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Shadow Isles, filling the army of the dead

Chembaron Yamada·10/14/2017, 9:05:01 AM·20 votes·2,865 views

Hello summoners,

I recently started a series of threads, asking people about story hooks, thematics, kits and overall designs they would enjoy to see for champions from specific regions.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/1/11/Shadow_Isles_Crest.png/revision/latest?cb=20161117061207

This time, I want to discuss the cursed land, the Shadow Isles. You can share everything that comes to your mind, I just want you to please stick with the theme of the thread: The Shadow Isles!

As always, I will make a start by sharing my ideas what could get explored for future Shadow Isles champions!

The Beast Tamer Most interactions of Shadow Isles champions involve the ressurection of humans. I think it could be interesting to have a champion, who is ressurecting animals to fight at his side. Because of that thematic, the best role for such a champion would probably be the jungle. The champion could have 2 permanent undead dogs as companions, but in his lore he is able to ressurect any animal. He becomes a pack leader, sees these undead animals as his family, while he doesn't really care for humans.

Undead Abomination The ruination drove him crazy, he is an undead being and searching for victims, to kill them and add parts of their body to his own by sewing. Imagine something like the abomination from WoW. His undead existence is nothing less for him than an opportunity to reach perfection.

Shadow Isles Yordle The ruination had devastating effects on living beings, however, yordle are different, they are magical by nature. A yordle from there could have a split personality, the black mist tries to occupy his/her body, but she is fighting it. Or another version: I found an artwork for a great bone magician yordle and I think it is awesome: https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/932/173/large/esben-lash-rasmussen-kno-esbenlash.jpg?1454773596 (Art by Esben Lash)

These were my examples, but maybe some of you have absolutely great ideas beyond my imagination? I beg you guys to share them here!

57 Comments

Sancre10/14/2017, 11:52:03 AM7 votes

Isn't the Beast Tamer Yorick more or less? but he gets the same ghouls from every corpse, no matter if minion, champion or jungle monster, it would be far too cool if he was able to get different looking ghouls out of different bodies, although it might not only be unbalanced, but too hard to make.

The Undead abomination could be something like a dead voidborn, so it makes a contrast in its nature, and allows it to keep its corpse even when almost every being swallowed by the mist seems to lose it. Its a quite interesting idea indeed.

It remains unknown yet if they can be affected by the curse, Maokai is also an spirit and got cursed too, but we still don't know enough about the Yordles to define if this is possible. An "Oseomancer" Yordle could be quite interesting, even more if being jungler.

Jackom110/14/2017, 1:06:32 PM3 votes

Neat ideas. They do share some similarities with shadow isles' champions already present, but with their own unique twists, so I think they could fit well in Lol, as long as they have a proper kit.

As for my own ideas:

Defiler A creature that corrupts the ground around him, making nature rot and decay everywhere he goes. The longer he stays in one area, the more he corrupts it. I'd see this kind of champion fitting the top or mid lane. A champion from which a circle of corruption slowly expands, having different interactions with champions, minions, monsters, and the environment in general. It could go as far as being able to destroy bushes and turrets, and maybe slowly kill wards, as long as he's near them. It would have innate pushing power. But of course enemy champions would be more resistant, so that this guy wouldn't be simply unassailable. I can imagine him like some kind of Illaoi with better objective control, better pushing power, but less raw power vs enemy champions. Maybe it would similar to yorick, but first he wouldn't have minions, and second he wouldn't necessarily have to be a juggernaut.

One with the black mist A champion able spread the black mists on one portion of the map at a time. I'd see him as jungler, able to cover one quadrant of the jungle at a time, with the possibility of moving it to another after a couple minutes, or after having met some requirements (x monsters killed, x champions killed, etc.). Everyone, friend or foe or neutral, is affected by the mists while inside that area. His ult could either expand the area covered by the mists, or teleport himself and his target in the "shrouded area"; or even cover the whole map for a very limited time.

In short, I'd like more champions who actually need to set up in order to unsleash their full power, instead of champions who can be 90-100% effective just about everywhere on the map.

Zyranium10/14/2017, 12:52:02 PM2 votes

Maybe some new mage controlling skeletons and making walls of bones ? A sort a necromancer who can control her own army of undead skeletons would be cool !

Catastrop10/14/2017, 1:40:44 PM2 votes

I'd personally love to see a Banshee.

I've waited for this champion concept for so long, I'm honestly a bit disappointed Riot hasn't made one yet. I'd love to see this champion as a midlaner, who focuses on powerful PBAoEs that are stronger the closer you are to her. I think it would be a great opportunity for Riot to also introduce a cc type I've wanted in this game for so long; mesmerized. Which is functionally a a very long lasting stun, the caveat however is that if the target takes damage the mes is broken. I really think something like this would be great for the game because it promotes great team synergy between more tempoed allies who need a small period of time to set up their kill or burst.

Kurjao10/14/2017, 3:42:59 PM2 votes

If we were to ever get a shadow isle Yordle champion, I think it would look more nocturnal, like a bat. And for a weapon, a spooky whip would be nice since we never got a "true" whip champion. thresh and sejuani don't count

500000000000000010/14/2017, 4:36:02 PM2 votes

I'd be down with a Shadow Isles jungler that uses the first two camps they clear (except buffs, epic monsters, and scuttle crab) as a part of their kit. Or maybe two last camps they cleared.

Ebonmaw Dragon10/14/2017, 4:41:07 PM2 votes

The picture made me question something... if a Yordle shows bones, does it count as "human bones" for the Chinese Overlords or not?

Toru Itai10/14/2017, 3:44:06 PM2 votes

I want someone from the shadow isals who’s a hero.. well, someone who thinks he’s saving people, but is actualy indirectly killing them. let him do stuff like shield enemys, but when the shield pops it deals damage based off of how much damage the shield soaked(120%ish). maybe a braum jump/shield thing, where he looks like he’s trying to protect the enemy he jumped to, but it dosn’t block projectiles and every time an allied projectile passes threw there’s a mini explotion behind the shield(where his enemy is)

those kinds of things. give him Lines like “Be careful!”, “I’ll protect you!”, “I’ll save this one for sure...”, and so on, and make it sounds like he means it. Like he’s really trying to help, and sincerely sad when an enemy dies.

Backstory should be something about him being a hero befor shetting lost in the shadow isles and breathing in too much of the mist.

I imagine him looking like a knight in shining armor, basic human, maybe some sort of dark aura betraying his corruption.

HonestJohnTheCon10/14/2017, 12:33:39 PM2 votes

The "Undead Abomination" could just be a Void monster killed by the Black Mist. I remember a Rioter stated that it's possible for them.

Oakleaf Ranger10/14/2017, 5:54:04 PM1 votes

I'm surprised we haven't seen a shadow isles champion that is like Ermac. A being composed of multiple souls being combined/infused together.

I Main Swain10/14/2017, 8:05:52 PM1 votes

i actually made a champion concept years back of a whip wielding beast tamer who was supposed to be nidalees father who in her lore "died of a mysterious illness" in the jungle she ended up growing up in (i still hope riot makes something like it). anyways though, i would love for riot to make a purified shadow isles champion. they have so many who were corrupted in some way by the shadow isles but i would love to have the reverse, where something from the shadow isles is made good

GreenLore10/15/2017, 7:31:52 PM1 votes

Some ideas of mine would be: Ghost Pirate Sure we have already some pirates and even a ghost pirate skin,but an undead pirate as a champion would still feel quite unique.I mean if knight and death knight are considered different themes,then pirate and ghost pirate would be also different enough.Of course they'd need to differentiate the ghost-champ from gangplank as much as possible.(I think a ghost ship was even mentioned in one lore piece)

Bone champion We all know that bones are a taboo in china,so someone like the yordle above would likely not be possible since riot doesn't wnat to make 2 models for the same base skin.However bones of animals are actually ok(though some games cover them up regardless),so something like a bone dragon would be still ok(speaking of bone dragon,I think a dracolich would be cool on its own).This also brings me to my next point:

Undead nonhumans We really need some undead who weren't originally humans.And though there are many possibilities,I'd say a bat-vastaya might fit the most,giving us a champion who is closer to a real vampire,but whose kit doesn't use bloodmagic and instead bat-related abilties,to keep him different from Vladimir.Another possibility would be a cerberus who originally consisted of 3 seperate dogs(maybe they could even split up for certain abilties). There are of course many more possibilities,but thats not surprising since almost every archetype of a living creature could also be turned into an undead(I mean would have anyone thought that leagues centaur would turn out to be an undead?)

Banshee Honestly I am surprised that we still didn't get a banshee considering that she is actually a fairly well known ghostlike entity.Something like an undead opera singer could be amazing.

Ghoul Again one of the more standard types of undead in videogames,though one that we still don't have(especially now that yoricks minions aren't called ghouls anymore).Though a ghoul champ would likely need to be more corporeal than most other shadow isles champs,so I guess something must have protected the champ from getting fully corrupted(maybe the guy with the healing factor from threshs lore could have turned into a ghoul,who is now in a constant process of dying and regenerating?)