Ichtaca, the Submerged Serpent

Gameplay niche: ramping ranged threat that determines the flow of combat on the battlefield, splitting enemies apart or drawing them together. He sets up and searches to create the best scenario to control enemies and push allied advantage by targeting key locations, targets or groups and shutting the opposition down one at a time. Can choose between the Scalpel style that weaves attacks through multiple enemies, or the hammer style which delivers a powerful direct blow. 

Thematic niche: The real guy in control of bilgewater manipulating lines of trust, coin, ebb-flow of allegiances and the competitions for power and control from the shadows, everyone is a pawn in his game. An unseen power broker to some an anonymous information broker to others.

Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix-QW-BShPY

Kit

Passive - Tools of Office

Basic attacks with Rope Dart move it from its current position to the target penetrating all enemies in a line dealing 100% damage to his main target and 25/30/35% pass through damage. Before attacking the same unit twice in a row or after 2 seconds without attacking, Rope Dart returns over 0.25 sec (reduced by bonus AS) disarming him but resetting the attack timer. Basic attacks gain 10% bonus AS when he damages a unit different from his previous target up to 100% bonus AS.

While disarmed his basic attack is replaced by Spear once, dealing 150% damage to his target sticking in the ground behind them for 7 sec, refreshed by basic attacking it, until recovered by attacking twice in a row or stepping near it.

Design Notes: Ichtaca is the maestro of his own battlefield everyone else just plays on it, each step and action is a deliberate decision that has a bigger pay off in mind down the line. Ichtaca personally directs the movement of his basic attack, starting slow and unnoticed because he plays the long game, each target, a stepping stone to the larger goal, taken care of with the grace of a scalpel, but when needed he does not shy away from the hammer, when a more direct and collateral approach is needed.

Q - Subdue/Premeditated:

When Ichtaca has his Spear this ability is Premeditated. With no Spear this ability becomes Subdue. Separate Cooldowns.

Premeditated: Ichtac throws Spear to the target location in an arc increasing travel time with distance, upon landing it plows forward a short distance damaging, knocking down and grounding enemies. Spear remains at the target location for the Cooldown, reduced by 75% upon retrieving it.

Subdue: Ichtac disarms himself and sends Rope Dart to the target unit (Spear, Self, Allied unit, enemy unit, ward, tower) damaging enemies it passes through, wrapping around it to deal DoT (* X% Bonus AS) doubled at the edge, to a decreasing radius AoE over 2.5 sec disarming. Targeting Spear retrieves it after the duration. Recast ends it early.

Design Notes: Subdue is the key basic ability that signifies Ichtaca’s control over the battlefield and those within. Placing it on an ally you work well with can help direct them where needed to increase damage on enemies. Placing it on an enemy can either make other enemies attempt to move away or move closer together as to avoid the additional damage, placing it on other targets helps to zone enemies away. Additionally Premeditated feeds into his theme of planning ahead, knowing where enemies will be so he can stop them in  their tracks, sending out a fast moving Subdue on the traveling Premeditated Spear to chase targets, or laying it down to increase the number of targets for his basic attack if in a 1v1 duel. The spear also assists him when he needs to retract his Rope Dart, so planning ahead to place the spear or pull it back in is a mark of someone who plans things correctly.

W - Serpent Spirit Invoker

Passive: Basic attacks apply Poison stacks scaling with your total AD. Once a target has exceeded x% of their health in Poison stacks, damaging them with Spear deals heavily increased damage and activates the Poison, causing the target to take that damage rapidly over 3 seconds. Basic attacks on activated targets refresh the damage over time but do not apply additional stacks. Critical Strikes double the stacks applied.

Active: Throws down a spirit idol at his feet that nearsights enemies of the inside for 1 sec and calls upon the spirits to make a Clone of him that attacks nearby enemies for 4 seconds. Being attacked twice by an enemy dispels it. Does not apply poison stacks.

Design Notes: Ichtaca doesn’t always handle the things he needs done himself, relying on other people under his control to do the dirty work for him to keep his enemies guessing who is the culprit. The fact that the clone can be dispelled with a two basic attacks may encourage enemies to attempt to dispose of it quickly, but which one is the right one? Getting the opponent to pick the wrong one will cause them to attempt focusing it away and give him the slight edge he knows he can count on to pull ahead. The poison assists his DPS since repeated attacks on the same target lowers his DPS. Additionally the poison feeds into his one step at a time to take down an objective playstyle, building up his investments over time, and helping his hammer hit harder when he decides that course of action is needed.

E - Slackline:

Toggle On: Faded ethereal rope trails behind where Rope Dart has traveled within the past 4 sec while active. 

Toggle Off: enemies touching the ethereal rope are Brittled and slowed for 3 sec.

Design Notes: Follows the trend of laying low and planning towards a big pay off, thinking ahead will allow Ichtaca to cast a large net to catch opponents with to make a tactical retreat or give chase to guilty targets. With all the complicated stuff going on with the passive, Q and W; E should be simple in contrast.

R - Coercion: 

First Cast: Ichtaca camouflages and channels increasing Coercion’s range and missile speed 

Second Cast: If one or less enemy champs see him, he throws a Spirit Trinket in the target direction, on impact the next instance of damage to them to silences them for 1.25 sec. This can be recast within 10 sec each time an enemy is silenced. 

Design Notes: Ichtaca wants to avoid being the focus of enemies and approach them unnoticed until it's too late. He gives them an offer, bend the knee or run, or he will make them regret their decision to oppose him until the day they die, because he will make sure that all their enemies around them have a way to exploit their weaknesses where it hurts the most. This allows him to live out that fantasy of sneaking towards a target unseen, singling them out and making them very sad if they do not respect him. His slippery nature with the help of W should help assist him in achieving this and when needs to retrieve his Spear or Rope Dart.

Quotes Remember to stay silent

You don't mind doing a favor for me, do you?

That's a good paylangi

You will be silent until i need you to speak

You’ll do favors for your ‘friend’ right?

A good leader does not need to be seen or heard to have influence

The net is cast, time to let the fish wander in

Listen or you’ll be a feast for the The Great Waddler

Its all coming together

Shok roc

Everyone has strings on them, the smart ones know not to try anything about it

Altoc, Awaken to reason.

Arzintli

Camille Taunt: We did not teach you everything Camille

Illaoi Taunt: You have had free reign long enough but your desires are misguided

Illaoi Taunt: Your desires are causing you to stagnate, fulfill your true duty

Lore

Ichtaca is what doesn't go bump in the night, but what wakes grizzled men with the feeling eyes on the back of their head, breaking into a cold sweat upon realizing they are unable to move. An unseen power broker to some and information broker to others; One does not simply encounter, Ichtaca, few know of his existence, fewer would want to, and fewer still would keep their pants unsoiled if they did. The highest coin cannot pay for his loyalty, and he cannot be traced to acquire his services. He operates in the shadows pulling the strings between the crime lords. His actions go unnoticed, though everyone experiences his influence throughout Bilgewater whether they are aware of it or not, unless he wants them to be.

Raised by the priests, he was trained to channel spirit energy in ways to eliminate the Harrowing spirits and temper his aggressive nature through martial arts to learn restraint. Ichtaca grew up with a fierce admiration for their Buhru culture with their many spiritual mythos and a respect for the ocean, and despised those that left for prospects in Bilgewater, with its blooded water from overfishing and betrayal that seemed to thicken every year.

But nothing hurt his pride quite like when his siblings left the priesthood at a young age for Bilgewater. Between the people who left surrounding islands and those that choose to vehemently ignore Bilgewater, seeing themselves as far above the foreigners that inhabited the island swimming in squalor, relations between Bilgewater seemed to spoil more every generation.

Ichtaca despaired the waters surrounding Bilgewater were just as spoiled, as the paylangi didn’t rest for a tide-turn to wash their harbors clean. The stench from the constantly bustling slaughter docks that filled the waters surrounding Bilgewater repelled the giant sea-serpents that protected the Buhru from the Harrowing. Normally this was only a Bilgewater issue, but soon the greed scented waters would be encroaching on Buhru coastline, and the Bilgewater problem would become a Serpent Isles problem. Ichtaca noted the paylangi were ill equipped to deal with the Harrowing. It was more that they suffered through it rather than fighting it off. If nothing was done the Harrowing would soon begin to overrun Buhru islands as well, and he couldn’t stand the thought that his siblings had to endure it at once a year at a minimum.

The captains and merchants were being wholly ineffective, they were like children trying to hold a needlefish; the tighter they squeezed the more their prize slipped from their grasp. When their half handed attempts at playing nice technique didn’t work they made a worse mess out of pointlessly killing each other, nothing was getting done, nothing was moving forward. Ichtaca grew increasingly annoyed and disappointed, they wasted everything. Their view above the water was distorted, and their boisterous nature made them prime targets from below.

Bilgewater needed someone to clean and operate from the bottom up, he would pull the lines and hooks unseen from the shadows, before it rotted it self through the core, and pulled Buhru with it.

Ichtaca began laying the sinkers that would cement his hold over Bilgwater, and started working his way up the food chain, catching and cleaning targets. He observed Bilgewater until a pattern emerged and he became able to connect the dots and build a mental ecosystem of Bilgewaters social structure, then he set to determined and efficiently brutal work, it didn’t matter if the target was a gutter rat or a penniless drunkard, he started where his actions would go unnoticed and stay that way as he worked his way up to the wealthier merchants, captains and corsairs, they were all connected, so he started small, and built up his network over time. One connection, a kraken in a hopeless hand, a few incidents ignited, a dock gang antagonized into a fight, an anonymous tip, a favor here, a coercion there, an old partnership between two previous enemies reforged, steadily, he built up his influence.

He set up serpent callers in a large radius around Bilgewater, he’d squeeze Bilgewater where it hurt. If they hunted too much, he’d tell the serpent callers at night to drive the serpents away for a week reducing their numbers and Bilgewaters successful hunts, when tensions started building up as captain fought over meager catches to an eventual battle at sea for pirates he’d have serpents preemptively called in to chaotically break up the fight.

Ichtaca didn’t always personally handle these machinations, when someone else could be goaded, encouraged or manipulated into doing it when they ‘saw’ a benefit for themselves he let their blind emotions and ambitions do the work for him with small nudges and anonymous tips.

But sometimes there were objectives that required a more direct approach, a personal visit, a catch, a cleaning, and release, a combination of the skilled rope dart and the powerful spear. People going missing was a common occurrence in Bilgewater such that no one lifted an eyebrow, but when Ichtaca was involved, people barely noticed they had been gone.

This experience was swift and life changing, the growth of a voice not wholly human from nothing, demanding action or despair. Ichtaca would save his targets from a tight situation that he himself set up for them, making them indebted to their new ‘friend’, or blackmailing them.

On the surface he set up a proxy leader in his place to vye for control over Bilgewater, any opposition that cropped up, he made sure to set up a private visit for them. These members of the opposition either became backers overnight, or quit their opinions. Assassination attempts were foiled and mercenaries’ marks went missing unexpectedly to turn up a week later unharmed and with bolstered gaurds, these actions did not go unnoticed but they could not be attributed to anyone, people began to fear who was the unseen actor and that kept them cautious, and that kept things quiter. Just the way Ichtaca liked. All while Ichtaca’s proxy grew in power to just the right amount. No captain would control Bilgewater, he’d set up a stalemate between the top contenders and his own so no one would make a move. 

So when the priests approached him with their proposal to resists Gangplank taking back Bilgewater after offending Nagakabouros in their own temple, Ichtaca was not surprised, he’d already had all the things in place he needed. The power structure in Bilgewater was in a tide of change, held in a disbalanced state by Ichtaca, many of the powerful captains and mob bosses and fighting for power. He’d had gotten the message through the hierophants; They knew Gangplank would be be back it was apparent that Illaoi supported him, worse that she’d incorrectly decided that he or any of the paylangi could take the honored test with their immobile souls.

But even though Illaoi though would ignore the clerics and priestess protests, he’d do what it took to make it more hell and higher water for Gangplank to reclaim a position in Bilgewater even if he had to manipulate every barkeep in Bilgewater. He had pocketed many influential people although those people do not know whose pocket they are in, and he’d use them to their full effect. What they do know is that they should not step out of line, for if they do, nothing good awaits them. As a hurricane of conflict and uncontrolled wonton chaos billows on the horizon, the quite low pressure power vacuum pulling it closer. Though many crime lords, powerful merchants, and well known captains, unable to resist the lure of more power have struggled against each other, increasing the blood split, and corpses that are left to rot.  If anyone was going to control Bilgewater it would be Ichtaca, from the shadows.

Old abilities

Channel for up to 2.5 sec increasing range, and missile speed,

Sends rope dart in target direction destroying shields and applying grievous wounds