Varus' Story Retold, The Haunting Tale Of Love And Loss For The League Of Legends Champion

Varus - A different tale told

Like many other characters, Varus was a story Riot Games felt was unfinished, that his backstory was weaker than it could have been. In an effort to flesh out parts of his history and connect dots that otherwise were left dangling, the team came together to create a backstory of tragic proportions. Originally, he was a warrior whose purpose was to defend a secret temple housing an "ancient pit of corruption." After a raid, he stood at his post while his friends and family were slaughtered, but he was resolute to halt the attack met at the temple itself. Because of that duty, his village fell causing the character to spiral and eventually succumb to the pit himself in hopes for revenge.

When Riot released a bit of his unfinished story by mistake, it was quick to see that the story was in desperate need of being fleshed out. The video and the comics are the first step to giving the champion the attention they deemed was necessary - and it has one hell of a twist.

"In the original story he was just one dude," Eltringham says. "We really wanted to make the tragedy element of the story the strongest bit, the part we remember. When we were thinking about how we keep it intact, we thought about romantic relationships. How do we tear that apart? We had our team put together some ideas, and we were beating up an early outline for the story. We had this relationship built that we were going to really, really tear apart. Someone in the room stopped and asked the question: "Does the gender actually matter?" We all sort of stopped and looked around and said, 'No, it doesn't.' That was the impetus to do something a little different than we've done before in making that relationship be about two men."

The two comics

The first comic is the first time fans really see the close relationship between Valmar and Kai, and how their romantic entanglement was one rooted with a deep love. Not only do fans get to see their love for one another first hand, but they also get an in depth look at their abilities, families, and personal relationships before everything went to Hell. For those that thought the video above was tragic, just wait until you see the end of the first comic (seen here).

The second comic is set up to be more of a conclusion making the progressions: first comic > music video > second comic. The way this was set up was meant to have the most impact possible, setting up tragedy as a huge them with Varus' story. The love story, according to Eltringham, was absolutely vital to showing the depth of tragedy that this character experiences, to show how much he truly lost and what that means on an individual level.

Though the second comic is the conclusion of the backstory progression, the most chilling part was the video. Paired with the stunning visuals and musical stylings, the true sense of loss was so perfectly encapsulated and seeing him transform into the familiar champion we know was ... heartbreaking.

"In the end, they've reached some sort of unity to control the body," Eltringham says. "We wanted to make sure each of the three souls have a voice: Varus the darkin is all about bloody revenge, all Val wants is to break their bonds and take back their old lives, and all Kai wants is to make sure Val doesn't give in to his anger and that things stay balanced.

"The tragedy is that they've lost their individual identities. Even though Val and Kai still have a voice, Val and Kai aren't really there anymore. I don't know if we'll see them unbound. I don't know if we will see a world where the darkin is in full control. But they understand that is what is at stake."

That was also part of the reason why they chose the relationship between two men, the inclusion on a global scale and the epitome of balance. The writers felt that it was important that the story resonate on a deeper level, and on a massive scale:

"Diversity is an explicit goal for our roster, but that isn't informed by checkboxes or quotas. Marc [Merrill] and Brandon [Beck] didn't come in and say we needed a gay champion -- these sorts of ideas come from a place of passion and opportunistic chances to deliver something cool to players.

It never feels forced or pandering. And Overwatch is in a great position to do that, given that their game is set on Earth. Given that our game is in Runeterra and we get to create this world on its own, we also get to define what its norms are. In a world where a space dragon visited your planet, and someone just threw a flaming teddy bear at you, two dudes kissing isn't going to make anyone bat an eye."

You can see more about the process in the full video below, courtesy of Glixel: