After Swain was released, I fell in love with the character's history and style. Finally, instead of seeing the grit and iron of Noxus' elite, we see someone of high class in terms of Noxian society. While Katarina may be the daughter of a foremost Noxian general, we haven't really seen anyone quite like Swain...The kind of guy who gets dressed up in his finest regalia for a fight.

I had a thought while I was smoking shortly after playing a game with him and that thought was of the indifference Swain had shown while a young boy when his tibia was being popped back into place. The color of his eyes, also, matches those of the raven perpetually perched upon his shoulder. While Swain, at one point, may have been a human being, he is now no longer part of that species and represents the attempts of a demonic creature to enter into Noxian high society.

Swain is not the name for the human, but rather for the bird itself and the bird controls all that Swain does. While clarification from Riot would help clear this up, I'm fairly certain that the role of the raven isn't simply as a tie or a connection to Swain's abilities, but is instead the sole possessor of those abilities and he simply uses Swain's human body to enjoy a lavish life of wealth and power not only as part of Noxian High Command, but also as a champion in the League.

Now, while all of this is theorycrafting in terms of Swain's backstory, I have an inclination to believe 1 of these following ideas:

1. Swain was a human boy and he had shown up at the Noxian encampment shortly after he had been taken over entirely by the raven who wanted to experience human life for himself.

2. The raven is part of a race similar to Anivia, only far more sinister and parasitic. Its reasons for using Swain could be that he was wounded and needed a host to sustain his own life. This is not as likely because the bird simply pecks at Swain a few times before leaving after his death in the game itself; if the bird was wounded or NEEDED Swain, then he would have probably been more upset in the animation.

It's likely that the raven was simply curious as to what human life was like and has now grown so accustomed to it that he sticks around; continuing to use Swain's body for the pursuit of hedonistic and bloodthirsty endeavors.

EDIT: I had not noticed the League Judgment for Swain; things are stated in it that make me think that while Swain is still the bird, it appears to be that the raven has larger goals than I had predicted. It's likely part of some demonic void race that seeks to control the Noxian city-state and put it under the power and influence of its own species. Obviously, this is all just theory.

swain isn't a puppet or raven's meat sack, he's Dr. House

And let's not forget the most telling peice of evidence - his (unmorphed) joke.

"Let's just morph and eat 'em!"

Either Swain (the bird/human) is talking to Swain (the human/bird) or he has some major mental issues... (Of course, if a demon-raven is controlling his every move and every thought, he already has some issues, I think.)

+1 (sorry, not a useful post. really tired :\ )

not a bad theory. I kinda like it.

I think Swain is in control of the bird, but the birds i what grants him is powers. He is not a puppet, but he and the bird work together to accomplish their goals.

swain is terrible though lolol

Another thing that can prove this theory is that if you type /joke when your in your ult as swain, he will say "are you seriously asking a giant demon bird a joke?". This could mean that the bird is just controlling swain.

I think it's more along the lines of a symbiotic relationship, personally. I can't really prove it, but it seems more interesting this way, and still fits with the evidence.

At this point, trying to discover the nature of this raven is a bit out of our reach. First, to confirm whether he is a puppet or not. We've looked at the story, let's look at it again while taking in the stylistic aspect of the text;

-Why did the author decide to start this text with the boy walking in with a broken tibia?

-What is the importance of this wound?

-Well for one, the character in-game limps and needs a cane. We can therefore say that it is an important trait of the character design.

-Also, the wound was FRESH in the story. Out of all the wounds, why is it that it has not been repaired? Even when it was offered to be healed? (Therefore visibly heal-able)

-This implies that the wound either cannot be healed(Due to hidden reasons), should not be healed, or that he simply doesn't care.

-Have you ever not cared about a broken limb? That's right, me neither. And even if you could not feel pain, you would surely not turn down healing, just for ****s and giggles.

-If it can not be healed, it implies a special nature. Same if it should not.

-Therefore, if you take in the importance of the wound, and its treatment, you may, or may not come to the following conclusions.

1 - The events that caused the wound have a certain importance in the character story.

2 - This wound is either :
A - Supernatural/Special
B - Unimportant

HOWEVER, since the wound was examined and fixed by the healers, and nothing especially amiss was noticed, it would be safer to assume that the wound is UNIMPORTANT physically, even while being important for the story.

In this train of logic, this would lead to assume that considering he feels no pain, the storyline importance of the wound and the fact that the wound seems fairly unimportant(To him), it is safe to say that the RAVEN likely is in control, most likely related to X event that led to wound.

Now of course, my logic has quite a few possible holes, but the idea is to show that it is the most likely answer, rather than the absolute correct answer.

Could it be that the wound was caused by the Raven's sudden attack and attempt at possession? Or was he actually wounded in battle, and saved by the Raven? Did he make a sort of deal? Also, what to make of his hunger for power?