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Cho'Gath, Rek'Sai, and the Xer'Sai

Zan Vorez·11/30/2014, 12:07:26 AM·2 votes·9,992 views

Trying to gather my thoughts and theories on the void creatures as of the latest champion revealed and I was looking for some feedback:

As we've seen, some void creatures tend to be bug-like in appearance and structure, albeit usually in some twisted monstrous way. Kha'Zix is clearly inspired by Mantids, with a touch of wasp and beetle thrown in for good measure. Kog'Maw seems inspired by the larval stages of winged bugs; very caterpillar-esque. Even the Voidlings that Malzahar summons are reminiscent of a bug- ants come to mind for me, as they follow a "trail" and basically swarm whatever is marked.

Rek'Sai appears to follow this trend as well. While many people are making comparisons to her pushing into Skarner's scorpion territory, I perceived a very different creature when looking at her. To me, Rek'Sai is very much like a void centipede despite only having six legs. Her tail doesn't look like a stinger to me so much as some form of diversion. At some point, it may have functioned similarly to a centipede's tail in that it is sized and shaped very similarly to her actual head ( http://onbeingmark.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/p1870043_filtered.jpg ), so that predators will be unsure of which end to attack or avoid. Centipedes are also well known for burrowing and living in the earth as they are thought to feed mostly on earth worms.

This brings us to the two Void creature who don't fit the trend: Vel'Koz and Cho'Gath. Vel'Koz will be ignored for this discussion as he may very well be in a different evolutionary line altogether as he is more mollusk-like, doesn't consume in the same way, and is likely tied to the "Watchers."

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Chogath_0.jpg

Cho'Gath however is likely intended to be in the bug-like eat-to-improve yourself group as the other void creatures, but at first glance of his in-game model that's not the feel you get. He has six limbs which is decidedly bug-like but his over-all feel is very reptilian or even amphibian based on the texture of his skin. Or so I thought, until I took a closer look at his new splash art. In it, he ALSO invokes very centipede-esque features. He has a more sectioned body with armored plate on the top. In the past, the spikes on the side of his face simply looked like horns but in the updated art they are very similar to the modified venom injecting legs that centipedes posses ( http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/MM/MX5/5AT505_Scol-subs_RR2_GM4_MXa.jpg ). I find this striking as it is the first time two void creatures have used the same real world bug as inspiration and I DOUBT that it's coincidental. Cho'Gath has the same number of limbs as Rek'Sai, and has similar exoskeleton features, such as a ridge along the middle of his plates (although his is less pronounced). It's important to note that sexual dimorphism is a very common trait in the bug world, with females and males having very different exaggerated traits for various reasons. Could it be possible that Cho'Gath is a Xer'Sai like Rek'Sai, but a male of the species?

If so, will the full Visual Update that IronStylus mentioned Cho'Gath being likely to have result in a more horizontal, centipede-like stance rather than standing upright? Will he move faster? Will his Feast give him more sections and make him longer in addition to being more massive in general? Could he be reworked around his feast ability factoring into his movespeed, as he gets longer or additional legs?

EDIT: Lot's of people are noticing a very distinct similarity between Baron Nashor and Rek'Sai. Discussion on that is welcome too.

I see a lot of potential for the Xer'Sai and I have a feeling Cho'Gath is linked to it. Do you agree? Disagree? Thoughts?

14 Comments

DWT1234511/30/2014, 12:13:07 AM2 votes

i think that the xer'sai is deffinetly a subspecies of void creatures. No two voidborn are the same (voidlings are not voidborn), but they may be divided into different evolutionary stages. Vel koz seems to be the oldest known void creature, since he dates back to at least the time of the watchers. Kog'Maw is easily the youngest, and whomever his father is might have a connection with Rek'sai, who is reffered to as the "queen" You can also speculate that Baron is voidborn, and maybe has a relationship with Kog'maw? I dont know about this, but it seems likely. In terms of cho'gath, i can imagine a sort of centipete type creature with the giant arms on top.

Zan Vorez11/30/2014, 12:16:29 AM1 votes

Sorry about the look of the first post, couldn't figure out how to get my images to upload so I just posted them as links instead. Seems to have fixed the issue.

Zan Vorez11/30/2014, 10:03:53 PM1 votes

No thoughts?

Hoffmisc11/30/2014, 11:13:50 PM1 votes

The void has always had a insect look to it yes, but Cho'Gath and Kog'Maw always looked a little reptilian to me, Vel'Koz as well.

And then of course there's the running theme of hunger and consumption that all creatures of the void share.

Also I think its safe to assume that the name after the ' in all of their names denotes their species while the first is their actual name, give the name of Rek'Sai's passive. I also agree with almost everything DWT12345 said, but personally I think that Rek'Sai is closer to Baron that Kog'Maw, they definetly look more similar than Kog'Maw and Baron.

Grouchy Poro12/1/2014, 5:52:10 PM1 votes

I doubt Cho is related as the two are very different both in look and style. Cho'gath himself even gives me the impression of a magic wielder of some kind given him q and e skills. Besides, Rek'sai is called Queen of the Xer'sai because 'she is the biggest' of her species as has been officially stated. Last I checked Cho'gath was way bigger.

As for reworking cho'gath I doubt they'll do any of that as the towering monster thing is what he does best. His kit probably won't change much as it's in a good, healthy position with strong counterplay but nice utility. The reason his movespeed doesn't change with stacks is because the added weight of his frame makes walking a move tiring thing to do. Mice run at crazy speeds because they're so light, while elephants by contrast should they be put on the same scale run incredibly slow.

Anyways, that's my thoughts.

Othello the Cat12/2/2014, 6:30:15 PM1 votes

I know that this isn't really backed by much, but I think I have a theory regarding the Voidlings.

Rek'Sai is so far the only Void champion to have a specifically named species, being the Xer'Sai. While it could just be coincidental that Sai is part of her name too, I don't think that's the case.

What I personally think is that "Sai" is the actual race of Rek'Sai's Voidlings, and "Xer" is just the prefix, like Homo Sapiens. The apostraphe I would guess would mean "of the", as these creatures would most likely need a way to differentiate eachother. So, Rek'Sai's full name would actually be "Rek of the Sai", seeing as she was named Rek and she comes from the Sai species.

If this is true, that would mean the other Voidling species are Xer'Koz, Xer'Zix, Xer'Maw and Xer'Gath. There's also a chance that there's a Xer'Zahar species as well, seeing as Malzahar was going to be called Mal'Zahar for the longest time. I would assume that would be the species that Malzahar summons.

While it's not groundbreaking, it's still fun to theorize.

CaptnJakSparrow12/2/2014, 7:57:41 PM1 votes

I hate to break it to you, but Cho'gath wasn't based off a centipede . . . the people that made this game did not have some giant ass "theme" thing going on back then. Cho'gath is actually a rip off of a character from spawn. http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/spawn/images/1/18/Violator_true.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width/300?cb=20141012161754 It's name is the violator. Also, most of the LoL lore was thrown out the window. You might as well stop bothering trying to figure stuff out. Because frankly, there isn't anything to figure out. They stopped caring. It's all about the lcs and munnehs.

Arthrobrute12/7/2014, 6:34:59 PM1 votes

I agree that Cho'Gath and Kog'Maw's new splash art depicts them as very insectoid but they both have endoskeletons, in fact if you look at Kog's death animation you'll see a spine showing from his blown corpse. Older art has also shown Cho with bones showing from his flesh, not to mention that they have Jurassic skins too. Now Vel'Koz definately does not have an endoskeleton because he has a quote which suggest he is suprised of finding beings with endoskeletons, also Viktor states that the void creatures he has worked on have a carapace. As for Kha'Zix we'll never really know if he has only an exoskeleton like a true arthropod, which is a pity...