Riot Games reveals Aurora, League of Legends' new Final Fantasy-inspired bunny queen

Meet Aurora. She's a bunny-obsessed tribal Freljordian. A born warrior like many others from her region. A unique aetherial being with one foot in one realm, and another elsewhere through. A free spirit. League of Legends' latest Champion.

Aurora has been officially announced by Riot Games as the 169th Champion in League of Legends, following in the smokey footsteps of Smolder's claws.

Aurora revealed as Champion 169 in League of Legends

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Aurora will be the next League of Legends Champion and follows in a similar breath to some of the other animal-inspired females in the series, like Lillia, Cassiopeia, Ahri, and Evelynn - all great for cosplay.

She comes with a bunny appearance with long floppy ears and a long floppy tail. But there's nothing long and floppy about her abilities. Aurora's abilities see her Q be a Twofold Hex, blasting players before being recalled and dealing damage twice over.

Her W is a dash that also turns her invisible and can be chained with Takedowns. The E ability is another magical damage blast, this time in a cone that will also knock Aurora back. Then, the R, the ult, will see her open a rift between worlds, dealing damage, slowing enemies, and serving as a teleport.

Aurora was designed to be Final Fantasy-esque over Pokemon-like

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Aurora has been created by two main designers in the Riot team, one of who was Sunny "Kindlejack" Pandita. Much of the design and appearance were drawn by Kindlejack, who wanted to create "cool f**king champions."

When it comes to how Aurora plays, she was designed by the other half of the duo to be more like something from Final Fantasy than Pokemon, which was a serious consideration.

"I really liked the idea of doing a summoner-type character, but that caused a lot of confusion
because it means different things to different people," Game Design Manager Blake "Squad5" Smith said in a press release.

"People think of something like Pokémon where you summon something that’s constantly with you. But I wanted a Final Fantasy-style summon where you bring out a powerful creature, they do something cool,
and then go away. So that kit caused a lot of confusion, and we ended up pivoting to something else."

Her ultimate is also inspired by another gaming franchise. The rabbit-y twitching Champion also draws inspiration from Zelda.

"Getting lost in the Lost Woods in Zelda was a formative experience for me," Squad5 said. "I
want her ult to give you a similar feeling. You try to get out and then are just teleported back to
the center, unable to escape her magic."

Aurora will be released into League of Legends as of the 14.14 patch scheduled for July 17.