Original article
Some time ago, the name Aphelios was mentioned as the next League of Legends champion. We eventually discovered that was actually Senna, Lucian's wife.
However, the rumors were true — just a little preemptive. Aphelios is indeed the next champion to join the Rift.
A bit of lore...
Aphelios hails from Targon, and his story is related to the moon, just like Diana. Born during a rare phenomenon of lunar convergence, when the physical moon is eclipsed by its reflection in the spiritual realm, Aphelios and his twin sister Alune were celebrated as the children of fate by the Targonian cult of the Lunar, a cult opposed to that of the Solarises who ruled Targon.
Alune, a powerful seer, was chosen to inhabit an ancient Lunari temple, Marus Omegnum, who came out of the spiritual world for the first time in centuries. This exceptional event pushed the Lunar out of hiding and allowed the Solaris to attack them. Alune then decided to embrace her destiny and hide the temple from their enemies, revealing her full power. The Marus Omegnum returned to the spiritual world, keeping in his womb Alune, which had become more powerful than ever, but still connected to her brother.
"Only now did they understand their destiny. Aphelios would hollow himself out with pain, but would become a conduit for the moon’s power. Alune would live alone, isolated in her fortress, but she would guide her brother, able to see through his eyes."
Thanks to his connection with his sister, Aphelios added the magic projected towards him by Alune to his assassin talents, making his blades an arsenal of mystical weapons.
- If you want to read Aphelios' complete biography, you can find it on Universe!
Spells, skins, and more
For now, we don't have any information about Aphelios, except that Riot Games had announced in their October champion roadmap that League of Legends' next champion would be "a new marksman, raised since birth with only one purpose: to protect the faith from those who stand in the sun."
However, everything that we read in the lore above seems to point towards him being an Assassin. Does that mean we should expect an ADC/Assassin hybrid, comparable to Kai'Sa? That question remains for now, and we'll have to wait until Patch 9.24 for more.
A file within the PBE client contains a mysterious splash art that might just be the next champion in League of Legends...
