Oh I have been waiting for this day writing team, Nautilus is one of my favorites if not my favorite champion in League of Legends. And while he may have fallen from grace in recent years in terms of popularity in game, I still uphold his small amount of character as one of my favorite parts about this game. So, let me begin with some questions and my explanations of what I think the answers are at the moment:
What is Nautilus?
Before his entrapment in the metal coffin called a deep diving suit, I imagined Nautilus was already a massive, hulking specimen of a man. I also imagine he was a sailor, just as he was in his old lore. He sailed the more dangerous and unexplored parts of the world to discover the undiscovered and make known the unknown. I like to think that while he was a popular and well respected man on his ship, he was most certainly not the captain or even first mate. Given the fact that in his old lore he was the only one brave enough to don the suit and explore the black ooze, I believe it should at least be briefly mentioned that Nautilus is (or rather was) a well accomplished diver. Moving into what he is post-suit melding, I definitely want that part to be kept a mystery. It is obvious that whatever pulled him to the depths or alternatively saved him from it is supernatural in nature, and yet supernatural beings are never truly benign. Whatever happened to Nautilus, he is not fully human anymore. The thing that grabbed him in the ocean may have kept him from completely dying, but it did not keep him fully alive either. But I think that is all we should receive in terms of his current state of being. He's a huge metal monster now, with sea life growing from his various openings, glowing light coming from his rust covered joints, and a facial view port of pure impenetrable blackness with naught but two blazing red eyes looking out. He should have an air of mystery, something for the people on the shore to latch on to and make legends about. He should be a story on a similar level to other supernatural beings in the area of Bilgewater, like the tale of the River King. Whatever is hiding beneath the suit is no longer human, but nobody will ever know exactly what he is anymore. Even Nautilus himself.
What is Nautilus' Character?
Assuming we keep the base elements of his old lore along with his new one Nautilus, when he needed the help of his friends most, was betrayed by those he held closest and was condemned to the black ocean depths. For their cowardice, their sheer unwillingness to help someone truly in need, those sailors need to pay. Pay in the same way Nautilus had, cursed to spend an eternity in the depths of the ocean eternally searching for a life they can never get back. His sheer contempt for those who left him to die should never waver and one of his sole motivations should be to avenge himself upon those he called friends. However his rage should not be a white hot fire, but rather a bottomless abyss of cold fury. Nautilus' voicelines are few but some of the best in the League in my opinion as they really show his hatred without making him seem ludicrous or out of his mind. Nautilus lost everything on the day of his death(?) and remembers almost nothing of his previous life, but the one thing that still burns in his memory, the one thing that he can remember even if it is faint is the betrayal. His comic says it best I think: "I remember it like a dream... They left me to die. But I survived." His never ending quest to destroy those who wronged him should preoccupy the majority of his thoughts, but he can't remember the way back. The sea is an unbelievably massive place and if Nautilus can barely remember what the shore looked like, what chance does he have of finding it again? So he marches. He marches endlessly. And that should be another facet of his personality. The only moments he is driven to action is when he is driven to anger, when he is driven to remember how he died. But those moments should be few and far between. Otherwise Nautilus should just pick a direction and start walking in hopes that he finds the original shore he came from. He is slow, massive, and heavy. His steps are weighed down by the crushing pressure of the deep ocean and yet he continues on regardless. He is a part of the water now, something it or perhaps something inside of it can use as an extension of itself. But I will get to that later. In his quiet moments, Nautilus in game seems to speak to himself about various things. He either attempts to remind himself of why he continues to march everlastingly or states mysterious lines about the abyss. "Do you hear them calling?" "Echoes from the deep." "The tide ebbs". Nautilus appears to know something about the abyss, of something hiding in wait there. However I believe it comes off as something he didn't learn through reading or other such forms of knowledge but rather through having the information directly granted to him from some other means. He knows of what hides in the abyss, because he is a part of it. However unlike the human characters with glimpses of the Void or Nami's people vaguely knowing of what hides in the darkness, Nautilus does not fear whatever lurks in the undersea shadows. He seems to know they either cannot or will not hurt him. But he can still hear them, their whispers in the dark. Voices from far way away, echoes that talk to him in these moments of silence. Something is waiting deep below the ocean's surface, and Nautilus knows full well what it is. The question is whether he truly cares about it or not. That leads me to bring up another important point about Nautilus' character, and that is that I do not believe he should be evil. If anything Nautilus seems more like a force of nature now. Yes he still feels hatred for those who damned him but he doesn't hate all life. There is a story of Nautilus alone fending off a good portion of the Harrowing one year as it attempted to harvest the souls of Bilgewater. I believe that while perhaps he doesn't care about the individual people on shore or on the ships that sail the seas he also does not wish them harm or death. That is unless he has even a slight suspicion that those ships or shores house even a single member of his former crew, in which case he unleashes his pure rage and drags them to the depths with his great anchor. The guilty must be punished. "All will drown".
Nautilus' Anchor
I shall make this section a bit briefer that the others. I believe Nautilus' anchor should continue to hold a large place in his lore. It is the only tangible connection to his former life and also a constant reminder of why he is where he is. It not only serves as a physical and mental force but also a metaphorical one. To use another one of his quotes (albeit a joke one), "Sometimes I think this anchor just weighs me down". The anchor is physically heavy obviously, but the weight should also be a metaphor for Nautilus' hatred and anger. They weigh him down. They continue to trap him in his current life and state of mind. His anger may be the only thing keeping him alive, but is that necessarily a good thing? Nautilus knows he isn't a man anymore and he also knows what lies in the dark crevices of the deep ocean. He is cursed to forever hunt for those he may very well never catch. So what is the point of living? If he were to just let go of his anger, his anchor, maybe he wouldn't be weighed down anymore. Maybe he could even float. Float to a rest he has rightfully deserved for some time now.
Nautilus' Connection to the Real World and Other In-Game Entities
It is no secret that with the addition of a new god-like entity near Bilgewater's seas comes a host of new possibilities involving said entity. It is entirely possible that it was Nagakabouros who "saved" Nautilus' life (or was even the one to doom him to it). Perhaps Nautilus knows that this being was the possible cause of his death, although I think in his current state Nautilus more so blames the sailors who wrenched his grip free from the sides of the boat then the thing that actually pulled him into the water. Perhaps Nagakabouros has put Nautilus into servitude after it rescued him, with him acting as her vengeful spirit of the sea that drags evil sailors to their deaths. Or so the legends go. Perhaps Nagakabouros is using Nautilus as a way to combat the spreading dangers of the Shadow Isles or the evils that lie in the dark abyss of the ocean. Or maybe Nagakabouros IS the evil that lies in the dark abyss of the ocean. If that were the case, then I could segue into the connection I think Nagakabouros and by extension Nautilus himself has with another author's work: H.P. Lovecraft. An ancient entity that is connected to a port town and has a cult following in said port town that states that the entity it worships is all powerful strikes me more than a little of A Shadow Over Innsmouth and the Deep Ones as a whole. While I do not believe Nagakabouros is nearly as malicious as the human sacrifice devouring Deep Ones, parallels do exist. However again, I must state that I believe Nautilus should remain a relative mystery in terms of what we know about him and that should extend to Nagakabouros. Perhaps Nautilus knows what Nagakabouros actually is or perhaps he doesn't. I think in the end it doesn't really matter to him.
That's the whole post. A bit long winded if I do say so myself but I am glad I caught this post early on so I could post my thoughts before the thread is drowned in a flood of replies. I am very very happy you guys are taking feedback from the community and I have complete faith that you guys will make Nautilus even bigger and even better than he was before. Keep up the good work and I'm counting on you. Thanks.
Hello Nautilus friends! 
