League of Legends: Aurora, six years in the making

Six years, yes, six years is how long Riot has spent developing this new cute, somewhat innocent, and surprising mage. Although she has emerged in various forms over those six years, like Sylas, Yone, and more, Aurora is finally coming to the Rift as her own champion.

Aurora is a new Vastaya, a popular animal-like race in the world of League of Legends, alongside characters like Sett, Ahri, Xayah, and Rakan. But Aurora is unique within this group in multiple ways. She is the first Vastaya from the cold north of League, the Freljord, and the first to be inspired by a rabbit, making her a true bunny girl. This, according to Elyse Lemoine, Aurora's writer, is particularly popular.

Besides being a bunny girl, Aurora also symbolizes more representation in League of Legends. She is intended to be a clear representative of autism in League of Legends. "We didn't just want to capture the typical autism experiences many of us have had," Lemoine explained. "But the most fundamental aspect of autism. That is how our brains work—how we see the world. It doesn't align with others' expectations. And that's really what we want to show with Aurora. She shouldn't meet expectations; she should set new ones."

According to Blake Smith, game design manager at Riot, Aurora is also the first true prey animal among the Vastaya, which played a significant role in her gameplay.

"I thought a lot about how a prey animal defeats a predator. They usually don't overpower them; their success often lies in trickery and eventual escape. And that's what I wanted to bring into Aurora's gameplay," Blake explains. "Aurora is very cunning and fast—very elusive. Instead of holding her ground against her opponent, she prefers to outsmart them, using her rabbit-like agility to run around the edges of a fight and outwit her opponent."

This elusiveness is evident in her gameplay, especially in her passive, Spirit Abjuration. If Aurora hits an enemy three times with an ability or basic attack, she gets a short boost in movement speed and some extra healing. She even builds stacks that significantly increase her heal and movement speed, though the developers have confirmed these stacks are not a major part of her gameplay. She’s not like Nasus or Aurelion Sol who can kill you with one look after accumulating a thousand stacks by the end of the game.

Aurora deals most of her damage as a mage with her Q, Twofold Hex, and E, The Weirding. These two abilities are fairly short-range skillshots that allow her to deal damage and build up her Spirit Abjuration. They aren't complicated abilities, but that wasn't the intent of Aurora's developers. Her W, Across the Veil, for instance, offers a lot of "outplay potential."

With Across the Veil, Aurora jumps to the 'Spirit World' and instantly activates her passive, while temporarily becoming invisible. If she gets a kill, the cooldown of Across the Veil resets. It’s a way for a good prey animal to outsmart any predator. But this bunny also has some sharp teeth, which become truly visible with her R, Between Worlds.

With her ultimate, Aurora jumps forward and creates a large circle on the ground that does significant burst damage with a shockwave. Afterward, the ground temporarily fuses with the Spirit World, where Aurora permanently activates her passive. Enemies trying to escape should be cautious; if they hit the edges of the circle, they are pulled back to the center. It's a perfect ultimate to combine with other strong AOE attacks, like those from Ziggs.

It all sounds very powerful, and honestly, it probably is, but Aurora also has her weaknesses. Like characters she is based on, such as Sylas and Fiddlesticks, she has weaknesses in her range; she can be quite easily handled from a distance. Additionally, she falls off later in the game and doesn’t have access to much crowd control. According to the developers, champions that can complement these weaknesses, such as Sejuani, Amumu, Leona, Jinx, Aphelios, and Kog'Maw, were very important.

The development of Aurora has taken years. "It's fun to look back at everything we've put into Aurora. When Smith and I started on this champion, we expected her to be the first one we would make. And now we’re four or five champions later. Finally, we’re back to fulfill our original promise," Sunny Pandita, concept artist of Aurora, recalls. "But instead of doing this as the start of our adventure together, we now stand at the peak of our journey."