| Basic | |
|---|---|
| Advanced | |
| Craftable Emblem | |
| Uncraftable Emblem | |
| Radiant | |
| Artifact | |
| Support | |
| Consumable | |
| Removed | |
| Disabled |
Brackern[]
Surrounded around the Shuriman Continent are several clans of Brackern, including clans in the Shuriman desert.
Dormun[]
The Dormun are gigantic, slow-moving creatures protected with large chitinous plates covering their body. In the harsh conditions of Shurima they have evolved to survive the perpetual drought by utilizing an unknown sense to locate hidden reservoirs of water. Incidentally, certain nomadic tribes have built themselves a permanent home upon the backs of these beasts where they clean the creature and hunt any airborne pests who venture near.
Eka'Sul[]
Desert goats that travel in herds.
Mwatis[]
Mwatis are goatlike creatures with large plated casques on their heads. Mwati wool and plate are prised for felting and insulation.
Kmiros[]
Gigantic scarabs that roam in swarms, looking for unfortunate travelers to feed on. They seem to be common prey for 
Rammus.
Outerbeasts[]
- Main article: Voidborn
Beside the Xer'Sai, other creatures from the Void, referred to as 'outerbeasts', can be found in the desert.
- Xer'Sai: Creatures from the Void that plague the southern deserts. They are the size of big dogs on average, but can be smaller or much bigger.
Rek'Sai, as the queen, is by far the largest and most dangerous of her species. Xer'sai burst from their small burrows and ravage anything nearby, to the detriment of desert caravans. Once dead, the Xer'sai decompose at an abnormally rapid rate and become inedible.
Ralsiji[]
Large and aggressive minotaur-like creatures. They are humpbacked quadrupeds with long limbs and thick horns.
Shuriman Camel[]
A breed of camels native to the deserts of Shurima and are used by caravans as well as common folk as primary mode of transportation. Despite being well-suited for lengthy travels in the desert landscape, they are still prey to a many predator such as the Xer'Sai.
Sandswimmers[]
Sandswimmers
Sandswimmers are massive quadrupedal creatures that traverse the Shuriman desert in cyclical patterns. They got their name due to their preferred method of travel. Their narrow bodies and webbed feet are perfectly design for swimming under the sand. They feed on bugs and other small creatures most desert beasts ignore. Scavengers will often memorize the predictable paths these creatures take, and jump onto their backs to ride as far as they wish.
Skallashi[]
The Skallashi are large quadrupedal herbivores. These hardy beasts of burden are common across Shurima, ideally suited to the harsh desert environment. Their key body feature is their long legs. Notoriously bad-tempered, they are nevertheless treated with great reverence. Their brown hides are often painted with sacred symbols of protection, and their horns hung with totems and charms. While these creatures are mostly used for travel and carrying heavy loads, on some larger skallashi people are able to built miniature rooms for more comfortable travel. To own one is often considered a sign of considerable prosperity.
The Black Mist[]
The Black Mist is first of a series of teasers that accompanied Harrowing 2014, foreshadowing 
Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance.
Marked Champions[]
Seven of the League's champions have been shrouded with black mist on their official League of Legend's pages, which has been associated with their betrayal due to the same mist appearing in later teasers regarding the Mark of the Betrayer:
- Cassiopeia for her betrayal of Sivir.[1]
- Hecarim for his betrayal of Kalista.[2]
- LeBlanc
- Lissandra for her betrayal of the Freljord.[3]
- Twisted Fate for his betrayal of Graves[4]
- Xerath for his betrayal of Azir[5]
- Zed for his betrayal of Shen and his order.[6]
Xerath's champion page being obscured by black mist
Mark of the Betrayer[]
The Mark of the Betrayer
The mark can be seen billowing from the crypt on the Harrowing poster. It can be seen more clearly in the animated version.
The three, skull-tipped spears is a recurring symbol within the teasers, revealed to be "The Mark of the Betrayer" with the released of the summoner icon.
- OCE Facebook Teaser[7]
League of Legend's NA Facebook later posted the same image, with the caption: "We are vengeance."[8]
Fabulista, the Guardian of the Legends[]
- BR Forum Teaser[9]
- The following is a fan-submitted translation.
| “ | In the beginning, many called me "Fabulista". I would write tales and histories to entertain people. All I wanted was to set my reader's imagination free, through my words. Around one year ago, all changed drastically...
Now, I write not to forget. I don't know if what I witness now is my reality, or if it's nothing but a dream. Yes, I believe there's a history behind it all, but... what if it all isn't just a history? What to do about these visions of this place, about haunted islands and clouds of inconsolable souls, that I don't know about? My restless sleep--that is, when I can sleep--can be cheating my fragile mind. Ah, rest, why run away from me? From time to time, I feel alone. It's normal; a writer's career has these moments where you have the company of your characters more than, well, real people. Sometimes, I would do anything to know that these voices from the beyond have any motive... |
| — Fabulista, the Guardian of the Legends. | |
 |
Mysterious Woman[]
An icon of a face, whose head/hair is a-flame has made several appearance in conjunction with the Shadow Isles. While initially genderless, the symbol has developed a very feminine appearance as it was iterated.
![The Harrowing 2014 Promotional website features a mysterious woman.[10][11]](/wiki/File:Shadow_Isles_Crest_Black_Mist.jpg "Shadow Isles Crest Black Mist.jpg (53 KB)")
![The Italian Facebook recently updated their profile picture.[12]](/wiki/File:Italy_Facebook_Teaser.jpg "Italy Facebook Teaser.jpg (24 KB)")
![Banner with the same mysterious figure, found at the Lucca Gaming and Comic convention.[13]](/wiki/File:Lucca_Banner_Teaser.jpg "Lucca Banner Teaser.jpg (63 KB)")
Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance revealed[]
Treacherously murdered, Kalista rose as a specter, twisted by the horrific power of the Shadow Isles. In death, she offers Runeterrans a proposition: surrender your 
soul to the Spear of Vengeance and she will exact retribution on your betrayers.[14]
- Abilities
- The Black Spear
Soul-Marked, a passive on Sentinel, and allows Kalista to use 
Fate's Call when she unlocks it.
- Martial Poise
- Pierce
Rend. Pierce also procs 
Martial Poise.
- Sentinel
- Passive - Soul-Marked: When Kalista and her bound ally attack a minion, monster or enemy champion at the same time, they deal bonus magic damage.
- Active: Kalista commands a sentinel to keep watch over an area. The sentinel patrols back and forth in a line a few times. Vulnerable to attacks from behind, sentinels see in a cone in front of them and scream if they spot an enemy champion.
- Rend
Pierce lodge in their target for a short time. Rend causes her to rip the spears from her enemies, 
slowing them and dealing increased damage for each spear rent from the target. Rend's cooldown resets if it secures a kill on an enemy unit. The spears stack infinitely, only disappearing if Kalista fails to keep up her assault.
- Fate's Call
ally next to her, making them untargetable and disabling their spells. During Fate's Call, Kalista's Soul-Bound gains a new ability, which allows the Soul-Bound to dash in a target direction, 
knocking up enemies they strike.- Gameplay
Kalista is a marksman who cooperates with her Soul-Bound to deal substantial sustained damage, access her full repertoire of abilities and wither her enemies under her relentless assault. Kalista's potential is unlocked by solid communication and cooperation with allies rather than raw mechanical skill. While still capable in her own right, Kalista misses out on Soul-Marked's bonus damage and effective use of her ult without direct cooperation from her ally.
- Laning
In lane, Kalista follows the familiar marksman pattern of farm and harass with one important difference: Martial Poise makes kiting part and parcel of her kit. With it, Kalista can reposition after every basic attack, hopping in and out of danger to attack opponents and gain superior positioning. Soul-Marked allows Kalista and her ally to speedily crush down each minion, forcing their opposition to farm under turret and nearly guaranteeing a level two ding ahead of their opponents. With the lane pushed, Kalista can send a Sentinel up the river to keep watch for incoming threats. This ability takes some vision pressure off her support, allowing both to spend less time at base and more time dictating the pace of the lane.
For trading, Kalista lands Pierce to proc Rend, poking with terrifying speed. While Kalista decides when to answer Fate's Call, her Soul-Bound, often a support, ultimately decides where it'll make its impact. If either Kalista or her Soul-Bound land significant crowd control on an enemy champion, Fate's Call makes the perfect tool to damage and lock down enemies, setting Kalista up to sling the fatal spear.
- Teamfights
Without massive range or a reliable escape, Kalista relies on backline positioning and attentive protection from her allies. Before any teamfight breaks out, Kalista should use Sentinel to try to spot out sneaky enemies on the edges of the fray. With the battle underway, Kalista metes out strong, consistent punishment with basic attacks, staying safe with precise management of Martial Poise. Given time and dependable peel, Kalista's spears rocket from the backline of every skirmish and teamfight. The damage and stacks add up quick, making Kalista a decisive executor with Rend.
The ult's versatility makes it good for peel, a wombo starter or a rescue for your Soul-Bound - used to its full potential, it can be all three. Against dive comps, a timely Fate's Call stops a chase dead in its tracks and serves as a counter-engage for your team to follow up. If Kalista's Soul-Bound is caught out, a quick ultimate spirits them to safety, burning whatever crowd control the enemies expended and offering the option of dis-or-re-engage. Brave Kalista players (and braver Soul-Bound) can kick off wombo-combos or follow up on a hard initiation, creating the space Kalista needs to clean up the fight from the back lines.
- Synergy
| Works well with: | Struggles against: |
|---|---|
 Tanky supports like the Radiant Dawn are perfect for |
 Kalista's slow basic attack leaves her vulnerable to the lockdown of |
 On face, it may not seem like a great idea to toss the fragile Janna into the enemy team, but |
 Ezreal's kit dulls the edge of Kalista's spears: He outpokes her with |
 Imagine |
|
- Champion Insights
- Kalista, game design by CertainlyT
Champion diversity helps us accomplish one of our key goals, that each game of League feels different than the ones before it. Just as important as champ diversity is player diversity. Some opponents are risk-averse, some fight early and often. Adjusting to the unique rhythm of each game is critical to success. But League is a team game. Reading and reacting to your allies' demeanor is equally important to victory. Kalista is for players who enjoy or want to improve at taking the pulse of teammates and working together toward a win.
As designers, we are constantly trying to help players succeed. Building scenarios that overwhelm or confuse players is simple, laying the foundations for success is the challenge. As such, Kalista highlights the cooperative end-state in which she and her ally are most likely to succeed and offers a tool kit to enable players to reach that state.
It is important to light up the right paths for players, to make the unseen momentarily visible. A champion's focus is an opportunity to let the player grow their general skill in that area so that they can bring that strength to bear in other contexts. Consider the jungle for a new player: they're not likely to see the value of farming it, of denying farm from the opposing jungler and of doing all this while controlling larger map objectives. 
Nunu's 
Consume is an amazing tool for jungling that emphasizes a successful way to play. Mastering Nunu teaches the player how to jungle, enabling him to succeed on other champions in that role.
Now think of this in terms of Kalista's focus on facilitating cooperation:
- Passive - Soul-Marked: If Kalista and her ally attack an enemy within one second of each other, they deal bonus magic damage to their target.
Soul-Marked is designed to reveal effective duo-lane teamplay. Often in bot lane, a fight devolves into two 1v1's happening near each other, rather than a 2v2 that's won through cooperation between allies. Sentinel's passive emphasizes what's often the optimal play in these situations: focused fire.
Equally important to helping the player understand the criterion for success is giving them the tools to get there. Tools to cooperate are interesting in that they include more than just formal power. In this vein, Kalista's kit endeavors to facilitate teamwork by resolving incentives for selfish play and visually communicating intent.
Think of the active on Sentinel, it relieves your support (and likely Soul-Bound) of some pressure to keep up vision. That way they'll more often be available to work together to deal bonus damage and wreak havoc with Fate's Call. This sort of design allows us to emphasize tighter, more consistent teamwork without making Kalista so communication dependent that you practically need to play in the same room as your Soul-Bound.
Champion Insights: We are the Spear of Vengeance[]
By Nathaniel 'NaKyle' Wattenmaker[15]
- Baby Steps
Kalista began development just as the smoke cleared from 
Jinx's launch. The champion team faced a new challenge. Years of female marks(wo)men featured similar shape language and gobs of guns, bows and even bow-guns. A consensus formed: the time had come for a different approach to a female marksman.
Most champions begin life as an amorphous idea blob. Someone's inspired and does what inspired people do: bring their thoughts to life and share them like crazy. If that idea resonates, artists draw, designers noodle and storytellers write. When that happens, a new champion is on the way to becoming an identifiable embryo.
Concept artist Larry 'TheBravoRay' tackled the post- Jinx conundrum. Inspired by Zeus and his lightning bolts, he imagined a tall, athletic woman throwing a spear over and over again. But given that marksmen attack repeatedly all game, every game, he needed a conceit that kept her spears supplied.
Larry spoke about his approach to the issue: "I wanted to do the archetype of the fallen warrior." He sketched a few undead representations of martial females to explore the idea. "I wanted players to think, why is she in this state? Why does she look like a wraith and how'd those spears get in her back? What's the major momentum for this character going forward? From there I think we kinda knew. Brad 'CertainlyT', the champion designer, started talking and throwing ideas in and that helped drive the concept as well."
In early days, in-development champions earn codenames by what makes them stand out. Shortly after Larry's concepts began making the rounds, Spectral Legionnaire entered active development.
- Teams in teams
Champions spring from tight-knit teams of craft-experts, where two people rarely have the same skills and expertise. Within the broader champion team, there are multiple, fully-functional teams and each is focused on one particular new champion at a time.
Even if these teams carry the responsibility to understand exactly who, what and why the champion should be in the game, they share their work widely, soliciting opinions and expertise from tons of Rioters. Even Ryze and Tryndamere pop in to see what's being cooked up.
- Defining Kalista
Kalista was still taking her first steps when Anthony 'Ant in Oz' joined Riot's narrative team. She'd be his first project and he leapt right onto a charging train. "We sort of knew she was betrayed and that was like a quarter of who she was. So my first task was to try and write a few stories to flesh out some ideas and see which of those stories resonated with everybody working on the champ. You can see very quickly when people get excited about a story and that gets them re-enthused about the champ... that's when you know you've hit a good mark."
On Brad's (design) side of things, he'd been prototyping cooperative gameplay designs with the hope they'd find their home in Kalista's kit. In co-op, the fun's in accomplishing objectives together, not simply doing similar things while standing near each other. This rule of thumb meant the relationship between Kalista and another champion required shared purpose and an even footing. The idea thematically lined up with Kalista's martial bearing. Soldiers train to fight as a unit with common objectives - similar to the peer relationship in duo lanes.
When Anthony saw the early designs, he jumped. "This was a good example of the background and the story getting inspired by the gameplay direction. I think that goes back and forth between gameplay, narrative, and all the different artists. We all feed off each other. I think that's a really healthy, natural way for things to work."
What began with Brad's exploration of how players could cooperate evolved into The Pledge that allows another champion to yield their soul to Kalista. With a thematic and narrative conceit in place for Kalista, Brad solidified how duo lane players could best work together to farm, score kills, and save each other's butts.
- Problem Child
One particular problem still hovered over Kalista's gestation. There was consensus that she would be a wraith, but striking the balance between who Kalista once was, a proud warrior, and who she is, the Spear of Vengeance, proved difficult.
Larry talked about a particularly dark time: "There was a lot of feedback when people (internally) started seeing the character... they said, 'She looks too much like a zombie'. And that was the key word, 'zombie, zombie, zombie'. It was okay that she was undead, because that was the point, but the non-intelligent zombie was not what we wanted." The artists on Kalista's pod cooperated with illustrators on the splash team to rejigger her face, helping her become the purposeful, relentless hunter they imagined.
Anthony spoke about another breakthrough on the identity front. During VO (voiceover) development "there was a realization that she wouldn't say 'I' very much because she's more than one entity, really. So it became 'We are the Spear of Vengeance'." This shift allowed the team to make a clearer statement about who she is and explore the relationship between Kalista and the souls she bonds with. In seldom instances, when she remembers her past life, she still says 'I', providing a small glimpse into her harrowed past.
Brad emphasized trust as the key to navigating Kalista through difficult challenges and into the game. "We were constantly faced with problems. Solvable problems that we worked through together, but meetings were less jokey. There was more spit-balling, more discussion on how to solve things... if I list the things that I'm proud of this team for, it'd be a long list for this champion in particular."
Larry continued the line of thought: "It's all a bunch of professionals collaborating together... every guy and gal is a pro at what they do and when we get tough feedback, we trust. Like if it's gameplay feedback, I trust Brad is gonna understand and act and do things properly. Same thing with stories, or art or animation... " Offering a final comment, Brad said "It's just something you have to be really excited about, you know? Not making a champion, but making this champion."
Media[]
| Kalista's Theme |
- Related Videos
- Main article: Summoner icon
Trivia[]
- "Fabulista" was a name that keep coming up during the promotional "The Black Mist" event for the 2014 Harrowing seasonal event which was used to promote the release of Kalista.
- Fabulista remained on the forums after posting her message; answering the questions of the "voices in her head" (The players).
- After some time, Fabulista started referring to himself in plural-pronouns; "We are the fallen", "We do not recognize those named", and "We will ravage who are against us".
- Kalista is voiced by Misty Lee.
- Kalista's voice actor in Brazil is Lúcia Helena, who also voices Blackfrost Anivia.
- Kalista's voice actor in Brazil is Lúcia Helena, who also voices
- During development, she was called Spectral Legionnaire.[16]
- Over a year ago a 'prototype' of who would later become Kalista appeared on Reddit.
- Kalista was leaked by Redditor 'WhyRenektonWhy' (who also leaked Ultra Rapid Fire, Yasuo, and Gnar, and whose account has since been terminated) a few weeks prior to her reveal.
- Kalista might come from a merging of several inspirations, all from Greek mythology:
- During the Alpha, Pierce used to be the name for an ability of Ashe's.
References[]
- ↑ Cassiopeia's lore
- ↑ Kalista's lore
- ↑ Freljord lore
- ↑ Graves' lore
- ↑ Azir's lore
- ↑ Zed's lore
- ↑ OCE Facebook Teaser
- ↑ NA Facebook Teaser
- ↑ Brazilian Forum Teaser
- ↑ Harrowing 2014 promotional website
- ↑ Harrowing Passes Soon
- ↑ Italy Facebook Teaser
- ↑ Becca Roberts' Twitter
- ↑ Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance revealed
- ↑ Champion Insights: We are the Spear of Vengeance
- ↑ Ask Riot