We were inspired by a fan concept by Mist XG to explore a druidic/fairy space for LeBlanc. We ended up moving away from the Druidic aspect as it doesn't fit her character as well as the Faerie Trickster archetype. Some references I was inspired by were Titania from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oona from MtG, Pan's Labyrinth, Penny Arcade's Thornwatch (Hecarim was influenced by this one too), young Maleficent in Maleficent (again Hecarim too) and the Sylvari from Guild Wars. LeBlanc was designed about the same time as Hecarim, after we fell in love with the Bard skin we wanted to expand the Elderwood (and you can probably find some of my player-probing in old threads), and they were designed with a greater story setting in mind;
In the core LoL lore LeBlanc is a schemer manipulating things from behind the scenes - so too in the Elderwood. I see Bard and his Meeplets as her emissary, reporting to her on the movement of intruders to their magical realm. While Hecarim is an ancient and powerful enforcer, protecting the forest from all who dare trespass. It was important for us to establish the Elderwood as a place were humans dare not go, for the magical forest is filled with powerful magical protectors. For this reason I tried to design LeBlanc as a fusion of both fae, animal and plant elements to emphasise that she is a creature of pure magic that simply looks like the forest she is the embodiment of. Bard has coloured cloth and Hecarim has hewn stone that hint at Elven crafts from a forgotten time, but LeBlanc is pure forest magic!
To that point I think that it's also important that we push the breadth of design in our skin lines so that each champion brings something new to the setting. I've seen some beautiful fan concepts for possible Elderwood skins but they reuse too many elements from previous designs - in my mind these worlds are large and aside from specific cases such as Warden/Marauder I think each one is an opportunity to see something that combines some familiar motifs with something fresh.
Thanks so much for playing League of Legends and it really warms my heart to hear that players are enjoying this one. Working on this skin was something really special for me >:)
