my thirst......nami, help

Wow, I ugly cried hearing this nostalgic masterpiece. So beautifully performed and shot. Thank you.

kurikurimix49

cassiopeia killing child murderers omg queen of morality

yass, slaaayyyyyy....those child murderers

TomeRiddle

All the stories lately are super heavy and epic, sometimes all you need is an ad featuring great in game couples, like Ashe&Trynda, Kat&Garen, Rammus&The cactus. :P

Now seriously, it means a lot to me that you took the time to read all of that, and I'm glad I could let you guys know what an impact you had on my life :)

Hahaha so true. Move over, Senna and Lucian. Rammus and the Cactus will always the ultimate OTP. :P

Aww, your post really made a huge impact on us too. May you be blessed with plenty of victories for years to come. <3

Thank you so much for sharing your story, despite how hard this was to write. I'm glad that you stuck through all the difficult times to get to where you are now. That kind of resilience is incredibly admirable. I am so grateful to help contribute to stories like yours, and I know other Rioters feel the same way. Stories like yours keep us coming to work everyday, especially when times are hard. Thank you again. <3

PS: I'm always so happy to find another gay lore nerd out in the wild! The Journal of Justice was so ridiculous and amazing. Where else can you get Blitzcrank’s Fleshling Compatibility Services?

riotzephyr

uwu

uwu

0RGA

Missed him somehow! He looks great and I have no more requests 😌

Haha sweet! Glad our spooky king Azir works then! :)

TerraRising

I hope so, but I have my doubts because it's been said by too many of your co-workers in the past and it feels worse now than ever.

That said, since you're actively looking for new skin ideas from other players, try this one.

Elements Master Yorick:

Gun Goddess Miss Fortune - level "Ultimate" skin. (2250 RP)

Thsi version of Yorick commands the elements in the same way the original skin commands the Shadow Isles Mist. Story could be that Mordekaiser unleashed the raw power of the four elements onto the Blessed Isles instead of the mist and that Yorick was one of the few beings not in Morde's army to survive. (This skin could be part of a "Shadow Elementals" set with Hecarim, Thresh, Kalista, Morde, Karthus, etc...)

The main difference between this skin and Elementalist Lux is that she manipulates the higher, prettier parts of each element while Yorick channels the deeper, primal energies.

The four parts of the skin:

• Pyromancer Yorick: Ghouls are bright orange, if not walking and hissing fireballs. Yorick's armor is orange and yellow and his shovel is shaped like a flame. Maiden is a stylized fireball and her particles are a dark orange/red.

• Hydromancer Yorick: Ghouls are light blue, if not splashing water blobs. Yorick's armor is deep blue and green and his shovel is shaped like a water drop. Maiden is a brighter mist, more blue than black, and her particles are more ocean like.

• Terramancer Yorick: Ghouls are dust clouds or mud men, Yorick's armor is more brown and beige, with bits of roots and sticks coming out of appropriate places, and his shovel is shaped like a tree's root ball. Maiden is a dust (sandy) cloud and there are tan and yellow particles.

• Aeromancer Yorick: Ghouls are bright grey and cloud-like, not the sickly grey of the base skin. Yorick's armor is bright grey and light blue and his shovel is shaped like a hurricane cloud. Maiden is a bright grey creature, maybe with a spinning base, and grey particles.

And, for heavens sake, spend the money and include a new VO.

Not sure if you're going to share this with the crew, but I never want to hear another Rioter on the PIE team tell me there aren't any awesome skin ideas out there for Yorick.

For sure, I get that. Putting our words into action is what matters. The reason you've seen new skins for Shaco, Ivern, Udyr, Galio, Anivia, and Nunu recently is because of these efforts, and we're planning on doing more in the future. /u/Bellissimoh gave some extra context on this here. Hopefully we can regain your trust by putting out skins for our less common champs that you and other really love.

As for this Elements Master Yorick, I think this is fuckin awesome. That's such a unique idea to take the darker, shadowy side of elements for a more sinister Elementalist direction! His minion master design lends itself really well to this type of fantasy, and I want all these Maiden concepts.

I will say that Legendary and Ultimate skins are a significant investment from many teams, even beyond PIE, so we have to be more selective when choosing champions to ensure that the investment is worth the amount of players that will get to enjoy the skin. That means lower play rate champs like ...

SuperDuperTino

The conflict in my eyes is one for power ignited by Syndra, The Dark Sovereign. Through her studies of the dark arts, her mind twisted into believing she should be the absolute monarch of their world. That under her single rule, she can bring cooperation. Her Kingdom being sizably more extensive than the others. It starts with her invasion onto smaller rulers, sparking worry in many other notable kingdoms, as they hear about her plan to seize control. In turn, this causes a chain reaction of other large nations taking control of their smaller neighbors in a turf war scenario, in a battle for land, warriors, and resources. So you have these Queens going out themselves to fight, and their champions leading their armies. Warring Queen's is a war-torn land filled with rulers not only preparing for Syndras incursion but starting ones of their own. Spiraling down to, if I can rule over the land before her, she won't be a threat, instead of "I need to protect my land."

Oh....my....goddess, this is such a cool idea. I really like that. Syndra makes a lot of sense as the monarch that thinks she can better the world under her singular rule and stomping out other people in power that argue against that. I can definitely see Zed as her champion that would do what it takes to solidify her position, considering that he's rebelled against authority that he disagreed with in the past.

Just picturing these badass queens going into battle in order to do what they think is best gives much such excitement. It almost feels reminiscent of the Battle of Freljord between Ashe, Liss, and Sejuani but expanded out to a much larger scale + adding in champion partnerships.

Questions that stand out to me now are:
- What is the power source of this universe and how does it differentiate from our classic LoL universe?

- How would we create a visual identity for this universe that makes players immediately go "that's the Warring Queens thematic"?

Kampsycho

It is 100+ :D and Ty , Can't wait to see some New skinlines or just skins for Champs that are long due for one, Hope there's a Harrowing event this Year aswell, last one was probly when Kalista was released, But most of them aren't as popular atm either so makes sense. Thank you aswell hope you share this with your colleagues, Maybe some of the Concept Artists get inspired and expands some of them in some way.

Only problem I see is that at times Champs such as Ornn, which had a Meta, still used in Pro play and has been out for 2 Years clearly the pro play tank of the year. But No skin in sight. but on the same side we Have Kalista and Taliyah who had times where they shined in Pro play and even got skins through them, but outside of that they haven't really.

Wow, that's amazing. We appreciate the kind words. I'll pass this on to the team. :]

Can't speak to what exactly is planned for the future, noted on the Harrowing.

I totally understand what you mean when you compare Ornn directly with champs like Taliyah and Kalista. SSG Taliyah and SKT Kalista were uniquely chosen because they were picked by Crown and Bang after winning Worlds and seemed like good selections to us. Championship Kalista was also chosen because of her heavy play during Worlds, but things like her play rate and uniqueness in the current Championship catalog factored in. So even though a champ may be in pro play or in meta, that's just one area that is considered when we're selecting which champs to make skins for. I can't give specifics, but I will say that Ornn is on our radar as needing a new skin.

0RGA

Yes, I guess those are pretty close! But honestly, I just had Kalista pictured in my head when I said that. I would love something spooky, like Azir summoning an army of undead soldiers

Ahh ok, so straight up Shadow Isles, with the teal flame aesthetic that you see on Kalista and Hecarim. Also, we do have Gravelord Azir!

bazopboomgumbochops

That is a very good point. I like how careful y'all are about clarity and 'feel' of appearance in that way. At the very least, Swain would fit the thematic well for this reason.

Thanks! Yeah, one of the things that we have to be careful of with skins is to remember that we're not only designing a skin for the player using the skin. We're designing a skin for the 9 other players in their game too, so things like readability are extremely important.

And totally agree on Swain! If there's any tanky mage to apply this thematic to, it's definitely him.

bazopboomgumbochops

It's the contrast, see? Mages are always made to be these squishy, vulnerable backline things. A mage that specializes in defense, in being an indestructible bulwark, is exciting. It's like if you jumped, as an assassin, onto Soraka, only to discover that she was as ripped as Braum.

It's also satisfying to have such heft being levitated around. I don't want to understate this. Having these plated, heavy, thick archmage robes levitating around - you become like floating artillery, yeah? Pretty cool.

Also, just throwing this out there: It'd fit Swain perfectly as well, but he's also fairly unpopular, and Zilean's a bit more in need.

Gotcha, that totally makes sense. There's something fresh and exciting about a mage that's actually decked out in armor and will tank the fuck outta your team. I believe Celestine Soraka was the closest thing we got to pursuing this type of Battlemage direction in the past.

Something that we do have to consider in these cases is the gameplay implication of bulk and heaviness as being tanky. We ran into this a lot with Gun Goddess Miss Fortune because the bulk of her exo-suit was giving her a much tankier feeling, which goes against the typical read of marksmen, so we had to make adjustments to show bulkiness in very specific areas.

I think there's a way that we can execute on something like this well by finding the right balance of armor, weight, and bulk in our visual explorations. Your idea for still keeping the robes but making them feel plated and heavy (like heavier than Classic Lux's armor) sounds like a cool direction to explore. I'm SO down for floating artillery.

And n...

limebuster

Roller derby skins

Roller Derby Nova was my favorite skin in Heroes of the Storm, and I love Whip It. I'm so here for this. Who do you think would work well in this? I absolutely want Vi in this with thrusters on her that propel her skates as she Q's forward or charges at you when she targets you with R.

Its_Pine

Abomination and Hallucination would be my favourites. I'd call it Nightmares and Daydreams, or something to that effect, and roll them into the same line. Abstract, everchanging, and slightly uncanny would work for both directions: Nightmarish flesh and blood or ethereal rainbows and blossoms intwining.

Both Fever Dreams and Acid Trips can overlap in a lot of qualities, and the N&D Skin Line would encompass that nicely.

edit: I also picture this effect would be useful

Wow, that's a fascinating visual style! I think that's a unique direction that we haven't really explored in LoL so far. I love your thematic wrapper of Nightmares and Dreams as a way to execute this direction. I'll bring this up with the team, thank you. :]

SuperDuperTino

uUnnecessary "lore dump," but I've always thought if a line like this did happen, it would have a deep connection between the queens and their guards rather than, "you're strong, so fight by my side."

Syndra and Zed could have been pupils growing up studying Dark arts together in a sort of frenemy dynamic, but as they got older, Syndra studied magics and Zed more so the physical side. Fast forward because of Syndra's royal blood, after her single mother dies she takes the throne and is offered many guards as her champion, but she hand selects Zed despite their rocky interactions, and he protects her faithfully till this day however they still share that love-hate relationship.

Yasuo and Riven are both members of royal swords clan; however, Riven's family have power over their region. Riven is being groomed to take her spot as queen, but every queen needs to be a blademaster, and so far no teacher can teach her properly. This is where Yasuo comes in. A wandering vagabond cast away from his swords clan for a crime he didn't commit. While traveling, he comes across Rivens people who are being attacked. In the act of good faith, he helps them and easily repels the enemy. He is then taken into the swords clan only if he becomes Rivens teacher. Fast forward, and you have a powerful war queen with her teacher/bodyguard by her side to protect her alway's.

Oh wow, this is incredible. You've put so much thought into this! I'm such a lore nerd, so this gets me super excited. I really enjoy the relationships that you've built here between SyndraxZed and YasuoxRiven because they're complex partnerships that keep you wondering: "How long is this partnership going to last? Is this a true partnership? What will happen if X occurs?"

In your eyes, what's this primary conflict of this universe? Different monarchies fighting for power in a Game of Thrones-esque type of setting?

[deleted]

[removed]

Ahh, I can absolutely see that with the visuals that /u/for_gentlemen_only laid out.

There are sooo many incredible ideas here, and the amount of work of you put into this, u/Kampsycho, is really admirable.

While I can't speak to what exactly we're creating in the future, I will say that putting out skins for our champs that haven't gotten skins in a while is part of our plans. /u/Bellissimoh gives some extra context on this topic here.

Hiya, y'all~

I'm the Producer on the Thematic Development Team for PIE (Player Immersion and Expression aka "Personalization") on League, where we source new thematic ideas and develop them through narrative and visual exploration.

I love how you took the Shocking skins post and merged it with the Red Force skin concept! The thought you put into each skin here is so admirable. The Pink Ranger was always my favorite, so I'm especially excited about the Pink Thunder Force Anivia idea you got here. I'm just imagining what it would look like for her to get reborn in a thunderous crack of pink lightning or to decimate a team fight with a pink electrical storm (R). Ugh, I want!

I've personally been noodling on how to execute on a thematic that draws from Power Rangers, Super Sentai, and other similar inspirations, so I really appreciate this post. <3

May I ask what about this kind of thematic particularly excites y'all?

TheNotoriousMID

Sooo, I wish there was a sewn chaos skin line not just Ori. I think her skin really could use a VU, but it’s extremely unique. It’s a mix between creepy but aesthetically fun to look at. Would love to see it really develop since I know it’s one of the older skins but I feel like I’m the only person who would ever use it right now haha

Aww this is my favorite Ori skin! I agree that it's definitely a unique blend of creepiness and whimsy, which works so well for a Champ like Orianna. Whether it's through Sewn Chaos or some other thematic, I think there's an opportunity for us to execute on a creepy thematic well. :]