This is a breakdown of the reasoning behind my recent adjustment to Ahri's lore.
Why Ahri?
I'd like to begin by addressing why I chose Ahri in particular. First of all, her old lore involved the Institute of War, which has been canonically absent for some time now. More importantly, ever since her release, I've found that her written lore conflicts deeply with her gameplay and her voiceover.
Her lore describes a "strange sense of regret", and the "pangs of her evolving morality", which makes it sound as though she doesn't want to charm and destroy humans. This regret is only mentioned in her lore, however, and all of her lines reflect a remorseless attitude:
Her gameplay, especially after the changes to her Charm (Patch 3.13), further reinforces the idea that she has stuck to her 'old' ways. As such, I found her apparent 'regret' to be a false addition to her character- but surely the writers behind her lore put it there for a reason. My theory? Relatability.
It's frowned upon to make a character who is evil for the sake of being evil, as it usually means there's no hook to get the player invested in them. Although the dangerous temptress is a popular trope, and could be considered the fulfillment of a sexual (and to a lesser extent, power) fantasy, the cliche on its own feels a little... bare. My guess is that Ahri was given a sense of regret to make her more understandable on a personal level, to allow players to say 'Oh- but she isn't all bad. She just wants to be human, see?'
In my opinion, this relatability could have been handled much better- and my suggestion for a lore revision is one possible solution.
The Kumiho Myth
The first step I took when approaching Ahri was to research the myth on which she was based. As I expected, many aspects of her lore are references to the Kumiho mythology (a fox who shapeshifts into a beautiful woman and lures men to their deaths; the consumption of an organ- replaced by life essence, probably for gore reasons; the possibility of becoming fully human). I sought to retain many of these references, though I took a different tact than Riot.
Rather than being played off as a normal fox, I gave the Kumiho context within Runeterra- more specifically within Ionia. By doing so, I am giving Ahri's lore a dual purpose: one, to communicate character, and two, to communicate world. Ahri's lore reinforces the idea that Ionia is a very spiritual place. This also allows me to skip the 'wandering sorcerer' bit that needed to be included as a catalyst for Ahri's transformation, as her powers are already a part of her; in my opinion, this is a plus. I don't find the sorcerer to be particularly engaging, especially as it's been used more than once in League (see: Zyra).
Rather than consuming essence for the purpose of becoming human, my reimagining has Ahri eating essence both for vengeance (which makes her relatable), and to restore balance (which is an important Ionian theme). It is only later that she discovers she is becoming human due to the essence consumption, at which point her character is faced with a choice: continue to defend her forest at the risk of becoming human, or abandon her defense and hope that she may return to her fox form.
Future Development
The strength in this path lies in the possibilities. At the end of what I've written, Ahri does not want to become human- but it leaves room for her to develop that desire. Protecting her kind is very important to her, so she may choose to sacrifice herself and become human to accomplish that goal. Along the way, she has opportunity for her feelings to change, and to discover that being human might not be as awful as she initially believed.
This leaves open a space for further development for Ahri, a trait which is critical to League characters, due to the nature of the game. The game is constantly evolving, and its characters should have the potential to evolve too; they should have compelling beginnings, but their stories shouldn't be complete just yet. Additionally, my solution leaves room to introduce the relationship between Wukong and Ahri.
Wukong is listed as a 'Friend' of Ahri on the League website, though- to my knowledge- Riot has yet to reveal the nature of their relationship, or how it came to be. Wukong's lore is also in need of a rewrite; rather than meeting in Runeterra, perhaps Yi could have taken him back to Ionia to train, where Wukong could have met Ahri.
I imagine she'd be fascinated by him- a creature who, like herself, is not quite animal, and not quite human. She might even have intended to kill him, only to stop herself as she realized that he wasn't human. Wukong's view on his semi-humanity is radically different from Ahri's perspective in what I've written; he views it as a blessing, as it allows him to achieve a state of greatness that would have been out of reach as a normal monkey. This difference in perspective could help change Ahri's opinion over time, and allow for further character development. And, by making her more tangibly connected to Ionia, she now has the opportunity to form bonds with other champions, such as Karma.
In short, my goal here was mainly to address the dissonance between Ahri's character in and out of game. Her lore conflicts with her in-game presence, which I sought to remedy by changing her lore to reflect her in-game presence, and giving her more context within the world of Runeterra.
Comments? Questions? Critique? Feel free to leave me an ask! I'd love to hear from you.
