Skin Concept: Nurse Karthus

A long while ago during The Harrowing, Riot released Reaper Soraka and I could not get over how different the skin was from her core theme as League of Legends' premier healer. And despite one of my favorite heal-y supports bearing the garments of a harbinger of death, I found myself absolutely in love with the skin and I jokingly suggested to a couple of my college friends the idea of Nurse Karthus, thinking that it would be equally as ridiculous as far as thematic cohesion goes. To my surprise, they seemed to like the idea and some of them suggested I should pitch the idea to Riot on the skin discussion boards, one thing led to another and here I am.

So as far as the character model is concerned, Nurse Karthus is to be dressed in traditional female nursing uniform complete with a flowing, white apron and nurse's cap both of which will feature subtle red accents, much like those seen on Nurse Akali albeit much more modest. Additionally he is to have a red stethoscope hung around his neck and short sleeves that end just behind the elbow as to showcase his delicate and slender lich arms. Originally I proposed that he wield the Caduceus in place of his scepter, but later considered that an IV bag attached to a metal stability pole would provide much more thematic cohesion and add to an already humorous idea. In place of his book of the dead, perhaps a clipboard listing his "patients".

Finding a way to communicate the whole "nurse" idea through particle effects and animations for his skills was something I struggled with, with the exception of requiem, however I'll go ahead and throw a few ideas around just for the sake of discussion. So when I think of nursing and doctor's offices I think of things like hypodermic needles, stretchers, defibrillators and all shorts of other things that I've never actually seen in person, and none of these seem like they would be the kind of things Karthus could use in place of his current skill animations. Having said that, I did come up with an absolutely awesome idea for his ultimate and that would be the heart rate monitor.

Upon Casting requiem, all enemies would have heart rate monitor lines displayed above their champions that would begin at a relatively stable pulse and rapidly speed up as the spell was channeled and would return to normal and fade away after the enemies have received their damage. Alternatively, If the damage is enough to kill them, the monitor would flat line and play that all too familiar tone and Karthus would exclaim globally "I'm sorry doctor... We've... snickers lost them." Of course this will get boring after hearing it repeatedly, so additional audio files would be necessary to play on requiem kills, but you get the idea.

I am no artist, but hopefully I've been able to paint the picture vividly enough for you to envision it in your own minds. Please feel free to leave ideas regarding particle effects for his basic abilities and let me know what you all think. Would love to hear from the Riot design team on this one as well. Love you guys