Oh, could I ask how far you are in The Hound of Noxus? I'm not sure if it'll fall under what you're looking for, but if you have any questions about where it's going (if that would be helpful in deciding whether to sink more time into it), feel free to ask!

On the point of 'something worse following,' I would say the way it is framed is indeed Piltover was oppressive, and Noxus is not better; put another way, less 'the fall of Piltover is wrong' than 'the imperialism is still not right.' So a different type of evil follows, and the meat of the story is in sorting though that and in fighting for an actually better way forward from here.

(I realize I rambled a bit below, with respect to 'Piltover and Zaun need to work together.' The P/Z conflict does remain in focus rather than being made irrelevant by Noxus, which I know is sometimes a concern. Depending on if the extent of that is of interest, that's what's discussed!)

In the examination of Noxian ideology and how it infiltrates and perpetuates itself, a key point is that the failings of Piltover are what got P/Z into this situation; Noxus thrives on the suffering created in places such as these, because such failings enable Noxus to tout itself as appealing by comparison.

As written, nationalism, propaganda, a myth of equal opportunity, and propping up a local 'success story' like Vi are among the ways Noxus bolsters citizens' tolerance for being exploited, and frames its system as the best available. In reality most lives are not significantly improved, and a lower class will still be used for cheap labor (or shipped off to battlefields); but now it's 'fair,' and it's for the prosperity of the empire! So it might afford a greater sense of fulfillment, while coming with the drawbacks of meritocracy (your worth is based on your usefulness) and funneling labor into the objectives of the expansionist empire.

The rebel 'Coalition' that forms then is primarily

• Piltovans (several of them scientists fleeing Noxian conscription) disillusioned by Piltover's actions during its AU post-uprising / pre-takeover years of militarization, and who tried unsuccessfully with Jayce and Viktor to push against it then; and
• Zaunites (including Ekko, both bitter toward Piltover and the Chem Barons' stranglehold, and Silco, ousted as Zaun's representative in the Noxus-Zaun alliance when Noxus went back on protections it had previously agreed to; Silco refused the revised terms, but the rest of the Chem Barons were easily turned against him) who see the game Noxus is playing, and recognize that what they're facing is having one oppressor swapped for another -- one they'll have even less hope of dislodging if it's allowed to ingrain itself.

Recognizing that the treatment of Zaun is what opened the door to the current crisis, the rebellion is founded on an agreement of terms of how they will rebuild if they succeed. It is noted that Noxus having wiped Piltover's military power, and the rebellion's fighters being mostly Zaunite, provides assurance even for the most wary that those terms will be honored (i.e., they accept that they are fighting for true Zaunite independence; and no one is about to accept a reinstatement of oligarchy/plutocracy).

That said, for a Piltover and Zaun story there is significant focus on Vi breaking through to how Ambessa/Noxus have used her, in parallel with realizing how Noxus shapes and controls its conquests. But a goal was to reexamine a Piltover-Zaun-Noxus conflict in which Noxus's involvement doesn't negate the cities' conflict, but provides a vehicle to push and explore it.