Boards›Concepts & Creations

Syndra fanmade Voice Over and Visual Update

Falrein·1/8/2020, 5:34:28 PM·34 votes·13,644 views

######Syndra VU/VO concept

Hi everyone! After 6 long months, Ulchete and I are finally ready to share what we've been working on! Namely, an update to everyone's favourite sovereign, Syndra! Here’s a lil’ sneak peek, stay tuned for more!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661538384224845825/IMG_20191231_125127.jpg

A bit about the project first

So this project was born rather randomly. It all started with a wish to write a fanmade Syndra Voice Over, and it ended up being a months-long project to try and give Syndra a more visually interesting design.

We felt Syndra is a champion whose themes are overall pretty simple - power, potential, and freedom. However, while her in-game kit does reflect that very well, her current design isn’t quite as fitting. In an attempt to correct and offer something more fitting and elegant, we took it upon ourselves to offer Syndra a new look, along with some new voicelines!

About the team

I, Falrein, wrote the VO. He mostly gave feedback and tried to coordinate the team.

Ulchete is the artist. He made most of the design calls, was very open to feedback and had great ideas!

Please do remember that this is made by the fans, for the fans. We do not have the skills and resources Riot has, but we did our best and that’s what matters! We are not pros, merely people passionate about a character!

Without further ado… Let’s get into it!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661502265043058720/resize.png

######The Voice of Power

Why give Syndra a new VO in the first place?

First of all, Syndra’s current VO is too short, and doesn’t meet the current standards. More than that, it’s very bland. It’s nothing but power, power, power. Of course, that’s one of her core themes, but it doesn’t exactly tell us much about her personality.

We decided to add quotes to give Syndra a more defined personality, as well as a goal. Given the lack of it in her lore, this one is bound to be a personal perception on the champion, but we tried to be as coherent and true to her canon lore as we could! Hopefully, you’ll like it!

-> Read the VO here <-

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661501742151893012/resize.png

######The Look of a Powerful Sovereign

What were the goals behind changing Syndra’s design?

Syndra's design feels lackluster and thematically incoherent. She's a powerful Ionian sorceress who was restrained because of her immense power, and her design doesn't quite convey that as much as it conveys "BDSM Queen", so we reduced the sexualization of her outfit, and tried to gave her a more interesting design.

The first teaser

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/658980059750858768/IMG_20190913_205049.jpg

Note: this one was actually drawn in a hurry to post something for Syndra's birthday, if memory serves me right!

The second teaser

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/658980057548849154/IMG_20191009_082340.jpg

The splash

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661495631327657995/zM5jNXYP.png

The splash's process

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/609829344445071370/661530534534447104/image0.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/609829344445071370/661498228260208661/image0.gif

Our finalized concept arts

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/658980058236452874/image0-4.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/589182983442006017/663844184976785431/Syndra_true_final_concept.jpg

Some early concepts

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661521947657502720/VtUiSNLW.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661516291303145533/PhotoCollage_20191231_112923133.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661514690014478346/IMG_20190808_105154.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/571291646080188427/661515823478997007/PhotoCollage_20191231_112725977.jpg

So that concludes it! Thanks for checking this out! Please give us all the feedback you can, positive or negative, we'd love to hear what you think about this!

39 Comments

Thefrostyviking1/8/2020, 6:51:16 PM11 votes

Hm i do approve of Syndra getting more attention but i wana share my impressions.

  • In the concept art she looks old does she not? Pretty sure this is in conflict with all her stories and the league standard that powerful mages age more slowly, much more slowly.

  • She actually just flat out hates pretty much every Ionian who is part of the "balance faction" or what one should call it so she would not be chatting with them while Akali has shown she prefers to end perceived threats to her order permanently.....No teamplay there.

  • She could easily be friends with the Noxians who are more than happy to pull in any powerhouse to their nation, heck Swain could be sending messengers even now for all we know.

  • We do not actually know what the heck her power does more than it having the ability to make those "spirit trees" wither to high exposure, her talking about rot and whatnot does not make a lot of sense.

  • Very unlikely that she actually wants to rule Ionia, destroy it or leave but doing a takeover and reforming does not seem quite like what she´d do.

  • Interactions with Akali, Aurelion, Galio,Sylas, Ryze (and even the lines towards him) and Swain do not fit well or make sense at all.

Aurelion because it seems like a fairly dumb thing to tell him, like he´d have done it ages ago.

Galio because how the hells would she even know about him? He does not leave Demacia and she was stuck in a pool until recently.

Sylas because i am fairly sure she likes her power a lot and we do not have anything to indicate it´s anything nasty or unpleasant to deal with so line is just weird.

Swain because it´s his Demon doing the peeking, then it goes back to tell him what it has seen, but the rest i think are either OK/good or funny enough to be worth keeping even if they do not fit well.

Now for some of the voicelines suggested.

The taunt with her praising herself as the dark sovereign? Sounds dang cheesy and narcissistic which to me does not seem like a good fit at all.

Q lines? Makes her sound she she has this evil power and she knows what it is and why it´s evil, not just neutral anymore.

E lines seem kinda off.......contrasts a lot with the rest, instead of saying "go away" something said with a more arrogant tone like "Begone!" meshes more, since she kinda seems scared otherwise.

Her R lines?

  1. My true potential is achieved!
  2. They stand no chance anymore.
  3. My power unleashed!

The first and the third says basically the same thing while second clashes with both of them, like if she got her max potential at first then what has changed by the second one to ensure her enemies suddenly have no chance?

Third line is fine when she gets her ultimate, first or second line when she maxes all her abilities, a couple of generic lines like "ever greater" or "i will not be stopped" etc are fine until then.

Overall i greatly admire the efforts spent here but overall you two seem to have decided she is evil, she knows it and she uses this dark and repulsive power that only she knows about, she has lines making herself seem narcissistic or like a scared young girl ( on her E) which dont mesh well either.

Personally i think she ought to be younger on her splashes, one angry granny that tilts the daylights out of most when she´s good is plenty enough. Camille .

Her voicelines should indeed be confident, condescending and even a bit arrogant, but there should also be some with a tone of bitterness and sorrow for what she has lost and suffered.

Her power any any references to it should be kept neutral short of her praising it as ....well powerful, anyy voiceline towards a foreigner should be considerably milder or even curious about the outside world

Well these are my thoughts.

Chubby Platypus1/8/2020, 5:58:48 PM8 votes

Much talent! Very good! I can see a lot of effort went into this @__@ and I'm living for it!

Please bless us with more of this content in the future! <3

  • Chubby

P.S. I will now stalk you guys on twitter.

GreenKnight1/8/2020, 5:48:28 PM8 votes

Well... great amount of effort put out by fans doesn't deserve any hate.

Even i, with my loathing for pointless redesigns, cannot be mad at this.

Good job

Hawt1/9/2020, 1:14:17 PM5 votes

I don't like those changes to Syndra. Changing her in that way will not be received well by a large portion of her player base. Riot canceled the MF update precisely cause they couldn't get a good balance like the current MF in terms of personality and visual design. I understand you don't like what Syndra is wearing currently, but there are many players out there who like her the way she is at moment.

If such changes were made to Syndra or any of my favorite champions, I would outright quit the game. If you want a character to look like how you purpose than ask for a new champion with that look, but don't ask to change a current champion so that it fits your ideal visual and voice design of how the champion should be. That's not the Syndra I have always know since I started playing LoL.

Finally, if you change her into that she will never get another skin in the game like Kalista. That's just a fact. I'm sorry, but female champions that aren't visually sexy don't get any skins. This new design would remove any sex appeal she current has and will put here in the same tier as Kalista. A great majority of her player base would drop her and stop buying skins for her. The other problem would be having to redesign her older skins, which people would stop buying. Riot would never redesign a champion only to make less money from skin sales from that champion due to the new redesign.

ZaFishbone1/9/2020, 1:02:12 PM4 votes

That face in those pictures is horrible. Ugh! Looks worse than Vladimir splash-art!

RyzeRework1/8/2020, 7:44:15 PM4 votes

It looks like syndra andntaric had a baby.

FrozenFrostFyre1/8/2020, 8:36:02 PM4 votes

Her face looks really bad. Almost exactly like a copy pasted version of swain's face. Just a really masculine face. To the point where I thought you were doing rule63 syndra at first.

Outfit looks okay.

KoKoboto1/9/2020, 2:20:55 AM3 votes

The tits look kinda weird

AIQ1/8/2020, 8:55:48 PM3 votes

Hey, I'm the guy from Reddit just re-posting here so I don't lose this on the boards. I prefer the boards more than Reddit IDK why.

I was working on a quick sketch of what I meant, but I need my station to get it off this piece of paper.

So don't mind me... I'm just copying and pasting lol so I don't lose what I said. Appreciate your responses btw.

Awesome work and very well done.

Some feed back since I love this champion a ton.

Her ensemble is significantly less "stripper" (bad term, but accurate) and more elegant. I love the version right of the last concepts (assuming that will be a cloth hanging over her leg that is transparent for concept purposes) You guys nailed how to make Syndra elegant, but strong and avoid the "sexy" motif. (Even though she still does look sexy)

The "first exploration" head dress is IMO the best of all of them, but I think they are all a bit too pointy upwards. Syndra has a nice curve before her point and I think it's lost in the concepts. It gives more of a 3rd dimension.

The angle of the splash art is majestic, but she's not doing anything impressive. Just falling gracefully, have her ripping an island from the ground or the fortress, showcase how she can tear Ionia apart and why people should fear her power. Sticking her in the sky also displays more power and elegance or majestic tone, even if she is using "dark" spheres.

Over all, super happy with the Visuals and would happily play that Syndra.

In some old concept work, Syndra is shown with large artifacts floating on her back, sort of like Karma and Irelia. Did the concept of adding those in ever cross your minds?

The VO:

I know this is super hard to do as I've tried on Shyvana, so I truly respect the attempt. However, this mostly comes off as multiple ways of saying.

I have a lot of power, fear me!

X is a prison or Y is a person trying to retrain me I can break out of that too.

This also give little insight into the lore, I've read it so I know where you are going with certain lines, but most people will sit there like... "She just says the same thing in different ways." Which is not what you want.

Long moves generally reveal something about the champions lore. You can be SUPER generous here with time, Morde has a like a 15 second Voice line.

Example, talk about something like her dream.

Syndra Long Move: (with a calm and happier voice) I remember my tree, it was sanctuary... my refuge... the only place I ever felt safe. (with an angrier voice) But they'd mock me from afar... now all cower before my might.

This is a clear nod to the dreaming pool, and also gives new readers insight into Syndra that essentially someone bullied her. If they want to know more read up! lol

Each line should mean something except things like... "HAA!" when she's attacking or something.

Also you can ditch some of her old lines.

One last things.

This would be a great line for Swain, since he's the chess champ. IDK lol. Changed it a bit it's number 17

I won’t be a pawn in anyone else’s game, Swain. I follow my own resolve.

CaptainAntiHeroz1/9/2020, 3:48:26 PM3 votes

no claws and no sunken features please, doesn't really fit the whole sealed away timelessly thing, plus the fact she's just a really insanely powerful women not some creature

also some of the voice lines don't make sense

like for 1 i don't think she would dislike sylas, she'd likely get along with him so long as he doesn't do anything stupid, perhaps as an interaction to an enemy sylas it might make sense but it makes it sound like syndra has disdain for the power she's clearly reveling in.

The interactions with Ryze don't really make any sense, she'd likely mock him for not being able to control the power of the world runes

'No more masters' is basically what akali says and really doesn't work for her, perhaps "No more shackles" if she kills Morgana

No Vastayan magic interaction.....? tsk tsk

Telling Karma her cycle ends doesn't make much sense as a new Karma would likely just take Darha's place

There is a distinct lacking of maniacal laughter

The second taunt kinda weak sauce ngl

The recall animation idea is cool along with the respawn idea but whats the animation for when she arrives in fountain from recalling?

Seviel Vorose1/9/2020, 5:03:39 PM2 votes

Hello! I'm a longtime Syndra main with thousands of games on her, though i gotta say mostly for fun.

First of all, i would like to say i appreciate and respect all the love and work you put into this talentful piece of art. However, in my opinion, the final result isn't what i picture Syndra to be for the following reasons:

  • Let's not consider the face, since you said in another comment that it's only a placeholder to show the outfit design.

  • The crown headpiece is, in my opinion, a downgrade from the live counterpart, which looks stronger in design.

  • The outfit to me looks too much like a very elaborate modern elegant dress, which adds little more than beauty and elegance to her lore and her design, while there are many other characteristics to be considered, like strength of mind, willingness to take action on her hands, selfishness (which is not to be considered in a pure negative light, rather like a desire to be free and put herself first of all), power, sovereigness etc.

  • The shoulder strap(s) is overdesigned and realistically impractical. It seems to be there just to add a sense of elegance, like the rest of the outfit.

Take this very lightly, it's only my opinion. Anyway, impressive work!

ZackTheWaffleMan1/8/2020, 6:44:29 PM2 votes

Finally, I can take this champ seriously

PinkPowerCoin1/8/2020, 11:42:55 PM2 votes

As someone who loves League lore, I really appreciate this!

The outfit with the puffy pants (the last image) is really good. I also like that it still keeps in line with current Ionian looks. You kept the same vibe from her original design while updating it. And the less revealing, but still sexy, elegant and powerful look is really nice.

I also really like the special interactions you gave her, especially the one for Karma and Malphite (knowing the lore chills). The only thing I would suggest is add in more lines (maybe the long move VOs?) that tell us her backstory and gives more to her personality beyond her being really powerful and angry.

But overall good work. I really think Riot should ease up on new champs this year and focus on updating VOs, lore, visuals, and gameplay for their current champs.

NelsieLisnen1/8/2020, 8:18:22 PM2 votes

HNNNNNNNNNG it's goooooood. Have you forwarded this to Rito?

IRight ArmI1/12/2020, 2:55:41 AM1 votes

Bro you took everything syndra out of syndra and it looks like a call of duty/halo/warframe piece of shit blob that I can't tell what fucking character that is. So many people are bad at distinguishing and bringing out a character in their design. That's one thing riot is really good at is making unique distinguishable champions that you can literaly feel the character in every stroke of their brush that don't look like confetti on a stick with an unrelatable face like fucking halo/warframe etc.

Caretaker Jack1/9/2020, 1:01:46 AM1 votes

I can't hate anythibg manmade that has this much thought, but I do feel that Syndra looks wayy too mature.

Isn't she allied with the order of shadows? The universe says she's ally with Zed, I think... Otherwise gj!

Probs feeding1/9/2020, 3:46:07 AM1 votes

@riot Hire this person, please.

UltimateShield131/9/2020, 3:48:57 AM1 votes

Sorry, but the first picture looks like a man with boobs...