Didnt add the others, but I’de wager Xolaani is in impossble.
Aatrox is where he is because his voicelines imply that he wants to be good, but is currently too hateful to do it.
Rhaast is only redeemable cause kayn is a good match for him, otherwise straight to impossible
Others are pretty clear cut imo
Im going to write a small passage featuring some league characters with no mentions of names at all.
None of these will have canonical basis but will feature the personalities of champions as presented to us by riot. Your job is to guess which characters are which.
This is done purely because we still have like 5 months of 0 lore so im trying to fill the void (mostly for myself), and a fun way to help me practice my prose and dialogue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tea house sat at the bend of the canal, where lantern light rippled gold across the water and the scent of jasmine and cinnamon drifted through paper screens. It was the kind of place people came to disappear for an hour, shedding their titles at the door like wet coats.
Two women occupied the corner table nearest the window. One sat with practiced stillness, her back straight as a drawn blade, her hair bound in a long braid that swayed only when she reached for her cup. The metal ribbons she usually wore were absent tonight, tucked away somewhere, though her hands still moved with the same usual precision, like she was perpetually counting distances even at rest. The other lounged across from her, boots up on the empty stool beside them, a half-veil pulled loose around her neck instead of tight over her face. She grinned easily, tossing a sunflower seed into the air and catching it in her mouth.
their weapons and equipment had been left leaning against the wall. The taller woman's blades sat quiet in their cloth wrappings, still for once, not humming with restrained motion around her shoulders. Some might say they are the closest thing to family she has left. The seed-tosser's weapons occupied a sack, rather than being wrapped. A veritable armory of different weapons all thrown haphazardly into it
"You're doing it again" the seed-tosser said.
"Doing what?"
"Sitting like you're about to be inspected. We're off the clock. Relax your spine."
The straight-backed woman allowed herself the smallest exhale, something that might have been a smile if it had been given permission to form. "Old habits."
"Old habits get you gray hairs before thirty."
"You'd know. You have several already."
"Lies and slander." The younger woman laughed, and reached for the teapot to refill both cups, her tattoos shifting under the teahouse's lighting. Steam curled between them. Outside, the canal carried a lantern boat past the window, its reflection stretching and breaking on the water. For a while they just sat with that comfortable silence old friends share, the kind that doesn't need filling.
Then the door slid open.
He entered the way some men enter every room, as though a curtain had just been drawn back for him, as though the room itself had been built around the doorway to frame his arrival. He wore a long coat, dark and immaculate, and carried himself with a theatrical grace that seemed almost rehearsed, like he'd practiced the walk in a mirror until it became instinct. A wide hat shadowed the upper half of his face. He surveyed the room slowly, and then his eyes settled on the corner table, and he smiled.
"Mind if I sit? Seems a waste, a table this nice with an empty chair." He looked ordinary, yet his smile betrayed something else.
The seed-tosser's grin didn't waver, but her posture shifted a fraction, a readiness coiling beneath the ease. "We didn't invite company."
"Nobody ever does. I find that's when the best company shows up." He sat anyway, folding his hands on the table so precisely he might have been posed by a sculptor.
The straight-backed woman studied him without blinking. There was something in the way he held himself, too controlled and practiced, that set a quiet alarm ringing somewhere behind her calm expression. "You're not from the district," she said. It wasn't a question.
"Passing through. I don't stay anywhere long." His smile widened, revealing nothing and everything at once. "Though I like this place. Quiet. Nobody expects much of anybody here."
The seed-tosser's hand drifted, slow and casual, toward the edge of the table, close to where a blade might have rested had she been dressed for work instead of tea. The taller woman sighed internally, confirming her suspicion that her companion had not, in fact, left all her weapons at the entrance.
"and what do you expect exactly?"
"Depends on the two of you, doesn't it." He tilted his head, and for a moment the shadow of his hat lifted just enough to reveal eyes that gleamed with something between delight and......hunger? "Things get interesting or they don't. I just enjoy being in the room when they decide which."
The air at the table had changed. The straight-backed woman's fingers had gone still around her cup, no longer drinking, only holding, weight balanced, ready. Across from her, the younger woman's grin had thinned into something sharper. Neither of them knew who this man was, what he wanted, whether he was mad or dangerous or both, but every instinct honed by years of violence told them the same thing;
something was about to break.
The stranger tapped his fingers on the table in a steady rhythm. taptaptaptap. His other hand subtly snaking into his coat.
The old man in the corner reached for his book to turn a page. A young couple laughed at something quiet between them. And somewhere above the tea house, in the modest wooden tower that marked the district's evening hour, the town bell began to toll.
The sound rolled out low and resonant, vibrating through the paper walls, through the floorboards, through the teacups themselves, which trembled faintly on their saucers. 3 strikes, one for each occupant of the table. The dinner hour. Somewhere outside, vendors began calling the last of their wares, children were summoned home, and the ordinary machinery of evening life groaned back into motion, indifferent to whatever had almost happened in this small corner of the world.
The stranger's hand paused. He tilted his head, listening, and something in his posture eased, not relaxed exactly, but recalibrated, as if the bell had reminded him of a schedule only he could see. He withdrew his hand from his coat empty, and instead produced a single folded fan, snapping it open with a flourish before waving it lazily in front of his face.
"Ah. That's my cue." He stood, chair scraping back. "Some other time, maybe."
He bowed low, absurdly formal, and turned toward the door, his coat sweeping behind. The tea house door slid shut with a soft click, and the two women were left alone again, staring at the space where he'd been, the tea gone lukewarm between them, the ordinary night humming on outside as if nothing at all had happened.
The younger woman rolled her shoulder and sighed. The older woman's posture returned to it practiced posture. They paid the tab and went to pick up their belongings.
"we were supposed to be off-duty" the younger woman sighed, annoyed.
They followed the man.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So, Who are these 3 characters? I will use this first passage to calibrated how much harder/easier I should make it to recognize the champions.
I think Garen and Darius would be good friends if their respective nations were put to the side. They are both loyal, strong and seem like they would be like the 2 people that you see hangout consistently after the days duties are done.
Another would be Skarner and Malphite. They both fought the void, they both like rocks, they're both massive. IDK sounds like instant friends to me.
Talon and Camille. They both have the same exact work philosophy and would probably appreciate somebody who operates like them.
Rell and Braum. Braum's unapologetic optimism would be a welcome sight to somebody like Rell. She is quite consumed with hate and vengeance (rightfully so), but braum can provide a bit of peace from that. Similarly, her fiery attitude is a perfect match for his similarly boisterous temperment.
A controversial one would be Sylas and Garen. I do believe that if Garen heard Sylas out that he would indeed sympathize with him quite heavily. From the other side, I think the genuine nature of Garen's belief structure would surprise Sylas. At the end of the day, Garen would undoubtedly hunt down every single person who experimented on mages had he known, and once this is established, I think they could make good friends, albeit a bit distant considering their circumstances.
4 of his trainees were killed in cold blood by 5 assassins.
He returned the favor by killing them, except for leaving one of them alive. 4 for 4.
I would like to think that Kayle smiled down on him when he returned the exact kill count, while Morgana smiled on him for not going overboard and returning their "dogtags". Both would be satisfied with his actions.
He did not judge them by their motivations when dispensing justice, he judged their punishment purely by the actual harm they caused, otherwise he would have killed all 5 of them as they are all just as culpable for their direct actions. A bit lifeless when looked at by itself, but the human element is brought back when you can clearly see that he had to stop himself from killing the last guy + returning their insignias
His little storyline in Salvation showed exactly what Demacian Justice should be all about, AKA he is the goat
Something like Rell being weaker than mord by almost every metric but having a unique power that allows her to counter mordekaiser if her were to return in his iron form.
Im thinking an assassin type like Katarina or Jhin could theoretically just kill Ryze before he even knows what hit him, despite him holding more power than either of them.
Similarly I would assume that Vladimir's mastery of hemomancy, specifically the act of draining life essence, could make him quite the potent threat against most Darkin, as their forms rely entirely on that very life essence.
Whether its on your team or on enemy team, it just manages to single handedly turn games into unfun fiestas. Top laners hate it because of level 1 gank. Midlaners hate it because of level 1 gank. Botlaners hate it because more often than not, they are zoned out of exp and gold while their support roams around for levels 1-3.
It just seems to promote such a toxic game state for basically the entire game. I've had it with and against me more times than I can count now and it has gotten to a point where I just accept that whether we win or lose depends entirely on if the enemy or friendly cam runs it down those first few minutes or not.
It's not that I think that it's strong or weak per se, its just that it is genuinely unfun to play in a game which as a camille support in it.
I think a character being this unfun to have in your match is a real problem, and though anecdotal, every one of my friends seem to agree with the sentiment, and we have skill levels varying from high master to silver.
They have been as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle for too long now.
To be clear, I am specifically referring to the world and setting, as some characters have managed to dig themselves into a comfortable level of depth, though almost all the aforementioned characters have depth due to receiving short stories/color stories and/or Arcane which are no longer a thing.
Every single region has been in a state of limbo for the past decade, with any potential for progression instantly being smothered by "is it even canon?", "it's now confirmed to be retconned" or "Riot forgot about that" syndrome.
Freljord recieved it's last bit of development when Lissandra released, and even that was left forgotten.
Noxus has been the same noxus for as long as I can remember with the last major inclusion being Mordekaiser, who has only served to re-write the Black rose's goals (which is something I guess).
Demacia touched on some things with the mage rebellion, but as we have gotten transported back in time, it's anybody's guess if mageseekers is still gonna be canon.
Bilgewater has been in the same exact place forever now, with the last change occurring when GP died, which while great, can't be the sole source of development to latch onto as a fan.
Ixtal LMAO
Shurima's last regional narrative involved Azir, who we have not heard a single thing from since his release, and we don't even know if Azir as a champion has been resurrected yet as of current times.
Targon Lmao
The Void got belveth, who seemed like she would finally push SOME sort of story forward (lmao)
P&Z got Arcane, which while HEAVILY a character study moreso than a regional study, is atleast something. Though again, the focus on the animosity between the sister cities was heavily reduced in favor of a Marvel storyline. The cities themselves were props for the characters, rather than having the cities being treated as characters of their own.
Ionia is just a victim of things that SHOULD deepen the region, but end up doing fuckall.
What I'm trying to say is that each of the regions have MULTIPLE threads they can pursue in order to bring more life to the world that are just left hanging.
Freljord:
The Three Sisters' fragile power balance
Trade routes opening/closing with Noxus and Demacia as the region's isolation erodes
An exploration on the general role of Iceborn
Lissandra and the Watchers eroding their prison
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noxus:
The actual mechanics of the Trifarian oligarchy post-Swain
Consequences of major military failures, both culturally and economically
What are the actual mechanisms and policies of absorbing a successfully conquered nation's people?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demacia:
The mechanics and politics of mage registration post-rebellion.
The unresolved status of Petricite production and the effects of over-deforestation.
Diplomatic fallout with Noxus-adjacent border towns
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bilgewater:
captain-council power struggles as an ongoing institution
Piracy vs. legitimate trade. How does their economy actually function? If they were all pirates they'de be wiped from the map by now, or atleast invaded by Noxus.
Dynamic between the various cults, pirates and it's citizenry.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ixtal:
Isolationist policy under strain. how the Yun Tal enforce the boundary and what happens when outsiders or migrants test it
Internal elemental politics
Is migration out of Ixtal strictly prohibited?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shurima:
Reconstruction politics after Azir's return
Ascension itself as an institution (still a thing? banned? break glass in-case of emergency?)
Desert nomad tribes' relationship with the reborn empire. Do they ALL fear him to be a tyrant? do some join with willingness?
Old empire ruins as contested resources. Looting, archaeology, etc etc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Targon:
The mechanics and gatekeeping of Ascension attempts
Competing theologies among the mountain's people. How does each tribe twist their interpretation of the celestials?
Economics and the mechanics of wealth in Targon. can you be considered rich? poor? How do they provide for their people in the absence of the various resources that may not be abundant in Targon? Pantheon's story showed that a caravan arrives in Targon's base. Is trade with other regions common practice?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Void:
Void corruption as a spreading territorial phenomenon with a long established frontline
Competing responses to Void threat across regions. Does Shurima, Noxus, and Ixtal coordinate, deter, or ignore each other?
Procedures for void corruption across cultures that encounter it.
Is the void even common public knowledge or has it somehow been kept secret despite it's ability to open rifts seemingly wherever it can?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P&Z:
Chem-baron territorial economics after Arcane
Shimmer production
Policies of the independance agreement
Infrastructure strain from any hextech involving the acceleration rune effectively being made a dud
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ionia:
Ionia's fractured spiritual authority after the war
Ongoing ecological/spiritual scarring from Noxian occupation
The unresolved status of communities in Ionia that bent the knee during the invasion
Foreign relations post-war
Sorry for long post, Im just getting a bit frustrated, doubly so now that we know the rest of the year will have next to no lore progression whatsoever
War:
-Sion pre-undeath would probably be an amazing host for the aspect of war. One of his voicelines is literally "I am war". A body made for war and a mind singularly focused on violence, he would make a good host.
-Jax: pragmatic, an incredible fighter, and a no stranger to battle won and lost, he seems to a perfect candidate for war, with both the skills and will to be alluring to a god of war.
Twilight:
-Leblanc: Machinations within machinations, she seems to be embody the twilight's ideals quite well. Tho she lacks the whimsical personality of Zoe, she would surely make full use of the powers granted to her.
-Jhin: His mind is creativity and brutality combined, and I believe he would follow Twilight's will perfectly as long as she allows him some free time (which we know she does, as zoe is basically given free reign most of the time). His intelligence and proclivity for the arts also helps.
-Jinx: Jinx seems to have the same personality as Zoe in all things but details, and the character traits she embodies seem perfect for Twilight. Whimsical, carefree, chaotic, but with an inner code of sorts.
Sun:
-Vayne: Zealous and single minded, she would be the perfect host for the Sun. Not much else to say
Moon:
-Apehlios: Quite boring, I know. I think he works really well for Moon because the current aspect host is a bit held back by her previous feelings for Leona. Aphelios has none of that and will do what must be done in order to enact the will of the Moon (he already does, but now he'll just be even more dangerous).
Protector:
-Braum: Ngl, If the protector had a choice between taric and braum, I think it would choose braum 9 times out of ten. He is down-to-earth, incredibly human, and every single one of his showing in lore has him protecting somebody or something, whether its a tribe, a poro, a baby, or his team. He has stood against raiders, the environment and the ruined king in order to purely protect. He is perfect here.
-Shen: Maybe the protector would finally force him to act lmao (kinda joke kinda not).
what do you guys think?
Like happy for the classic enjoyers and all, but it does seem likely that we wont get anything until next year, considering act 2 is all but confirmed to be musicverse and act 1 will be classic.
its times like these that you really wish that short stories were still a thing
we have so many options to pick from.
Kayle-Morgana
Aatrox-Pantheon
Diana-Leona
Jhin-Zed/Shen
Zed-Shen
Xerath-Azir
Lissandra-Ashe-Sejuani
Swain-Leblanc
Mordekaiser-Leblanc
Kassadin-The Void
Ryze-Brand
and more..
Which ones to you personally enjoy the concept of the most? Which rivalries do you find to be the most compelling?
Personally I love the Aatrox-Pantheon rivalry. Narratively they are both normal people who ascended into a form of godhood and I imagine Aatrox was actually quite similar to Atreus in demeanor before his insanity. There is so much potential for deep and powerful storytelling there
I will be separating the group into what gender the league community predominantly perceive the champions to be as the outcome of a design shapes community perception (yes I know void creatures are genderless, but nobody is calling bel'veth or Vel'koz "it", they are calling them "she" and "he" respectively).
Of these 55 champions that have something going on that points to you that they are NOT human (despite some being humanoid), 41 of them are male or male presenting.
A majority of these 41 have a focused design surrounded by their non-human thematic, including face, torse and lower body. Whether truly monstrous (vel'koz, skarner, zac) or not (Aatrox, Mord, Shaco), you can tell the designers were given free reign to design AWAY from human as long as it fit what they're going for.
Meanwhile......
of the 14 that are female, Kindred, belveth, anivia, reksai, yuumi and naafiri are designed leaning away from human. The rest are all just hot women tacked onto an otherwise engaging theme (elise, nami, nidalee, Cass, Zyra).
The design from the female the section that elegantly toe the line between "not entirely human" but "not entirely monstrous" are things like Shyvanna and Ori ONLY. While the male section has a buffet of designs that fit that fantasy.
I say this because it is becoming increasingly clear to me that riot seems to be afraid of going all out when designing female champions while doing whatever the fuck they want with the males. It just feels so restrictive.
The champion design is just not as front and center when designing female champions as it is when designing males. This goes beyond non-human champs into fully human champs as well, and it is getting annoying.
Male champion designs are on average much better quality design wise, ESPECIALLY when considering champion thematic, than female champions.
Like it gives me the feeling that if they made Twitch a female champion for example, they would would butcher his thematic just to make him a cute ratgirl or sm shit.
Look at Maoki vs Zyra as another example. Zyra's theme of manipulating nature is being held at gunpoint because her design for some fucking reason has her boobs in your face, while Maoki is just a cool treant.
All this to say, I think every single one of the 55 champions have themes that are cool, but female ones have their themes diminished by their actual design. things like Lillia I can maybe forgive purely because of the amazing VA, but otherwise it just feels like the champion concept designers are being held at gunpoint. Srry for long post.
TL;DR: Male champ designs are much more engaging and loyal to the champion theme than female champion designs, who tend to actually take away from the theme.
Rioter saying the totem was part of an ascended/darkin statue
Rioter saying the totem is classic noxian iron
So I am quite confused here.
Initially they state that the totem is made of runic iron, which according to them, is a classic noxian recipe. Cool, got it.
Afterwards they turn around and say that it is taken from an ascended/darkin statue. So how would Shurimans build a statue made using a recipe for NOXIAN iron (noxus didnt exist back then)?
Did the Noxians (back then scattered tribes) worship the darkin/ascended separately and had built that statue in order to honor one of them? Though I find it hard to believe that some random tribe has enough iron to built an entire statue, this seems like the only explanation.
Thoughts?
For context, the Worf effect is a narrative trope where a character who is already established as strong and capable is easily defeated by a new character.
My answer would honestly be, much to my own dismay, Rek'sai. She's the perfect type of character that gets established as a terror and overwhelming force in the deserts of Shurima only for the myriad of already existing Shuriman champions to just slap her away like a fly.
Other characters that might fall victim are:
Leblanc cause of Mord
Vel'Koz cause of Bel'veth
Garen cause of Sylas (already happened like twice so far)
Primordial demons are capable of creating their own food source by inducing their respective emotions into their prey. Fiddle would force you to feel fear. Ashlesh would force you to feel joy.
Other demons cannot do this. They have to find suitable prey that already have their preferred feeding source instilled in them by circumstance.
Eve feeds on those who feel agony.
Tahm feeds on those who are addicted.
Raum feeds on those with secrets.
The only one I cannot make fit into this theory is Nocturne, as he seems to operate differently to other demons.
it is still a rudimentary theory, but I believe there is something there. Thoughts?
As a demon hunter, why would you ever let a demon go?
He caught her in the middle of her attempt to kill a drunk and grieving widower, and instead of ending her right there and then while she was caught in his seal, he basically just said
"dont kill people in Brookhollow, kill them somewhere else"
Is he stupid? Is he enabling demons to prey on the vulnerable? Genuinely what the fuck is going through his head here?
He KNOWS it is in her nature to prey on and cause agony on people who are hurt. He KNOWS she will just go to some other city or town and terrorize the people there. He might even know that eve is the one who killed Vayne's parents, though this is speculation. Still, he let her go??????????????
If in some fucked up roll of the dice he manages to catch fiddlesticks or some shit, would he just let it go and be like "Just not in Demacia buddy"??
Im seeing alot of vapid talk of powerscaling after his bio, but I havent seen anybody ask why the fuck he made the decision that he made. It's genuinely baffling to me and it simply won't enter my skull on why they wrote the story as they did.
They present Locke as actively contributing to demons killing people by making seemingly normal deals with them that he (as a demon hunter) should know they won't necessarily honor, and that's not to mention that the deal he made with eve boils down to "kill elsewhere"????????
Guys I need help did I miss something what is this story trying to tell us?
assuming the game keeps going for like half a century ofcourse
My vote's on Poppy
My favorite characters in League are Jhin, Ambessa and Azir.
I believe that Azir falls under Imperial Paternalism, in that he sees all citizens of Shurima as his children, harboring a paternal love for them, and wishing for them to genuinely prosper and be safe under his absolute rule. A mix of "divine right to rule" ego mixed in with santa clause. It is how I view him personally.
Ambessa is a subscriber to Machiavellianism, which bases choices and decisions on practical, material objectives rather than moral or ideological consistency. That said, I think this beliefs otherwise unshaken application is tested quite heavily when it comes to family, so is my interpretation correct?
Now Jhin, I am quite confident in putting him in Radical Aestheticism, which argues that art needs no moral or political justification, but that the only justification is that it is....well....art. A circular philosophical belief to be sure, but how else would his actions be explained if not that he himself follows a self enforcing and self justifying belief?
It took quite a bit of reading up to get to these conclusions, as I am not usually an active philosophy head, preferring to instead infer them half-consciously through other genres such as Fantasy and Sci-fi.
She spent most of her life in the void, correct?
Most of that time was spent fighting, surviving, the whole shebang, correct?
so why is it, that God warriors who fought the void mostly went insane while fighting them, while she's out and about speaking, thinking and acting completely normally.
Why is it that her father, who spent less time comparatively in the void, is losing his mind and slowly turning into a mindless murderhobo?
Why did Malzahar, who merely saw a glimpse into a future where the void won, go completely insane?
Initially I was in the normie camp of "why is she not very monstrous", but now that Im essentially begrudgingly accepting of this fact, I noticed a much more pressing issue, which is that she is completely mentally sound. No insanity, no voices, no turbo depression, no nothing.
Has riot provided an explanation I missed? Does the suit somehow shield her from the corrupting effects of the void (makes no sense btw)?
It feels like an oversight, and a serious one at that and to me, it completely clears Kaisa's other lore->design problems
Too good. Every other good song they've released I eventually got tired of, like most songs. This one stuck with me hard
It's when sometimes, for reasons I cannot explain, minions overlap and their models go into each other, causing their health bars to stack ontop of one another making csing hard.
It's not that common, but its common enough that it's really annoying and kinda cringe.
anybody else get that? especially annoying when playing mid/adc
EDIT: its 2:00 AM and I spelled "Riot" as "right" my bad
