[MCCC] Anagast, the Erlking

Fury and Emperor·11/3/2014, 11:07:42 PM·8 votes·1,884 views

Anagast, the Erlking

Lore

A single clock tower stood amidst the dense whitewood of a primal forest on the edge of the Great Barrier. Not a soul moved below, no dogs barked, no carts or coaches rattled through the busy streets that once were. In front of its lone window, a flag adorned with a now meaningless symbol fluttered in the breeze. Even the forest remained still: its animals knew to stay away from the tower and its wild-eyed inhabitant, and not just because of the endless mechanical clamour emanating from its innards.

Zilean suppressed a yawn and rubbed his bloodshot eyes, nearly poking them out with the screwdriver he'd forgotten he was holding. There was no time for sleep. Every second that ticked away diminished his chance to fix this world. Outside, a fishmonger was attempting to sell her wares, trying to overwhelm their stench with her deafening voice. It took Zilean a good minute to realise that there was no fishmonger, no crowded market, no more Demacia. Months of desperate labour were taking their toll on his sanity.

At least the ordeal was finally coming to an end. He took a step back and pondered the cogs, pistons and carefully balanced springs that filled every corner of the tower like a mechanical infestation, estimating the chance that his contraption would work correctly at 64.973 percent. If it worked, no one would remember his monumental mistake. And he would buy himself a lodge at the Great Lake and take up fishing.

With a needlessly dramatic gesture, he pulled the power switch and pandemonium broke out all around him. He stumbled upstairs to the control chamber, the tower's repurposed machine room. Anchored to the timestream by his younger self, his old tower was the only artificial object in a thousand mile radius that had survived the exodus he had accidentally wrought.

Illuminated by electrical arcs, Zilean stood on a large runic circle in the middle of the room, stretched his arms and intoned: "Forces of time! I, Zilean the Chronokeeper, declare--" The shriek of high pressure steam billowing from the depths of its mechanical bowels was the first warning that he might have forgotten something in his sleep deprived delirium, but it came too late. Before he could react, a heavy bronze hand detached from the machine and hit him on the head with a loud clang. More deafening noises followed as the machine tore itself apart and slowly ground to a stop.

For the first time in many moons, quiet descended upon the forest, but for the dripping of blood on bronze shrapnel and the squeaks of the first mice that dared to set foot into the destroyed clock tower.

Zilean blinked and looked up at a whirl of pale autumn leaves through a hole in the roof. Had he fallen asleep? He strained to dredge up a few memories from the dark depths of his skull. The clock tower... his time machine. It was dark; the gaslights had run out long ago. His robes were in tatters and covered in mold. Fumbling blindly with an arc lamp, he cut open his hand on its sharp electrodes, but when the arc finally crackled to life, he saw that no blood had spilled forth. In the flickering electrical glow, he found pools of stagnant rainwater dotting the rotting floor of the machine room and vines tangled in what remained of his magnificent invention.

And on top of all that, he was hearing voices: "It is not worth it, Zilean." He convinced himself that it was just the rustling of the leaves. "The age of Man is over." Just the creaking of an old tree outside. Trees don't talk, he told himself, but was interrupted when one laid its branches on his shoulder. He jumped into the air, dropping the arc lamp on his foot, but felt no pain. "Who-what-why-how are you?"

"Ents have many names," it creaked. "Old names that only we can pronounce."

Zilean wracked his brain trying to remember what little he knew about the Ents of the Howling Marsh. Despite what the folk tales claim ("The Yordle and the Elvenking"), they are not a race of bark-skinned fairies living in harmony with nature, but actual trees. Migratory trees, with immeasurable lifespans. They sprout from the thawing earth in the wake of an ice age and spread across the Marsh and the Serpentine delta over the course of centuries, resembling normal trees in all aspects. As the next ice age approaches, they uproot themselves one by one to flee the cold; entire forests of them are known to move south at a rate of tens of metres per year. Eventually the migration reaches the Great Barrier where they die, trapped between the mountains and the encroaching ice. The decaying deadwood at the feet of the mountains is forced underground by rockslides and tectonic movement, decomposes and turns into the black gold that fuels Runeterra's scientific progress.

But this creature seemed too mobile, too small and too lively to be an Ent as he knew them. It was only slightly taller than himself and largely humanoid in shape, but with unmistakable silvan sap flowing through its veins.

"The twilight of Man marked the awakening of our kind, the Erl, an offshoot of the Ents of old. When the ice took them, we remembered the great cities of ancient Man. As the cold fell upon us, we plundered them to survive. We assumed Man's strength. The strength to crack a mountain like roots taking hold in unblemished stone." Zilean remembered the festivities, a few short months before the disaster, marking the completion of the Deeproad, a tunnel across the Great Barrier, connecting Demacia and the New Shuriman Empire. "Beyond the wall we found an ancient power, hidden in the temples of a Man that once ruled. The power to resurrect the fallen. To bring green back to blackened brown. To make sap flow again through rotting wood. To blossom once more. To conquer the cold. To vanquish death."

Zilean concluded that for a species with generations that span thousands of years, the periodical mass extinction must have been devastating. But as long as some of them survived, and with their newfound ability to revive their dead after an ice age that must have wreaked havoc on the remaining human settlements, mankind was either at their mercy or would soon be. He suddenly realised that the Erl was no longer looking at him, but at the wood fired boiler in the back of the machine room. "We do not hate Man. But Man hates. Man destroys. It uproots. It defoliates. It burns. But we do not wish to wage war. To lose many of our own. Which is why we brought you back. Back from the realm of dead Men. To finish what you started."

Zilean grabbed a heavy cog and threw it at the creature with all his remaining strength. It bounced harmlessly off the Erl's tough bark. "To end the age of Man," it continued and gestured at Zilean, who collapsed lifelessly on the moldy floor. "Too early. We must wait until this Man forgets." The Erl retreated outside, and the forest retreated with him.

MCCC lore challenge

Anagast led the way through the thorny undergrowth. “Let me show you the remnants of Man. The puny resistance of your kind. That which you still fight for.” The fires of a tribal village appeared in the distance. “These Men have defied me for years. Warriors, huddled around their flaming arrows and tar pots. Their dying embers of hope. How amusing.”

Zilean’s shout went unheard, silenced by Anagast’s spell. “You will not warn these Men.” Anagast paused when he saw the large alarm clock in the wizard’s hand. Rise and shine, Zilean replied silently.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGGGG

Clamor erupted from the village. Men emerged from rickety huts, wielding flintstone axes and tar-soaked javelins, rushing directly towards them. But Anagast remained stoic, resuming his monologue.

“I learned of Freljord myths. Of the winter at the end of time. The impending fall of Man.” He plucked a pale yellow fruit from one of the branches of his crown and casually tossed it to the ground, where it quickly grew into a small whitewood tree. Its limbs suddenly sprung up, snatching the ringing alarm clock from Zilean’s hands and flinging it into the air. He could hear a splash as it landed in a distant swamp. The human warband changed course.

“The resurrection of the dead to fight the final battle. Fimbulvetr.” The ground stirred as the tribe’s fallen came to life and shambled towards the unprotected village, rusted weapons in hand. “I don’t like to improvise, but you did lure out their defenders.”

Model

A distant evolutionary offshoot of the modern Ent, Anagast is a humanoid born from living whitewood, slightly taller than a human. It wears a cloak of white leaves and a gray crown of branches. Its dominant colours are white, brown and light yellow. It attacks by summoning short ranged bolts of sylvan energy.

http://i58.tinypic.com/2rcpgrm.jpg Art by Eledhrel (eledhrel.deviantart.com/art/wesneer-1-cover-188897952)

Arcadian Anagast - Anagast depicted as the Stag King of ancient Ionia, wearing antlers and animal furs.
He Who Walks Behind the Lanes - A demonic Anagast with a crown of fire and a body of obsidian rocks.

Abilities

[P] Fertile Soil Double passive:

Preservation - Corpses within a 1200 radius (equal to champion sight range) do not decay for 30 seconds. They instantly decay when the distance to Anagast exceeds 1200, preventing enemies from using a trail of corpses to locate Anagast. Fall of Man - Anagast gains 1 stack of Fertile Soil each time he auto attacks an enemy unit (2 stacks if the target is a champion or jungle monster). Stacks last 6 seconds. At 8 stacks, the rotting corpse of a human tribesman from the Howling Marsh is exhumed at the location of the target and all stacks are removed. This corpse counts as a minion corpse and can be used as fuel for Anagast's other abilities. When revived by Fimbulvetr, the tribesman has the following stats:

Health: 450 (+15/lvl)
Damage: 25 (+3/level)
Attack speed: 1.0
Range: 125 (spear)

[Q] Clearcutting This ability is cast using a vector arrow, similar to Viktor's Death Ray. After a short delay, spiked whitewood roots burst through the surface along the vector arrow, simultaneously damaging all enemy units in the affected area. Corpses in the affected area are consumed by the roots immediately before the damage occurs, restoring health to Anagast and greatly reducing its skill timer.

Cast range: 600
Delay before damage occurs: 0.6 seconds
Physical damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+0.8 AP)
Restores 30/45/60/75/90 (+0.15 AP) health for each minion corpse consumed and 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.3 AP) health for each champion or jungle monster corpse consumed
Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds
Base cooldown is reduced by -20% for each minion corpse consumed and by -50% for each champion or jungle monster corpse consumed, up to -90%
Mana cost: 60/65/70/75/80

[W] Bramblewood Anagast receives a shield that absorbs damage. The shield is visually represented by animated thorny tree limbs that emerge from the ground around him, follow him around and may break when he takes damage. While the shield holds, Anagast can walk over corpses to consume them, boosting the strength of the shield and extending its duration.

Shield strength: 70/120/170/220/270 (+0.6 AP)
Shield duration: 3.5 seconds
Consumes corpses in a radius of 75
Current and maximum shield strength and shield duration are increased by 20% of their base amount when consuming the corpse of a minion and by 50% when consuming the corpse of a champion or jungle monster (shield duration cannot exceed 12 seconds)
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Mana cost: 60/65/70/75/80

While the shield holds, the button is replaced with Bramblestorm: Launches a flurry of projectile thorns to blast a cone shaped area. Individual casts deal little damage and the thorns do not pierce enemy units, but Bramblestorm has a short cooldown and can be used multiple times until the shield breaks or runs out. Bramblestorm does not interrupt moving or attacking.

Physical damage: 35/50/65/80/95 (+0.30/0.35/0.40/0.45/0.50 AP)
Cone angle: 60 degrees
Range: 550
Cooldown: 1 second
Mana cost: 20

[E] Pale Seed Anagast summons a rapidly growing whitewood sapling from a target corpse, destroying the corpse. It resembles a small white tree with thorns, pale yellow leaves and an angry face with eyes that follow the nearest visible enemy champion (the Arcadian Anagast skin has a trollface instead). It is immobile and untargettable but has a limited duration. It has no effect, but enables the use of Limb Grab.

Cast range: 550
Sapling duration: Up to 5 seconds or until Limb Grab is used
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds
Mana cost: 70

While the sapling is active, the button is replaced with Limb Grab: The sapling rapidly extends one of its limbs in the direction of the cursor. The first enemy unit it encounters is flung in an arc to the location of the sapling and is damaged and stunned on impact. The longer you wait before activating Limb Grab, the longer its range and the more effective it is. The sapling is destroyed afterwards whether or not it successfully hit a target.

After casting Pale Seed, there is a 1.25 second delay before Limb Grab can be used
Projectile speed: 1600
Base projectile range: 300
Base physical damage: 50/80/110/140/170 (+0.75 AP)
Base stun duration: 0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0 seconds
Pulls target to the location of the sapling
+50% projectile range for each second before activation
+25% physical damage for each second before activation
+25% stun duration for each second before activation
No mana cost

[R] Fimbulvetr Anagast emanates an aura of sylvamantic energy that manifests as a whirlwind of pale yellow dead autumn leaves. The aura has no effect, but enables the use of Revive.

Aura: Radius: 475
Aura: Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 180/160/140 seconds
Mana cost: 75

While the aura is active, the button is replaced with Revive: Brings a target allied corpse within the radius of the aura back to life: minions resume their path down the lane, players regain full control over their revived champion and tribesmen follow Anagast and attack the nearest enemy unit (prioritising Anagast's attack target). All revived units have reduced maximum health and die instantly if they leave the radius of the aura or when the spell runs out. When a revived unit dies, it disintegrates, leaving no corpse.

Reviving an allied minion or tribesman is instant and does not interrupt moving or attacking, but reviving an allied champion requires a short channel, during which animated whitewood vines emerge and nurse the champion back to life. If the channel is interrupted, the champion instantly disintegrates.

Cast range: 450
Channel duration: none (minion/tribesman) or 1.25 seconds (champion)
Allied minions/tribesmen are revived with 50/75/100% of base max health
Allied champions are revived with 20/25/30% of base max health
No cooldown
Mana cost: 10 (minion/tribesman) or 50 (champion)

Statistics

Role Mid/support/jungle

Stats

Attack range: 425 (sylvan bolt) Attack damage: 50 (+3.25) Attack speed: 0.625 (+2.15%) Health: 410 (+75) Health regen: 5.0 (+0.5) Mana: 250 (+50) Mana regen: 7.0 (+0.75) Armor: 20 (+3.75) Magic resistance: 30 Movement speed: 335

Gameplay

In mid lane Corpses are plentiful in mid lane, providing Anagast with a way to threaten an opponent from a safe distance with Pale Seed, sustain with Clearcutting and turtle with Bramblewood, which makes up for his short ranged auto attack. He is difficult to dislodge unless he is zoned away from the creeps, but his kill potential is fairly low unless he lands a good Pale Seed pull. At level 6, Fimbulvetr can be used to instantly revive the plentiful corpses spawned by Fertile Soil, hopefully enabling Anagast to swarm and kill an opponent pulled by Pale Seed and slowed by Clearcutting.

In bot lane Pale Seed is twice as likely to be in position to hit something and Fimbulvetr is a massive playmaker in a duo lane, albeit one on a very long cooldown. Unlike mid Anagast, he is strong in lane but falls off later unless he gets fed and can afford to crank his AP high enough to survive melee combat.

In the jungle He is a safe jungler because he can both heal and shield himself by consuming corpses of jungle monsters while pumping out DPS at a high rate, but his ganks are difficult and rely on corpses; while Anagast can generate his own corpses by auto attacking the enemy champion, this takes a while and may give the target an opportunity to escape. If a corpse is already present in lane, Anagast can use Pale Seed to pull the target back into danger, giving him an opportunity to get in close.

Sieging Anagast can easily take towers by using Fimbulvetr to revive a minion wave and zerg it down with a triple stacked minion wave and several tribesmen. This is difficult to stop without massive waveclear, but it is a risky play because it puts the powerful ultimate on the second longest cooldown in the entire game, giving the enemy team a very long window of opportunity to retaliate.

Endgame Corpse economy in teamfights is very important. He should be auto attacking at all times to generate corpses and keep himself alive with Clearcutting while spamming Bramblewood's secondary ability to deal heavy dps to nearby enemies. Use Fimbulvetr near the end of a teamfight when the enemy burst is dead to seal the deal.

Fimbulvetr Anagast's ultimate is a very powerful teamfight ability, but has its counters and limitations. Firstly, reviving a champion requires Anagast to channel for a short time, and interrupting the channel prevents Anagast from reviving that champion. The revived champion has reduced maximum health and cannot run very far because revived units cannot leave the storm and are forced to stay close to Anagast. Displacement abilities completely ruin Fimbulvetr: pushing Anagast away causes all revived champions that are now out of range to crumble instantly.

The best target to revive is probably the adc, because adc players are more likely to avoid damage (just kidding. He'll run into the enemy Garen and call you retarded). Alternatively, reviving a burst mage or assassin whose cooldowns have come back up could turn a teamfight around.

Dialogue

Selection

"You chose unwisely, Man"

Attack

"To conquer this land"
"To end the age of Man"
"Your kin is already dead"
"To the soil whence you came"
"This Man still resists"
"Comes the whitewood"
"Such impatience"

Movement

"My grove stands behind me"
"Along the hidden path"
"The forest whispers my name"
"I walk behind the lanes"
"Words, nothing but words"
"A single tree will rise"

Recall

"Back to my roots"
"To protect the grove"
"I add another ring"

Killing an enemy champion with Clearcutting

"Timber!"
"Limb from limb!"

Reviving an allied champion with Fimbulvetr

Zilean: "You will obey"
Zilean: "Behold what you wrought"
Zilean: "To finish the work"
Zilean: "You will not rest"
Maokai: "Fear the cold no more"
Azir: "We are... grateful"

Joke

"Man has many puns about trees"

Taunt

"May the last spark of Man die with you"

MCCC requirements

Faction (Ex-)Howling Marsh Interaction with death: Every single ability is related to corpses in some way.

Lore challenge Zilean successfully reduced mankind to a few scattered tribes threatened by a much more powerful offshoot of modern Ents.

Lore/ability synergy

Zilean is revived by Fimbulvetr.
The dead tribesmen exhumed by Fertile Soil were members of a Howling Marsh tribe.

Lore challenge Completed.

Kit challenge Zaun: The duration of Bramblewood can be extended to 10+ seconds by consuming enough corpses, unless the shield is broken by enemy attacks.