Volibear

To the people who still worship him, Volibear isn’t a metaphor for a storm — he is one. He existed in the Freljord, a harsh, frozen expanse of warring tribes and old ice magic, before mortals ever set foot on its tundra, one of the demi-gods who shaped the land in the first place — one of the old powers the region’s snow is still said to hide — and his devotion to defending it hasn’t dimmed with age.

What has grown, instead, is his contempt for what came after. Volibear has watched civilization spread across the land he helped create and sees only weakness in it, a softness he blames for everything the old ways used to prevent. He wants the Freljord returned to a time when it was untamed and blood was spilled without hesitation, and he’s willing to fight — tooth, claw, and thunder — against anyone standing in the way of that return. For all his age and status as a demi-god, he plays like an ordinary fighter-tank out of the top lane, drawing on the same plain mana as any mortal champion he tramples.

His kit is built around momentum and punishment. Thundering Smash speeds him toward a target and stuns the first one he attacks; Frenzied Maul marks an enemy for a follow-up hit that deals extra damage and heals him; Sky Splitter calls down a lightning bolt that slows enemies and shields him if he’s caught in its own blast; and Stormbringer, his ultimate, launches him into a landing zone that slows and damages everyone beneath it while temporarily shutting down nearby towers, letting a single charge reshape a fight far beyond whichever champions are actually caught underneath him. His passive, The Relentless Storm, layers on top of all that: his attacks and abilities build stacks of attack speed that eventually make his attacks splash bonus magic damage onto nearby enemies as well. Other old powers of the Freljord, including Braum and Ashe, share the same frozen ground, even if few share Volibear’s hatred for what’s been built on top of it.