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Vala by Fraeduu

3 Votes

Vala

By: Fraeduu
Last Updated: Jun 5, 2021
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Vala

The God-Ending Dune Raider

A war-torn raider of the Egyptian deserts. Vala has been seen pillaging pyramids, tombs, and threatening the sacred grounds of the gods in hopes of raising herself to the status of a deity.

Although from the outside she appears as a regular, hearty explorer, what lays inside her is something much more demented. The gods fear her not because of her potential to intrude upon their resting places, but because of her sinister desires which instill an even greater sense of dread into the gods than they had felt when warring with the underworld.

She is a completely fictional character, and does not exist within real Egyptian mythos.

Passive Ability

Freedom's Fortune
After getting a killing blow, Vala gains a stack of Freedom's Fortune. Each stack increases her weapon damage against targets marked by Hunt by 4%, stacking up to 5 times. Dying resets all stacks.

Primary Abilities

1
Hunt
Passive: Vala's movement speed increases by 2% per second when within 15 units of a target, up to a maximum of 12% bonus movement speed after 6 seconds. This timer is reset upon receiving any hard crowd control effect.

Active: Mark a target within 25 units, gaining vision over them for 10 seconds. Killing your target grants you a bonus stack of Freedom's Fortune.



Lore: Vala sets her sight on a token or possession of everyone she comes across. Once her resolve is set, she refuses to let loose her tight grips on what could be hers. She does not believe in the thrill of the hunt. Long, drawn-out engagements become increasingly obnoxious to her, irritating her to her wit's end. It has been noted that the nearer her victims have gotten to escape, the more gruesome their inevitable fates would become.
2
Sacrifice
Sacrifice some of your current health, buffing you with Battle Fervor. Battle Fervor absorbs all damage taken over 1.5 seconds before returning 150% of the damage taken back to enemy attackers over 4 seconds of damage over time.

Battle Fervor cannot deal lethal damage.


Lore: Vala is not afraid to sacrifice her own body and life in pursuit of her goals. Often times, this comes in the form of forcing adrenaline rushes and raising her senses to high alert by drawing her own blood. However, in the most extreme of times there have been fables of the raider severing own limbs or sacrificing her organs in pursuit of her goals. This rumor began as Vala's victims began being discovered with missing limbs, organs, and clothes.
3
Exploit Arsenal
Vala converts her dual pistols between ranged weapons and melee swords.

Vala's ranged attacks can not critical hit.



Lore: Vala's weapons are by no means mechanical or technological. It's uncertain how exactly the transformation of her trusty tools operates. According to past cases and events, it is thought that the weapons have been blessed by the Egyptian gods. The gods had been abnormally quiet since her first arrival at the pyramids of Egypt, however. Many believe that the gods have granted her special benefits in hopes of warding off the dread that she brings with her to any land she touches.

Ultimate Abilities

4
Fateful Duel
Select a target to duel before dashing to their location. Upon reaching the enemy, Vala banishes both herself and the enemy into her tomb to duel. Neither Vala nor her opponent may be targeted with any form of damage, healing, or crowd control apart from eachother. This area lasts until one of the participants is killed or until 9 seconds have elapsed.

For translation and the sake of this guide, the tomb for combat is handled in a visually similar way to Heimdallr's ultimate.

Vala Concept Art


All concept art and illustrations are produced with the help of Mike Katar, a past associate which I have had the pleasure of working alongside on projects.

Vala's Story

Egypt and its mythos is often seen revolving around a great deal of respect being placed in its gods and goddesses. Many pyramids acted as valiant and glorious tombs for significant figures in the Egyptian world to rest, but also to pay respects and grace to the all-mighty gods which the Egyptians respected. In many mythological stories, followers of a faith might fear their gods and obey them out of a fear of divine punishment. The Egyptians often shied away from this sort of following, and instead chose to dedicate themselves to their gods out of respect and trust.

Very few in Egypt did not respect and trust these gods. Those who didn't would often be seen as insignificant enough to hardly matter at all to the majority of the population. However, there was one woman who not only grew to instill fear into Egyptian civilians, but the gods themselves. Vala originally did not despise the gods, but simply couldn't care less about the mythos or any sort of higher power. She would raid tombs and ransack shrines, tearing down any mediums between Egyptian faithfuls and the gods themselves. Soon, however, she began to grow a deep and much more severe hatred for the gods of Egypt. They attempted to stop her by any means necessary.

Vala suffered death again and again, but managed to cling onto her otherwise meaningless life by a thread every time. As if for no reason other than defying the rule of the gods, Vala continued her pillaging and became increasingly violent. Her violence was never directed towards Egyptian citizens themselves, which may be why despite their fear, they never rose against her.

Vala's actions slowly disconnected the Egyptian faithfuls from their gods, and relations within the religion began to wear down. The gods became weaker as a result of receiving less prayer and losing much of their hard-earned faith. Vala became known as the sole person capable of not only defying the gods, but also toppling their supreme rule.

Vala mortified the gods, and began to to rob them of sacred artifacts and powers which had been sealed deep within their tombs. Secrets of creation were revealed to the citizens of Egypt through Vala's actions, and uprisings began against the gods. Upon the night of October 31st, Vala finalized her spiteful strive to muddy the reputation of the gods. Throughout the night, she strove to horrify the citizens of Egypt however possible. Assembling the mummified remains of past leaders into scarecrow-like figures strung to crosses throughout the villages; ransacking the farms and crops, lighting them on fire and ruining the already dwindling food supply; the fire around the crops seemed almost sinister to the Egyptians, as if the melons and pumpkins were smiling back at them with grins as evil as Vala herself. As the power of the gods dwindled due to a lack of faith, Vala was able to harvest more and more of that power through the artifacts which she had stolen. Using her new-found power, she granted every entity in the underworld a right of passage to the overworld once more, on one condition. No ghosts, demons, ghouls, or monsters would be permitted to attack the Egyptian people. For one night every year, they could stretch their legs and roam the country free of their endless torture of the underworld. That night would be known as Halloween.

It was uncertain why Vala had gone to the extremes that she had on that night. Many believe that her human mind and body could not grasp the power which she had accumulated over many priceless artifacts and items imbued with the magic of the gods. Others think that Vala had set out from the beginning to end the rule of the gods. The scariest part about Vala was the mystery behind her actions.

All human fears are variations on the fear of the unknown. Vala embodied that fear. Although not sinister in herself, the people of Egypt didn't know whether to fear her, praise her, or simply treat her as a peer.



My storytelling is a bit weak, I apologize.

Playstyle

Vala has a very unique playstyle which allows her to capitalize on a wide range of utility for an assassin. Despite being a powerful force on the battleground of the gods, Vala may operate using many different tactics and strategies to capitalize on her kit during a match.

Vala is excellent at clinging to her targets using Freedom's Fortune, particularly whenever she is able to avoid any incoming crowd control. When at a range, however, she is also able to fire at her enemies from afar with the sacrifice of critical strike chance.

Much of the dune raider's kit revolves around singling out and targeting enemies, which may be done in a variety of ways. Whether it be marking a target with Hunt and attempting to eliminate them from the battlefield during game-turning moments, or using Fateful Duel as either a regular long-lasting banish for a problematic enemy or as a method of locking down one particular foe to execute using the other deadly traits available to Vala.

Her Sacrifice ability also offers an interesting dynamic which allows her to infiltrate the enemy backlines to lock down one of her marks, or to escape a sticky situation. Vala does not have high base damage on her own, so she relies greatly on exploiting the utility and potential tactics associated with her abilities to become the ruthless, god-aspiring raider that she is.

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1
Branmuffin17 (400) | November 9, 2020 12:07pm
Hey Fraeduu,

Honestly I think your storytelling is just fine. I at first thought the story was weak, as it's a very limited writeup at the top. Had to get past the abilities and pics to find the true writeup, which I think is quite unique and interesting.

I find things that I'd consider to be major flaws in the concept. She has absolutely 0 direct ability damage, and outside of her ult, 0 CC of any type. The first ability is just vision and passive MS. The second is damage reflect. The third is basically a stance shift from melee to ranged. And the ult also doesn't deal damage, just takes her and her target to a different area. That's a huge oversight, as every god should have some form of damage in at least 1 ability. How the heck is she clearing minions outside of Golden Blade?

With no dash or other mobility outside of her ult, she relies on the somewhat increased MS from the 1 to close on an enemy. But she has no CC immunity, so slows (which are often more powerful than the MS boost she'll get in her 1) can shut her down outside of ranged basics. And there should be some bonus to being in the more difficult melee stance vs ranged. And as an Assassin, how would Golden Blade and Hastened Katana work with her in ranged form? Would she get the full MS AOE and haste effects? That might make both GB and Hastened be core items (which I would assume anyway due to the way this kit is laid out).

The 2 does have the ability to be quite OP, but very, very situationally. Outside of a quick reaction to counter something like Poseidon's or Scylla's ult, the 1.5 seconds of invulnerability-to-reflect damage should be easily avoided similarly to spotting the activation of Shield of Thorns. I guess that amount of time allows her a bit of boxing advantage where she can deal damage and the enemy can't, but it just doesn't seem like nearly enough, and too easy to play around.

I think there's a missed opportunity in your lore. "Using her new-found power, she granted every entity in the underworld a right (rite) of passage to the overworld once more, on one condition. No ghosts, demons, ghouls, or monsters would be permitted to attack the Egyptian people. For one night every year, they could stretch their legs and roam the country free of their endless torture of the underworld." One of her abilities could bring some minions to help her do damage, provide some CC, something to help out the lack of stuff in the rest of her kit.

Anyway, I see a lot of potential in a concept like this, but the abilities would need some significant revamping.
1
Fraeduu (2) | November 15, 2020 9:39pm
That's all true! I'm interested in how direct ability damage could work though, because she does have the option between melee and ranged attacks. As for the lore tie-in, that sounds like a great idea! Thank you for all of the input.
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