What's the deal with Sylas? || character design & lore discussion

I hate that they didn't even continue the Shurima lore, which in my opinion is the best. They really need to work more on their champion or region's lore.

Ok I've only seen the intro part down to the story screen but already it evidences the problem with another "Rebel or Psychopath?" character that is Xayah. Why does Sylas get to do big informative rousing speeches about freedom when the most rebel interactions of Xayah include her being nitpicky about the procedence of her items(read: futile girl stereotype) and her lore part be more about her worried about rakan 24/7 when he is not around? I mean there's no stated reason for her to do it aside from lazy writing of her as part of Rakan's personality. If there was a flashback on the story of her returning to her empty tribe at least there would be a reason for that.

I think the whole male fanservice trope that Sylas has is to make him an opposite to League's other violent revolutionary, Urgot. Both men share the background of men been betrayed by their place of origins, escaped from confinement and using their surroundings to fight back, but their appearance visually demonstrates their difference in methods with Urgot being a steam-punk fear-mongering monstrosity that screams believe in my way or die in contrast to Sylas's violent but handsome rogue that could coxes people to joining his cause because he is tapping into the oppressed mages' growing resentment all the while having be attractive could make people lose their guard around him that they would be easier to convince when Sylas makes his grandiose speeches. Just a thought.

Could you do Twitch next?

i thinc some back wipe marks and sunken sleepless eyes would have been enogh, and maybe some biger more aparent scares, he have some but they are more like ones garen could get from training and batles, not some a prisoner get from torture

Well about the visuals. He used to hide his abilities behind mageseeker clothes from public eye. But now he has nothing to hide so clothes and chains are his new cloak. I have this feeling that he exchanged his mageseeker cloak to hide from day to day demacians to chains and ripped clothes to hide his twisted psychology from rebels. He was imprisoned for so long and i know what it can do to ppl. My friend was in prison for 8 years and he changed soooo much. This book hits close. And i love it

heard someone compare sylas to serial killers and how they recieve love letters from women while in jail. lol

Guys, I've figured out how/why sylas is so ripped. He used his chains like battle ropes!

“ I’m sorry little light “ sylas and lux? I ship!

you should do what's the deal with fizz

you say demacia hates mages, but lux....

you could have him join the noxians to give them political insight to demacia, or he lead magic users to that side who were fighting on the side of demacia. He doesnt have to really upend the city-state himself

heyyy can you do what's the deal with jhin? i think he's a pretty interesting character

What's the deal with Gnar next?

B L Y A T

Very enjoyable video, I think you're absolutely correct that the lore needed a character to stand in opposition to the oppression, Demacia subjects its citizens to.


You did surprise me with a bad take though - when you talked about Sylas' design being that of a rabble-rouser and a brawler, rather than that of a visionary firebrand, it seemed you failed to acknowledge those two are not, in any way, mutually exclusive.


It's a very prevalent fallacy to split revolutionaries into groups of high-headed, "dignified", non-violents and angry, violent rioters. It allows the structures of power to point to the former group and say "look, they're doing it 'the right way' " in an attempt to dissuade the latter group from forming. Often because the latter group demands a response.

Or in other words: Sylas isn't supposed to be Voltaire, he's supposed to be Spartacus.


Still, excellent video, thoroughly enjoyed it. You're my primary window into the LOL lore so thanks for all your effort =]

Edit:: Got this info from my mother, who is a personal trainer with experience training former inmates.

Actually, to touch on the design bit, he's built like a prisoner. People who've been to prison for a very long time usually don't work out their legs as much as their upperbody. So in the end, they have thin legs but bulky arms, rounded trapezius muscles, and toned abdominals. That makes sense for him, since he's hauling around big heavy chains all the time.

What do you think of the idea that Sylas actually managed to start a rebellion and managed to "kill the king" as in his voice line (maybe a larger storyline spanning multiple shorts)?
It wouldn't cause the problem of killing off any existing champions. Then when Jarvan IV becomes king and tries to enact reform Sylas would have to face issues like is a better king and slowish reform a good enough result, or does the whole Damacian kingdom need to be toppled? Jarvan trying to soften on the mage hate could also bring conflict with Garen, especially with the previous king being killed by a mage adding to Garens issues with magic, and an opportunity for another short that Sylas doesn't even need to appear in.
But yeah, I agree that Riot probably won't want to shake things up that much.

Im going to have to greatly disagree with you and say I hate Sylas' champion both in and out of gameplay.

Just by looking at him, you would never guess he'd have the moves he does such as a heal/execute or a dash+shield or his spinny chain passive and it feels so shoehorned in and overloaded His Q, second part of his E and his ulti make sense, at least.

I also just find him exceeding bland. Just shirtless pants man with chain is the most nothing character design possible and he just looks goofy, to me.
He seems like an absolute mess of a character, to me. Plus he's a bloody commie

I think the Problem with lore updates, not only in League but also in like, full time Roleplay and Dnd Servers, is that the game takes heavy hits from those, and ist intimidating to see alot of Players rage and/or even leave because something has changed, even though there was announcments, there was solid reasons for it, People are still going to be mad About, idk, not being able to Play that Champion because he died in the Lore, or, Not being able to roleplay that character because the City is currently under Siege.....

I am Talking from experience, because im a Server admin of a DnD Roleplay Server, and since we ran this big siege battle, where characters died, NPCs have fallen in battle, where the Villains started to conflict eachother because of clever roleplay, we didnt do ANYTHING like that EVER again, because About 8 People left, and many went inactive.

I guess the only way to do those big changes is to inform the Players to give CONSENT that they are okay if their favourite NPC dies off, or their favourite Country on the map gets eradicated by a dark Lord.....Otherwise, People will get mad, throw Sissy fits, and be scaring the developers/Dungeon Masters into this stiff, No Upate of what we have but Instead Always add something new style

Good points all around, but I do have one point of disagreement: Sylas being archetypal and tropey doesn't mean he can only be one thing and therefore should be that thing to its fullest degree. I think making Sylas deliberately attractive was a good move on their part precisely because of the reasons you listed: he's not just the firebrand starting a fight at the front, he's also the charismatic leader. And because so much of his design is intended to be scrappy and fight-oriented, there needs to be design elements that represent him as a charismatic political leader, and that means not just handsomeness, but also how well-groomed he is and how he chooses to present himself to others. Why didn't he put on a shirt? Take off his collar, get fancier pants? Because it's all part of the image he wants to convey to others. He wants to convey both power and "being one of the common folk", which are two classic points of appeal for politicians.

The thing I think tripped you up a bit was the idea that a political leader doesn't lead from the front or wear their emotions on their sleeve, and for other nations that makes perfect sense, but for Demacia, that's how leadership works there. Jarvan is a capable warrior and speaks impassionately, leading the charge. Garen, the archetypal symbol of Demacia, charges forward at the front. Kayle, a revered hero from ages past, is an angelic armoured woman with a sword. Risking their leaders and symbols in the frontline of the fight is what Demacia does as a nation. That's why Sylas being exactly the way he is makes sense. He's exactly what a leader of the common folk needs to look like in Demacia.

My worst nightmare was the thumbmail in this vid instead he was staring at you XD

Sylas looses because killing the King means killing Jarvin, and lore can't kill champions.

"i want him to look unkept, and maybe some scars"
Uncle Iroh has entered the chat

As a Russian it was painful to read the font at the beginning. Otherwise a great video, love your work

More of a Malcom X feel of look where I came from and I'm one of you leaders

Honestly Sylas is the type of character who riot wants to put as the "Bad guy" but still somehow look like the good guy

His model and specially the chains are so ugly and weird, I hate him.

True but if sylas design was that of an beaten down prisonner he couldnt be the bad guy whos evil for the sake of it

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't sylas eating rats in person

The obnoxious and wrong use of the Cyrillic hurt my Slavic eyes

But then again Lux gave him things he wanted. Maybe she also gave him food and kept him looking nice?

Is Sylas ult a way of seizing the means of production?

Yoooo, as a someone who always plays sylas. I 100% agree with the missed oppurtunitiesin the design

Why he uses jeans tho?


Is that another punishment?

Watching the Demacia images in the "background" thinking 'oh boy, it would be a shame if all that pretty white stone was... ruined.'

Sylas is based and 100% in the right and I will be accepting no criticism.

He is proff that sometimes even male characters aren't immune to bimbofication beam and unecessary sexiness

So he is hotboy rubik

Just reading his concept.

They better not have made him a Mage supremacist.

I'm so tired of the whole "oppressed people are the real supremacists" trope.

My sort of theory/explanation as to why Sylas looks so ripped and fit despite being in solitary confinement and chains for a decade straight is this. When he was imprisoned, his Chains prevented him from releasing his magic. He couldn't use his Magic outside of his body. But he could use his Magic inside his body, so he concentrated his Magic internally to his muscles and to sustain himself, which helped him quite a bit because regular food and water was pretty irregular. So sustaining himself by reinforcing himself with Magic is how Sylas was able to avoid looking and feeling as gaunt as other imprisoned Mages were. This method only really worked because Sylas had naturally large reserves of Magic energy, second only to perhaps Lux in terms of raw Magic energy (along with critical Mage training from childhood).


In his imprisonment, Sylas would reinforce his body with Magic. He didn't have enough sheer Magic energy to overload and brute force break his Chains (absorbing Lux's overflowing Magic reserves is what helped him do that later on), so he focused on using his Magic enhanced body to do exercise and calisthenics along with visual training involving swords (based on his memories as a Hound for the Demacian Mageseekers) so as to avoid going completely insane due to the long term solitary confinement. It's through years of this self-imposed physical training that basically explains away why this buff looking Mage can go blow to blow physically with the ridiculously physically powerful tank known as Garen, why Sylas looks as ripped and fit as he does despite a decade in solitary confinement, and why he mainly focuses on physical close combat Magic rather than more ranged, beam spam type Magic that Lux specializes in. It's also because of his decade long imprisonment that Sylas struggles with using long range Magic and specializes heavily in close range Magic, like creating magical energy swords. With enough time, perhaps months and years, Sylas' body can be conditioned back into being able to more comfortably use long range Magic. But as he is right now, he mainly sticks with Magical-Physical Reinforcement to enhance his close combat melee along with using Magic to create magical energy weapons.


But yeah, that's basically my theory/explanation as for why and how Sylas has the physique that he does.

Delate sylas lmao

I have come here to say this. Riot recently talked about Sylas's creation and has said this:

"As the concept art began to take shape, Kinojam meticulously thought through the details of Sylas’ life. What does he eat in prison? Why are his pants so tight? How is he so buff? (He’s fed well by the Demacians but is a drama queen about it; they’re the same pants he was wearing when he was first imprisoned at a young age; compound lifts with outrageously oversized chains.)"

...wanna point out how difficult it is to get shoulder caps like that without the use of steroids xD What on earth were they feeding him?!

Demacia is the most ironic region of runeterra.

Coming from 2023 it's interesting to hear how Skyen's opinion on Sylas and Demacia have changed due to new lore