Much like the heap of lore Riot dumped on League of Legends fans last week for the brand new Ryze cinematic, Akali was given some new lore of her own today on the game’s lore website, Universe.
The short story, called “Leaving Weh’le,” gives us a brief but satisfying glimpse into Akali’s personality and life as an assassin. Her old, pre-update lore simply included her as a member of Shen’s Kinkou Order, but her new story has her secede from the group as a rebel to follow her own path. Unfortunately, for the already pretty bleak world of Runeterra, this means that a little more blood and gore was added into the mix. This story is packed full of it.
Akali’s new look is graced with a massive assortment of tattoos over her back and arms, and in “Leaving Weh’le,” we get to experience one of those tattoos being tapped into her back. That’s just the start, though, as right after her tattoo is touched up, she walks across the same building to take out a target—some Ionian who sold out his own people for passage into Weh’le.
After some very detailed descriptions of the port city, Akali, the tavern, and the tattoo artist, the story quickly takes a hard left turn into straight up anime, mentioning things like Akali flipping around, throwing blades, and impaling a windpipe or two. It’s a bit unexpected and out of place, but it at least gives a written teaser into her new kit, which includes lots of flipping and blade-throwing as well.
Along with the short story, the bios of several champions were updated slightly, including Master Yi, Shen, Zed, and Karma.
Akali’s big update launches this week with Patch 8.15.
