Preface

I like League of Legends for it's more bizzare, creative, and unusual concepts. Some of my favorites include Bard, Jhin, Kayn/Rhasst, or Rek'sai who are excellent examples of being incredibly distinct from other champions in the ways of Play Style, Thematic brilliance, character gameplay integration, and unique mechanics respectively.

I went in to designing Carmen with the clear goal of designing his gameplay to be as strikingly different from every other Meta champion, whilst still providing the tools needed to be relevant, skillful, and most importantly, fun.

Inspiration

My inspiration for Carmen is derived primarily from the more fantastical origins of the caster, setting himself firmly in line with a long lineage of magic weilders before him, who relied on their bizzare warpings of reality, and their combination with other magical effects in order to bend the world around them, rather than simply level it with the arcane equivalent of brute force.

As such, his kit is committed 100% to the idea of disrupting and adapting to the battlefield, but with more creative measures than out standards in crowd control and mobility.

Lore

Despite his best efforts to hide it, Carmen is just as self centered and underhanded as he is suave and over confident. Born the son of an Ionian merchant, Carmen lived an unstable and chaotic life, fraught with change and unpredictability. Then, things got complicated. As the son of a merchant, especially a merchant who puts too much into his work, Carmen often was left to find his own, often in the taverns he loved in on the road, or with the companions and entourages of his father's customers. Often, this landed Carmen in trouble, but never more than he could weasel out of. A con man after his father's heart, no one but him ever had the upper hand. He made sure of it.

I'd like to note hear that most of what comes next, I'd like to make into a narrative of sorts entitled The heart of the storm which tells the tale in a far more entertaining 3rd person limited story. But for now, this is next

It came to pass that a large storm would over take the Ionia's second city whilst Carmen was within along with his father, completing some terms with some mercenaries also entrapped within the city walls by the great monsoon raging around the city and over its countryside. It was among this band of hired muscle that Carmen met Jemma, a beautiful enchantress with a personality as sporadic as her unstable magicks. His standard wooing routine defeated, Carmen resolved that he would have this beautiful woman before the storm ended and she slipped from his grasp. Applying all his cunning and attention over the next week, Carmen failed repeatedly, and the storm served only to mock him, as it seemed his sand was running out with the passing storm. In his grandest, and most bizzare attempt to impress and woman yet, Carmen met once again with failure and embarrassment, yet rather frustration, it was a mite of humility and humor in the face of his own ludicrousness that turned the heart of Jemma, and gave him the opportunity he'd been craving so dearly. However, instead of another in a long line of conquests, Carmen found a his fancy to be more of a flame, as over the course of his efforts, he'd discovered a strong and witty woman, with a mind as sharp as his own and the confidence to match it. This flame became an inferno in the day they spent together, and soon it was love making him wish for a few more days of the storm not his pride.

And that little story would hopefully be a nice short. But not now, not here.

On the last day before she departs with her group, Jemma leads Carmen off into the craggy hills to the west, wishing to share with him why she loved adventuring, and what drove her to explore. Taking him to a cavern filled with gems, nearly all of them beautiful, but their materials nearly worthless in any market. Arriving within, Jemma explained the beauty and magic of the greater world, using the cave which bisected two intersecting laylines, and bade Carmen to join her on the open road. Though he'd never have admitted, and still won't to anyone but himself and Jemma, it was fear which gave him pause, and ultimately his reason for refusal. Through all his excuses, flawlessly crafted as his lies may be, Jemma knew better, and as a gift, she chose a crystal from among the rocks of the cave. Cutting into the shape of a heart, she gifted it to him, as a farewell gift before they returned. Alas, disaster at the last moment would spell ruin for the pair, when a beast from the caverns below would find them, it's form warped and gruesome from prolonged exposure to such potent wild magic. Jemma and Carmen scrambled about the cavern, using the twists of the space and every nook and cranny to gain an advantage over the large beast. Cornered, Jemma gave herself up for Carmen, destroying the major crystal pillar at her back, assuring her death and the creatures, rather than attempting to slay the beast before her, and risking Carmen and Herself. As the cavern collapsed, the magic of the location suffused his body, meshing with his spirit, so exposed and vulnerable after such crushing heart break. The next day, an explosion rocks the side of a cliff as a single sorcerer blasts his way free from the interior of a landslide. Over his shoulders lay draped a cloak with the appearance of impossible depth, streaked with brilliant colours, moving about, betraying the mystical nature of the pilfered item from the buried corpse of his love. Tucked neatly away inside the cloak, a single undamaged crystal glows a soft blue, beating in rhythm with the weary and broken heart it rest over top of.

Wall of text

Yeah, I know. But don't worry, if you skipped all of that, it's fine, because that's still a big WIP on his background, but the general idea is kind of important for getting the characters identity as a debonair city dweller, who spends his life exploring in honor of the loved one he'll never replace.

Abilities

Here comes the good stuff.

Passive:

Cloak of Many Wonders Every 45 seconds, Carmen's next spell is empowered, having an additional effect. This is affected by CDR.

Notes

• Cloak of Many Wonders has a unique and powerful effect on each spell. Use it wisely, but don't be afraid to use it.
• CDR is critical. Both for your abilities themselves, and for the cloak.
• Plan the use of your cloak before it's off cooldown. Otherwise you'll be like a 4 stack annie but worse.

Q

Ray of the Weak Carmen creates a red sigil in the air in front himself, before discharging it in a line, dealing (some medium base amounts) and 15% of AP as magic damage to all targets hit. All targets hit after the first Champion take 10% of the first champions bonus health, plus an additional 1.5% for every 100 AP as additional magic damage.

Cloak of Many Wonders Ray of Weakness. The beam is instead a sickly green, rather than turn the strong against the weak, this ability turns the strong into the weak. Enemies stuck by this ability have their Base AD and AP reduced by 60/70/80/90/100% this effect persists for 4 seconds.

Notes

• It sounds overloaded, but it's not. Early game the ability is weak and it's cooldown is stupidly long. 23 seconds level 1 dropping down to only 18 seconds without CDR.
• Alone it does barely any damage, with mediocre scaling. In a team fight however, it's all about timing and awareness to turn a fight with a single well placed nuke.
• At early levels however, the cloak proc makes this ability critical for winning early skirmishes when most damage comes from base stats and your team's follow-up is unimpressive.

W

Null Magic Field Carmen detonates a small zone of anti magic at his feet that last 6/8/9 (at levels 1/3/5) seconds. All channels within the field are interrupted immediately, as well as removing all applied buffs on enemy champions within the field. If an enemy has a buff removed or a channel interrupted by Null Magic Field, they take (some base damage) + 25% AP as magic damage burn over the duration of the spell from the arcane blowback. Spells cast within the field by enemies have their cooldowns increased by 5/10/15/20/25%

Cloak of Many Wonders Null Magic Projection. Carmen may now cast his Null Magic Field at a Target location near himself, or may cast it on himself, and allow it to remain centered on his location. Enemy spells now reduce the cooldown of one of Carmen's Spells when cast in the Null Magic Sphere instead of increasing their on cooldown.

Notes

*Null Magic Field is primarily a counter engage spell, as you would expect any powerful disruptor mages to have.

• Utilize the zoning power of the spell to get more passive procs off, force enemies into bad positions, and prolong the fight (much to your advantage)
• There is nothing mobile assassins hate more than not being able to get in AND out. Use Null Magic Field to assure that once they're in, they stay that way, and can't be saved by teammates.
• The cloaked Anti Magic can be useful for catching retreating enemies, or reducing the risk to yourself in the front lines to use it aggressively.

E

Entropic Exchange

Carmen casts a small bead of destabilizing energy which explodes on impact, then implodes once more after a small delay, dealing (base damage) as well as 15% and 25% AP respectively. For each enemy champion hit, with more Mana than Carmen, Carmen steals 3/4/5/6/7% of their maximum Mana. If this ability would bring Carmen above maximum Mana, Carmen heals a small (like Camille Q small) amount as the spell energy reinvigorates him. If this ability would reduce it's target to 0 Mana, the target is stunned for 1 second, as the drain of the spell shocks their system.

Cloak of Many Wonders Enthalpic Exchange. Instead of destabilizing energy, Carmen sends a blast of regular old arcane energy, detonating instantly on impact and burning the target over 2 seconds for the damage of the second proc regardless of which proc they were hit by. This ability will always stun it's target hit by the implosion. Carmen regains no Mana from this ability.

Notes

• Entropic exchange is Carmen's main spell for damaging the enemy. It does small damage on cast, after a brief travel time, them has a second pro, which serves to zone, or provide extra damage to targets that can't or won't dodge. *Entropic exchange is also Carmen's only form of sustain. Combined with a total lack of escape mobility, and Carmen's best defense is a steady offense.
• I'm considering that enemies hit by the Mana stealing effect of Entropic charge will have a cooldown like Bear stance or Yasuo E where they can't lose Mana to it again.
• Cloaked E is your only consistent hard CC. Use it wisely.
• I had another idea for his E's effect, where it prevent the enemy hit from casting one of their spells. So, it'd be like silence, but only for a particular spell like just the Q, W, or E. Thoughts?

#R Wild Magic Carmen channels his magical energy to cast any spell he has access to. This spell has no Mana cost, and can be cast regardless of it's current cooldown (this does not include summoner spells). This spell applies all spell effects, such as from items of applied buffs, however it does not consume any charges from these items or put their effects on cooldown. The spell is in all ways free. The spell also gains the benefit of the Cloak of Many Wonders.

Cloak of Many Wonders Acquired Magic. Due to the unusual ability of Carmen to take on magic from outside sources, Takedowns refund a portion of the cooldown both for Cloak of many Wonders and Wild Magic. At ultimate level 3, the cooldowns of both are fully refunded on Kills, but are otherwise normal on Takedowns. The effects of Wild Magic are otherwise unchanged by Cloak of Many Wonders.

Notes

• Wild Magic can allow for some insane combos and last minute fight changers. If ever youve wanted a Hail Mary long shot out play for your montage, look no further.
• Wild Magic is different from the main 3 abilities in that it effects the Cloak of Many Wonders as opposed to the other way around.
• Use your ult when it can make a difference, preferably an unexpected one. The cooldown is very high unless you're chaining kills.

Ideas, Thought, Trivia, and other Miscellaneous stuff.

His W was the first idea I had. I realized we have an abundance of Buffs and Debuffs, even ways to remove debuffs, why not have a way to offensive remove buffs?

Also, Carmen, is an anagram from Mancer, the suffix used for people who use magic, specifically the manipulation of something by magical means.

Carmen should feel limited mostly by his cooldowns and low scaling damage. Alone he should feel like a handicap, but in skirmishes or team fights, he should be putting the shurima shuffling emperor of the sands to shame with his playmaking.

I'd love to hear more, btw. Share your thoughts PLEASE!

As for appearance, I had something vaguely like twisted fate in mind, but far less broody and direct, more superfluous and mysterious. Perhaps even a little James Bond, he does live the Bond life after all, except he works for no one.

If you keep me to it, I will make the Heart of the Storm I said, but not now.