sincerely feels that her actions are necessary to serve Noxus and, most importantly, to protect her family. While she has no qualms about committing these acts, she does not necessarily enjoy them and merely views them as a necessary act for the sake of her family's safety and survival, especially when surrounded by Noxian houses that are far worse and more vicious than hers.
- Ambessa dies a sympathetic end because Leblanc cruelly tortures her before Mel saves her. However, the damage done to her was too much, and before dying, she smiles and acknowledges her daughter as the "wolf". Even Mel, despite everything her mother did, can't help but weep for her deceased mother as she embraces her in her arms, while Ambessa's men pay their respects to their fallen leader.
Trivia[]
- She is the only Inconsistently Heinous Arcane-original character to become a playable champion in League of Legends.
External Links[]
- Ambessa Medarda on the Villains Wiki
- Ambessa Medarda on the Arcane Wiki
- Ambessa Medarda on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
