Development
- Main article: Volibear (Development)
- Volibear is the result of the game's forums' ongoing joke regarding armored bears.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
- Volibear will gain the cosmetic buff Tom 'Zileas' Cadwell being against an armored bear champion). ("Not even Zilean could keep an armored bear out of the League of Legends") if he and find themselves on opposing teams (references
- Volibear is voiced by David Sobolov in League of Legends[8], Legends of Runeterra[9], and Song of Nunu. Sobolov also voices in Legends of Runeterra.
- Volibear was tied with [10] in a player based vote to determine which champion will receive a Visual Gameplay Update in 2020.
- Volibear was explored for a Visual Gameplay Update, but was ice boxed, shortly before he was added to the poll in 2019.[11]
- The visual goals for Volibear's update was to deliver his identity as League's storm god without alienating his previous playerbase.[12]
- Influences for Volibear include Norse deities, Vikings, pagan motifs, storms, lightning, volcanoes and bears.[13]
- Volibear's theme is based on a song of worship the ancient Freljordian tribes used to sing in his honor.[14]
- His theme was also sung by Einar Selvik, a Norwegian musician who has also composed music for the TV show known as Vikings.
- Volibear and maintain an in game easter egg where Volibear gains 1 bonus armor and Zilean gains 1 ability power if they are on opposing teams.
- The narrative goals for Volibear was to reinvigorate the champion with lore that was exciting and more cohesive within the world of Runeterra, and to strengthen and diversify his personality by focusing on the history developed for the champ.[15][16]
Universe
- Main article: Volibear (Character)
- Volibear is one of the spirit gods. They are more like manifestations of cultural ideas, given immense power by the belief of their followers and can wax and wane, depending - or disappear for a long, long time.[17]
is the physical form of the Great Spirit of the Bear, as such spirit walkers like can harness a bit of his primal spirit magic.
- One of his titles in the main canon, "the Thunder's Roar", was his title in the old canon.
- Volibear can be as big or small as he wants due to transcending physicality as a god.[18]
- Volibear's champion theme is the war-hymn of the Ursine which appears to be a fragment of the much longer poem ‘Ode to Ruin,’ dating back to before the War of the Three Sisters, with some of the original words have no direct translation.
League of Legends
Gameplay
- Main article: Volibear (League of Legends)
- Volibear was the first champion released in Season Two.
- He was named after Travis 'Volibar' George, from a long running forum meme of him supporting armored bears in the League.[19]
- Volibar comes from Basque bolu "mill" and ibar "valley".[20]
- This demi-god's preferred epithet Valhir is possibly based on unattested Old Norse *Valhyrr[21][22] "fire of the battle-slain"; valr "battle-slain" is also found in Valhalla "hall of the battle-slain" and Valkyrie "chooser of the battle-slain".
- His other epithet the Volibear possibly also contains a variant of valr.
- His Ursine tribe possibly references on real-world bear worship and the norse Berserker.
- Volibear might have been inspired by the Panserbjørne (Danish/Norwegian: 'armored bears') from His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
- Volibear's dance both before and after his visual update references Sam B's dance in America's Got Talent.
- In Volibear's 'Champion Spotlight', his release skin names were erroneously used to label the opposite one (i.e. '' was on '' and vice versa).
- the eponymous piece by Henry Fillmore and/or Operation Rolling Thunder from the Vietnam War. might be referencing
Quotes
- Main article: Volibear (League of Legends Audio)
- Volibear speaks in ancient Freljordian:[23][24]
- Hirnvel means the organic things of the natural world.
- Vol dusk skaar means last chance to run.
- Vol kau fera means cower before me.
- Valhir means god.
- Vrestrom means great storm.
- Vorrijard is the name of the land before it was called the Freljord.
- In the Latin America localization, ¡Je! ¡Esta vez si le di! ('Heh! This time I hit it!') is a return to the ally Volibear's infamous move (being a ) when he his onslaught towards a minion while being in front a tilted Barbakahn (like ) in the middle of an impending enemy teamfight that ended up losing his fight. This phrase is related to since its rework for Latin America localization.
- In the Latin America localization, ¡Anda la osa! (colloquial spanish expression of surprise) and ¡Aqui te tengo tu cariñito! ('Here's your little darling!') is a custom dubbing reference of The Simpsons series in Latin America, the last one being a reference to the episode The Fat and the Furriest, when Homer is attacked by different fictional popular culture character related to bears (specifically, it was said by a Care Bear armed by a pipe among all the bears).
- Volibear is the first champion to have a voiceline upon killing another champion.
- ▶️ "A fool and his head are easily parted" might be referencing "A fool and his head are soon parted" and/or "A fool and his money are easily parted".
Skins
- Main article: Volibear (Collection)
- He is covered in his own version of true ice as part of his power as an ancient Freljordian deity.[25]
- His splash art shows him in the area depicted in his update reveal video.
- At the end of the reveal video, Volibear can be seen stationed at the Howling Abyss bush area. The actual in-game map was updated to have the Volibear model placed at the bush area before his release.
- This skin shares the Thunder Lord theme with:
- He references Iorek Byrnison from His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
- He can be seen clashing with in his splash art.
- This skin shares the Arctic Ops theme with:
- He might be referencing the Soviet Northern Front.
- This skin shares the Otherroads theme with:
- ...and others
- This skin is his canonical appearance during the time of the first Freljordian tribes but before the Three Sisters conquered the entire Freljord.
- In Volibear's bio, the armor was stated to have been made by , before the two brothers fought each other.
- Armor pieces similar to his can be seen in his splash art.
- This skin shares the Cops and Robbers theme with:
- He and are members of the Piltover Police Force.
- After the full champion relaunch, he is shown wearing tasers on his gauntlets which are apparent source of his electric based abilities.
- This skin shares the Luchador theme with:
- He references lucha libre.
- can also be seen in the background.
- This skin shares the Coven theme with:
- ...and others
- This skin is his canonical appearance during the events of Silence for the Damned.
- The skin was given freely to anyone who owned before or during his champion update patch.
- This skin was initially named "Thousand Pierced Volibear", but was changed to its current name before launch.
- This name is the only skin name to not include the name of the champion it is for.
- He seems to have been heavily inspired by the wendigo.
- This is the first skin shared in both Runeterra Prime and Coven.
- This skin shares the Dragonmancers theme with:
- ...and others
- This skin shares the Dragonmancers theme with:
- ...and others
- This skin shares the Inkshadow theme with:
References
- ↑ Should this game have armored bears?
- ↑ Armored Bear Facts
- ↑ The Armored Bear Manifesto
- ↑ Enough With The Armored Bears
- ↑ Brotherhood of the Armored Bear
- ↑ A Guide to the Riot War and its Factions
- ↑ The Riot War - Chapter 1 - The Incident
- ↑ Volibear Voice Actor
- ↑ Volibear LoR VA
- ↑ Choose a Champion Update Voting Results!
- ↑ Reav3 on Ice Boxed Volibear
- ↑ Danky on Volibear Art Goals
- ↑ Earp on Volibear Influences
- ↑ Lutzburg on Volibear's Theme
- ↑ Ququlani on Volibear Narrative Goals 1
- ↑ Ququlani on Volibear Narrative Goals 2
- ↑ Scathlocke on spirit gods
- ↑ Ququlani on Volibear's Size
- ↑ IronStylus on champion names
- ↑ Trask, R. L. Etyologogical Dictionary of Basque, p. 146, 217
- ↑ hyrr in Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic
- ↑ Kroonen, G. Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic p. 258
- ↑ Jellbug on Volibear Freljordian 1
- ↑ Jellbug on Volibear Freljordian 2
- ↑ Earp on Volibear Ice