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Calvin T. Penaco, AB English III. Phone: +639277989128
Email: calvin.penaco@yahoo.com.ph

Folklore
English 70N | Maam Loreta Fajardo
Submitted March 25, 2013

Comparative Analysis on the Folklore Aspect of the
Characters of the Online Game League of Legends
Calvin T. Penaco
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Department of English
Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, Philippines

ABSTRACT. This study examines the folklore aspect of the online game League of
Legends, particularly by looking at the characters played as Champions in the game.
Some of the aspects examined in the characters are their physical attributes, skills,
weapons used, and story. These elements were then compared with those of the
mythological characters in the folklore of specific countries. The results revealed that
most of the characters can be traced back to the real mythological creatures present in
the folklore of countries like China, Japan, and Korea. It also showed that these
characters in online games are made as close as possible to the original mythological
creatures in terms of attributes, skills, and story. These findings are discussed with
implications for online gaming and folklore in the modern era.
Keywords: League of Legends, Folklore, Online Games, Online Gaming, LoL, Folklore in
League of Legends

An online game is a video game played over some form of computer network, using a
personal computer, video game console or handheld game console. This network is usually the
internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was
current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems. The expansion
of online gaming has reflected the overall expansion of computer networks from small local
networks to the internet and the growth of internet access itself. Online games can range from
simple text based environments to games incorporating complex graphics and virtual worlds
populated by many players simultaneously. Many online games have associated online
communities, making online games a form of social activity beyond single player games
It is undeniable that online games have been a part of what children and adults are
exposed to nowadays. Here in the Philippines, we see several Internet shops offering online
gaming services in every corner of the street. Game companies are now gaining huge profits
each month because of millions of avid online gamers around the world. Most studies that have
been conducted on people's attraction towards online games revolve around the reason of
"cool animation and skills" that characters have in these games. But they have also established
a connection between this attraction and loyalty and a sense of pseudo-reality that these
games provide (Lo, Wang, & Fang, 2005). This means that while characters are fictional and
imaginary, they are made similar to the creatures that society already has an idea of. This is
somehow connected to the kind of culture they grew up with and the kind of stories that
people are exposed to.
The researcher posits that there is a connection between how these games are created
and the supernatural beliefs that society has. These games aren't purely made out of designers'
imagination. They are somewhat products of imagination and Folklore such as myths, legends,
superstitions, etc. This study takes interest in the Folklore aspects of these online games,
specifically the characters used in them.
The online game taken as object of study is League of Legends (LoL). It is a multiplayer
online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft
Windows, inspired by the popular Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a map for Warcraft III. The
general gameplay is that players are formed into 2 even teams of Champions, 3v3 or 5v5. As of
March 17th, 2013, there are 111 different champions from which to choose. Each player begins
at opposing sides of a map in an area called the Spawning Pool, near what is called a Nexus. A
match is won when either team's Nexus is destroyed. To destroy a Nexus, each team must work
through a series of Turrets placed along a path to each base referred to as a Lane. Along the
way, each player gains levels from killing the opposing team's champions and minions, which
are Non-Player Characters (NPCs) that constantly spawn and attack the other team, and
defeating neutral monsters. Completing objectives rewards players with gold which is used to
purchase their items.
As of October 2012, Riot Games claims League of Legends has over 32 million
registrations and averages 12 million players worldwide per day, including the Philippines.
Global concurrent users online regularly peak at over 5 million players, as of March 2013.
This study seeks to identify League of Legends characters that resemble or are somehow
related to famous creatures or supernatural beings that figure in the Folklore of different
countries, and identify their similarities and differences. This is important in determining how
Folklore is incorporated as a crucial element in online games. This study also aims to show how
Folklore is reenergized and given life by including Folklore creatures in online games.
In order to achieve those objectives, the study seeks to answer the following questions:
1. Which League of Legends characters are reflective of well-known Folklore beings and
creatures?
2. What countries did they originate from?
3. What are their stories?
4. What are their similarities and differences to the creatures mentioned in Folklore materials?

The researcher has chosen to analyze the following characters. They have been grouped
according to their similarities.
Ahri, the Nine-tailed Fox
Annivia, the Cryophoenix
Cassiopeia, the Serpents Embrace

Nidalee, the Bestial Huntress
Elise, the Spider Queen

Le Blanc, the Deceiver
Ryze, the Rogue Mage
Kayle, the Judicator
Morgana, the Fallen Angel

Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper

Akali, the Fist of the Shadow
Shen, Eye of Twilight
Kennen, the Heart of the Tempest

Ahri, Annivia, and Cassiopeia are three of the most common mythological creatures
around the world.
Ahri is a creature who is half-human and half-fox. Everything about her is human except
for her pointed ears and beautiful nine tails. She carries an orb which she uses as her primary
weapon. She also has the ability to charm her enemies disabling them for a few seconds. This is
very similar to the nine-tailed fox creatures of China, Korea, and Japan.
According to Chinese Folklore, the nine-tailed fox is a species of creature having the
voice of a human infant. It can be eaten by humans, and those who eat it will be protected from
evil. Later in history books like Book of Zhou and story collections like Extensive Records of the
Taiping Era, the nine-tailed fox was depicted as a beast of fortune. Sent by the heavens, the
nine-tailed fox was seen as a sign of fortune, peace and luck. In the Han dynasty, it is the
protector of royal blood. However, it can also represent an omen of revolution when the
Emperor is not good.
In Japanese Folklore, the nine-tailed fox was a beautiful and intelligent woman who
worked as a courtesan for an Emperor. When her identity got revealed, the Emperor sent over
80,000 troops to kill her. When it was killed, it turned into a stone releasing poisonous gas
killing everyone that touched it. When the stone was destroyed, the different parts flew away
to different parts of Japan.
In Korean Folklore, they call the nine-tailed fox Kumiho. According to them, a Fox that
has lived a thousand years turns into a Kumiho, which can freely transform into a beautiful girl
often set out to seduce men to eat their heart or liver for their continued living. There are
conflicting portrayals of the Kumiho in Korean myths. Some portray it as kind and good-hearted
while some portray it as a purely evil creature who feasts on human flesh. Some accounts also
say that a Kumiho can become purely human if certain criteria are fulfilled. Some say she can be
human if someone kept her identity a secret for 10 years. Some say she can be so if she
abstains from killing and eating humans for a thousand days.
Annivia is a type of phoenix that was born in a world of coldest winter. She is a creature
of pure elemental ice. Her skills are related to the characteristics of an ice. She is able to throw
ice balls at enemy champions, block pathways through ice walls, and produce a glacial storm on
a particular area. An ability she shares with the common mythological Phoenix is the ability to
have another life after dying. When she dies, she becomes an egg and is reborn after a few
seconds.
The famous mythological creature Phoenix is said to be present in Egyptian and Greek
folklore. Unlike the creature Annivia though, its powers are of the opposite nature fire. Its
body is burning in flames and it uses fire as power. But just like Annivia, the ancient phoenix has
the ability of rebirth. When it dies, it turns into ashes but a new phoenix rises from it, and the
cycle of death and resurrection continues. The phoenix had always been regarded as a symbol
for immortality.
Cassiopeia is a half-human and half-serpent creature. Her upper body is human and her
lower body is that of a serpent. Her abilities are really like that of a serpent. She spits venom
which damages enemies in an area. She uses her twin fang to inflict even more damage on
poisoned targets. More importantly, her ultimate skill is called Petrifying Gaze. She releases a
swirl of magical energy from her eyes, stunning everyone facing her and turning them into
stone.
She is very similar to the famous mythological creature named Medusa. In Greek
mythology, she was described as a monster, specifically a Gorgon, generally described as having
a face of a hideous human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazing directly
upon her and looking at her eyes would turn onlookers into stone.
Nidalee and Elise can be classified as shapeshifters. They are able to transform
themselves from animal form to human form. Nidalee is able to transform herself from a
human to a Cougar and vice versa. One the other hand, Elise is able to do so from a human to a
Spider and vice versa. Their abilities also change when they transform making them act like real
animals when they are in animal form and real humans when they are in human form.
A lot of shapeshifters exist in the Folklore of many countries. In the West, several
accounts of Werewolves or Lycanthropes exist. Most of them say that werewolves are forced to
transform into their animal form during full moon. In addition to the natural characteristics
inherent to both wolves and humans, werewolves are often attributed strength and speed far
beyond those of wolves or men. The werewolf is generally held as a European character,
although its lore spread through the world in later times. Shape-shifters similar to werewolves
are common in tales from all over the world. Werewolves are a frequent subject of modern
fiction of the fantasy or horror genre. Thus, the ideas that werewolves are only vulnerable to
silver bullets or other silver weapons, or that they can cause others to become werewolves by
biting or wounding them, derive from 20th-century works of fiction.
Le Blanc and Ryze are magicians in the game. Their abilities involve casting spells
sending blasts to the enemies. Their spells come in different forms and shapes. Le Blancs
abilities including blasts, quickly moving to a certain location, attaching an ethereal chain,
mimicking abilities, and deceiving the enemy by projecting a clone of her. Ryzes, on the other
hand, include blast, immobilize, bouncing sphere, and vampirism which allows him to steal the
enemys life essence for every magic damage he inflicts.
Myths about magicians are common in most parts of the world. There is no specific
origin of magicians. Their styles, forms, appearance, and abilities differ from one country to
another. In the Philippines for example, magicians appear in the form of witches,
mangkukulam, albularyo, healers, etc. Most of the time, they appear as mentors and villains in
literature. Most of the fantasy world is dominated by magicians and the powers that they wield
usually play a great part in shaping the stories.
Kayle and Morgana are winged characters. In the game, they are sisters who decided to
go in different directions. Kayle is on the good side while Morgana is on the bad side. Morgana
is called the Fallen Angel since she chose to live a life of darkness. She was eager to explore
forbidden magic and push the limits of her powers. All her powers are dark and black, which
really reflects the kind of magic she has practiced.
Angels are very popular creatures in religions and mythologies. Christian accounts would
say that they act as followers of God and that they are guiding people in every decision they
make. Christianity has many stories about guardian angels and how they constantly save towns
and cities from evil spirits or disasters. There are also stories about fallen angels, like Lucifer.
Many accounts say he was an angel of God before he decided to disobey him out of arrogance
and selfishness. So now, he rules what is known as Hell, the place where sinners go when they
die.
Vladimir is a creature who feeds on the blood of enemies. His source of power is blood.
His color is red which reflects the color of blood. His skills also reflect blood and how he
benefits from it. He is able to drain life from his target and the amount of life he drains adds up
to his life. He is also able to sink in a pool of blood and anyone he comes in contact with will
have their life force drained.
He is similar to what we call as Vampires. Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings
who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures,
regardless of whether they are undead or a living person/being. Although vampiric entities have
been recorded in many cultures, and may go back to prehistoric times, the term vampire was
not popularized until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into
Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and
Eastern Europe, although local variants were also known by different names, such as Vrykolakas
in Greece and Strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to
mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being
accused of vampirism.
Akali, Kennen, and Shen are fighters with attributes that we often associate with Ninja.
Akali makes use of 2 blades, one on each hand, as her main weapon. Kennen makes use of
Shuriken and Shen makes use of a blade. Their attributes really reflect that of a Ninja. They are
fast movers. They all wear masks to hide their faces. They are able to quickly dash towards the
enemy. They are three of the best damagers in the game.
A ninja or shinobi was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan who specialized in
unorthodox warfare. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and
assassination, and open combat in certain situations. Their covert methods of waging war
contrasted the ninja with the samurai, who observed strict rules about honor and combat. The
shinobi proper, a specially trained group of spies and mercenaries, appeared in the Sengoku or
"warring states" period, in the 15th century, but antecedents may have existed in the 14th
century, and possibly even in the 12th century (Heian or early Kamakura era).
In the unrest of the Sengoku period (15th17th centuries), mercenaries and spies for
hire became active in the Iga Province and the adjacent area around the village of Kga, and it
is from their ninja clans that much of our knowledge of the ninja is drawn. Following the
unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (17th century), the ninja faded into
obscurity, being replaced by the Oniwabansh body of secret agents. A number of shinobi
manuals, often centered on Chinese military philosophy, were written in the 17th and 18th
centuries, most notably the Bansenshukai (1676).
By the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868), the tradition of the shinobi had become a
topic of popular imagination and mystery in Japan. Ninja figured prominently in folklore and
legend, and as a result it is often difficult to separate historical fact from myth. Some legendary
abilities purported to be in the province of ninja training include invisibility, walking on water,
and control over the natural elements. As a consequence, their perception in western popular
culture in the 20th century was based more on such legend and folklore than on the historical
spies of the Sengoku period.
Online games, therefore, are not just programs and designs. They also have a folklore
aspect in them. In particular, they make use of characters that reflect those that exist in cultural
beliefs and myths. Game companies make sure that their characters lore and skills are as close
as possible to how these creatures are described in different folklore materials. While some
characters are unique and original, it is undeniable that many of the characters are based on
the characters in myths, legends, and epics existing in the folklore of different countries such as
Japan, Egypt, Korea, and China. This is just one way of incorporating folklore into the modern
things that interest society nowadays.
The researcher also posits that including some folklore aspect in online games,
specifically in the characters, adds a certain degree of appeal to them, thus making them more
interesting and exciting to play. Therefore, folklore, despite its old-fashioned appeal to the
public, still plays an essential role in the success of an industry as modern as online gaming.