Champion Concept: Typhon, Sheath of the Lifedrinker
My Archive Post Link To August 2017 CCOS Outreach Bonus
Typhon is a toplane fighter designed to thrive in continuous battle by feeding off of his opponents. Rather than use lifesteal to encourage risky plays and committing to fights, I decided to approach from the angle of simply becoming stronger the longer you are in battle.
A former leader of the black rose, and serving as a living sheath to a weapon of dark magic incarnate, Typhon has returned from his centuries-long exile. He is an envious man, and the Lifedrinker is a weapon created after his own tendencies that drains the life and power from its victims in order to make itself stronger. Now that he has returned, Typhon seeks to reclaim control of the Black Rose and use it to further his own goals.
“Those who accept their “destiny” are nothing more than animals, they will live, die, and rot on the path the world points them toward. True power can only be taken by those with the hunger for it.“
#Kit
Attack Range: 175 AD: 59+5/level AS: 0.6+2.6%/level HP: 585 + 75/level MP: 325+40/level MP5: 7.3+0.6/level AR: 25+4/level MR: 32.1+1.25/level MS: 350
##Passive: Lifedrinker: Instead of using resources, Typhon has a Chaos Bar. The chaos bar is divided into 4 sections. Hitting an enemy champion or large/epic monster with an ability fills one section of the Chaos Bar per champion hit. Filling the bar consumes it and grants Typhon a stacking shield for 10-15% of his maximum health that lasts for 7 seconds (refreshed upon reapplication, max value of 30% maximum health), as well as a stack of Lightkiller.
Lightkiller: Grants +10% damage dealt per stack, stacks up to 3 times. At 3 stacks, damage to champions inflicts grievous wounds for 3 seconds. Stacks of Lightkiller decay at a rate of one stack every 2 seconds out of combat.
##Q: Soul tear:
First cast: Typhon swings his blade in a cone in front of him, dealing 50-150 (+20-50% AD) physical damage and applying Vulnerable to enemies hit for 5 seconds.
Range: 450 units
Angle: 90 degrees
Second cast: After a brief delay, Typhon slams his blade down in front of him in a line for _75-250 (+50% AD) _ physical damage, dealing true damage to** Vulnerable **enemies.
Range: 450 units
Width: 150 units
Min Delay Between casts: 2 seconds. Max Delay Between casts: 7 seconds. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Starts after first cast.
##W: Affliction: After a brief delay, fire dark magic in a line, piercing through all units for_ 100-200 + 10% Maximum health_ magic damage, heavily slowing them. (similar cast paradigm to tongue lash) Cooldown: 10-7 seconds. Slow Strength: 50-75%
##E: Annihilate: Passive: Killing an enemy unit reduces your spell cooldowns by 1 second. Doubled for champion kills/assists.
** Active**: Typhon leaps forward and slams down in an aoe for 100-250 (+40% AD) physical damage and stunning units hit for 1-1.5 seconds. If Lifedrinker's shield is active, it will detonate for 50-100% of its remaining value in magic damage. Leap range: 650 units AoE: 325 units Shield Detonation AoE: 500 units Cooldown: 14-10 seconds
##R: Strike at their heart: Impale nearby enemy champions on tendrils of darkness, dealing 100/125/150 Magic Damage. After 1 second, pull all impaled enemies a short distance towards you for 150/175/200 (+100% Bonus AD) Physical Damage Range: 700 units Pull Range: 900 units Pull distance: up to 200 units Cooldown: 120/80/40 seconds
#Appearance This will be tackled within the next 24 hours. For now, his color scheme/magic is black and purple, with hints of gold. His armor is ancient, decorated with skull designs, and his blade is reminiscent of a Dacian Falx. Born in freljord, he has long white hair, silver eyes flecked with gold, and light, healthy-looking skin. #Lore
Typhon lay on his back in the ruin that had become his prison, his shaggy white hair forming a halo around his head. The sound of water tapping the cavern floor as it rushed through the tiny crevices and crannies of the collapsed stone above him let him know that it was once again raining. He couldn’t recall when the last rain had been, as time had lost much of its meaning to him. The dashes he had been carving to mark the days as they passed had long since covered the walls. The only thing that kept Typhon here, that stopped him from simply pulling the LifeDrinker out of his body and allowing himself to pass away, was his ambition. The hunger for power that had caused the Black Rose to imprison him here in the first place. He clenched a gauntleted fist, the centuries-old metal creaking from the sudden strain. He hadn’t used the LifeDrinker in so long that he he had grown numb to the constant, ravenous pull the blade created inside him as the power it had absorbed during his life slowly ran dry, forcing it to pull away pieces of his own essence to fuel itself. As Typhon pondered his fate, as he had countless other times, a chilling droplet of rainwater squeezed through the collapsed ceiling and landed square on his nose, releasing him temporarily from the centuries-long mental rut.
Water, Typhon had decided, was a quite inspirational element. He had once approved only of fire, for its seemingly insatiable hunger for anything it could reach, but it was foolish and consumed until it had nothing left to sustain it. No, water was far wiser. Patient, cunning. It slowly carved away at obstacles too big to just remove until it reduced even the mightiest mountains to flatlands. And it came in many forms, be it the bitter frost carried on the wind that tore the skin of travellers to his homeland, or a tidal wave pulling entire villages into the briny depths, water was adaptable. Typhon too, had adapted. He had discovered his own patience after decades of raging, unable to penetrate the magical barriers that held the rubble over his head in place despite his desperate attempts to cleave through the enchanted stone. For now, he would be a stream, slowly prodding at the seals to find their weaknesses and undo them one piece at a time.
On this day the storm heralded more than the rain. Typhon could hear the thud of army boots somewhere above him, the sound of bulls straining against their reins, and men barking orders at one another. But most of all, he heard and felt the rumble of whatever the bulls were pulling across the earth, something unbelievably heavy. Whatever this army had brought with them caused magic to draw back from its presence, it made him feel ill. But it made the barrier weak. He drew Exuro, his trusted blade dulled by the years, and forced his magic into it. His body screamed its defiance, rewarding his efforts with a burst of pain that pushed the air from his lungs, sending him doubling over. He gritted his teeth and tried again, managing to imbue the sword with just the faintest of the magic churning inside him. It glowed dully, barely an improvement from its initial state, but it would be enough. He would make certain it was. He struck at the enchanted rubble with rage and strength that had been boiling inside of him for centuries and the ancient stone collapsed, unleashing the rainwater that had been worming its way through the cracks in a wild spray. As the chunks of rubble thundered to the ground around him, Typhon looked at the beams of light that shone through the growing gaps and couldn’t prevent himself from grinning.
Typhon wasn’t born strong. He was born poor, sick, and scorned. A weak constitution and mediocre appearance left him scrounging or laboring wherever he could to make it through the day, envying those who had been born into more fortunate circumstances than him. His one saving grace was that he was clever (despite his recklessness), and he managed to learn some very basic magic and become a low-ranked peon in the (then much larger) Black Rose. He assisted in the creation of a weapon designed to drain the power from opposing mages, a dark magic designed to consume light. The ritual failed and destroyed numerous subjects before Typhon himself replicated it in secret, modifying it based on the failures he had previously witnessed, and sacrificed his own humanity to forge the weapon. In exchange he created a weapon that matched his envy, designed to steal the power and life force from others to make itself more powerful. This would come to be known as the Lifedrinker.
Lifedrinker is not literally a sword. Anything he wields as a weapon can become the lifedrinker when he imbues it with his own power. The actual lifedrinker is a mass of pure dark magic “sheathed” inside of him that needs something it can push its way through, but most things are destroyed after a short time. His current blade, a falx, has been smithed to be especially resistant to the Lifedrinker, hence him using it instead of, say, a broom handle.
As he quietly fed the Lifedrinker, he gained confidence and quickly rose through the ranks of the Black Rose, removing (and consuming the power of) those who stood against him. He served as a polarizing presence within the group, some were attracted to the power and confidence he exuded and had great faith in his plans. Others despised him but lacked the strength to remove him themselves. He was leading the Black Rose out from the shadows, his manipulations becoming less subtle as his own impatience and overconfidence threatened to destroy them from the inside. So a group of his enemies dropped the roof of one of their own strongholds on top of him and sealed the rubble with powerful magic to prevent his escape. Afterwards, those who supported Typhon were gradually culled from the group. The head of the opposing group that led the cull against Typhon’s allies and imprisoned him was the first Leblanc (if the wiki is correct, Leblanc is a name that the matron of the Black Rose inherits, not an actual name name).
The reason for his exile was that he was reckless (like fire, as he said in the story), his drive for power made him unafraid to take risks. Typhon wants to become an entity even the most powerful beings fear, to take destiny into his own hands and shape Runeterra into a world where those who suffer, those who fight for their own strength are rewarded as opposed to the lucky. In order to change the world he first desires to destroy the current systems keeping “destiny” in place. Nobility, heritage, order. Typhon’s end goal is to create a massive, global conflict. The kind of thing that would put the Rune Wars to shame. A place where titles and culture lose their meaning and only those with the drive and lust for power will be able to rise to the top. He once lacked any subtlety in regards to this, but now he has several steps he wishes to take. The first is to spread and twist the natural magic in Runeterra, every source, every form, in order to allow people to tap into it. While he does this he grants power to those who lack it in order to incite chaos in the social order across Runeterra. As the growing population of magic-users all vie for supremacy the use of magic will escalate, new fonts of power will be torn open, and the Lifedrinker will have a near-limitless supply of energy to devour.
Typhon benefitted greatly from his imprisonment. His ever-growing ego after obtaining the Lifedrinker was destroyed when he discovered it would do nothing to save him there and he learned to make do with just his mind, like when he had been weaker in the past. He hasn’t managed to shake the part of him that despises the world that would have left him to suffer and die a pathetic wretch in spite of his efforts while he watched the lucky ascend effortlessly. But now he isn’t driven primarily by his rage and compulsiveness. Typhon no longer merely wants to destroy the systems that currently exist, he is working to replace them with one of his own construction, one that won’t simply stop at transforming Runeterra. (Plus, characters who spend ages in solitude and emerge back into the world completely unchanged are wtf. Looking at you, raast)
