About this time every year, League of Legends players start to look forward to “The Harrowing” – Riot’s annual Halloween celebration. Summoner’s Rift takes on an orange glow, minions don pumpkin masks, and other Halloween-y goodness pops up for the Summoners to delve into. While we all appreciate the guise our beloved 5v5 battle arena map wears, the best part about The Harrowing celebration is without question the Limited Edition Halloween skins. These costume skins are only available during this time and once they’re retired, they’re locked away into the skin vault forever. Some of the previous entries include some guy who’s Definitely Not Blitzcrank, Bewitching Nidalee, Spectral Nocturne, Mundo Mundo, and Kitty Kat Katarina.
This year’s Harrowing is starting off with a blast – as Riot has decided to trick us all by announcing their newest batch of content just weeks before Halloween. New content, you say? Absolutely. Enter the realm of some of the most fiendish champions to ever grace Summoner’s Rift. Prepare yourself to delve into the Shadow Isles.
Users on reddit’s popular subreddit /r/leagueoflegends have been trying to sniff out this year’s Harrowing skins for quite some time, and while there’s one user in particular who’s gotten several of them right – no one expected these skins to be part of a new lore expansion that both tells more background about the lands that draw the allegiance of champions such as Karthus, Mordekaiser, Hecarim, Yorick, and Evelynn. On the Shadow Isle’s page, you’ll find updated lore for those loyal to these outlands, including a particularly interesting new story that’s tied to Riven. That’s right, the long rumored Spider Queen is finally coming! Elise the Spider Queen has been unveiled.
Aside from Elise and the new skins, Riot also announced skins for wards (!) so maybe we’ll finally see people start warding correctly! Yeah, you’re right – it probably won’t happen, but we can dream. Also of note, if you click on the orb at the bottom of the page, you’ll see a short teaser for the Isles themselves:
“Alone at the edge of the world, the Shadow Isles promise only death for those who find their shores, be it through avarice or misfortune. For precious few, however, the cold embrace of this mysterious lands yields unimaginable power.” Could this possibly be a new map? I’m hoping so, but I’m not sure what kind of map I’d like to see. Could it be the rumored “Supremacy” mode we heard of months ago? How about a 3v3 Dominion map to counter-balance The Twisted Treeline? One thing that’s certain, Riot’s got a ton of awesome surprises planned for this Halloween season, and it’s a great time be on the Fields of Justice.On the surface, she looks very similar to Zyra, but she’s obviously part human (wearing a helmet similar to Mordekaiser’s) yet wearing a skirt that looks like spider legs. As this is only promo art, there’s no way to be sure just how real those legs are; but one thing is for sure: She’s definitely poised to be a badass. There’s very little information about Elise other than her lore, but if her artwork is any indication, she’s going to be quite the formidable foe. What kind of abilities do you think she’ll have? I’m hoping she’ll be a top lane character, who throws out spider eggs that hatch out spiders (similar to Zyra’s plants) that chase you like Yorick’s ghouls. The only thing I’m willing to bet on? I think her ultimate will have to transform her into a giant spider, similar to how Shyvana’s Dragon Rage works.
This was written by GamingOgre.com‘s Jonathan White, be sure to leave him some awesome feedback so he gives you all some more awesome stuff to read!