(CCC) Hajali (& Qareen), the Fire below the Sands
Hajali (& Qareen), the Fire below the Sands
Shuriman witch, granted powers through a pact with the jinn Qareen. She fights against the oppression of the Solari religion in Shurima.
http://i.imgur.com/94fhDnU.jpg Here's some Arabic metal.
#Model
Hajali wears the tatters of a black quhab, a traditional Shuriman religious garb for women. While intended to cover the wearer head to toe, it is heavily damaged and scorched and she wears it wrapped around herself, revealing her black hair and a bronze tiara and jewelry undoubtedly stolen from a trade caravan or travelling sorceress. Its left sleeve is torn off, and on her left arm she wears a shackle and a large ruby ring. Attached to her sash is a holy book covered in blood with most of its pages torn out.
She wields a shamshir, a traditional curved sword in one hand and a small spark of ifrit fire in the other. She auto attacks by casting embers, but switches to the shamshir at melee range.
Qareen is a Darkin jinn, a fallen spirit of forbidden fire. It wields a curved sword of flame and floats above the ground, scorching the terrain wherever it goes.
Skin Arclight Hajali - Celestine priestess Hajali, watched over by her guardian angel.
#Abilities
http://i.imgur.com/lG5LG1z.png [Passive] The Fire Rises Hajali can briefly summon her guardian jinn Qareen to fight for her: when she holds down Alt, her basic abilities are replaced with three new abilities that involve Qareen being summoned at the target location and executing the ability. This does bring Qareen onto the battlefield for the duration of the ability and enemies can attack it during this time, damaging it. Should Qareen be destroyed, a cooldown appears on the passive before she can cast these abilities again. If Qareen survives, it leaves the battlefield when the ability finishes.
Cooldown is shared between the regular and Qareen ability on the same button.
Qareen stats
- Health: 220 (+40/level)
- Armor: 30 (+1.25/level)
- Magic resistance: 30 (+1.25/level)
- When not on the battlefield, regenerates 2% (+0.3% per level) health per second
- Cooldown when destroyed: 50 seconds (-2/level) (not affected by CDR)
Using a Qareen ability when Qareen is already on the battlefield executing an ability cancels the previous ability and causes Qareen to dash to the new location as a wave of fire to initiate the new ability, stunning enemies in its path for 0.6 seconds.
To make it easier to chain abilities and benefit from the dash slow without having to cancel abilities early, Qareen lingers on the battlefield for 0.5 seconds after executing an ability before it vanishes.
http://i.imgur.com/QGbPICx.png [Q] Living Fire Channelled triple homing skillshot Borrowing some of Qareen's power, Hajali manifests a smokeless flame and throws a sequence of three small fireballs in a row in the direction of the mouse cursor, hitting the first enemy unit in their path. This is a channelled ability and she cannot adjust her aim while channelling, but each fireball has minor homing ability and can curve slightly to track enemy champions. This may cause the fireballs to miss the target or hit a minion. They do not deal splash damage. There are small demon faces visible in the fireballs.
- Projectile range: 950
- Projectile homing arc radius: 5000
- Casts one projectile every 0.3 seconds for 0.9 seconds
- Magic damage: 40/70/100/130/160 (+0.4 AP) (50% on consecutive hits)
- Total magic damage: 80/140/200/260/320 (+1.0 AP) if target is hit 3x
http://www.diablowiki.net/images/1/10/IconFrenzy.png Qareen: Watcher Target location Hajali commands Qareen to appear at a target location, where it remains stationary in the shape of an obsidian idol and guards an area around it. When an enemy unit enters the area, Qareen comes to life and breathes a stream of black fire at the intruder until the entering unit leaves the area or dies (if the target is not a champion, Qareen switches to the first enemy champion that enters the area). The fire deals continuous damage and applies a slow.
- Cast range: 750
- Guard range: 225 around Qareen
- Duration: 4 seconds
- Magic damage: 25/35/45/55/65 (+0.2 AP) per second
- Slow: 30/35/40/45/50%
Mana cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Shared cooldown: 10 seconds
http://www.diablowiki.net/images/4/4e/IconAcidCloud.png [W] Serpent Jenni Target enemy unit affected by a crowd control effect While Hajali channels, a large cobra emerges from underneath Hajali's quhab and hypnotises a target enemy unit, dealing damage over time. This must be cast on an enemy unit that is affected by a crowd control effect (stun, slow, snare, blind, silence, suppression, airborne) and prevents any crowd control effect on the target from ticking down during the channel, effectively increasing their duration. If the target is cleansed during the channel or moves too far away, the ability ends.
- Cast range: 475
- Maximum range: 700
- Channel duration/crowd control extension duration: 1.5 seconds
- Total magic damage: 60/110/160/210/260 (+0.8 AP)
http://www.diablowiki.net/images/3/31/IconCleave.png Qareen: Flame Darwan Target location Hajali commands Qareen to appear as a controllable unit at the target location. She can give it movement and attack orders by holding down Alt and recasting the ability at a target location or enemy unit. If not given orders, it takes no action other than following Hajali to stay within range. It attacks with sweeping swings of its curved sword, setting targets on fire, dealing damage over time.
- Cast range: 750
- Leash range: 950
- Duration: 6 seconds
- Auto attack damage: 20/40/60/80/100 (+0.4 AP)
- Auto attack speed: 1.00
- Burn magic damage: 15 (+0.2 AP)
- Qareen movement speed: 350 (+boots)
Mana cost: 65/70/75/80/85 Shared cooldown: 12 seconds
http://www.diablowiki.net/images/f/f0/IconHydra.png [E] Inferno Wall Hajali uses jinni-granted power to summon a wall of fire that burns enemy units standing in it or passing through it. The fire lingers for a short time after they leave the wall. Enemies affected for a long time receive gradually reduced damage.
- Cast range: 650
- Wall length: 600
- Wall thickness: 75
- Duration: 4 seconds
- Magic damage per second: 35/55/75/95/115 (+0.6 AP)
- Lingering damage duration: 1 second after leaving the area
- Enemies taking damage for 2+ seconds take half damage
- Alternate name "Barzakh"
http://www.diablowiki.net/images/0/09/IconSummonZombieDogs.png Qareen: Fierce Guardian No target Hajali commands Qareen to manifest in the form of a shield of fire that protects Hajali, absorbing incoming damage into Qareen's health. The strength of the shield is a percentage of Qareen's current health and the ability ends when this amount is exceeded, so Qareen cannot be destroyed by breaking the shield but can be severely weakened.
- Duration: up to 2.5 seconds
- Shield strength: 25/30/35/40/45% (+0.05% AP) of Qareen's current health
Mana cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Shared cooldown: 10 seconds
http://www.diablowiki.net/images/7/7a/IconMeteor.png [R] Jahannam Target location This ability can only be cast if Qareen is not dead. It causes Qareen to disappear from the battlefield for a short time (if he was present on the battlefield), then slowly fall from the sky like a meteor in all his original glory as a fallen angel, burning enemy units near the target point before impacting with a massive shockwave that knocks nearby enemies up and outwards.
Qareen cannot be attacked while descending, but does not regenerate health. After impact, Qareen remains behind for 1 second to facilitate chaining, but can be attacked during this time.
- Cast range: 900
- Fall delay: 1.6 seconds
- Burn radius: 300 units
- Burn magic damage: 100/150/200 (+0.4 AP) over 1.6 seconds
- Explosion radius: 275 units
- Explosion magic damage: 150/250/350 (+0.5 AP)
- Explosion knockup: 0.6 seconds
- Explosion knockback: 225
- Mana cost: 100
- Cooldown: 110/100/90 seconds
Stats
Role Immobile mid lane utility mage. ("Zyrianna")
Numbers Health: 525 (+80) Health: Regen: 5.50 (+0.55) Mana: 325 (+50) Mana: Regen: 6.00 (+0.75) Attack: Range: 525 Attack: Damage: 50.00 (+2.65) Attack: Speed: 0.6 (+1.3%) Armor: 19 (+4) Magic resistance: 30 Movement speed: 335
Gameplay
Strategy Hajali's main gameplay gimmick is that each of her abilities have two versions with shared cooldowns, forcing her to make trade-offs between damage and utility. She has strong crowd control and the tools to punish enemies during it, but requires allies or very demanding positioning to set them up for maximum effectiveness.
In lane Losing Qareen is a major setback in the early game, so keeping it alive is very important and it should be reserved for specific uses while relying on Living Fire to poke. She can capitalise on jungle ganks by using Serpent Jenni to extend the jungler's crowd control while Flame Darwan and Inferno are used to apply dps to the disabled opponent. The same can be done solo if she plays her cards just right because giving Qareen a different order triggers a dash that stuns enemies and can be comboed with Serpent Jenni to extend the stun, but she can't order Qareen while channelling so aiming and timing is very strict.
At level 6 Jahannam is great at initiating or switching from Hajali burst to Qareen dps, but lousy in actual combat. She can use Serpent Jenni to extend allied crowd control while the meteor descends, or to extend the ensuing knockup while Qareen breathes on them with Watcher and Inferno sets their immobile hindquarters on fire. This can lock down an opponent for a long time, but requires teamwork.
Countering her Hajali has two weak points: Qareen and lack of mobility. Picking an overpowered meta assassin against her should force her to sacrifice Qareen's health to the Fierce Guardian shield until it gets too low for the shield to do much, at which point Zed can just Zed on her for a kill. The counterplay to this on her part is turtling up with Watcher, using Serpent Jenni for a very long slow and free damage from Flame Darwan whenever the assassin goes aggro. But of course Zed is overpowered so np gg.
That awkward phase where both teams walk around looking for each other Watcher has a cast range of 750 and sits there for 4 seconds slowing enemies, making it a nice facecheck ability. If the entire enemy team is there, she can immediately cast Jahannam to save Qareen and slam dunk the enemy team.
Teamfights If the enemy team can take out Qareen at the start of the fight after Jahannam hits, she loses the dps from Flame Darwan and the protection from Fierce Guardian, reducing her to a Living Fire spammer unless she can capitalise on hard disables with Serpent Jenni and Inferno.
Minmaxing Hajali can pull off a 2.7 second stun by using Jahannam to call in Qareen, then chain Watcher and Fierce Guardian to trigger the dash stun twice, then using Serpent Jenni to extend the second stun, adding up to 0.6 + 0.6 + 1.5 seconds if the stars are just right and everyone involved is positioned perfectly.
#Lore
http://i.imgur.com/XibUOCF.jpg
Shuriman desert, the recent past
Under the searing sun of a Shuriman noon, a woman in a torn black quhab was unloading a camel-drawn cart. Its owner stood nearby, kept at a distance by the menacing snake in her hand. But instead of gleaming gold, pipe-herbs and embroidered silk, the cart only contained books, dozens and dozens of heavy tomes decorated with sundisc symbols. She had not waylaid a merchant, but a cleric.
"I-- I'm not a rich man," he stammered. "I'm-- a traveling priest, serving only the Sun, seeking no earthly riches. The Sun-- which binds us, as a people, one people, under Shal. You and I. By the Sun, you wouldn't harm a cleric--"
She wore a demure quhab covering her from head to toe, but looking at the face of a woman that is someone else's property is an unclean act. He attempted to avert his eyes, but was too slow and met her gaze underneath the shadow of her black quhab. Her eyes were pools of hellfire.
Al-Shar City, Shuriman desert, two months ago
"Don't forget to cover yourself! Don't you dare bring shame upon my name again!", her father yelled as she prepared her dromedary for the short trek under the twilight moon to the foreigners' campsite near the city.
She would not forget again. Many weeks ago, she had forgotten to fasten the garment correctly, allowing the shocked townsfolk to catch sight of her black hair underneath the draping cloth. Before she could walk five steps, her father had pulled her back inside, grounded her and sent her brother in her place. She had spent the next month in isolation behind the silk curtains of the woman's room memorising the Five Thousand Verses in their original Solari and praying devoutly to Shal six times a day until her father judged her sin forgiven and allowed her to leave the house again.
Her father was a trader; a trader of secrets. His wares were the lost arcana of the desert, and his customers were sages and wizards from all corners of Runeterra. Those not of the faith were barred from entering the city, and she served as his courier, bringing ancient treasures to the foreign caravans and returning with saddlebags full of gold. For her, it was an opportunity to be away from her family and kin and alone with her dreams in the desert night, carrying the mysteries of ages past to foreign adventurers. Or godless dogs, as her father called them, marking up his wares once again. The Verses may preach fairness in trade, but they do not apply to the unwashed.
As she approached the city gates on her dromedary, she read the scroll of parchment her father had given her. It was a writ of property, confirming that each of the treasures in her saddlebag belonged to him. Women were not allowed to own property, Verse 309, so the scroll was vitally important, lest her head would roll.
To her shock, there was one item missing on the scroll: a small ruby ring, forged by mystics in ancient times and enchanted with unknown magic. She slipped it under her quhab, thinking frantically of an excuse should one of the guards decide to investigate. Explaining the mistake would be a death sentence: thou shalt not suffer a woman to speak against her master. Verse 278.
But as the temple guard approached, his shamshir glistening in the torchlight, the gates were suddenly plunged into darkness as all of the torches went out simultaneously. A shiver overcame her, the chill of a cold gust of wind. Scrambling to make a fire, the guards hastily opened the gates for her, but their sparks did not light the wood until she had left the city behind.
Safe from prying eyes in the nocturnal desert, she looked for the ring and found it around her finger. She did not remember putting it on. When she rubbed the grimy ruby gemstone to take a closer look, a fire-lit cloud of black smoke appeared before her. It most resembled a wish genie, a docile servant of air. It was a basic binding mastered by even a novice conjurer, but a trick that always left a foreign buyer awestruck.
She said a quick prayer to Shal when she realised that the creature of flame was no wish genie.
"Hajali," it spoke, its voice crackling like hellfire. "Do not fear." It drew a vision on a canvas of stars in smokeless fire, a vision of things that once were. A palace of fire above the stars, a visage of living flame standing tall before the Most Holy Shal, refusing to kneel. Streaks of fire and ash falling like embers to Runeterra. They who Rebelled. "Da-ar-khen!," she exclaimed with frightful awe. Beast of the Earth!
The creature of flame erased the drawing with burst of ashen smoke and drew a blazing city, a blood red sun rising in the west, the shards of a shattered Kha'ja, the most sacred obelisk of faith in Emperor Azir's palace. Yawm Ad-Din. And above it, the living flame, and the humans in league with its kind, ruling for a thousand years.
"Begone, spawn of Darkin! I will-- I will never serve your kind!" She repeated Verse 17, a banishing formula to ward off evil, passed down to mortal man by the prophets themselves. "We do not demand servitude. Those who choose our path do so of their own free Will. To cast off the burning shackles of the Sun. Shal-Tan." He gestured at her quhab, emphasising every word. "To never kneel again." She felt like the prophet, Solari Mahrood, battling the demon at the oasis. Verse 433. But she was no prophet, and she found it difficult to dispel the creature with holy conviction.
"My name is Qareen. Wear my ring to summon me. Invoke my name in times of need. Unleash your Will. Let fear become fury. Let none stand in your way." The creature disappeared with a bang and flash of fire.
When she returned, her father beat her for being late and missing the morning prayers.
She saw him again as a mirage of fire in the desert when the next full moon rose, as she kneeled despondently at the side of the road with the ruby ring around her finger, her loose quhab fluttering in the wind.
Her father had found her a marriage partner, a wealthy husband willing to tame an unruly girl. His name was Master Alkabi, and he was an alchemist, spending his day in his laboratory mixing potions for Shurima's elite. It was a difficult and dangerous job, she confided the creature with tears in her eyes: one spark into his volatile concoctions and... They found his charred corpse in the ruins of his workshop the next morning. The marriage was called off.
Qareen did not appear to her during her next trek, even as she looked up to the stars and prayed for a life free of fanaticism and the oppressive rule of the Sun's chosen.
It was not until the temple guards pulled her off her dromedary at the gate that she realised that she was still wearing the ring.
A bearded man clad in robes entered her cell, accompanied by his darwan bodyguards. "Witch," the ihab hissed. "Your father informed the temple that the mark of sin was upon you. You corrupted good men with sin and lust. Twenty lashes. You defied the authority of your father. Fifty lashes." He showed her the ring. "You communed with jinn. Death by fire."
Without a word, the darwans at his side lifted her off the ground and dragged her outside into the market square where a wooden stake had been erected. A furious crowd had gathered, yelling insults and throwing stones. "Ghoulah! Nasnas!" She struggled with all her might and feebly attempted to protect her face against the hail of stones, but a frail girl against several iron-muscled darwans was no contest. As the darwans tied her to the stake, the ihab read aloud the words carved into a wooden plank nailed to the stake in Solari runes, waving a pot of scented smoldering coals, symbolising the fire of judgment.
"SOLA SHEHAR! The Sun is greatest of all! ILLU SHA'AL AKHAR! There is no God but the Sun!"
"SOLA SHEHAR!," the crowd chanted. "ILLU SHA'AL AKHAR!"
With arrogant grace, the ihab climbed the stake. "This is your last chance," he whispered into her ear. "Repent and your sins will be purged! Submit before Merciful Shal and the Oasis awaits!" With a wave of his hand, the crowd fell silent. The cleric dramatically raised his arms, lifting the fire pot in front of her eyes, and screamed to the heavens, "Who is your one true God?"
She stared into the flames and yelled, "QAREEN!" With a brilliant burst of elemental fire, the pot exploded and the cleric was a shrieking torch. Flaming coals and bits of burning flesh rained down on the onlookers. Panic broke out as their cotton sa'bas and qamis caught fire with unnaturally fierce flames. The panicked crowd, attempting to flee and put out their garments, crashed through market stalls built out of fabric and dry wood and peddling cartfuls of grape alcohol, lamp oil and enchanted wands. A wall of fire washed over the crowd as the market exploded.
A stray spark burned through the ropes tying her to the stake, freeing her but miraculously not setting the pile of tinder ablaze. From atop the stake, she looked down upon the inferno, laughing.
Shuriman desert, the recent past
"Even the smallest flame of a lamp contains a tiny spark of demonic essence, which is why witches are said to perform their dark rites by torchlight. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Al-Kitab, Verse 1844", she recited the holy book she was holding.
The cleric relaxed. She was not an unbeliever; she knew the sacred Solari texts. Surely the robbery was just a foolish mistake on her part, the whisper of an evil spirit. "Thou shalt not steal -- Verse 1021," he replied. Perhaps he could talk her out of it, pray with her to Shal for forgiveness, and reunite her with her master.
"The Verses do not apply to unbelievers, cleric," she whispered as she threw the holy book into the sand at his feet. Stunned by the act of sacrilege, he never saw the shamshir coming.
Al-Shar City, Shuriman desert, a week ago
No one stopped Hajali. The temple guard had other problems: the sacred library was ablaze, its holy tomes burning to ash in the streets. The preacher, whose calls for prayer she remembered waking her from her sleep at dawn, was screaming for help atop his tower, trapped by the fire, exactly as she had willed.
The fire spread to the trader's district and its lavish clay mansions, consuming its palm trees and artificial fountains arranged to resemble the pavillions of the Oasis but sparing the home of her family. She had wished for her family to die last and watch every last Solari in the city burn, and the flames obeyed her will.
The city gates exploded before her and Hajali left the doomed city for the last time, never turning around, leaving no footprints in the sand as the sun rose in the west and her long black hair and the tatters of her quhab flew behind her.
#Quotes
Select
- "May the Sun never rise again"
Move
- "I do as I will"
- "Insh qareen"
- "I kneel for no one"
- "Shatter their idols"
- "Burn their lies"
- "The Sun casts a long shadow"
- "Fa aslamu"
Attack
- "Cast down the light"
- "Turn from the Sun"
- "Thou shalt not worship"
- "See the truth"
- "Ashes to ashes"
Buying a Mikael's Crucible
- "I will break their shackles"
- "There can be no freedom under the Sun"
Buying a Morellonomicon
- "The Ifrit Verses"
- "The Solari would burn this book"
Buying Talisman of Ascension
- "To live and die by the Sun"
- "Cast the unbelievers into the flames. Verses 203"
Buying a Sunfire Cape
- "It... It's a trap"
Taunt
- "Are you prepared to die for your faith?"
Joke
- "My name is Hajali and this... is the face of Darkin vengeance!"
#CCC requirement: New year's resolutions
This is a good chance to show some humor when appropriate, clever creativity elsewhere and maybe even some references! I can't wait to see what you guys have in store!
Under the darkling desert sky, Hajali read the scroll of parchment again. A year's worth of sacred vows: To flee the shadow of the Sun... She was a dajjal now, a religious outlaw, an enemy of the Solari. One day, their zealots would find her. And she knew what the Solari do to unbelievers.
"Don't worry," the voice in her head laughed, crackling like fire. "It's just a rooftop. I was thrown from heaven and it only made me stronger."
She thought back bitterly: "A man, a woman and a yordle walk into the Sun. They die. Because we will burn them alive."
She produced a glass lens, an object commonly used by desert dwellers to light a fire for the cold night, and focussed the last rays of the dying Sun on the parchment, setting the paper ablaze. One day, the zealots would find her. And she would be ready.
