Hwei/Development

LoL Pls: Season 2023[edit | edit source]

“	Looking further out, we also have a hangry jungler and an artistic midlaner who are looming in the distance.
“	— Alexia 'Lexical' Gao^[1]

Champion Roadmap: April 2023[edit | edit source]

By Alexia 'Lexical' Gao^[2]

The Art and the Artist from Ionia

Listen, before you start asking us... we know that we always have art for champion teasers. And we had intended for there to be art for our midlaner, but he actually insisted that he create something for us himself!

We were really excited at the prospect of having such a masterful artist create art of himself for us. I mean... Really, he creates such complex pieces of art, we were astounded at the office.

Except he gave us a blank canvas. We asked about it, trying to learn more about him, his art, his style. He just kind of stood there with a mournful expression. Then he offered, "For some, art is the pursuit of a lifetime. That's true for me. And... the brush in my hand is a simple tool—but a perfectly crafted one.”

We thought that was a bit of an odd thing to say, because his art is usually so vibrant and alive. But in contrast, we found the artist himself to be broody and somber. He must have gone through something terrible in his past or something...

Regardless, no art for now. All we can hope for is that next time the torn, tortured artist will grace us with his intricate, and incredibly skillful masterpieces. And that you all see him, and his art, for what they truly are. Or that you might even be inspired to pick up your own paints to plan out something with highly complex execution.

Champion Roadmap: October 2023[edit | edit source]

By Alexia 'Lexical' Gao^[3]

Intense and Intricate Paintings

An artist’s journey usually can be summarized in three stages. First, they must follow the principles of masters before them, learning the rules and intricacies. Then, they can diverge, explore, and break principles to find their own path. And finally, only after exhausting the exploration of their craft can they transcend to a new level of artistry.

Hwei’s dedication to his paintings allows him to express himself in a variety of ways. There are three specific subjects he seems especially interested in expressing. And make no mistake: though the artist is very much somber, his art is visually stunning.

Hwei’s use of deeply complex artistic tools and styles should lend mage lovers a blueprint to their big moment with finesse and tact.

Isa Mari “Riot orkidian” De Leon, Hwei’s narrative writer, has some more to share:

"Writing Hwei has been an emotional journey, one that's shown me more than I could’ve ever imagined. He's the first new champ I’ve worked on, so making the right choices for him was challenging, even overwhelming, at times. But fortunately, Hwei himself has been really understanding! Or at least he's trying to be. After all, art requires a certain… empathy."

Champion Insights: Hwei[edit | edit source]

By Landess 'Small Baby Panda' Cole^[4]

For many artists and creatives, the need to create surpasses the need for much else. Putting whatever is in your mind on paper or canvas feels essential, like breathing.

This is exceedingly true for Hwei, League’s newest champion, a mid-lane mage who paints the artistic visions that fill his head. But instead of painting on canvas, Hwei’s works are dynamic, living images that affect anyone who witnesses them.

With his paintbrush, Hwei wields destruction or support, controlling the thoughts and emotions of those around him. He may not have a sword or gun, but don’t underestimate the might of this brooding artist and his brush.

More Than Meets The Eye

The beginning of Hwei is a tale of three pitches: a paint mage, a brooding antihero, and a humanoid male mid laner without purple skin or an exoskeleton. The art mage idea had been brewing for a while, and a number of Rioters contributed to shaping the concept.

“As soon as the possibility of an artistic mage was on the table, everyone gravitated to it,” says narrative writer Isa Mari “orkidian” De Leon. “This is an idea that's been of interest for a long time, but never yet executed, so I feel really lucky for this to be the first new champion I've contributed to.”

The Champions Team also wanted to end the year on a complex note, introducing a champ with a high skill ceiling.

But nailing down a difficult-to-master kit that fit within Hwei’s art thematic wasn’t easy. Three game designers had a hand in the process, each building on the last iteration. But something about it wasn’t quite working. So before the champ concept was put on the shelf in favor of other ideas, the team decided to try an about-face on his gameplay (more on all of this later). As a result, his narrative and art evolved as well.

Hwei’s visions and magic became more recognizable images and were infused with bright color, clearly communicating his new abilities. Armed with an Ionian paintbrush and a colorful palette, his power is fueled by his own artistic expression.

“I've been secretly waiting in the shadows for when we could do an art mage,” laughs art director Gem “Lonewingy” Lim. “We wanted to do a spell mixer mage, but being an elementalist or a druid had already been done several times, and the art thematic was a unique take for this kind of archetype for gameplay.”

Hwei’s inherent power bursts forth when he’s painting, manifesting in colorful washes of pigment and imagery. His source of power isn’t his brush, it’s the artistic ability within.

“Hwei’s not a warrior or a swordsman, so we didn't want to treat the brush as if that's what's elevating him. The power is all internal, and for a mage specifically, I think that that kind of internal inherent power makes more sense,” says orkidian.

Hwei's outward appearance hints at the creative power churning inside of him. This sad fellow is mostly muted in color, save for his powerful palette… and his eyes which change color based on his mood—a feature he’s unable to control.

“He chronically and magically needs to share how he's feeling and what he's envisioning. It's a thematic link to his source of power, which is the power of expression, and holding nothing back from what’s inside you,” says orkidian.

“There’s more than meets the eye for someone like him,” adds Lonewingy. “You don’t know that there are beautiful things happening in his mind and how he sees reality. That's impressionism. And how he combines fiction and reality, like realistic experience and also imagination—that's surrealism.”

Hwei is a genius at his craft. But with his brilliance and mastery comes a heaping dose of humility—an artist's belief that they can always do better.

“He's genuinely one of the best artists of his time, but he would never admit that,” orkidian laughs.

But that level of commitment comes with sacrifice. Lonewingy conveyed Hwei’s dedication to painting through his somewhat disheveled appearance. The time and effort Hwei puts into his art leaves him little time to pay attention to how he looks to the outside world. Though he'd prefer you focus on the art over the artist, he still manages to have that "just rolled out of the painting studio" sophistication.

“He doesn't think about how he needs to properly present himself to be accepted. He’s just like, I don't care. I'm just into the things that I like to do,” laughs Lonewingy. “We have characters where it’s like, it’s obvious she likes to dress up or he likes to put his hair this way. But Hwei is ready to give everything for his passion, which is painting and artistry.”

All In The Imagination

Hwei’s early life was spent in a temple on the tiny Ionian island of Koyehn, mastering the art of painting. The famed artistic temple in a small mill town is a place for pupils to learn the precision and balance necessary to wield the power of artistic magic.

But when Hwei attempts to combine his intense imagination with his talent for painting, the temple masters tell him he must rein in his abilities in favor of more traditional practices.

“He ends up hurting people with the force of his expression in his youth, but is darkly intrigued by that force and feels the artistic drive to explore it,” explains orkidian. “So he lives out his life in this duality between painting what is expected of him and what he's learned versus painting alone in his extremely expressive and emotional style.”

Hwei’s imagination is ceaseless, so he must practice his true art in secret, fascinated and fearful of his own power. Still, he thrives at the temple, a well-respected member of the community, while hiding the full extent of his power.

Later on in life, another remarkable artist arrives at the temple to hone his craft. He gets close to Hwei over the course of his time on Koyehn—but his visit concludes in a crescendo of destruction and death, forever altering Hwei’s path.

"JHIN, YOU OPENED MY EYES TO SO MUCH. I WON'T SPARE YOU FROM ANY OF IT." - Hwei’s VO line when he first encounters Jhin in game

“Hwei did not know Jhin's true nature until it was too late,” explains orkidian. “And that complexity carries through when the atrocity happens. This person betrayed me and is not at all what I thought, but at the same time, witnessed and understood my art on a level that I hadn't allowed anyone to before, and showed me something that empowered it.”

Following Jhin’s attack on the temple, Hwei is devastated. He wants answers, setting out into greater Ionia to seek out closure to ease his mind. As he tries to make sense of his experiences, he is confrontational and intense, but kind and empathetic. Solemn and broody, but not defeated.

"Hwei has experienced major loss, but emerged out of it still as an artist, not as an avenger or a cynic. Through his art, he navigates his deep sorrow and inner turmoil,” says orkidian.

Complexity is simply the nature of Hwei, from his kit to his personality to his backstory. He has a darkness within that recognizes Jhin’s forceful, limitless expression. But Hwei’s empathy and kindness allow him to hold onto his inner light.

“This is not a character you can overread,” says orkidian. “The depth of play is purposeful as is the depth of narrative. It was fun for me to write and dig into all the layers that he presents. And I hope that it's equally as fun for players to dig into what makes him tick and try to put together the nuances.”

He’s also not a character you can over-play. So while you’re piecing together your intricate lore theories, you can make some 300 IQ plays to match.

Kit’s Complicated

Hwei’s kit is all about giving you the tools to answer any problem you may encounter on the Rift. He wields a total of 10 abilities—three spellbooks containing three abilities each, along with an ultimate—to assist his allies, empower himself, and take down his enemies.

Hwei was always going to be a mage targeted towards high-skill players, but it took a few tries to nail down exactly what his gameplay hook should be. Like we mentioned earlier, multiple game designers had a hand in Hwei’s kit over time, trying out things like custom Summoner Spells and terrain manipulation. But when game designer Myles “Riot Emizery” Salholm threw out the idea of spell mixing, designer Daniel "Riot Maxw3ll" Emmons ran with it before heading off to lead what became Arena.

“Jonathan ‘EndlessPillows’ Fuller picked up the kit from Maxw3ll to create rules-based spell mixing—almost like an algorithm—where it was like, all the Q2’s are going to be a missile and all of the E2’s are going to be a fox-fire ability. There was a lot of value with that, so a lot of things are carried over,” says Riot Emizery.

But something wasn’t quite working. Hwei’s kit needed to shift dramatically, eventually landing on the 10 unique abilities he has now. These design changes also broke open Hwei’s narrative and art, which shifted in concert with his gameplay.

Riot Emizery focused Hwei’s abilities around three core subjects—disasters, serenities, and torments. By choosing a subject, you’re choosing what to paint, which spellbook to open, and what kind of magic to create. Within each of these three subjects, there are three abilities: disaster contains damaging abilities, serenity focuses on utility, and torment on control.

Concept Art For the Symbols Representing Disaster, Serenity, and Torment

“A kit with so many abilities for different scenarios is definitely difficult to get the hang of, but don’t be intimidated out of trying Hwei. Most people who try Hwei have been pleasantly surprised by their first game,” says Riot Emizery. “I tried to set up what I call his spam buttons to be good buttons,” he says.

Basically, pressing Q, W, or E twice should have pretty good results for all you button mashers out there. But you won’t be able to get away with button mashing for long (or maybe you could, but you definitely won’t be climbing.)

“Ultimately, the long-term balance goal with Hwei is not to cater to low-skill players. He is for the elite player that is trying to get the most out of this character. Chances are if you're succeeding on him you're climbing with him.”

To master Hwei’s many abilities is to know which one to use at what time—it’s an art in and of itself.

“You can mix your different abilities together without being tied down to specific combos every time,” says Riot Emizery. “This added a lot of feeling like you were mixing paint and making artistic choices. Rather than just, ‘I'm following what I've learned from the past 10 games that I played and these are the combos and I just do the same thing every time.’”

But with an extensive arsenal, there may be games where certain parts of Hwei’s kit just don’t feel useful. That’s intentional—don’t expect to use each individual ability an equal amount in every game. You’ll end up favoring certain abilities over others to play around enemy champions or synergize with your teammates.

“Every single ability has a niche purpose because we wanted to make sure that there is a reason to cast it and not the other two abilities,” explains Riot Emizery. “Some games you may encounter an ability that you almost never cast, and you might feel like it’s a bad ability during that particular game. But there's going to be another game where it's the best ability on your kit and you're using it constantly off cooldown.”

It’s been a while since the Champions Team put so many years of design experience into a champ. With his versatile palette of abilities, Hwei invokes a new level of skill expression in the mid lane, and League in general. The League team is always looking for new ways to help players illustrate their mastery and skill expression on the Rift—hopefully the Visionary of Ionia’s formidable artistry helps you do just that.

The Voice of the Visionary[edit | edit source]

By Isa Mari 'orkidian' De Leon, Nick 'ProfRincewind' Lanza, & Austin 'Puma Pet' Mullen^[5]

Hi everyone! We’re the Narrative, Audio, Voiceover (VO) crew who brought Hwei’s in-game voice to life. We’re here to provide insight into how a champion gets their vocal identity—from writing, to casting, to recording, and more—with Hwei’s melancholic musings as our subject.

Craft and Casting: Finding Our Hwei

Isa Mari “orkidian” De Leon, Narrative Writer:

Hello! I’m Isa, a writer on the Champions team for League of Legends. I wrote Varus’ VO update, Jax’s VO with his visual update, and of course, Hwei!

Voice work starts early in a champ’s development, after determining the broad strokes of their backstory, personality, and goals. I write docs that explore these elements of character and help everyone working on the champ understand what we’re aiming to create. These materials include:

Decks outlining the champ’s personality, with vocal references from comparable characters. (To summarize Hwei, he’s a melancholic, emotional, kindly painter. He takes inspiration from morally gray antiheroes and tragic, brooding “male anime lead #2” types).
Deep dives into our own roster, comparing the characterization of existing champs and identifying vocal overlap risks (Hwei’s tonal overlap risks included Jhin, Viego, Aphelios, and Yone).
Sample voice lines.
A casting sheet to be distributed to voiceover talent.

With these, we kick off a champ’s voiceover journey in collaborations between narrative, audio, and VO developers.

An in-game example of our collaboration is Hwei’s linear throughlines. Hwei has a unique series of voice lines that are tied together and progress throughout the course of a single game:


“Dark” Throughline Part 1 - First Move	“Something dark clings to me—has always lived in me.”
“Dark” Throughline Part 2 - R Rank 1	“That darkness… takes shape.”
“Dark” Throughline Part 3 - R Rank 2	“I see. Destruction, and despair.”


“Light” Throughline Part 1 - First Move	“There is light in me. I can’t lose sight of it.”
“Light” Throughline Part 2 - R Rank 1	“My light… grows brighter.”
“Light” Throughline Part 3 - R Rank 2	“I understand. Through art, connection.”

There are two routes of thought: a “dark” and a “light” version, representing Hwei’s conflicted mind and the emotional journeys he could go through. The lines fire at different points of a game: First Move, ranking your Ult for the first time, then ranking your Ult for the second time. And—fun fact—an addendum is added to each line if Jhin is in the same game as an ally or enemy, reflecting the significant role he plays in Hwei’s story.

This arose after I presented the personality and story of Hwei to his game designer and VO designer. Game design was enthused by the potential to reflect Hwei’s narrative more closely in-game (shout-out to Myles “Riot Emizery” Salholm), and our awesome VO designer Austin “Riot Puma Pet” Mullen created the structures to make it happen.

You get these throughlines randomly when playing Hwei (you have about a 1/3 chance). Load up a game or several of Hwei and keep an ear out for them!

Nick “ProfRincewind” Lanza, VO Producer:

Hi folks! I’m Nick, the VO Producer for League of Legends. I manage our production timelines for the VO work, help guide the casting and recording process, and keep an eye on the performative quality of the voiceover we create.

Casting takes place over the course of several weeks (sometimes even a few months) as we send out and collect auditions, review submissions, and work with our team to select the top picks for the role.

From there, we bring selected actors in for callbacks and exploratory recording, where we get them in the room with our director to explore the character, performance, and script—and to see if they are indeed the right fit for our champ!

When it came to finding the right voice for Hwei, we needed to select an actor who could project a vulnerable sadness, but could also swap to a broody intensity—sometimes within the same line. He needed to be somber and reflective, but still energetic enough to stand out amongst all the other sounds happening on the Rift. And on top of all that he needed to be someone players could empathize with to make sure we understand what he’s been through. We were able to find all of that in the outstanding work of Stephen Fu.

Once the team has picked the right actor for the job, it’s time to…

Record (and Record, and Record)

Isa Mari De Leon, Narrative Writer:

A champ’s script goes through multiple versions, drafts, and revisions. These script stages include:

“Scratch” or sample script: Several lines to explore the writer’s current understanding of the voice, and, if needed, to test audio possibilities (ex: the champ might have multiple speakers, distorted processing or layers added on top of the voice, etc.).
Audition script: Lines capturing the extremes of the champ’s emotional and tonal ranges. This is distributed to talent to find our top choices.
Exploratory script: An extended script—about half the length of the final script—to further assess and refine our top actor’s performance. Personally, this is my favorite stage! I get a much better ear for the actor’s voice and learn how to write with and for them.
Final script: The script that ends up in-game, in all of League’s localized languages.

"ART CAN SHED LIGHT...."
Voice actors record multiple options for each line, varying tone, mood, and cadence.

Nick Lanza, VO Producer:

For most champs, we aim to record the entire final script within a single 4-hour VO session. The Audio, Narrative, and VO Production Rioters working on the champ attend the recording session, along with one of several veteran VO directors we work with.

Our directors are a big key to our success in-session. We work with them in advance and during recording to make sure our vision for a champ’s voice is realized. Our team gives feedback, notes, and context to the director during the recording, and they synthesize that into guidance for the actor to get the best performance possible.

DIRECTOR GIVES NOTES TO VOICE ACTOR
VO director gives notes to Hwei’s voice actor on Hwei’s personality and feelings.

Austin “Riot Puma Pet” Mullen, VO Designer:

Hi all, I’m Austin, the VO designer for Hwei. My responsibilities involve ensuring the final in-game voice lives up to our thematic choices. Often this involves creating voice filters and finding impactful game moments to trigger lines from. Hwei’s unique gameplay angle is the large number of spells he can cast. To differentiate these emotionally and energetically, I put together groups of specific grunts and exertions to match each spell that needed them. While recording we paid extra attention to recording sets of distinct efforts that were made unique by their energy, length and their beginning consonant.

Post Recording and Localization

Isa Mari De Leon, Narrative Writer:

Closely after the final recording, us narrative, audio, and VO production folks listen back and select our preferred takes to implement in-game. After this point, my work on a champ’s voice is largely done! I’ll provide our Localization friends some context and notes as they bring Hwei to languages globally, but otherwise, my editors and collaborators across disciplines take the champ’s voice across the finish line.

Nick Lanza, VO Producer:

Our Localization teams are critical to the success of a champ globally. They complete their own version of the VO Production process—casting, script translation, VO recording, and post-processing—all within a much shorter timeline. And in 16 different languages!

They work hard to make sure the vision for the character is represented as authentically and excitingly as possible in each region, so players around the globe can receive the same awesome champ, all at the same time.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

Hwei is voiced by Stephen Fu.^[6]
- Hwei's Japanese voice actor is Takeo Ōtsuka.^[7]
- Hwei's Korean voice actor is Kim Shin-woo.^[8]
Hwei's codenames in development was Ink Mage.^[9]
Hwei's placeholder model in development was a recolored Shadow Assassin Kayn.^[9]
Myles 'Emizery' Salholm posted teaser articles about The Golden Ratio and The Rule of Thirds on r/HweiMains a few weeks before his reveal.^[10]^[11]
One of the abilities tested on Hwei in development was a spell where he drew a rain cloud over himself, that made him more depressed, and granted him stealth.^[12]