Seeing as Ruination is a tragedy telling the story of kingdoms (And one king in particular) falling to their doom, it's no surprise that it is laden with heartbreaking moments.
- The moment Isolde is struck with the dagger. Though Kalista fends off the assassin, the queen's life cannot be saved... and it proves to be the beginning of the end for Camavor.
- Kalista and Ledros' relationship. Despite clearly loving each other and being ten times more of a match, Kalista's betrothal to Hecarim means they can't be together— which causes no end of struggle between the two, especially since Hecarim uses it as evidence against Kalista when she and Ledros had never even touched one another.
- What Soraka tells Kalista about her possible future with Ledros, if she chose to follow her heart instead of her duty. She would've had a long happy life, and children and grandchildren with her love by her side. But alas, both Soraka and Kalista are aware (as well as the reader) that her honor and loyalty to Camavor comes first for her. Her nobility condemns her to be the undead avatar of vengeance we know her as.
- Isolde finally gets Viego out of her room and reveals a terrible secret: He's been falling apart even before she was killed. Viego went from a well-spoken, trusting king to a Psychopathic Manchild focusing on his own pride and telling her he'd die without her. While poisoned, Isolde reckons with her own passing, but doesn't have the heart to tell Viego that. As she notes, she's not scared because Viego would hurt her; she trusts that he would never do that, since he's madly in love with her. Isolde is terrified about what Viego will do to himself when she's gone... and what he'll do to everyone else.
- Knowing that Ryze, an insufferable but ultimately heroic character, is accidentally responsible for the Ruination since he helped steal the Waters of Life when Erlok Grael blackmailed him.
- The sheer fact that, had Erlok Grael not given Kalista a sample of the Waters of Life and a waystone, she never could've brought Viego to Helia. Though Camavor might not have survived, Grael doomed Helia with his actions. What stings worse, however, is that Kalista knows she could have solved the problem by just not returning home. She was simply too loyal to her kingdom and her king and queen to do that.
- Kalista's return to Camavor. The once-prosperous kingdom has become a city of squalor, guards exercising Police Brutality, the streets filthy, martial law enforced, the coffers dry, their allies and neighbors being raided, and the gates of the citadel lined with human heads. The once-proud kingdom, seemingly on the way to salvation, has instead been driven further into destruction.
- The degree to which it all could've been averted. Ruination makes it clear that the events could have stopped at any time despite meaning the best: Had Kalista been there for Viego in his youth, had they managed to keep Isolde from death or avoided killing the assassin, had someone performed a Mercy Kill on Viego or even just took him from the throne when he went mad, had Kalista never returned to the kingdom, had Ryze managed to escape Grael's blackmail, or had anyone let their loyalty to Camavor's people overshadow their loyalty to its throne and king, none of it would've happened. Many of the people who brought about the end meant well, but their mistakes doomed Camavor, Helia, and themselves.
- Speaking of Viego... Viego. Heavy lies the head of the Ruined King.
- As Ruination establishes early on, Viego isn't just entitled. He's insecure, terrified of the notion that he might not be worthy of kingship. He was never meant to be king, but when the Blade of Camavor chose him, he was nonetheless put upon the throne. Despite initially trying to help the poor and make reforms, he got caught up in his own glory and his priests' manipulations.
- Even before Isolde is harmed, Viego is noted to be mentally slipping, having grown obsessive, reclusive, and childish, clinging to Isolde because she makes him feel safe and increasingly disavowing any opinion that isn't his own in his growing madness and egotism.
- Viego's response when Isolde is poisoned. Despite everyone else knowing she'll die, Viego flies into maddened rage, from wanting nothing more than to kill her killer, and getting rough with his own staff. When he's not going into rages on his own people, Viego refuses to leave her side, holding her hand all the while. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't eat. He doesn't take care of himself at all, which only worsens his mental condition.
- Viego sends Kalista off to find myths and legends on the off chance that they might be real and might be able to heal his beloved Isolde. All the while, he can't bear to leave her side. Isolde accepts her own passing, but Viego is so immature and unstable he refuses to deal with it and instead insists she must be saved.
- The state of Viego after Kalista leaves for Helia. When Kalista re-enters the citadel, it's noted that Viego hasn't left his chamber or Isolde's side, has plunged the kingdom into horrific debt due to paying for any scam or "miracle cure," and signing off on any request, no matter how corrupt or immoral since he can't be bothered. Hoping that Isolde yet lives, Kalista enters... only to find the horrible truth that Isolde is dead. While everyone can tell, Isolde has been dead for weeks and Viego has kept her body in his chamber, holding her hand and demanding she be undisturbed, refusing to believe that she is dead, rejecting any assertion that she is, and not seeing for a moment that his beloved has died. Kalista has pretty much no words, and only manages to snap him out of it by promising to bring her king to Helia and beseech the Masters for Isolde's revival.
- When Kalista and Viego privately talk on occasions, Viego becomes vulnerable and simply admits that he's scared, even seeming to subconsciously accept his wife's death. Kalista admits that in these moments, he's little more than a child terrified to lose everyone and everything he's ever loved, suicidally obsessed with the woman he loves, and is terrified, moreover, that he's a complete and total failure of a king, a husband, and an uncle. It stings to watch a man the reader knows will be undone by their own pride break down in anxious insecurity.I am failing, aren't I? I'm failing everyone. You, Father, Camavor. I'm failing her.
- The Ruination. The fall of Helia is horrific as expected, and starts with humble beginnings.
- When the Masters' healers all tell Viego Isolde is dead, Viego initially refuses to believe them... but then, after much pressure, Viego stops denying it and admits to himself, through sobs, that his wife is dead and at peace with it. And for the first time since she died, Viego sits and mourns. The nightmare is over, and Viego is on the road to recovery.After he left, Kalista sat with Viego, putting her arms around him. They didn't speak. They didn't need to.
Finally, he mourned his lost wife. - Just as Viego is literally about to leave to bury Isolde, none but Erlok Grael arrives to reveal the Masters' secrets to Viego. Conflicted yet driven, Viego breaks completely and goes Beyond Redemption by ordering the massacre of Helia if it gets him to the Waters of Life. All of Viego's worst tendencies are drawn out by Grael's simple manipulations, and so close to him having learned to cope, he reveals that Hecarim's entire army had been set up behind the veil as a precaution in the event that he wanted to invade. Viego, seconds from going home and burying his beloved, leaps headfirst into evil.
- The fact that Ryze can only work to get as many people as he can out of Helia before the entire thing comes crumbling down, knowing he inadvertently caused its collapse.
- Kalista and Ledros standing together only in the tide of battle, their love clearly on display for one another yet in the worst of circumstances. It's all made even worse by the fact that they manage to bring down Hecarim and negotiate him to a surrender, and when Kalista turns around to check on Ledros, Hecarim proves his pettiness by putting his spear through her back out of spite. Kalista and Ledros manage to take Hecarim down, but it's far too late and both are fatally struck by the end of the battle."It wasn't to be for us in this lifetime," Ledros whispered.
- Viego reviving Isolde, delusional all the while and proclaiming the sheer joy of her living again while she begs to be sent back, only for her to finally rebel against him by running him through with his own blade, leaving Viego in pure, broken shock as his delusions shatter completely."You never loved me," hissed the ghostly vision of the queen, her snarling face close to Viego's. "Had you cared for me at all, you would have let me go!"
Viego's expression shattered like a broken vase, her words causing far more harm than the sword that killed him ever could. - Three simple words, spelling out the doom of Helia and an event that would span centuries and create countless tragedies.Ruination was unleashed.
- When the Masters' healers all tell Viego Isolde is dead, Viego initially refuses to believe them... but then, after much pressure, Viego stops denying it and admits to himself, through sobs, that his wife is dead and at peace with it. And for the first time since she died, Viego sits and mourns. The nightmare is over, and Viego is on the road to recovery.
- Kalista falling to the Shadow Isles' claws post-Ruination and becoming the Spear of Vengeance at last. She's completely consumed by a desire to destroy all betrayers, even as Ledros tries to draw her back to her former self.
- The epilogue, from the perspective of Jenda'kaya; as Jenda'kaya notes, Vennix doesn't age due to her vastayan blood... but Jenda'kaya does. As she writes, she makes it clear that they've made no headway on restoring what has been lost, and all she's done has been to get old and die. Despite Vennix's loyalty, it's clear that Jenda'kaya will die of her age, having toiled fruitlessly to heal the Shadow Isles for years, the last line of the book being a simple "Ray of Hope" Ending noting that she can only hope somebody will someday undo the damage that's been done to Helia and to Runeterra on the whole.
