Misunderstood Ornn

This big boy was probably one of the first champions in league that stuck out to me. I've been playing a little less than a year now, but I immediately fell in love with Ornn's entire aesthetic. This appreciation was centered in far more than my love for hard-engage tanks; Ornn's voice lines and his beautifully done lore really captured my heart.

I am not a huge lorehead, not by any stretch. I've been spending most of this year just wrapping my head around the 143 champs this game has to offer. Ornn's lore, however, his mythos, was so easy to read that I was sad it was over. The contrast between his incredible feats of wrestling the landscape of Runterra and his apathetic approach to the fledgling humans populating it, to the way he was slowly won over by his followers and eventually would use his talents to aid them in their needs. Ornn is a god who did what he wanted, when he wanted, and preferred to do it alone ("I will go over there... do not follow" "If I'm lucky we will never cross paths again...") and that makes his slowly warming hearth of a heart even more charming. It also made the loss of his followers, his people, all the more devastating. I believe that it is the weight of this loss, and what it meant to Ornn, that goes on deaf ears even among his most devoted player base.

Ornn's fight with Volibear, spurred by Volibear's thievery when Ornn refuses to craft him and him and his tribe weapons, results in the death of Ornn's people. When the smoke cleared, Ornn's followers at the base of his mountain were no more than charred bodies in a smoldering village, and, after, Ornn went in hiding for ages.

This is the Ornn that fights without equal, the being that forged the Frejlord's canvas, that can go toe-to-toe with Volibear and his a being of great pride. All of Ornn's accomplishments are done out in the open, the reserved nature comes from after the loss of his followers and this leads me to conclude that the greatest turning point for Ornn's character is centered in this guilt. "I had followers... I tried." This seemingly nonchalant line says a lot more, specifically in the admittance of effort. Ornn had finally grown close to the weak and fragile things known ass mortals and all that followed was tragedy, a tragedy that he played a part of. Ornn didn't hide to recover from the fight, he hid from the guilt and shame of the pain he had caused and to, most likely, nurse the pain in his heart.

Within actually gameplay, I wanted to give a shout-out to the masterwork system. The concept of building items for your teammates that has come with the small rework he's received, made me really happy as someone who'd like to think that the Ornn rampaging and smithing through Summoner's Rift is an Ornn who is slowly warming back up to the idea of caring for others. The old system of his team simply buying the masterwork never felt right. Ornn prefers to do things himself, especially when it comes to his craft, so why would he give his items to a shop keep? The idea of bestowing masterworks on your team works in game to a great degree of how it would probably work being Ornn: you prioritize building for who you trust. That is a super critical part of his character and is such a charming, subtle nod to growth that you get to relive every game. It is unfortunately a very unpopular part of his character, but I hope that, with a little fine tuning, that this will pass.

I believe Ornn's guilt to be an entirely understated, underappreciated, and overlooked part of Ornn's personality.Where must stubbornly see him as wanting to be left alone, I believe a case could be made to paint Ornn as a much deeper character. A character whose self-exile is the only armor he could craft thick enough to protect himself from the pain of loss.

I know they're considering changes, balancing around his power, but I wanted Riot to know that I really appreciate how much of Ornn's character you can feel while playing him.