New League of Legends champion Aphelios announced

Riot Games has revealed a new League of Legends champion.

Aphelios is a new marksman with lore surrounding his protection of the Lunari. He is a trained assassin that channels the magics of his twin sister, Alune.

Their powers converged “like the moon of stone and its spiritual reflection” when the Solari attacked. Aphelios now protects his people as the conduit for Alune, using her powers in the world while she is left isolated in a temple on Mount Targon.

Aphelios is joining Diana in the fight against the Solari

The new champion’s name is a wordplay on aphelion, a term used to describe the point where an object is at the farthest point from the Sun.

Targon is home to a number of League champions and is the highest peak of League’s world, Runeterra. It’s a place unreachable to most, where celestial beings devoted to the sun and moon reside. 

Aphelios is part of the Lunari, the ancient religious order Diana and Zoe are members of. The moon worshipers fight against the Solari that rejected them, including Leona and Pantheon. The new marksman will likely have special interactions with these celestial champions.

Besides his lore, not much is known about Aphelios. He uses a moonblade made of solidified magic and his sister appears as his shadow in the splash art. It’s possible Aphelios’ skills will use both the moonblade and the shadow to attack.

The new champion is coming soon after Senna

Far behind Aphelios on the splash art, hidden in the bottom left corner, is what appears to be a Solari ready to attack. This could be a tease for another future champion. However, if this is the case, don’t expect them anytime soon.

According to Riot’s latest roadmap  a juggernaut is scheduled to release after Aphelios, not a Solari.

Many League players were surprised to see a new champion being announced so soon after Senna’s release, with the support champion arriving on live servers on November 10. With the new season coming up, Riot seems to be pushing as many changes through as possible now in order to get things settled in time for the 10th competitive season.