Many of Aurora's traits were drawn from the diverse experiences of the developers and Riot staff who are on the autism spectrum.
It’s been quite a while since Riot Games has released a new champion for League of Legends in 2024, and finally, more about Aurora, the Witch Between Worlds has been revealed on Thursday (20 June).
According to Champions product lead Alexia "Lexical" Gao, this champion is regarded as a "labour of love and passion" by the LoL development team, having been conceptualised seven years ago and inspiring the kits of Sylas and Lilia.
Many members of Aurora’s dev team, and Riot overall, felt inspired to share their experiences as people on the spectrum. Creating her gave them a chance to bring a part of their lives into the game they love.
Now fully fleshed out and almost ready for release, the dev team shared how they have created a character on the autism spectrum: she sees Runeterra with a unique perspective and sets new expectations based on her worldview.
Who is Aurora?
Aurora already appeared as a character in The Spirit of Hearth-Home, a point-and-click adventure mini-game released in Patch 14.11, where she sought the help of Ornn on behalf of her newly befriended forgotten demigod, Hestrelk. But what else should we know about her?
Having been born into a Vastayan Bryni tribe in the Freljordian village of Aamu, Aurora possessed the extraordinary gift of seeing through the veil that separates the spiritual and material realms.
Aurora often feels overwhelmed by the mortal world. She's particularly sensitive to large crowds, loud sounds, lengthy conversations, and social gatherings.
This made it difficult for her to connect with her peers, and instead, she found solace and companionship with spirits, helping and healing them.
Although a Vastayan, Aurora didn’t know how to use magic. After all, she is a Bryni, and Bryni aren’t exactly the best in that regard. Instead, she learned how to use magic through trial and error, and a spell book she had worked on through tons of trial and error.
Determined to learn more about the spirit realm, Aurora left her village to travel across the Freljord.
Since befriending the forgotten demigod, Hestrelk (or Haestryr), Aurora has had a new goal: to become strong enough to help her friend.
Aurora’s gameplay kit
Aurora is poised to mainly be a skirmisher mage who could be playable in both mid and top lanes.
Passive – Spirit Abjuration
If Aurora damages an enemy 3 times with her spells and attacks, she will deal magic damage, exorcise a spirit from the enemy, and enter Spirit Mode for a few seconds.
Aurora gains movement speed while in Spirit Mode.
Spirits following Aurora grant her additional movement speed and heal her over a duration.
This three-hit passive will be quite helpful in sustaining Aurora’s health and mobility, all while draining enemy health.
However, it hasn’t been revealed how long the spirits follow Aurora around—something we might need to test and find out in the PBE.
Q- Twofold Hex
Cast: Fire a blast of cursed energy in a direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit, marking them with spirit energy.
Recast: End the curse, drawing back the spirit energy to herself, dealing magic damage to enemies passed through.
Recast damage is increased by missing HP.
You can hold your cast for up to 3.5 seconds before it returns to you.
Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, Lead Designer of the Summoner’s Rift Team, suggests waiting until your target's health is lower before pulling it back for a more effective recast, as the recast damage increases based on the target's missing health.
W- Across the Veil
Hops in a direction. Upon landing, enter the spirit realm, briefly becoming Invisible and entering spirit mode for several seconds.
Takedowns on enemy champions reset the cooldown of this ability.
Tag enemies with your Q1 (Cast), then use your W to position Aurora for a better Q2 (Recast) pullback. This method can also be useful for making clever escapes.
E – The Weirding
Send out a blast of spirit magic, dealing magic damage in an area and slowing them. Aurora will hop backward slightly on cast.
R- Between Worlds
Hop forward and upon landing, send out a pulse of spirit energy that deals magic damage and slows enemies.
The area then merges with the spirit realm for a few seconds, granting Aurora an empowered spirit mode, and allowing her to travel from one end of the area to another. Enemies who try to cross the threshold will take magic damage and be slowed.
The area merges with the spirit realm, granting Aurora an empowered spirit mode, and allowing her to travel from one end of the area to the other. Enemies who try to cross the threshold will take magic damage, be slowed, and be pushed back toward the center of the area
Her ultimate can be a great tool for her to gain the upper hand in a 1v1, if you combine it cleverly with her E, her Q and W (best combinations of course need to be tested out). However, it’s an effective crowd-control tool that can disrupt the enemy team’s synergy during team fights.
Aurora will be out on PBE on 25 June. Until then, we’re excited about what else Riot would reveal about her in the coming days.