Vilemaw

Vilemaw is a giant, magical arachnid spider that resides in the Shadow Isles location of Twisted Treeline, who serves a similar purpose to Baron Nashor.

When defeated, Vilemaw will grant all living members of the killing team the buff Crest of Crushing Wrath which grants the ability to move through units, and also buffs nearby minions similarly to the Hand of Baron buff.

Lore

Resembling that of an arachnid spider whose grotesque mass is furred and scabbed with wet, mutant growths. This unearthly horror is a monstrous creature that looms in the darkest pits beneath the Shadow Isles. Its true origin completely unknown, save for the assumption that the spider god is an irregular life-form not originally from the Isles.

Having great physical strength as well as magical, this entity has remained unscathed by the Black Mist, and even capable of dispelling it to some extent. With this Vilemaw has established its own dark domain upon the Isles and nesting thousands of spiderlings unhindered by haunting wraiths.

Centuries ago, Vilemaw was encountered upon by a lone Noblewoman seeking an artifact to restore her natural beauty.

Abilities

Vilemaw has a powerful AoE conical pull attack and a stacking debuff that reduces your armor and magic resistance by 0.5 (estimate). The debuff caps at 60 stacks (total reduction is 30). Being hit by its melee basic attacks will apply one stack, while his long ranged attacks apply 4 stacks and his short ranged AoE slam attacks will apply 15 stacks.

Trivia

• Vilemaw has an easter egg where if two champions dance in front of him, Vilemaw will dance along with them.
  • His dance references "The Carlton Dance" from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
    • A side-by-side comparison can be seen here.
• The skeleton of a dragon can be seen near Vilemaw. It was confirmed to be the former most powerful neutral monster Ebonmaw (the dragon on Twisted Treeline) by Andrew 'Tamat' Beegle in a forum post found here, but Christina 'kitae' Norman says that this is merely a tribute and not canon.
  • Another tribute to Ebonmaw is Vilemaw having the word "maw" in his name.^[1]
• The mythical spider god mentioned in Elise's lore is Vilemaw, as confirmed by Kitae here.
  • She however also said that as well as Baron Nashor, Vilemaw is supremely more powerful in the actual lore than in the game, far more powerful than any champion - or a lot of champions - alone, much like an actual god.
  • Vilemaw is based on mythological spider gods, like the Akan's Anansi, Lakota's Iktomi, Nordic Loptr "lofty one = flea > spider" Loki's epithet, etc.
  • Despite being perceived as male, Vilemaw's body plan is peculiarly feminine, with robust abdomen & his two foremost front-limbs lacking the masculine palpal bulb to inseminate females.
• Upon defeat, Vilemaw doesn't simply die - instead, he retreats back into his lair in the background.
  • This may be a reference to the giant spider, Shelob, from Lord of the Rings who, when defeated by Sam, crawls back into her cave and is never mentioned again.

Media

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Vilemaw

Patch History

References