Champion Concept: Pyrene the Golden Duchess

Background: Pyrene is an elderly female yordle champion concept that attempts to use gold as more than just a tool to buy equipment. Pyrene worked her way to the top of the mercantile world with hard work and determination. At first. Eventually, as Pyrene grew older, she found that Greed could accomplish nearly anything, and when Greed got a hold of the right people, she could do anything. Now, as we look at Pyrene, more than half the shops in the city are a part of her Pyrene's Merchant Conglomerate, and pay her 10% of all profits. Each day, another shop joins PMC, either by their own free will, or after some "encouragement" from Pyrene and her crew.

Inspiration: I've been posting a variety of champion concepts and game mechanics that I think have some potential over the last week, and this is just another attempt at that. I really wanted to try and use gold as a resource in the game, rather than just something to purchase items. The result is Pyrene, and although it is not exactly what I was going for, it is a step in that direction. The reason I chose an older female yordle, is because I saw two posts the same day about needing more female yordle champions, and an old lady champion. So I just combined the two and got Pyrene. The name Pyrene itself was inspired by Pyrite, the mineral. I just tweaked it to fit a more female individual. I am going to give a shout-out to iKratosKlayton, as his champion concept also leverages gold and really got me thinking about different ways to leverage gold in game. So please check out his concept as well!

Lore: The bell jangled as the door swung open, and several figures stepped through the door. Two of them, men, split up and went to opposite sides of the store. The third, a yordle, was walking towards the shop keep.

“Hello Pyrene.” The shop keep said, addressing the yordle. “I already told you, I’m not interested in joining your cooperative, or whatever you’re calling it.” The shop keep made no attempt to hide his disdain for Pyrene. Pyrene was an old yordle, how old nobody knew. She had been around for as long as anyone can remember, and at one time worked in a shop of her own. Now she owned dozens of shops, lived in one of the largest estates in the city, and was covered from head to toe in gold and jewels.

“Conglomerate, silly.” Pyrene teased between light chuckles. Pyrene was infamous among all shop owners. Ever since she started Pyrene’s Merchant Conglomerate, you either joined, or found your shop robbed, burned down, or replaced. Nothing was ever tied back to Pyrene directly. There was a single time when the authorities felt they were getting close, but their key suspects upped and disappeared before they could close the case. Pyrene got smart after that, half the guard were on her payroll, and the other half too dumb to accept her offer.

“Whatever it is, I have no interest. I pay my taxes, I make fair deals. I see no need to pay someone else to do what I have done myself my whole life.” The shopkeep reiterated.

“Now, now, Welson. You misunderstand.” Pyrene said calmly. Welson’s face showed his confusion. “I have been so patient with you. I even had some of the other shopkeeps explain to you how much better off they are since they joined my ‘cooperative’. I am no longer asking.” Pyrene’s composure went from understanding benefactor, to hostile takeover. As she spoke one of the men that came into the store with her slowly pushed over a shelf, spilling all its contents onto the floor, shattering them. Welson’s eyes grew large.

“Why… You can’t… Guards!” Welson yelled as he realized what was about to happen. He ran to the corner of his shop, where there was a rope hanging down, and he began to pull on it repeatedly. The rope was attached to a bell outside the shop. It was a way to alert any nearby guards if there was a problem, and if a shop needed assistance.

“Tsk tsk Welson. You know better.” Pyrene scolded. The two men laughed as they heard the bell sound outside. The shuffle and clang of the city guard could be heard hurrying to the store front. A guard opened the door and stepped in.

“Is there a problem here?” The guard asked as he glanced around the shop. “Oh Duchess. Is everything alright?” The guard stood at attention as his eyes fell on Pyrene.

“Yes, yes. Nothing to worry about here. We must have startled poor Welson into ringing the alarm. Who can blame him, you know, with everything happening lately.” Pyrene said, sweetly.

The guard glanced around the shop, his eyes jumped between the two men, Welson, the knocked over shelf, and Pyrene’s smiling face. The look on the guard’s face communicated very well; he knew something was amiss, but he also knew better than to intercede. “Yes, well, who can blame him. Have a wonderful evening Baroness. Welson.” The guard excused himself and directed the remaining guards back to their patrols.

Once the guards had left, Pyrene turned on Welson angrily. “My patience is at its end Welson. Ten percent of everything. I will send my men to collect tomorrow. Do not make me show you what happens if you do not have my ten percent.” Pyrene punctuated as she turned and left the shop. The two men followed slowly, one of them knocking more items off the shelf before exiting.

Welson sat down hard on a stool. Is this what it has come to? Welson thought. Years of hard work to just be taken over by a yordle overnight? No, not just any yordle. This is Pyrene. She owns half the shops in the city, if not more. And if each one owes ten percent? Welson scoffed.

“No wonder they call her the Golden Duchess.” Welson spit, ruefully.

Pyrene sat at her desk, sipping her wine as she listened to the rain outside. The light pitter patter of rain drifting in with the wind from her open balcony. There was a knock on the door.

“Enter” Pyrene said. A man entered. The same one that was with Pyrene at Welson’s store the day before. He walked up to Pyrene’s desk and set down a bag of coins.

“Good. Hold a moment.” Pyrene reached into her desk and pulled out a ledger, flipping through several pages before coming to a stop. She fingered every page, top to bottom, finally stopping on Welson’s name. She picked up the bag of gold coins, held it for a moment, and placed it back on the desk. She neatly wrote a number in the ledge next to Welson’s name.

“Take it and put it with the rest. Set aside enough to pay the guard, and your men. Melt the rest down and return it to me.” Pyrene demanded. She smiled as the man picked up the bag of coins and left the room. She sipped her win carefully. She couldn’t help but smile. She heard what people called her, “Golden Duchess”. She laughed suddenly. She liked it.

Abilities:

Passive: Investor • Pyrene has no passive gold income. She gets gold from items bought in the shop, 12.5% of all items bought by allies, and 10% from enemies. Pyrene gains Gold Stacks equal to 1% of all gold made from Investor. Investor does not stack with gold Pyrene spends.

• Assumptions made here:
• By the time the game ends, everyone will have spent ~16,000 gold in the store. 16,000 x 9 = 144,000. 144,000 x 1% (0.01) = 1,440 Gold Stacks.
• Champion is spending stacks throughout the game, and is not just hoarding them.
• 16,000 x 4 (for teammates) x 12.5% (.125) = 8,000 gold
• 16,000 x 5 (for enemy team) x 10% (.1) = 8,000 gold, which provides Pyrene with 16,000 gold.

Q: Cold Hard Cash • Pyrene reaches in her bag and pulls out a bar of gold, throwing it in a target direction. The gold bar deals 80/90/100/110/120 (+75% Bonus AD) as physical damage to the first unit struck, and knocks back that unit by 50 (15% Gold Stacks) units. • 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 second CD. 40 Mana

W: Offer You Can’t Refuse • Pyrene starts swinging her bag of gold over the next several seconds. Pyrene can still move while channeling, but can not attack or use other abilities. On recast Pyrene flings her bag in target direction taking her with it. The bag will collide with the first enemy champion hit dealing 60/65/70/75/80 (+50% AD)(+25% Gold Stacks) physical damage and a 1.5 - 0.75 second stun. A longer channel will result in Pyrene traveling a further distance to a maximum, but the longer the distance traveled, the shorter the stun duration. • 14/13/12/11/10 second CD. 60/65/70/75/80 Mana.

E: Greasing the Wheels • Pyrene gives target minion or monster a “performance bonus”, instantly converting the target to a friendly minion. Jungle monsters will go to nearest lane. Cannot be used on epic monsters or super minions. • 12 second cooldown at all levels. 40 Gold Stacks (+15% for Caster, +25% for Melee, +40% for Cannon, +30% for small jungle creeps, +50% for large jungle creeps)

R: Make it Rain • Pyrene tosses her huge bag of gold in the air and it explodes, raining gold coins and gold bars down on the targeted area. Coins deal 10/20/30 (+25% AD)(+10% Gold Stacks) physical damage, and slow by 30% for 0.5 seconds per coin. Gold bars deal 40/50/60 (+60% AD)(+30% Gold Stacks) physical damage, and stun for 1 second per gold bar. • 125 Mana. 200/180/160 second CD.

Some comments I have done on other champion concepts working around gold mechanics: Eluard the Merchant King Pisto the Baron of the Black Market

Thanks for taking the time to get through all of this. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

Edit 1: Changed the W stun to range from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds, based on distance traveled. Rodney1222 pointed out how Pyrene's W was essentially Vi's Q, so I tried to make Pyrene's W a little more unique. The longer the travel, the shorter the stun. Damage remains unchanged.