The very interesting thing about Illaoi's faith is that it is an exact inversion of Buddhism. Buddhism is based around freeing oneself from desire in order to ultimately escape the cycle of Samsara. The faith of Nagakabouros is all about chasing after and satisfying your desires, you must be in motion.

"Its about drive, it's about power, we stay hungry, we devour. Put in the work, put in the hours and take what's ours" - Illaoi I think

illaoi was one of the first champions in call yordles in game "spirits" - the actual line is: " foolish spirit , begone!"

Thanks; now I really want a nun skin for Illoai. "Bad Habit Illoai".

Hi, big fan here, but the aztec and mayan are from North America (Mexico, Belize and Guatemala) the south america had a really really different culture, including images and background. But keep going, it was an amazing video!

we could make a religion out of this...

Illaoi: I shall test you Me: You shall snap me like a toothpick

I'll bet his heart isn't the only thing Illaoi broke 😏

Imagine having your soul ripped out of your body, and promptly having said soul beaten senseless with tentacles. That is how the Nagakeburous do.

"Illaoi Is Built Like Brick Shit House" Me: "Woof" "Illaoi Can Crush Multiple Things Between Her," Me: "Thighs"

if illaoi was raised to be a nagakabouros priestess having a comic where she doubts her faith and the other priestesses test her soul and we get to see what a person sees when their soul is tested would be pretty cool

Illaoi is one of my fave chars in League if my mastery with her is any indication. I appreciate what Riot attempted to do with her both lore-wise and body type-wise as you've described. I suppose my major critique of her is what Riot's made other characters feel/behave around her. In most special interaction cases, a lot of characters look down on Illaoi. View her and her god as fraudulent/fake. Which.... doesn't make sense? Because she most certainly has the power of a god if pulling the spirits of her enemies free from their bodies is any indication. It's also surprising that with as one-note as a lot of League's characters are (I. MUST. DESTROY. EVERYTHING. BECAUSE. REASONS.) why aren't more of them followers of Illaoi or at the very least interested in what her religion can provide if pursuing desire with everything you have is, quite frankly, the religion's one rule? It's just interesting to me that Riot would isolate her like that.... Although I suppose a real-life consensus about religion would also be equally lukewarm. Just some thoughts.

I think we have different interpretations of the test of Nagakabouros and Illaoi's role in it. I think rather than her being the obstacle that all people must overcome in order to be chill in the eyes of Nagakabouros, I think she serves more as a wake up call. It specifies that she's supposed to seek out people with "great potential" and challenge them, and that those who survive are changed by the test. She's meant to awaken individuals to their potential, and set them in motion. As far as I can tell, the only two things Nagakabouros cares about is that undeath is abhorrent, and that people need to live their lives fully and don't become complacent. The Bearded Lady doesn't care *what* you want, so long as you pursue it. I also don't think that Illaoi's god demands particularly grandiose goals or ambitions, just that whatever it is you desire(aside from eternal undeath, lmao) you get on that shit and do what you do. You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti? You want a Maserati? You better work bitch. Like if you wanna get nasty? Do it. You wanna punch an asshole in their genitals? Do it. You wanna eat a bunch of nachos? Chase your bliss, queen. But if you want something, and you don't go for it? Well, the universe can only progress if you follow your desires. It *gave* you your desires for a reason. And you were created to serve it, so serve it by doing what gives you fulfillment. On a different not, I could totally see there being sects or different ideological arguments *within* the cult of Nagakabouros, too. Is obstructing someone else's desires that don't conflict with yours considered bad? Or is it more of a free for all where you can do what you anything to other people as long as it gets you what you want? I want to know more about how exactly Illaoi's views differ from other worshipers'. It sounds like the cult generally only cares about the people native to the serpent isles. Does that make Illaoi's evangelism unique? How widespread is her religion in the Serpent Isles aside from in Bilgewater? Why exactly do the serpent caller's call serpents? Is it to fight the black mist of the shadow isles during the harrowing or what?

Please do a Yorick video eventually! I love Yorick's lore and in-game dialogue, he has to be one of the best in the game imo. I love how most of his splash art makes him look very clearly unhuman and dark, even though his goal is noble. Shows just how terrifying the curse of the isles is. I always found it especially sad how Yorick is chased by Wolf because he unwillingly runs from death, even though he would love nothing more than to accept Lamb's arrow.

*T.B, after talking for 28 mins:* "There isn't much to say" lmao if only I could be that eloquent in anything P.S. heck yeah strong women are sexy

What i like in her splah art is how they draw our attention to her face, wich is a very feminine face, with the clouds and then the sun around her head kind of gives her a angelic tone and tie with the religious theme

Hey Skyen, could you do a "what's the deal with karma?"? She is a pretty messy champion design-wise rn, and i'd like to see ur opinion on her

MY WIFE. THANK YOU

Thanks man! Been asking for this for a while. Mostly because I find her hot and I enjoy her philosophy of "Broken bones teach better lessons than sermons". I am a simple man.

And if Illaoi hasn't ever been given a reason to question or consider her beliefs, and she encounters another powerful character with equally-strongly-held (and highly contradictory) beliefs that _they've_ never had to consider, the potential conflict between the two could be a powerful moment for both. Each character needs to either grapple with the realization that their faith is not the only one people hold so strongly and find a reason to continue to do so, or find a reason to dismiss the other and their worldview. It could be a neat story. Making Illaoi look more religious while still looking like a warrior...hm. The Nagakabouros equivalent of a cross necklace or rosary or something would be a good start, especially if Nagakabouros had any well-defined iconography outside Illaoi. (Does it?) Beyond that, it's a question of what else people associate with religion that fits with the rest of her aesthetic. I'd like to, again, suggest that Skyen does a video about character design in textual media via visual description (as opposed to visual depiction in visual media).

"She can crush things between her hands" Oh her thighs. Pls

Can u make a What's the deal with Kled? || Character design & lore discussion please

'Indegeonous culture from south america ... specially Maya and Azteca' ohhhh c'mon!!!!!

Your videos are genuinely very enjoyable and informative, not to mention your voice is really soothing and nice to listen to, overall just keep up the good work!

"Religion religion religion..." Me-Mr. Skyen? Have you been to my parents dinner table? XD

I've waited a lot for this. I just love how READY TO FIST YOU TO OBLIVION she looks! My favorite character by far. btw, 27:00 Maians are not South American haha

Illaoi was always one of my favourite characters visually, that colour story is a shame though :(

I'm not an artist or anything but I like your videos so much because they shed light on all those subtle design decisions that Riot made for the champion art and it's so fascinating to learn how artist think about this stuff. thanks a lot for you videos

I know I'm two years late to this discussion, but I had a thought or two about the character design. First just the general choice of colors being rather nice for helping get across the fact that she's tied to the ocean. That green is very... watery, I guess would be a good term. And second... She does have a little bit of religious iconography, or at least something that could be taken as religious. That weird necklace thing around her neck. It's design is vaguely indicative the stereotypical 'mayan aztec' style, which as far as I know, tends to be connected with stereotypical 'mystics' a lot. Beyond that, just the use of gold as a highlight in general. If it had been say brass or iron she'd look less warrior like, but the use of that gold does help her stand out as important. Help establish her as the HIGH priestess. It also helps add that 'ritualistic' aspect you mentioned, since well, gold's the sort of thing that gets a lot of ritual use. Just my thoughts though.

I almost got choked with a pear when T B Skyen talked about Illaoi fucking Gangplank

illaoi face look a lot like the villain maya priest from "the road to dorado" cartoon movie

I'd be interested in a follow up on your comments about Gangplank in the future. Keep up the great work!

Funny thing about the hourglass shape on illaoi is that you don't notice it from that angle, makes you wonder why did they put it.

I'm tempted to adhere and see this Ctutulu thing you mention with the dislike button, but my hands slipped into automatic motion and hit the like button. That said, nice video on Illaoi. Curious if you're going to continue with the Dark Souls videos and other videos critiquing character designs and developments?

We need a story with Illaoi,Pyke,Nautilus,Gangplank,Miss Fortune and maybe Graves and Twisted Fate. Riot could make a really cool story about the swimming city and Nagakabouros (also known as mother serpant and bearded lady)

So, all this time, when he talks about Illaoi having a test of her faith, then Ruined King the game come out and gives him what he asked for

I really like these videos. What I would like even more would be a "What's the deal with Veigar?" video. I think he could be quite interesting. But Riot seems to be rewriting the Yordles into some kind of race of spirits, so the backstories might change.

Since her lore teasers I fell in love with her, and still till today she's my Fav. Champion 😘😍

With the whole big event going on right now, I would love to see some of the lore on these characters re-examined! Especially considering who's set to be in that Ruined King video game.

I just read the new ruined king short story from riot forge, and it threw me back to your comments about possible directions about challenging Illaoi's beliefs. Her interactions with yorick are such a neat way to directly compare and contrast each of their beliefs, I'm struggling to gush more without spoilers.

Thank you Skyen :D Im glad there is a guy like you making this videos

Yes!! Ive been waiting for this for a long time

Interesting to note that Leona doesn't have the kind of bulky body type similar to Illaoi that you mentioned because her character designer, IronStylus, based her directly on his wife (aside from adjusting her hair colour). Leona IS certainly much more heavyset-looking than the other women in the game, perhaps best exemplified in A New Dawn when Katarina slides under a giant fallen tree, Ahri agilely springs over it, and Leona just puts her shield in front of her and smashes straight through it, but that's more a consequence of her _costume_ than her build, being heavily-armoured from head to toe. The only other girl even _close_ to Illaoi in build is Vi (and Shyvana, in splash art at least if not in her outdated model). Speaking of Vi, are you ever going to get onto Jinx's character design? An analysis of her new lore was the first LoL video you ever made, but I think she's makes a fascinating contrast with Illaoi, in that while both of them are absolute hedonists Illaoi is so out of religious dedication while Jinx is just crazy and committed to absolute chaos, they both have non-standard female character designs with Illaoi being built like a brick shithouse and Jinx being both practically skeletal and as flat-chested as Annie, and of course Jinx bristles with high-tech weapons while Illaoi just smashes the crap out of you with a big lump of shaped gold and godly power. You know, to my mind the biggest wasted potential of Illaoi's design was her /dance emote. Her debut appearance in Shadow and Fortune climaxed with her performing this primal, foot-stamping, chest thumping, chanting ritual dance to summon the power of Nagakaburos to repel the onslaught of the Black Mist, kind of like a Maori haka, but in game they just gave her this generic and lame side-to-side kicking thing which loops in about 2 seconds. Dances in general have mainly been terrible for the last few years- they've just gotten shorter and way more boring. Remember when Master Yi used to do the Napoleon Dynamite dance, and now he just struts on the spot? Lame.

Yep I have a type and it's illaoi 😍😍😍

What about Malzahar?He is also a prophet

Can you talk about Nocturne? I'd really love to hear what you think of him.

26:14 Idk I actually kinda likethemore casual priestess thing. And it theory it works within the religon too, the core tennets seem to not be a pure devotion to Nagakabouros but to the ideals of Nagakabouros, so it'd make sens to put your own desires about what a good outfit is above going fully religious. That said a more fully reigious outfit for Illaoi would make a great skin. And it's also still kinda wild to me they haven't done a basketball skin for her too.

Skyen, your descriptions of the dislike button never fail to put a smile on my face. Love your stuff man, you really help give pointers on how to design characters.

Fun fact! Illaoi's creation process was so intense, 2 rioters almost quit =D

at 18 minutes I REALLY wanted you to mention All Might from Boku no Hero lol

We need more buff big mommas

I'M guessing it would be better to do this on your patreon. But could you do an old vs new on Yorick. While his story might be better, I kinda feel like his old design was better. P.S Maybe they could give a somewhat similar physique to Vi?

Watching this 3 years later and wondering: why the heck isn't my girl on Wild Rift yet? I loved to play with her on pc (and not gonna lie, she was definitely my first in game women crush)

Also she’s the only female champion that can crush my head like an orange

Even her abilities are kinda in line with the "test" and "motion" motifs. They present the enemy with situations where you DO have a chance to escape, albeit a slim one, but still, a way out IS left for them. Q hits like a truck, but with good reflexes and some positioning you can dodge it; The W+passive combo works the same way, but with more positioning challenges; E makes you choose between getting rid of the test by fighting Illaoi or running to safety but having to dodge surprise attacks for some time. R just puts EVERYTHING up into 5th gear. At the same time, if you try to bring help to the fight it DOES give you the chance to kill her off faster, but, in turn, her abilities become more dangerous and the terrain around even more so.

My favorite part of this video is his refusal to pronounce her god's name correctly

one thing it tells us is that Illaoi chooses Gangplank's side when Miss Fortune (who has dedicated her entire life to revenge) is equally worthy of Nagakabouro's eyes

Also, muscles for days? The flow of Nagakabouros is motion through runeterra til it perishes!

Whats the deal with Aurelion Sol plsss

Illaoi's is Jean-Paul Sartre's antagonism to his philosophy on bad faith, not an allegory for hedonism. Illaoi's religion believes people must be driven by their desires, which discourages them to live a tepid life, thus live in bad faith. i don't think hedonism is the right word behind Illaoi's faith as hedonism relishes in lethargy and slothful living, thus contrary to Nagakabouros' doctrine. Illaoi teaches people to reject the absurdity of the world and to question their place by fundamentally following their desires, going contrary to social norms of self-restraint. what is most interesting is that through the societies of the world this philosophy is only embraced by the elite classes (those who see themselves above social norms) or flat out rejected due to the dangers to the means of production, yet Illaoi's religion and those practicing are allowed to be part of society, even if their teaching contradict most of what a civilized society ascribes to as "the social contract".

SKYEN MAN, *there are motions I want to show you*

Just so you know, my Dollar is very picky when it comes to vegetables. It's fine with spinach of all things, but it can't handle squash in any form, or broccoli that isn't covered in melted cheese.

Could you try Rek'Sai? I like her overall concept and the design is cool but I always feel like something is odd or off about it.

11:05 Love the zefrank reference :D

Best character

I WAS WAITING FOR THIS FOR SO LONG

Thank you for making this video, I love Illaoi.

As far as I know, splashes are made after the model. Might have changed recently, but I wouldn't be sure.

Good video as always dude, I really hope you do one of these with Warwick, since he is my favourite champion in the entire game I want to know what you can say about him!

Okay I'm not even joking, @6:15 I'm literally breeding competitive pokemon as he's talking abt it and it's kinda scary

Speaking of religious characters, Elise used to be one of them--essentially a priestess of the cult of Vilemaw--though for entirely selfish reasons. With lines like "they need guidance" and "I can show them the way to divinity" that was very much a strong part of her characterization. Now Elise is just bland--lady wants to be pretty forever and will do anything to achieve this goal. That's Disney's Evil Queen exactly and it's a trope that has been done to death. :/ I preferred her old lore.

Karma is also a religious leader now kinda like the buddah

I think there quite a bit for the religion in her costume tho if you don't know it doesn't apear so (since most ppl asociate religion to Staff, or Cross) But I think she got quite a bit #1 her orbs thing is likely a powerfull artefact of her religion I would think at less. And secondly she does have a Maya look (and they where quite religious too I think could be wrong tho but I played the last tomb rider and they seem to be really focus on religion in there socity.)

One note about warrior designs. I don't believe most strength based athlete body types are a good base of what a realistic warriors body looks like. If you take a look at people who practice HEMA (historical European martial arts) you may note that they generally aren't all that buff. That's because real melee weapon combat is much more about technique, endurance, speed and agility. A warrior with the body type of Garen, Dairius or a typical bod builder would be spending a ton of energy on one swing than the use they get out of that little extra power behind it. Yes they have muscle but they aren't often built like a mountain. On a side note I do recognize that in fantasy an story telling some liberties are taken such as some characters need to have a body that reflects their power or nature and some need to look like they could lift their big ass weapons. Also the rule of cool is sacred.

Good choice for a video. Maybe the most interesting one yet!

Internal monologue: (don't say mommy, don't say mommy, don't say mommy, don't say mommy) Mommy? FUCK

The use of her breastplate to retain some semblance of a feminine figure in her design without having to compromise her built physique is a pretty clever, and not entirely ahistorical one. Because while "boob armor" is a rather common and overexagerrated trope in female armor design in videogames, medieval knights absolutely wore armor that made some concessions in or regardless of functionality for aesthetic purposes, such as obscenely oversized codpieces and extremely narrow waists, and to a far more extreme degree than is the case here.

Hey! A posted a comment about this on your Brand video as a reply, but how about doing one of these about Karma? She's a champ I've played a good bit, but I don't think she gets much attention. I was originally gonna suggest Kha'zix (another favorite of mine, maybe I just like the letter K), but I'm sure people will suggest him eventually as he's quite popular. Show my homegirl some love, these videos of yours are super cool, keep doing what you're doing, I find it very engaging.

I wish you could talk about skarner and he rough time around the years both in lore and playstyle

YEEEAAAHHH TIME FOR MY GIIIIRRRRRRL

As far as I get it Leona needs to find Diana so she can give nami the moonstone in exchnge for the pearl and they need the pearl to control Aurelion Sol. I guess the moonstone is that thing bard steals because the world was in a great danger. IDK where diana is going though

So, Nagakabouros would dislike Mordekaiser for being the king of the undead, and being himself an undead who refuses to die, or would it like him because of his drive to fulfill his desire is so big that he defies the very rules of the universe to achive it?

Naga- ka - boros BTW i want a disney princeas Illaoi skin bcs she is basically moana on steroids

What’s the deal with Sejuani? Does her body design not differ from Miss Fortune & Syndra’s?

Illaoi or the priestess more buffed than the lady who spent her hole life fighting for her survival in the litteral abyss

I'm curious if you have any additional thoughts about Illaoi and her religion after Ruined King gave us a lot more information.

Religion in fantasy settings is often really hard to convey. I mean, if you serve a god that interacts with the world with absurdly powerful magic, it's not really faith, it's acceptance. The main doubt you could have is if that "god" is actually a god and not a demon that needs your belief to be able to eat your soul after you die (witch could be true even for the cjristian god, since it's so unreasonable and contradicting XD)

yorick plz

One of the hottest female champions in my opinion.

hm so, here are the "religious": -illaoi -diana -leona -malzahar (void) -reworked aatrox, since you need to believe in gods to kill them

So what you’re saying about the religion of Nagakabouros is that it’s about drive it’s about power we stay hungry we devour put in the work put in the hours and take what’s ours

Another good analysis on one of my favorite characters. But how about my favorite champion, kled?

fun thing with that comment about Leona and Diana having the same body type with completely different roles, I am pretty sure Diana has more metal on her body than Leona does XD

I fuckin love Illaoi

FINALLY!

Yo, that "If they see me walking, they should get out of my way" hit home bruh, cuz i am a bigger girl (polynesian) and do feel like i stumble into other people a lot, and i get made fun of because of it woah

Woah I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Malzahar the prophet of the void.

Pelvis crusher in chief

28:52 rawr

I don't get how it's bad that we define masculinity from a trait that is more represented among men. Suggesting that it isn't just seems weird. It just is. I truly see no reason to think that it is unfortunate. It's like sexualization, use it in your design if it's relevant. I don't feel like one single sentence in the lore is enough to cover that area. What I'm trying to say is, I want a bit more of Brienne of Tarth in the character.