Hints at the Darkin assassin being a dog-like champion seems promising
The hype for the new Darkin assassin is already growing rapidly, with Riot confirming in their recent LoL Pls dev vlog – Champions and Preseason 2023.
However, Riot didn’t show anything else but the image of the champion’s dagger, or their own unique weapon as a means of the holder for their dark essence. But, we have all known Riot with their unexpected hints of their new champions, especially at the first sight of announcing it to their fans.
Famous League of Legends leaker Big bad bear recently discovered that Riot Reav3 has also done the same thing in the champions’ announcement clip.
Reav3 actually hinted at the champion with many “dog-related” sentences, such as:
“One of the things the League community hounds me about”
“Darkin fans are like, throw me a frickin bone here!”
“barkin for some Darkin”
“And as to who… or what got ahold of these daggers”
This could potentially mean that the new Darkin assassin will be in the form of a Dog creature, much like Nasus or Warwick. However, according to their lore, Darkin is a species of ascended God-Warriors who were harmed by the horrors and eventually used blood magic on themselves.
So, the assassin should be inspired by a more Hell-like creature, similar to Cerberus, Fenrir, and even Chimera, according to Big Bad Bear.
Fans already felt engaged in these hints, finding it interesting to see the first-ever Darkin to not be in the form of a human in League of Legends. Some even thought it would be cool if his/her lore being a “failed one”: couldn’t find a human host so had to take over an animal, like a parasite.
For now, the new assassin seems absolutely promising. Riot may choose to offer additional lore on the “failed” champions in the future.