Varus

Sealed at the End of the Darkin War

Varus was a darkin long before he ever took up a bow, one of the ancient ones who savored their victims’ agony and pushed them toward madness before an arrow ended it. The Great Darkin War closed with him locked away instead of killed, and that prison held for centuries. Two Ionian hunters broke it open while chasing what they took to be a common relic, and they had no idea what they had set loose. Varus came back wearing their merged, reshaped bodies, his essence fused into the bow they now carry.

A Weapon Its Bearers Still Resist

The two hunters sealed inside that bow have not let go of it. Varus burns to track down whoever imprisoned him, yet each step toward revenge is fought from inside his own mind, a tug-of-war between the darkin’s appetite and the human fragments he cannot quite smother. His kit reflects the same split between restraint and savagery. Living Vengeance grants him attack damage and ability power after a takedown or assist, with a bigger boost when the target is a champion. Blighted Quiver coats his basic attacks in a slow-acting poison, stacking Blight that a fully drawn Piercing Arrow or a volley from Hail of Arrows can set off for damage based on the victim’s current health. Hail of Arrows additionally corrupts the ground under it, slowing anyone left standing there and reducing their healing. His ultimate, Chain of Corruption, lashes out a tendril that pins one champion in place, then spreads outward to root everyone nearby, although the tendril collapses if its target manages to outrun it. Varus is at his most dangerous from a distance, whether he is prowling Ionia‘s war-torn provinces or following wherever the hunt takes him, willing to wait while suffering finishes the job an arrow began. He is hardly the only champion haunting that land, since Jhin also calls the same region home, for reasons all his own.