The developers from Riot Games have shared a spotlight of a new character coming to MOBA League of Legends. Viego, the Ruined King, is one of the most iconic figures in the history of Runeterra. But what happens when history suddenly resurfaces and returns one of the darkest chapters to the present?
A couple of days ago the team shared a lengthy blog post dedicated to the process of bringing the Ruined King to life… in a way. The developers discussed Viego’s character and story in greater detail and the ways to compliment it via his visuals and abilities.
A thousand years ago, Viego was a young, untested king of Camavor, an empire of aggressive conquerors. Self-centered and immature but also immensely powerful, Viego saw a beautiful woman named Isolde and decided that he had to have her. Being a commoner, Isolde agreed.
It is unknown whether Viego truly loved her, but the facts are that he ignored his duties as a king to focus on romance. However, one of his numerous enemies attempted to usurp Viego’s position. Instead of freeing Camavor from a useless king, the blade found Isolde, and in doing so set the world down the path to ruin.
“In a desperate attempt to save what he loved most, Viego brought Isolde to the Waters of Life on the Blessed Isles. But instead of Isolde returning with an outpouring of love, she lashed out in pain, fear, and rage. She stabbed Viego through the chest with his sword, and in doing so unleashed the Ruination—a blast which devastated the Isles, twisting all those present into monstrosities, including the land itself.”
The team spent some time to make sure that Viego’s gameplay reflected his fantasy of being a young, petulant king and lord of the Shadow Isles and Black Mist. Kings are sovereign over their people. Rulers by right, commanders by nature. So what kind of regal power over others would Viego have carried over into his post-life wraith state? The power to take over the dead, of course.
Creating a champion whose passive is to be an entirely different champion could be confusing to play against, but unlike Sylas, Viego takes over his enemy’s body. “Annie” doing Annie things makes sense. What the team really needed to do was find a way to make it obvious that “Annie” was still Viego.
“In one of the early iterations we used a shader to replace the entire champion as a ghostly figure. But this was too difficult to discern in the heat of battle. The solution we found was applying his crown and giving them a slightly different shade over their model to match.” – explains VFX artist Trevor “Riot Temcampy” McTavish.
Viego’s other source of power is the Black Mist. The design the team landed on is a more localized Harrowing. Viego summons the Black Mist and haunts a section of terrain. When inside of it, he gains camouflage, dons his armor, and takes off, ready to hunt down his victim.
Blade of the Ruined King is one of the most iconic items in League and the team wanted to incorporate it into the Ruined King. The solution came in a form of another passive.
Viego’s Q is called Blade of the Ruined King, and grants him the ability to apply on-hit effects twice. When paired with the in-game item, Viego can get double the on-hit effect on each target as long as he weaves abilities with autos.
Seems the sword is happy to be once again wielded by its master.
