A Love-Hate Relationship: How Ahri can be used by example to better Evelynn's lore

Introductions

Hello, I've been sitting on this kettle a while and I think it's time to brew.

To premise, Evelynn is... Empty. For the longest time (Sense the start of the game, actually; being one of the original characters) Evelynn has had a certain lack of character depth, only fortified by the classic "She has a dark and mysterious path" under her lore tab, and a set of quotes that gives us some insight into her personality (again, not much). But she has remained somewhat steady champion throughout the game, bid her recent falloffs and this new tank meta, but I won't get into that now.

I am here to discuss several points, draw comparisons, and eventually come to conclusions on how Ahri and Evelynn are two sides of the same coin, and with this in hand I hope that it can inspire some Rioters during her production and eventual overhaul, be it lore or character model or ability kit, or any of those combined.

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Soul Sisters: Ahri Vs Evelynn

If you actually read my opening statements, then you may be asking yourself, "Woah woah woah, wait a minute. Ahri and Eve are nothing alike!" And you are partly correct. They are nothing alike, in fact they are total opposites. To go into a gentle breakdown of each champion, first Ahri:

• She is a fast, high mobility mage/ assassin with some minor crowd control, single target damage, some AoE, and skillshots.

• Her character is based off the classic Asian myth of the Nine-Tailed Fox, which while varied between cultures and time, mostly include the idea that a foxes possessing strong magic, the level of which based of the number of tails. They can dash, jump, blink, flash, cast sorceries, transform their shape, and consume the souls of men through the likes of charms or spells.

• As a re-statement, her ability kit reflects this: She is fast, deceptive, can jump and dash quickly, can cast charms and sorceries (the ladder being like Orb of Deception and Fox-Fires) and is healed by hurting others and sapping their souls.

• A major difference in her lore compared to the myth is that she is more conscious of her actions: At first she was a simple but intelligent fox in Ionia, then during the invasion a wizard in the heat of battle transferred his life energy to her as a saving grace. She awakes partly humanized, and uses her newfound power to sustain herself by charming men's hearts and stealing their souls, in an attempt to prolong her own being. Unlike the myth she feels guilt of this, and the disconnect between myth and lore is that she feels guilt for her actions, for being moral where before she was not.

• Another big part of her lore that I wanted to touch on, but Ahri is a serial killer. Remove her guise and banter she is more akin to a vampire than a fox in her human form, killing for sustenance and lavishing in it. (One of the major flaws in League's translation between game and lore is that these champions are killing people, which is why characters like Lulu are very placid characters... How can you be so witty and laughing when from one perspective you are using whimsical funzies fairies and magic to machine-gun people to death. But I feel like that's a rant for another day.)

• Lastly, I wanted to talk about Ahri's personality. From her quotes, we can assume she is a very assertive, strong willed fox lady (heh), who is confident in her magic. As said in her lore, she quickly picked up on human culture and from such grew into the champion we know today; always coy and lusting, it is difficult to tell her true intentions behind the guise of her soft smile, or is that the charm spell starting to work? She stands as a symbol of want and desire, reaching for whatever she can to take hold of and hold tightly. At her current rate she will unravel, the spell will fail and she will lose her humanity; this does not impede her from making the most of it.

Next, to go into a breakdown of Evelynn:

• She is a fast, high mobility mage/ assassin with some very minor crowd control, single target damage, and some AoE.

• Her character was based off a pencil-and-paper nightmare drawing when one of the game's developers and a lead artist "Riot Ezreal" drew when whipping up some ideas. (C'mon, lets be realistic: she is extrodinarily dated in the basic's of look and feel for character, but I'll get into that later.) Also she is somehow from the Shadow Isles, which I just think is utter nonsense.

• Otherwise her character takes from a plethora of mythos: Her lore says she's an assassin (?) that works for hire (?) but is also a monster (?) that requires payment (?) that can merge with shadows (?) but is also a hating and lustful person (?) but also isn't a person at all (?) but is from the Shadow Isles, which I didn't think had "living" inhabitants anymore (?) and is mostly filled with undead or pseudo-undead like Mordekaiser and Hecarim, but she better fits the description of a demon...(?) Also she dated Twisted Fate, but I think that was nonsense as well.

• Again, as a restatement this all kind of fits, if you look at it through a broken kaleidoscope: her ability kit kind of reflects this, with the constant invisibility and the lashing out, and the... No it doesn't at all. Not at all.

• From her quotes, we can see that she is... Well still mysterious. And rather comfortable with talking to herself, as a majority of the time she is alone or invisible, so it's not like she is taunting the enemy or reminiscing on past thoughts. She just is... Bleh.

I feel like this is when the lore-crafting and connections can begin to be drawn. Here are some, listed in no particular order:

• While Ahri is the symbol of lust, Evelynn is a symbol of horror; Ahri is quite the fox (wink) while Eve is a nightmare machine. From the perspective of an outsider looking in, Ahri is something you want to get closer to, just outside of your reach; and once you fall within her range she has already taken what she wants from you. Eve on the other hand, will appear out of nowhere, invisible right until it's too late andembracing you with pain and torture.

• Ahri gains her mobility from being reactive, a very "hands off, you can't touch this" feeling. Eve gain's her mobility by sapping it from you and making you unable to flee, a very "hands off, you don't want to be anywhere near this" feeling.

• Ahri lives a life of luxury and enjoyment, charming others into giving her her desires, either by magic or other means. She does not know depravity, unlike Eve: Evelynn's abilities call for pain and torture, with names like Agonies Embrace and Ravage. In Ahri's case, she is the one doing the cheating, pulling men to her at the bat of an eyelash. Eve, on the other hand, feels like the one who was cheated on, a vengful spirit against men who hurt their lovers. Ahri is the breaker of love's bonds, Eve is the punisher of those who break them.

• Ahri must aim for her targets, as she is the one pulling them in to her. Evelynn's skills are mostly single-targeted, with Hate Spikes being a line projectile but locking on to her target, and with Ravage being single target, and Agonies Embrace being a fairly large AoE. Eve's abilities are single target (I infer) because she strikes true with her rage fueled attacks.

• Ahri hates to love, Eve loves to hate.

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Where does this leave us?

In her current state, Evelynn lacks any one connection or any roots. Unlike Ahri, who had a very clear and very unique basis in myth, Eve has very little reference material and therefore her lore must be all encompassing. Disconnect her from the Shadow Isles, as it has it's own very unique place in the lore, with blurred lines between mortality and morality, right versus wrong, etc. She doesn't belong there. Nor does she belong collecting bounties for stealthy kills, that's what people like Talon are for.

For any advancement of Evelynn's lore and character to understand, she requires a Base Art and Character model overhaul. The blue-skinned troll doll with strange spikes and so little clothing that it would break the Universal Posting Rules for me to show an equivalent, that does not work. This does not even have to include changing her abilities! As I will say below, one very simple change in her abilities is all it will take for her to become viable.

A mana system does not work on her! This is a very strange leap for me to make, but of every champion resource system in the game, Fury seems to match her best. A hate fueled, vile creature-woman filled with anger and rage, even with abilities called Hate Spike and Dark Frenzy and Ravage, I am surprised this connection hasn't been made already. As well, Of the Six pre-existing Fury users, only one (Rumble) is primarily based on Ability Power and even then he runs off an alternative to fury, Heat. This would make her the first fully fledged ability power user to use Fury and be effective.

Under a Fury system, her passive would look like "While Evelynn remains out of combat or outside of enemy sight range, she remains stealthed. While in stealth, she generates X (some variable amount) fury per second." And then she can have some bonus for having fury, like "Basic attacks and spell casts consume X Fury to (deal bonus damage on hit to enemies)/ (Slow enemies)/ (Shred resistances off enemies)/ (etc.) If such a thing were to happen, then it would definitely help her, as if any Evelynn player knows the first camp to clear is the hardest.

In summary, Evelynn has a lot of potential for growth, not even including her abilities. The kit does not make the character, the character makes the kit.