< League of Legends < Characters

League of Legends/Characters/Five


This is part of the character sheet for the game League of Legends. Check back often, as new champions are added regularly. This page contains all champions beginning with the letters T through Z as well as significant non-player characters.

Talon the Blade's Shadow

"The three deadliest blademasters in all of Valoran are bound to the house of Du Couteau: my father, myself, and Talon."
—Katarina Du Couteau

Talon was a orphan living on the streets at a very young age, surviving only on his wits and his skill with a blade. Eventually, assassin guilds began to send their agents to him, giving him the option of joining them or dying at their hand. Talon responded by returning the agents to their organizations dead and taking their weapons to add to his collection. One night, Talon was finally disarmed by a bladesman mightier than he and resolved himself to his fate. His opponent revealed himself to be General Du Couteau, Noxian nobleman and father of Katarina and Cassiopeia, and offered Talon a position in his service. Talon accepted servitude under the one condition that he served Du Couteau and no other, as he would not take orders from one unable to defeat him.

Talon is a fighter-type assassin champion who deals large bursts of physical damage. His passive lets him deal bonus damage to enemies under the influence of demobilizing crowd control effects. He can charge his blade with extra damage that causes champions to bleed and reveal their location for a short time, throw three blades in a cone that return to him immediately, damaging and slowing enemies each time, and instantly appear behind enemies to damage them, silence them, and increase all damage he does to them for a few seconds. His ultimate grants him stealth and increased speed for a few seconds as he throws blades all around him that return to him on his command or when the effect wears off.

Talon's alternate skins include Renegade Talon, Crimson Elite Talon, and Dragonblade Talon.

Associated tropes:

  • Anti-Villain: Fights for Noxus only because General Du Couteau spared his life.
  • Badass Cape: Made out of blades.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Type I, most likely.
  • Career Killer: So much, that after General Du Couteau disappeared, he felt the only logical thing to do was search for him.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: General Du Couteau was sent to kill Talon and defeated him but decided that Talon would be better used serving Noxus more officially. Talon agreed, as long as Couteau was the only person to order him.
  • Expy: His default skin greatly resembles Altaïr.
  • Foil: To Riven. She left Noxus due to being broken mentally while Talon joins them out of gratitude. Also worth Noting that Riven is a Melee Fighter while Talon is an Assassin.
  • Glass Cannon: In theory, but he benefits from a tanky build much in the same manner that Nocturne does.
  • I Fight for the Strongest Side: His sole reason for fighting in the name of Noxus. Or rather, for Du Couteau as the moment Du Couteau bites it, he will go back to his loner ways.
  • In the Back: This sort of effect happens with Talon's Cutthroat ability—he teleports behind the enemy, silences them, and increases all damaged caused by himself to the target for 3 seconds.
  • Knife Nut: He has a huge collection of blades from all the men he's killed.
    • His animations and abilities can be accurately described as "Blades everywhere".
    • /joke -- Ugh, I've lost another blade. I wonder who it's in this time?
  • Magikarp Power: Like Jax, he has a poor early game, but give him enough items and he becomes a monster.
    • Depending on the runes you give him; with armour and magic resistance runes he'll die in four or five hits rather than two or three. Plus; minions don't harass him as much.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: His Rake ability describes it as a volley of daggers that return to him, but the animation for the "daggers" much more resemble bladed boomerangs.
  • Punch Clock Villain: It'd seem so initially since Talon agreeing to work for Noxus was the only way for him to survive at the moment, but after Du Couteau's disappearance and the deal he made being impossible to continue now, he still searches for Du Couteau as he feels he has no purpose now without killing under Du Couteau's orders.
    • On the other hand, just because his deal is arguably complete if he can't serve it as it was agreed upon, it certainly doesn't meant the Noxian government would allow that to continue.
  • Shout-Out: His Dragonblade skin greatly resembles Strider Hiryu
  • Worthy Opponent: General Du Couteau, the first person to ever defeat him.
  • Undying Loyalty: When General Du Couteau disappeared, he felt the only thing he could do was to search for Du Couteau.

Taric the Gem Knight

"As Taric's father taught him, every stone has its meaning. For Taric's enemies, they all mean trouble."

Taric is the son of a magical healer who is obsessed with gems. He learned his father's skills, and then incorporated his fascination with jewels into his skills, using the gems to bolster his endurance and magical powers. Taric is a supportive tank-type champion who restores mana with every auto attack. He can heal himself and an ally, release an aura that passively increases the armor of nearby champions and can be dropped to do damage and lower the armor of enemies, damage and stun an enemy with a blast of light, and slam the ground to deal damage and give himself and his allies a temporary offensive stat buff.

Taric's alternate skins include Emerald Taric, Armor of the Fifth Age Taric, and Bloodstone Taric.

Associated tropes:

  • Ambiguously Gay: Word of Gay claims this was the intention.
    • All Gays Love Theater: According to the Journal of Justice, he was the lead designer for an incredibly colorful and frilly musical called The Sound of Magic.
  • The Cape (trope)
  • Combat Medic: Even if he can heal people, then the very term 'knight' would logically imply this. He can take a lot of punishment, especially for a healer, and attacking in melee both restores his mana and reduces the cooldown on his heal substantially, meaning that he's actually a better medic when he's attacking something. He's still a supporting damage dealer, though.
  • Computers Are Fast: Taric bot is annoying to fight because he'll always manage to pull his stun off at the worst possible time, and manage to do it from max range almost every time. If you dink around and let them farm or receive all their items on a timer, it gets worse.
  • Drop the Hammer: It's rather big, alongside of his shield, and seems to be made out of gemstones.
  • Green Eyes: And the forums will tell you all about how outrageous/fabulous he is.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: Both literally and figuratively. Three of his abilities revolve around it, in fact.
  • Magic Knight: Magic? Check. Handsome armor? Check. Hideously heavy-looking melee weapon? Double check.
  • The Medic: Before, he was good enough at chucking out heals that he often got pigeonholed into the "0 CS support" role. With the sustain changes, Taric still has arguably one of the best heal-other skills, and certainly has the best heal cooldown rates assuming he's in the thick of it.
  • Into Musical Theatre: His day job? Musical theater director.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: His Fifth Age skin is very, very pink.
  • Shield-Bash: One of his auto-attacks is to smash his giant gem shield into the enemy.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Tanky or no, he will find himself the center of the enemy's attention more often than not.
  • Shout-Out: His joke is "Gems are truly outrageous. They're truly, truly, truly outrageous."
    • His Armor of the Fifth Age skin is based on the WoW Paladin's bright pink fifth tier armor.
  • Stone Wall: Even if he heals his allies, it will heal himself as well, potentially making anyone resilient along with him. And if he heals just himself, it heals even more. On top of that, his second skill passively increases his defenses, so he's able to start soaking damage that way anyways.

Teemo the Swift Scout

"Teemo rides a thin line between chipper compatriot and unrepentant killer, but there's no-one I'd rather have as a friend."
—Tristana

Old Lore: Teemo is a ridiculously chipper and adorable Yordle. Like all Yordles, Teemo is hyperactive and friendly. Teemo is the setting's version of a boyscout and is captain of the scouts for Bandle City, the Yordle capital. Teemo joined the league to help advertise scouting as a pastime and to try to make the League more like a scout jamboree.

New Lore: Teemo is a crazy-prepared wilderness survivor and superhero who left Bandle City to assassinate enemies of the Yordle race. Isolation from his own kind seems to be driving him slowly Ax Crazy.

New New Lore: A dedicated defender of Bandle City, extremely proficient at solo missions, Teemo is one of the most dangerous Yordles alive, although you wouldn't know it to look at him. He's an especially chipper and happy Yordle when off-duty, but once combat training and missions happen, he's an essential Cold Sniper. He has handled the effects of constant isolation from his kind while being in the League by striking up a friendship with fellow yordle Tristana of the Megling Commando Unit.

Teemo is a ranger-supportive champion who can blind people with his blowgun to cause all their attacks to miss, envenom his basic attacks to deal poison damage over time, move at high speeds, and lay poisonous exploding magical mushrooms. He also turns invisible if he stands still for a short duration.

Teemo's alternate skins include Happy Elf Teemo, Recon Teemo, Badger Teemo, Astronaut Teemo, Cottontail Teemo, and Super Teemo.

Associated tropes:

  • Beware the Nice Ones: His /joke says "Size doesn't mean everything." He's right.
  • Boring but Practical: YMMV, as there are different ways to play Teemo. Some play him as more of a ranged carry where he pumps people full of darts and gets kills either from them or from his poison. Others play him more defensively and set up Minefields or put traps in locations to reveal people on the map. Unlike Caitlyn and Nidalee's traps, his shrooms stealth and reveal a part of the Fog of War.
  • Crazy Prepared
  • Darker and Edgier: The attempt to make him seem scary in his new lore.
    • Lighter and Softer: His new NEW lore implies he's only at risk of snapping and has staved it off by befriending Tristana.
  • Eyes Always Shut: No skin has ever shown them open, and it isn't a Yordle trait since other Yordles do have them open.
  • Fragile Speedster: Most melee champs can beat him one on one...if they catch up to him, that is.
  • Glass Cannon
  • Go Mad From the Isolation: It's been dialed back a bit in the latest story revision.
  • Killer Rabbit: Encountering an enemy Teemo can be very deadly when you are not prepared. It also does not help when you realize you have been killed by a cute looking rodent.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: By default, and many of his skins amplify this, with there being an amusing "Astronaut" version of him, a Santa Elf, and him dressed as an Easter Bunny (IN WHICH HE HOPS AROUND). In his artwork by the Chinese version of the game, his expressions are more varied than the American and European version. Nonetheless, the expressions he has there all serve to make Teemo even more cutesy-looking.
  • Scout Out
  • Schmuck Bait: People see dancing squirrel. People think, "Easy kill." People step on mushrooms and slow down while taking damage. Teemo then blinds them and pumps them full of darts, or leads them through a minefield.
    • Players joke about his "global taunt"—his mysterious ability to make every enemy player in the game want to kill him, sometimes instead of more important targets or at the cost of other objectives. Then again, picking a badass warrior prince, black mage, void demon or barbarian king and getting owned by a hamster with a blowpipe is rage inducing.
    • His "Blinding Dart" ability makes enemies do 0 auto attack damage for a while. Come on, tower dive him, he's only got 200 health left, you can kill him before the tower does a lot of damage...
  • Ship Tease: He's extremely good friends with Tristana, although both deny any romantic elements to the relationship.
  • Smug Snake: That smile he has suggests a high sense of superiority.

Tristana the Megling Gunner

"If there's one person I'd trust to take on a difficult mission, it's Tristana -- all day long!"
—Teemo

A commando who dreamed of living in the footsteps of a legendary sniper, Tristana is a Yordle girl who enjoys big guns and big explosions. Tristana is a ranged DPS-type champion who can rapid-fire her gun, rocket jump, weaken an enemy with a blast of shrapnel and cause them to explode on death, and fire a gigantic cannonball that knocks her target back. Her attack range increases as she levels up, giving her the longest ranged in the game at it's maximum.

Tristana's alternate skins include Riot Girl Tristana, Earnest Elf Tristana, Firefighter Tristana, Guerrilla Tristana, and Buccaneer Tristana.

Associated tropes:

Trundle the Cursed Troll

"I've learned a thing or two about pain! Let me show you."

Born to the Ruhgosk trolls who were cursed with eternal leprosy by a vengeful necromancer, Trundle's regenerative abilities were far beyond his peers. Selflessly taking on his entire tribe's curse, his body could heal just slightly faster than the disease could damage it. He has joined the League to seek somebody who can purge his flesh of the affliction.

Trundle is a fighter-type champion who specialises in stealing his opponents' strength to boost his own. He can deliver an attack damage-steeling bite, infecting an area with his curse to increase his movement and attack speed and reduce the duration of disables placed on him, call forth a pillar of ooze to block and slow enemies, and steal an enemy's health and defensive stats for himself, slowing building them up to double their initial amount. His passive absorbs the life of any nearby enemy units who die, healing Trundle for a percentage of their maximum health.

Trundle's alternate skins include Lil' Slugger Trundle and Junkyard Trundle.

Associated tropes:

  • Artificial Brilliance: When the CPU controls him, he is very annoying to fight because he'll put the pillar in the worst possible spots.
  • Black Sheep: To the point where he took on his tribe's curse as a desperate attempt to be accepted. It didn't work, because he was then, naturally, a horribly-afflicted leper.
  • Body Horror: His skin is covered with boils and scabs and one of his eyes bulges out.
  • Carry a Big Stick: He uses a rocky club as tall as he is!
  • Cursed with Awesome: To some extent. The curse of his people on him is extremely painful, but it's pretty useful for combat since his body can regenerate past it. His people have been Blessed with Suck in some way by having their curse removed, since it's apparently grown into their regenerative factor; removing the curse has also removed that.
  • Geo Effects: Created by himself—he temporarily infects a large area with his Contaminate, which improves his stats while he's standing on it. He also may make an immovable pillar that can't be passed through while it lasts, which also slows enemies. Place in front on enemies running away or to you to keep em' stiller than they'll want.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Can throw down Contaminate and become fast as hell on it, able to run down nearly any opponent and beat them to a pulp.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Subverted Trope, he certainly didn't like being bullied or ostracized, but he feels that if there was another target that would be considered beneath even him to that everyone would have bullied, he would have joined in as well.
  • Shout-Out: "Don't hate the player, hate the club that's smashing your face!"
  • Status Buff: There may be tons within the game, but he's unique in that he causes Ability Down (Rabid Bite steals Attack Damage while Agony steals Health, Armor and Magic Resistance) to his enemies while giving a proportionate Ability Up to himself.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: Almost as bad as Vladimir. "Let's go clubbing!"
    • "Heartless? I love beating!"

Tryndamere the Barbarian King

"The next true power will come from the far north, and it will involve Tryndamere -- one way or another."
—Graccus Mightstone, League Senior Political Scholar

Old Lore: The first leader to unite the nomadic barbarian tribes of the continent. He fights in the League to bring legitimacy to his people's claims as an independent nation.

New Lore: The last survivor of a clan of warrior nomads who were exterminated by assassins from Noxus. He trained for years under the chiefs of the other barbarian tribes until he was not only the strongest of them, but also their recognised leader. He joined the League not only to represent his people, but also to get revenge on Noxus for the slaughter of his clan.

Tryndamere is a melee DPS-type champion who uses the Fury resource system, gaining a small amount of Fury with every attack along with a bonus amount whenever he kills an enemy or lands a critical strike. His passive increases his critical strike chance based on how much Fury he has. He can increase his attack damage based on how much health he's missing, consume all of the Fury he's built up to heal himself, spin his sword around to cut a swath across terrain, shout at enemies to lower their attack damage and slow them if they're facing away from him, and activate his ultimate to become unkillable for a few seconds.

Tryndamere's alternate skins include Highland Tryndamere, King Tryndamere, Viking Tryndamere, and Demonblade Tryndamere.

Associated tropes:

  • Barbarian Hero
  • The Berserker
  • BFS: It may be bigger than he is. It is also heavy enough that he can't even carry it, he has to drag it around.
  • Captain Ersatz: Of Guts.
  • Cast from Hit Points: He used to before he was moved to the Fury system.
  • Critical Hit: Entirely based around this, as his innate ability gives him critical strike chance dependent on how Fury he has and his dash's cooldown refreshes when he scores a crit. He is also capable of not being reliant on Random Number God and scoring critical hits every single time, though that requires farming for a long time and is the main reason why he isn't really all that competitive.
  • Determinator: His Undying Rage ability makes him unable to be killed. The more damage he takes, the higher his attack damage is.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: On dying he stumbles and falls onto his back, tossing his sword into the air as he does so. It spins a few times then plunges down to impale him through the chest.
  • Horny Vikings: His Viking Tryndamere skin features a golden horned helm.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Up until the release of Demonblade Tryndamere, Legendary skins had been comical. This skin did away with the humor this time.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: His ultimate is pretty much designed for this.
  • Lightning Bruiser: As games go on, he will spin around while moving toward you, tear you to pieces with his sword, and be temporarily unable to die.
  • One-Man Army: Becomes this once he gets enough of his build finished.
  • One-Handed Zweihander: "My right arm is a lot stronger than my left arm!"
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy
  • Screaming Warrior
  • Spin Attack
  • Unstoppable Rage: His ultimate is simply this trope reworded. Undying Rage makes it impossible to kill Tryndamere for five seconds. Even if you drain his entire health bar, he'll simply stay at 1 HP. This is when Tryndamere is at his most dangerous as he gains attack power for every percentage of health he's missing and extra critical strike rating the more Fury he has. For those five seconds, Tryndamere truly does become unstoppable.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene

Twisted Fate the Card Master

"While the future may be mysterious and unknown to most, Twisted Fate is certain that his future lies within the cards."

A poor gypsy who came into a fortune via his talent for gambling. His desire to gain magical powers led to undergo experiments from Zaun scientists, which gave him the ability to teleport. With his newfound powers, he decided to become an assassin. Twisted Fate is a ranged DPS-type champion who can throw three magic cards at once to damage enemies, enhance his next attack with a mana-restoring, area-slowing, or stunning effect, and periodically powerup his attacks. His passive grants extra gold to his entire team for minion kills, and his ultimate allows him to reveal the locations of the enemy team and teleport to anywhere in a wide area.

Twisted Fate's alternate skins include PAX 2009 Twisted Fate, Jack of Hearts, the Magnificent Twisted Fate, Tango Twisted Fate, High Noon Twisted Fate, and Musketeer Twisted Fate.

Associated tropes:

  • Badass Abnormal: He was unable to do magic, and so let Zaun scientists experiment on him. It ended up giving him the ability to teleport.
  • Beast and Beauty: An inverted example; he started dating Evelynn. Yes, she's shockingly beautiful, but she's also capable of ripping a man into tiny shreds with her talons and enjoying every second of it. When she broke up with him, he didn't take it very well. Drunkenly so.
  • Boy Meets Ghoul: Yes, we said Evelynn.
  • Captain Ersatz: Twisted Fate is definitely not Gambit. Or Tubalcain Alhambra, for that matter.
  • Crutch Character: Needs to (but can) finish games early, as his strength late-game is not nearly as good as most other champions.
  • Death Dealer: We're assuming the cards are affected by magic in some way. Especially since he can throw them to deal extra damage and extra damage and stun or slow enemies or restore his mana.
  • Defog of War: One of the few champions capable of doing so, and his is global.
  • Difficult but Awesome: He's received large numbers of requests for buffs due to his low scaling relative to most autoattackers, and just generally terrible matchups in combat and in lane. He also won a match between two of the strongest teams on earth essentially singlehandedly.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: After Evelynn broke up with him.
  • Fortune Teller: To predict you're gonna die very soon at his hands.
    • Or know that you've got healthy friends nearby, so he isn't going to go and die at yours.
  • The Gambler: Doesn't exactly gamble anymore, but he certainly evokes the trope with his use of cards, as well as his jokes.
  • Glass Cannon: He takes hits like a kleenex.
  • Mating Dance: He shares a Tango skin with Evelynn.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Even after nerfs, his ultimate is still really nasty. The minute you see that orange eye above you, you're gonna be worried. Is he going after a squishy? Is he about to off the low-health jungler? Is he going to cut off a gank and kill the would-be ganker? Or is he just going to teleport halfway across the map and wreck that tower over there? It's never pleasant.
  • The Rival: To Graves, though Twisted seems to think he's a mark above his former companion.

Twitch the Plague Rat

"The existence of Twitch proves that anything is possible on Runeterra."
—Heimerdinger

A rat that was mutated into sentience due to magical pollution in the sewers of Zaun. He joined the League to represent the rat population. Despite being the only member of said population, he hopes to find a way to recreate the process by which he was mutated. Whether or not his obvious levels of insanity will lead to his success is anyone's guess. Twitch is an ranged DPS-type assassin champion who can poison people and then rip the toxins out of their body magically to deal damage, slow those around him, become invisible until he attacks an enemy and gains bonus attack speed when he de-stealths, and greatly increase his range with piercing shots.

Twitch's alternate skins include Gangster Twitch, Kingpin Twitch, Whistler Village Twitch, Medieval Twitch, and Gangster Twitch.

Associated tropes:

  • Automatic Crossbows: So very much. He has one of the most generous attack speeds in the game, and can buff that further when he breaks his stealth.
  • Bullet Hell
  • Glass Cannon: Perhaps the biggest one in the game; he's insanely easy to kill, but can wipe out a whole team if he's supported properly. His only escape method is also totally reliant on both not being attacked for two seconds, and the enemy not having detection methods.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: In his original artwork.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: His Spray and Pray ability is described as him closing his eyes while doing it. While he now can miss at all, his completely unaimed shots head straight for their targets and will overpenetrate.
  • More Dakka: His 'Spray And Pray' ability certainly brings up the trope.
  • The Pig Pen: He's perpetually surrounded by a thick cloud of flies and green fog. How he manages to sneak around so well is anyone's guess.
  • Poisoned Weapons: He lives and breathes the idea.
  • Single Specimen Species
  • Technicolor Toxin: Green.
  • You Dirty Rat: Poisonous, smelly, and completely out of his gourd.

Udyr the Animal Spirit

"The monks there took him in, and taught him to harness and control his animalistic fury... most of the time."

A feral man trained by monks to gain control over his beastly rage. Udyr is a fighter-type champion with a unique mechanic: instead of three abilities and an ultimate, he has four "stances" that he can switch between rapidly. Each stance gives an intimidate effect on switching as well as a passive effect; Phoenix gives him AOE damage for a few seconds while increasing his attack damage and ability power and causes his third every attack to deal magic damage. Bear gives him a short burst of speed and lets him stun enemies when he attacks them. Tiger causes his next attack to do a large amount of damage over time and gives him an attack speed boost. Finally, Turtle gives him a temporary health shield and converts his damage done to health and mana. His passive, Monkey's Agility, grants a short attack speed boost whenever he changes stances.

Udyr's alternate skins include Black Belt Udyr and Primal Udyr.

Associated tropes:

Urgot the Headman's Pride

"We can rebuild him. We have the techmaturgy."
—Professor Stanwick Pididly

Formerly a soldier of Noxus who enjoyed charging into battle, Urgot's body was was eventually battered to the point where he was Kicked Upstairs into the role of High Executioner, his arms replaced with jagged blades. Accompanying troops on an ambush mission—the kidnapping of Jarvan IV, Crown Prince of Demacia—resulted in his demise at the hands of Garen. In honor of his service, he was returned for reanimation, but his body was so banged-up that entire new limbs were needed to replace his old flesh. He fights in the League to continue serving Noxus' interests, as well as to take revenge on the one who killed him.

Urgot is a ranged-DPS champion who does not focus on his auto-attack power, instead using his missiles and various augments as a primary offense. His passive lowers the damage output of anyone he shoots. His abilities allow him to drop an acid bomb on targets to damage them and reduce their armor, shoot missiles that lock onto anybody already affected by aforementioned acid, activate a shield which adds a slowing effect to his attacks, and use his ultimate to perform a teleport swap on a target, trading places with that character and slowing them down while beefing up Urgot's defenses.

Urgot's alternate skins include Butcher Urgot and Giant Enemy Crabgot.

Associated tropes:

  • Arm Cannon
  • The Berserker: Was one of these until Garen chopped his hand off while he was attempting to dislodge his axe from a tree that wasn't Garen.
  • Blessed with Suck: He's bristling with tons of incredibly dangerous and powerful weaponry and is far deadlier than he was in his berserker days, but the extreme, neverending agony he's in is a pretty significant downside.
  • Body Horror: Being crippled with countless injuries over a long time-frame didn't help his physique. Being cut in half, killed, possibly mutilated further, and stitched back together with techmaturgy didn't either.
  • Captain Ersatz: Of Yagrum Bagarn, the corpus-infected dwarf from The Elder Scrolls. Mojo also comes to mind.
  • Crutch Character: Urgot has a strong early game, but his skills scale poorly for the lategame. Mind you, he still has a fair bit of utility in his damage reduction, slowing and repositioning.
  • Determinator: "There are warriors who become great for their strength, cunning, or skill with arms. Others simply refuse to die."
    • It's explicitly stated by Stanwick Pididly that all other attempts at creating cyborgs like him ended in the death of the subject and that the only reason Urgot is still alive is because of his immense, all-consuming hatred for Demacia in general and Garen specifically.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Urgot considers his reanimation this; given the agony he's obviously in, it makes perfect sense why. He doesn't completely hate it, however—not as long as he's still alive to get his revenge on Garen.
  • Gonk
  • Half the Man He Used To Be: Garen got him with a sword. Twice.
  • Hollywood Cyborg
  • Leeroy Jenkins: This was essentially his job prior to his first disfigurement.
  • Mighty Glacier: Fairly slow and cumbersome, but can waste anything he sets his sights on, not to mention being naturally bulky and benefiting from a fairly tanky build.
  • Missile Lock On: Once you're hit by a Corrosive Charge, locked-on Acid Hunters can hit you from anywhere; good movement prediction allows Urgot players to hit targets they can't even see anymore.
  • My Greatest Failure: On the part of the developers, who almost uniformly consider his mechanics (ranged-DPS-mage-tank hybrid) the most muddled thing they ever made. A few adjustments helped him find a stronger place in the game.
    • He was Riot's first attempt to integrate some of the more advanced HoN and DotA abilities: his ultimate ability causes him to swap places with an enemy. Of course the HoN version comes on a support champion while Urgot is a ranged damage dealer and has no reason to even want to plant himself into the middle of the enemy team. The DotA version can also be used on anyone, friend or foe. After much confusion the community declared him useless and he stayed that way for a while. Then they realized that his early and mid-game damage was absolutely staggering and that a lane with Urgot was a lane that essentially belonged to his team and that his late-game damage was still pretty impressive, plus his ult made for excellent ganks, tower dive thwarts, and initiations. As of now, he's generally considered one of the better characters in the game. Mind you, he only got better after removing quite a bit of the "mage" aspect he had on release by changing his missiles from magical attacks into physical attacks.
  • Powered Armor
  • The Power of Hate: A letter to the Journal of Justice enquired why Professor Pididly hadn't begun mass-producing Urgot-like killing machines. Pididly replied that no other subjects had shown the necessary mental fortitude for the cyborgization/reanimation process to work, theorizing that "Urgot’s raw hatred is what keeps him alive, even battling back from behind the jaws of death."
  • Revenge: His outright purpose for joining the League as shown in his League Judgement, on Garen.
  • Spider Limbs
  • Unstoppable Rage: This is the sole thing that gives him the resolve needed to stay alive.
  • We Can Rebuild Him: We have the techmaturgy.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Urgot sure doesn't, and he's quick to remind you of just how painful his immortality is. Mind you, that doesn't mean he wants to die—at least, not before revenging himself on Garen.

Varus the Arrow of Retribution

"The life of an arrow is fleeting, built of nothing but direction and intent."
—Varus

Once a stoic Ionian archer, Varus was chosen to safeguard the corrupting Pit of Pallas, preventing the spread of its darkness while resisting its attempts to drive him into madness. However his loyalty proved his downfall, as he was bound to defend the Pit from Noxian invasion even as they ravaged his hometown. To avenge the murder of his family Varus gave into the dark powers he had warded off for so long, despite knowing he would eventually be consumed by it.

Varus is a ranged-DPS type champion who also throws in some strong burst magic damage. Whenever he kills a unit, he gets a short attack speed boost, getting a longer, stronger boost if he helps kill an enemy champion. His attacks passively do extra damage and apply marks that are consumed if he hits the marked enemy with one of his abilities, dealing extra damage based on their max health. He can charge up a piercing arrow shot that increases in range and damage the longer its charged, shoot down a hail of arrows that curse the ground, slowing and reducing healing effects on everyone who stands in the area, and shoot off a dark tentacle that stuns the first enemy champion it hits before spreading off to nearby enemy champions, stunning them and continuing to spread.

Varus' alternate skins include Blight Crystal Varus.

Associated tropes:

  • The Archer
  • Charged Attack: His Q ability Piercing Arrow charges until it's released when you hit it again, increasing in range and damage the longer you wait.
  • Combat Tentacles: His ultimate.
  • The Corruption: The Pit could qualify.
  • Deadly Upgrade: His judgment made it clear that whatever that thing is, it's both very powerful, and progressively eating away and replacing him.
    • "I'm on borrowed time."
  • Geo Effects: His E ability leaves behind a circle of desecrated ground that slows and reduces enemy healing.
  • Glass Cannon: As is par for the course with any ranged carry not named Graves.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Whatever he became after giving into the call of the Pit, it sure as hell ain't human.
  • Purple Eyes
  • Power Glows: You know when to stay away from him, because whenever his passive activates, his weapon glows either red (for a minion kill) or purple (for a champion kill).
  • Purple Is the New Black: Supposedly, the being that's consuming him appears black, but is iridescent like oil on closer examination. In-game, it's just purple and black.
  • Purple Is Powerful: All over him. Also, whenever his passive activates by killing an enemy champion, his bow starts glowing bright purple.
  • Rain of Arrows: His E ability, which also slows Champions down.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After he gave into the Pit.
  • Scarf of Asskicking
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: What he was the guardian of before cracking it open in the name of revenge. The tattoos on his body are still keeping it in check, but only so well.
  • Shout-Out: Varus is an archer. Varus is also a deformity of the knee.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Ever since he gave into the Pit, he's basically been an engine of pure, implacable hate for Noxus.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy

Vayne the Night Hunter

"Not all shadows are to be feared. At least, if Vayne has her way."

As a young girl, Shauna Vayne saw her entire family tortured before her very eyes and narrowly escaped death herself. Since then, she has used her family's wealth to train herself to become a dangerous warrior against evildoers everywhere, including the League itself.

Vayne is a ranged-DPS assassin champion. Her passive gives her increased movement speed while moving towards enemy champions in her vision, allowing her to chase down fleeing enemies. She can tuck-and-roll short distances, giving her a damage boost on her next attack, deal bonus true damage based on a percentage of the target's health with every third shot on a single target, and fire a massive crossbow bolt that knocks enemies back and stuns them if they hit a wall. Her ultimate temporarily increases her damage, the movement speed from her passive, and makes her briefly invisible after tumbling.

Vayne's alternate skins include Vindicator Vayne, Aristocrat Vayne, Dragonslayer Vayne and Heartseeker Vayne.

Associated tropes:

  • The Archer: She uses one regular crossbow, and one preposterously huge one.
  • Bare Your Midriff: In her Dragonslayer and Heartseeker skins.
  • Cool Shades: Her outfit involves a pair of what appears to be ruby-lensed shades.
  • The Cowl
  • Crazy Prepared
  • Expy: She definitely takes a lot from Batman and the Huntress.
  • Glass Cannon: Can pump out damage with the best, but being breathed on will likely kill her.
  • Good Is Boring: Like Poppy, she lacks a proper joke.
  • Magikarp Power: Quite weak early and requires a ton of babysitting, but if she gets even one kill, look out. A well-fed Vayne can VERY easily wreck an entire team on her own.
  • One-Man Army: If Vayne is fed, she can mow down an entire team in seconds thanks to both the sheer amount of damage she can pump out and her excellent mobility and juking.
  • Shout-Out: Her alternate skins are references to Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. Her dance also appears to look a little like the poses the Ginyu force pulls off.
    • Her third alternate skin looks a lot like the classic Dragoon-class from Final Fantasy, dragonhead-shaped-helmet and blue armor.
  • Stripperific: Averted with most of her skins, but her Dragonslayer skin shows a whole lot more. Her new Valentine's Day skin, Heartseeker, kicks this up a notch.
  • Spy Catsuit
  • Vampire Hunter: Sure, she doesn't just hunt vampires, but the archetype is there.

Veigar the Tiny Master of Evil

"Who says evil needs to come in a fearsome-looking package?"

A yordle who, unusually for his people, decided to visit the outside world. At that point he landed in a Noxus prison, where he went mad due to isolation from his people. Thereafter he decided to learn as much about Black Magic as possible with the ultimate goal of bringing every city state in Valoran under his rule.

Veigar is a mage-type champion with uncapped spell damage potential. He can call forth a "Dark Matter" Colony Drop, create a magical fence which stuns all enemies passing through its perimeter, and unleash two spells which deal high damage to a single target, one being his ultimate which increases in damage depending on the target's Ability Power. Veigar also gains Ability Power for killing enemy minions and champions with his spells, further increasing their strength. His passive grants him increased mana regeneration in direct relation to however much mana he is missing.

Veigar's alternate skins include White Mage Veigar, Curling Veigar, Veigar Greybeard, Leprechaun Veigar, Baron Von Veigar and Superb Villain Veigar.

Associated tropes:

  • Badass Adorable: He's so evil, it wraps around to cute. And is also focused on dealing pure damage. His old passive involved leeching AP from opponents.
  • Captain Ersatz: Of Black Mage from Eight Bit Theater.
  • Card-Carrying Villain
  • Elemental Powers: Veigar's moves deal with the element of darkness and space. Baleful Strike is "a sinister attack", Dark Matter is... well... Dark Matter, Event Horizon twists the edges of space, and Primordial Burst refers to the Big Bang.
  • Evil Laugh: "Yes! Muahahahahaa!"
  • Glass Cannon: One of the most fragile champions in the game, but capable of killing almost anything in an instant once he's leveled up a bit.
  • Harmless Villain: Well, sorta. For all the doom he claims he will bring, he hasn't really accomplished much other than obtaining the crazy nuking powers. He recently tried to steal the yordles' Mothership with magical balloons, but was foiled by some geese popping the balloons. Only time will tell whether he will prove to be Not So Harmless or not.
    • He was accepted as a honorary member of the Black Rose according to some sources. Seeing his potential to grow exponentially stronger in dark magic.
  • Mage Killer: Somewhat. Did we mention his Limit Break also does damage proportionate to the target's Ability Power?
  • Magikarp Power: The best thing to do when fighting Veigar is DO NOT LET HIM GET FED. Do not let him farm too much because, like Nasus, he has an ability that becomes more powerful if he gets the last hit in. The problem is that like Nasus, he must must must MUUUUUST spend the early game farming, and this can turn against him becuase he can be harassed but can't harass back or else he'll lose time farming or get focus-fired.
    • Veigar is an even better example than Nasus. Nasus's Siphoning Strike only powers up that ability on last hits. Veigar's Baleful Strike powers up all of his abilities, as it increases AP on last hits. He also has extremely high AP-to-damage ratios. Obviously, this means he has even more to lose when it doesn't work out for him.
  • Right Hand of Doom: He wears a (relatively) massive gauntlet seemingly made for hand to hand combat. This is probably because it looks more evil.
  • Squishy Wizard: He has one of the lowest HP pools in the game.
  • The Napoleon: "It's only a short way? Is that a short joke!?!"

Viktor, the Machine Herald

"In one's hand, techmaturgy is a tool. As one's hand, it is liberation."

A brilliant Zaunite techmaturgist that invented the technology that lead to the creation of both Blitzcrank and Urgot. After the credit for his research was stolen by Professor Stanwick Pididly, he locked himself in his laboratory and turned himself into a cyborg, striving to both eliminate his human emotions and create something that could not be stolen.

Viktor is a mage-type champion who can launch a device that damages an enemy and returns a portion of that damage to himself as a shield, lay down a slowing device that stuns enemies who remain in its effect, fire a sweeping beam from his third hand, and conjure a storm of energy that silences foes and can be redirected to new locations. His abilities are augmented by a special Hex Core item with which he starts the game, providing him with ability power based on his level. He can upgrade the Hex Core in the store one time to give himself additional stats and to strengthen one of his abilities. Upgrading it for health gives him a movement boost when he uses his power transfer device, upgrading it for mana and cooldown reduction increases the cast range of his slowing device, and upgrading it for ability power causes his beam attack to deal additional damage over time.

Viktor's alternate skins include Full Machine Viktor and Prototype Viktor.

Associated tropes:

Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper

"That which runs through you will run you through."

An Ax Crazy Blood Mage from Noxus. Knowing he could not suppress his urge to kill and realizing he was not safe from the inevitable Noxian persecution, he fled Noxus as a teenager. After finding an old monk at the end of a trail of bodies, he trained with him to learn the magic of heromancy before absorbing the monk's blood, giving him the magic magical essence of the monk and every hemomancer that came before him. Having no further purpose, he returned to Noxus and enrolled in the League of Legends.

Vladimir is a tanky mage-type champion with abilities that revolve around damaging the opponent and healing himself. He can siphon life from an enemy, retreat into a lifestealing pool of blood, send out missiles of blood to nearby targets and improve his healing rate at the same time, and infect enemies in an area with a damage-amplifying disease. Vladimir's passive grants him bonus health on acquiring Ability Power and vice verse, making him tankier as his spells grow stronger.

Vladimir's alternate skins include Marquis Vladimir, Count Vladimir, Nosferatu Vladimir, Vandal Vladimir, and Blood Lord Vladimir.

Associated tropes:

  • Ax Crazy: As a teenager, he killed two boys his age just because he enjoyed the intoxicating scarlet bloom that surged forth.
  • Bloody Murder / The Power of Blood: His abilities utilize blood to inflict damage, slow enemies and other effects.
  • Cast from Hit Points: Like Mordekaiser or Mundo, he possesses no mana, instead using his health to power most of his abilities.
  • Crutch Character: His ult is very good for harassment and kills early in the game but later on is best used during team fights when people are throwing abilities around since people are more likely to survive it.
  • Darker and Edgier: His legendary Blood Lord skin is very much this, wearing intimidating black armour, having a new set of violent casting animations and dropping all the lame blood puns for threatening new voiceovers.

"Witness the depths of despair..."
"There is a monster in all of us."
"I shall leave this place in ruin."

  • Our Vampires Are Different: Actually, Vlad isn't a vampire... but it's kinda hard to tell.
  • Pungeon Master: He has one line that isn't some kind of blood-related pun.
  • Shout-Out: His alternate skins are references to Dracula, Lestat de Lioncourt, Graf Orlock, and Spike.
    • One of his skills, Tides of Blood, may be a reference to an old MOBA-style Warcraft 3 custom map of the same name. Said map had a "Blood Mage" hero who had more-or-less the same gimmick as Vladimir.
  • Squishy Wizard: Averted HARD. The more ability power he gets, the larger his health pool becomes, and vice versa. Pre-nerfs Vlad could easily achieve the highest health pool in the whole game, not impairing his damage output much.
    • Then played straight, as most of that health winds up fueling his spells.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Although his hair in the art looks like red.
    • Subverted with his Nosferatu skin, which is a Bald Headed Ugly Boy.
  • Your Vampires Suck: In Vladimir's Champion Spotlight video it was recommended you get a Sunfire Cape, because "real vampires sparkle."

Volibear, the Thunder's Roar

"Few can weather the storm that follows in the wake of Volibear's roar."
—Ashe, the Frost Archer

A member of the primal Ursine people of the Freljord mountains. After his brother, the chief of their people, died on a hunt, Volibear climbed a sacred mountain to complete a right of passage to take his brother's place. When he reached the summit, he saw a vision in the storms of his tribe slain in a great war. Fearing this future, he made a pact with Queen Ashe to unite their savage land.

Volibear is a tanky fighter-type champion who can both deal and take a lot of punishment. His passive triggers a brief but massive heal whenever his health drops below a point, but the ability works once before going on cooldown. He can drop down on all fours to gain speed while attacking champions and launch his first attack target behind him, passively increase his attack speed as he focuses a target, activate a strong bite that deals more damage the weaker his enemy is, roar to damage and slow enemies while fearing minions and monsters, and activate his ultimate to make his attacks send chain lighting to nearby enemies.

Volibear's alternate skins include Thunder Lord Volibear and Northern Storm Volibear.

Associated tropes:

  • Ascended Meme: He was created in response to an ongoing joke on the forums about armored bears.
  • Chain Lightning: His ultimate makes his autoattacks apply this for its duration.
  • Development Gag: When he's pitted against an enemy Zilean, he gets the buff 'Chronokeeper Hater.' This is reference to an infamous war on the Riot forums where people either supported or were against the inclusion of an armored bear champion. Tom 'Zileas' Cadwell, the design director for Riot and the developer whom Zilean was named after, was on the side against bears.
  • Easter Egg: His 'Chronokeeper Hater' buff and the associated sound clips that play whenever he kills an enemy Zilean.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: He is a bear. A giant armored bear.
  • Foe-Tossing Charge: Rolling Thunder increases his speed greatly for a short duration and sends the first foe it hits flying behind him, a bit like Singed.
  • Finishing Move: His Frenzy's active ability increases its damage to its target proportionately to the percentage of currently lost health on the target.
  • Lightning Bruiser: No pun intended...but that works too.
  • I Can Still Fight: His passive heals 30% of his health over 6 seconds when he drops to below 30% health, giving him the potential to force through a close fight and win. Only every 120 seconds, though.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: /j - "Hmm, I suppose you're expecting an unBEARable pun."
  • Mighty Roar: His Majestic Roar ability, damaging and slowing enemy champions hit, and making minions and neutral monsters run in around uselessly in terror for its duration.

"Tremble at my roar!"

"I got a special claw for you, Zilean!"

Warwick the Blood Hunter

"The rage of the beast now compliments his predatory spirit."
—Singed, upon witnessing his master's transformation

Old Lore: Warwick was a ruthless mercenary who was working for Ionia (rather than against it) during the fateful invasion as a mercenary for hire. Forced into a situation where he was hopelessly cornered, he drinks a chemical concotion that turned him into a savage beast. Now turned into a werewolf, he becomes a soldier of fortune for anyone, summoner or city state who would hire him.

A ruthless bloodthirsty bio-chemical alchemist whose poisons ravaged the Ionian army. Soraka brought down the power of the cosmos to make his physical form match his twisted heart, a spell that cost her her godhood. What she didn't expect was how much he'd likes his new form. Warwick is a fighter-type champion who specializes in picking off single targets and healing himself as he fights. His attacks stack extra damage on his target and a healing bonus to himself and he can slash a foe to deal damage based on their health and heal himself for a percentage of that damage, increase the attack speed of himself and nearby allies and gain vision of nearby enemy champions who are weak, preventing them from hiding in the Fog of War or bushes. His ultimate lets him jump to a target and keep them pinned as he mauls them, increasing his damage and lifesteal for the assault.

Warwick's alternate skins include Grey Warwick, Urf the Manatee, Big Bad Warwick, Tundra Hunter Warwick, Feral Warwick, Firefang Warwick, and Hyena Warwick.

Associated tropes:

Wukong the Monkey King

"The first step to wisdom and greatness is realizing how little you know."
—The first lesson of Master Yi

Kong was the greatest warrior in the Plague Jungles who, having conquered all of the trials the jungle had to offer him, traveled north to test himself against the "hairless monkeys." When he came upon the League and found Master Yi meditating, he challenged him and was soundly defeated. He offered himself to Yi so that he could learn from his powerful Wuju technique. Yi gave him a powerful staff and renamed him Wukong, promising to teach him only if he in turn agreed to one day take on a student of his own and not let the Wuju style die out.

Wukong is a fighter-type champion who can strike enemies with his staff to lower their armor, create a duplicate of himself and turn invisible to escape, reposition, or mislead the enemy, attack up to three enemies with clones of himself riding his flying nimbus, and spin around to damage and knock enemies airborne with his staff while moving rapidly. His passive ability increases his defenses by a linear amount for each nearby enemy champion.

Wukong's alternate skins include General Wukong, Volcanic Wukong, and Jade Dragon Wukong.

Associated tropes:

  • Blood Knight: He left the Plague Jungles because he wanted to find stronger opponents to fight.
  • Carry a Big Stick: One size fits all, baby.
  • Confusion Fu: Misdirection is the name of the game with his decoys. There's very little difference between him having suddenly stopped moving and one of his decoys, so the variety of deciets even a savvy enemy can fall for is large.
  • Doppelganger Attack: They'll hang out motionless for a couple of seconds, absorb any punishment possibly thrown their way, and then deliver an area attack before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
  • Dueling Games: A few days before his first preview blurb, competing game Heroes of Newerth announced its new champion: Wukong, the Monkey King. Technically HoN created concept art first, but didn't do anything with it until rumours about a Monkey King in LoL surfaced. Needless to say, accusations of copying were flung from both ends.
  • Green Eyes: The sclera of his eyes are lime green and he makes use of some sort of natural magic to boot.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Fast and tricky, but is also a bulky fighter who can charge into melees and fight his way through, gaining Armor and Magic Resist for each nearby enemy.
  • Me's a Crowd: Two of his attacks create a clone of himself, either offensively or defensively.
  • Multiple Demographic Appeal: Created with the explicit intent of advertising the game in China, Korea, and Japan.
  • Public Domain Character: Based on Sun Wukong, natch.
  • Spin Attack: His ultimate, Cyclone.
  • Trickster Archetype: The monkey.
  • The Unexpected
  • To Be a Master: His quotes allude to this.

Xerath the Magus Ascendant

"I have no need for vengeance. Time has brought ruin to the mages of Shurima and I alone remain."

A mage from the ancient civilization of Shurima. He cast off his human form to harness the unlimited power of arcane magic, which frightened his fellow mages so much that they trapped him in a magic prison. Centuries later, Xerath finally scraped his way out of his tomb, but still could not rid himself of the sarcophagus that cut off his full power, leading him to join the League to discover a way to become free of it.

Xerath is a mage-type champion who can deal massive AoE damage at range. His key ability allows him to anchor himself to the ground, giving his abilities increased range and penetration of his opponents defenses. He can fire a long-range bolt of energy, place a debuff on foes that stuns them if he hits them with another spell, and rain down three huge bursts of magic. His passive converts some of his Ability Power into armor, giving him some defensiveness as he builds up his magical damage.

Xerath's alternate skins include Runeborn Xerath and Battlecast Xerath.

Associated tropes:

  • Ambition Is Evil: He wants magical power beyond imagination, and didn't care what it did to Shurima or anything else around him.
  • A Fate Worse Than Death: He was entombed for centuries. However, he struggled within that time to eventually get free from the place he was trapped in but not the spell limiting his power.
  • A God Am I: While he never quites says that, his aspirations seem to come pretty close to this idea.
  • Eldritch Abomination: More or less became one.
  • Energy Being: What Xerath is now.
  • Ignored Epiphany: A female mage named Tabia attempted to get him to stop his ritual. He had a fleeting moment imagining getting away from this and magic. Then the temple they were in began collapsing around them as his spell went out of control and Xerath decided there was simply no turning back now.
  • I Regret Nothing: Played for Drama within his Judgement—he lost his body, his home, the woman he loved, and centuries for power he is now unable to actually fully wield... but he calls it an inconvenience and believes he will break free to use it.
  • Immortality: Either Type I or II. It is unknown whether he can actually be killed, but the mages of Shurima couldn't when they tried, and so had to seal him away instead.
  • It's All About Me: His reason for joining the League, pretty much: he couldn't care less about the Summoners or the reasons for the League existing, he just wants to be able to get at and consume the energy from the Nexuses in order to remove the last of the sarcophagus remnants from his body and regain full power.
  • Kill Sat: This is essentially his ultimate.
  • Magikarp Power: Has a pretty bad early game and can't do too much until he gets a fair amount of items, but once he does... yeah, you're going to have your work cut out trying to stop or even slow him.
  • Mighty Glacier: One of his abilities roots him in place, but increases the range of his abilities and gives him bonus magic penetration. Fortunately, canceling it will give him a movement speed boost for when you need to get away.
  • Power Incontinence: Well, Xerath's body couldn't, hence the ritual. An Averted Trope after that, since he was perfectly fine at controlling it afterwards.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Xerath was subdued and trapped into a magical sarcophogus within an underground tomb due to casual disregard for any life affected by his aspirations to gain more magical power.
  • Shout-Out: A good portion of his backstory, as well as his powerset and general demeanor, seem fairly similar to that of Doctor Manhattan.
  • Was Once a Man: But he realized that held him back from true power, and so casted a ritual to take care of that.
  • Where I Was Born and Razed: Subverted. Though his rituals and studies were damaging Shurima and he might have caused this if he was allowed to continue, the civilization keeled over in the centuries itself without him.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Ignored Epiphany Xerath had described the idea of getting away from the concept of the arcane causing him pain like it was an addiction. As it was an Ignored Epiphany, he went on.
  • That Man Is Dead: How Xerath responsed to how it felt exposing his mind. It was a bunch of past memories that don't matter anyway. On the other hand, he was clearly more surprised by the Judgement's visions more than he visibly let on to the summoner conducting it.

Xin Zhao the Seneschal of Demacia

"Death is inevitable; one can only avoid defeat."
—Demacian Manual of Arms

A warrior who is always seen near Jarvan III, King of Demacia. His Mysterious Past is as follows: formerly he was a gladiator in Noxus, going by the name of Viscero. Doomed to fight 300 men at once, he was offered freedom and revenge by Jarvan II, and then took an arrow for him during the escape.

Xin Zhao is a fighter-type champion who focuses on speed and disabling. His passive heals him on every third attack and his skills allow him to add bonus damage to his next three hits and a juggling knock-up to the third, increase his attackspeed while reducing the cooldown of his abilities with each attack, Flash Step to a target with a slowing effect on impact, and unleash a spinning spear slash that deals high damage and buffs Xin Zhao's own survivability.

Xin Zhao's alternate skins include Commando Xin Zhao, Imperial Xin Zhao, Viscero Xin Zhao, and Winged Hussar Xin Zhao.

Associated tropes:

  • Badass Long Hair
  • Blade on a Stick
  • Blood Knight
  • Expy: Of Zhao Yun from Dynasty Warriors, down to his surname.
  • Fan Nickname: He was more than a little overpowered upon his initial release, leading some fans to refer to him as "Win Nhao".
  • Heel Face Turn: If a Punch Clock Villain counts as a Heel.
  • Hotblooded Sideburns
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Any champion described as an Initiator is meant to do this: throw themselves into a crowd of enemies, drop their disables, lay some smackdown, and hope their team can capitalize on the resultant chaos. Basically, they're a human nuke, and Xin Zhao performs this role very well. Xin Zhao, as an assassin, has an ability that of course puts him right in the fray.
  • Lightning Bruiser: His battle cry ability increases his attack speed, can increase it even more if he uses it, and it's often considered a good idea to give him attack speed to take advantage of his abilities and passive so he winds up getting about as much attacks per second as Master Yi. If you see a Xin building this and attacking a turret, then get him off. QUICK.
  • One-Man Army: He didn't get a chance to fight 300 opponents at once, but apparently survived numbers that were likely still very impressive.
    • His ultimate ability grants him defensive stats based on the number of enemies that are surrounding him. He may be outnumbered, but not even the odds can stand against him.
  • Rapunzel Hair

Yorick the Gravedigger

"Die first, then we’ll talk."

Hundreds of years ago, Yorick was a gravedigger on the mysterious Shadow Isles and next in line in a family who considered their jobs a sacred duty. Although he performed his task in life, he never produced an heir and died in shame. He didn't stay dead long, however, as his spirit returned to ferry souls to the next stage of the afterlife. After centuries, he started to fear that he would never redeem himself and, when he couldn't find his old body, he turned to the League for help in passing on.

Yorick is a fighter-type champion and the first champion to make excessive use of a summoning mechanic. All of his abilities, in addition to having their own effects, summon a spirit minion with constantly decaying health. Yorick's gouls have a portion of his health and attack damage and decrease the damage he takes while they're alive. The ghouls come in three main forms: high damage and speed, slow-inducing, and life stealing. Yorick's ultimate creates a spirit with the stats of an ally champion or himself that he can control. If the targeted champion dies, they gain brief control over the spirit and access to all their abilities, giving them a short chance to do some damage before dying.

Yorick's alternate skins include Pentakill Yorick and Undertaker Yorick.

Associated tropes:

  • Ancestral Weapon: His shovel has been passed down his family for generations. Well, the weapon part likely only really happened with Yorick since his ancestors were all gravediggers.
  • The Atoner: Yorick has always regretted not managing to continue on his family's name. His undead state and inability to finally rest, however, eventually led him to find a way to make up for letting his family fade—being a champion within the League.
  • Crutch Character: Nearly impossible to force out of his lane and hits like a train during that phase, but his lategame revolves around his ultimate on your team's strongest autoattacker due to his own mediocre scaling.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Sure, he feels ashamed about his family dying out with him, is unable to rectify that, and can't die to end that shame, but he's still a hulking immortal who can summons ghouls. And now he uses that within the League of Legends.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: He just wanted to finally pass out of this world. Unable to do that, he decides to bring his family's name back into the light by being a champion.
  • Eyes of Gold
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Yorick, after reaching undeath somehow, ferried souls in the haunted Shadow Isle in the hopes he would at some point fulfill a quota from a legend to let him ascend. He did that to no avail for centuries.
  • Game Breaking Bug: It was possible for someone resurrected by his ult to keep dying every second, so people could have over a hundred deaths even if they were swimming in the summoning pool.
  • Gradual Grinder: He's a summoner type, so it should go without saying that sustained damage is where he shines. Though he has more counterplay against his normal abilities than any other character, which can reduce his damage by more than half, his potential damage output is positively staggering if left unattended, as is often the case in a chaotic teamfight.
  • Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Referenced in the names of his abilities.
  • Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Is a breed of character referred to as an "AD caster", meaning he has spells that are empowered by his attack damage stat. While his cumulative scalings are enormous, they ultimately wind up being forgettable in the endgame simply because there are so many AP items that provide a multiplicative bonus on each other, leaving Attack Damage in the dust.
  • Magic Knight: He's very resilient because otherwise he wouldn't live long enough for his damage to make a difference. He has to get in close and bash someone to summon his most damaging ghoul because otherwise his resilience wouldn't be put to the test.
  • Meaningful Name: His last name is Mori.
  • My Greatest Failure: The reason he's a champion is because he felt ashamed that he died without an heir, letting his family's cemetary and their traditions fall from memory. Champions, though, are quite famous.
  • Necromancer: He summons ghouls out of the ground. However, it isn't explained how a gravedigger in life (and in undeath for centuries as well) got these powers. The Journal of Justice explicitly considers it necromancy, dealing with how necromancy is outlawed for summoners—only for summoners though, as the champions are apparently perfectly free to use it.
    • A more likely explanation is that the ghouls aren't necessarily undead. Yorick is a gravedigger, meaning he's constantly around the dead, even moreso in his undeath state. It would make sense that ghouls started to follow him around simply because they knew when he was done there would be a fresh meal in the dirt. Centuries past and the ghouls made sort of a symbotic relationship with Yorick. He's not summoning undead, he's calling his pets in for a meal.
  • Odd Friendship: Is in a band with Sona, Karthus and Mordekaiser.
  • Our Ghouls Are Creepier: No legs, spindly arms, and teeth. Lots and lots of teeth.
  • Shovel Strike: His Weapon of Choice is his family shovel.
  • The Undead: He's not exactly dead, but he sure isn't alive anymore.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Yorick finding himself alive on the Shadow Isles didn't make him think "I could do something with this immortality." He just acted as a ferryman for the souls on the Shadow Isles since he thought that would allow him to go past the place he was.

Ziggs the Hexplosives Expert

"Ziggs? Unpredictable, dangerous, yes yes. But quite brilliant!"
—Heimerdinger

A chaotic yordle scientist who was banned from the Piltover Yordle Academy when his hextech engine exploded, taking out a section of wall with it. Before he could leave, however, the professors who denied him were kidnapped by agents from Zaun. Seeing this as a golden opportunity, Ziggs crafted a new type of weapon he dubbed "hexplosives" and blasted his way into the Zaun prison to free the now grateful professors. Awarded the title "Dean of Demolitions," he was bidden by the academy to show off his creations in the League.

Ziggs is a mage-type champion who deals high area-of-effect damage. His passive periodically adds extra damage to his attacks, with the bonuses coming faster if he keeps casting spells. He can lob a bouncing bomb, lay a satchel charge that can knock both himself and enemies around, scatter slowing mines over an area, and fire a huge missile over an incredible range.

Ziggs' alternate skins include Major Ziggs and and Mad Scientist Ziggs.

Associated tropes:

Ziggs: Come on! Does this look dangerous to you? *eats a bomb*

Ziggs: Don't worry! I got this!

.

Zilean the Chronokeeper

"There is no greater grief than for a loss that is yet to come."

Zilean is a time wizard driven semi-mad by his own power. Even though he can control time, he percieves the past, present, and future all happening simultaneously, for which he chooses to isolate himself rather than deal with others who are going down the timestream normally—he sees the desert outside of his tower as being a verdant forest, a wasteland, and everything in between simultaneously. He really likes clocks.

Zilean is a supportive mage-type champion who can tag targets with delayed explosions, manually remove chunks from his abilities' cooldowns, significantly speed up or slow down an ally or enemy unit, and grant an ally a restoration upon being fatally wounded. His passive boosts his team's experience gain, allowing them to gain levels and strength faster.

Zilean's alternate skins include Old Saint Zilean, Groovy Zilean, Shurima Desert Zilean, and Time Machine Zilean.

Associated tropes:

  • A God Am I: More in terms of knowledge than power.
  • Ascended Meme/ Development Gag: Zilean's hatred of Volibear comes from Riot Games' design director Tom 'Zileas' Cadwell, who was strongly (though jokingly) against the inclusion of an armored bear champion in the game.
  • Auto Revive: Chronoshift, his ult, gives allies a permanent example if it's timed right.
  • Bullet Time: Can give this to his allies.
  • Difficult but Awesome: Chronoshift is surprisingly hard to land, as dying players often instinctively run away and a badly timed ult just makes enemies kill an ally again. A well timed Chronoshift can pretty much turn teamfights into 6v5s.
  • Does Not Like Shoes
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: If you play as Zilean in a match against Volibear, he gains the buff 'Armored Bear Hater.' The buff secretly gives him a bonus 10 gold if he kills Volibear.

"In my day, we would never have allowed an armored bear into the League of Legends."

  • Mental Time Travel: He's doing this constantly and cannot stop.
  • The Red Mage: Two of his skills define him: one is a spell that deals high AOE damage upon exploding with a four second delay and has nice scaling, another one revives the target and heals it for an amount of health, and the scaling on that is just absurdly high—technically a healing spell, but used mostly to give the carry a second life.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Averted; he actually doesn't heal. He instead plants bombs and revives carries.
  • Shout-Out: Shurima Desert Zilean looks a bit like Gwonam.
  • Time Abyss
  • Time Master
  • Unstuck in Time: His story has some similarities to Billy Pilgrim's.
  • Why Am I Ticking?: The Time Bomb skill turns the target into one of these, ticking for 3 seconds before exploding. This can be cast on anyone, including friendly minions and champions, even stealthed ones. He can even apply two bombs on the same target using Rewind, immediately detonating the first followed by the second moments after.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Why he hates being around people.

Non-Player Characters

Professor Stanwick Pididly

The most prominent scholar in Zaun, Professor Pididly is responsible for a fair number of behind-the-scenes activities of questionable ethics.

Associated tropes:

Urf the Manatee

Urf was a manatee who chose to leave the peaceful lifestyle of his people behind to become a champion in the League. He greatly admired Jax for his strength in combat, and sought to become a weapon master of his own by mastering a spatula and fish. Tragically, Urf was cut down in the prime of his life by Warwick, ending his League career before it even began. Even in death, however, Urf can still be seen around the League; his skin is used by Warwick, and his ghost haunts Summoner's Rift during the Harrowing. He also appears in the League of Legends Season 1 Bloopers and Lee Sin's Art Spotlight.

Associated tropes:

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