General
- Sylas’ name comes from Greek Σ(εε)ιλᾶς S(ee)ilas < Aramaic שְׁאִילָא Šeʔila, literally meaning “the asked-for ” (cf. Hebrew Šaʔul), passive participle of Semitic root-verb š-ʔ-l “ask”, shared with Zilean.
- Sylas is the first champion to have an animation when he cancels the recall.
- Sylas was the first champion released in 2019.
Development
Great loss for iOS users when they want to play Wild Rift – iOS Wild Rift
- The goals for Sylas were to create a Demacian villain and a champion who could steal spells.
- Influences for Sylas include Jason Statham, Huey Long, Kratos from God of War, Xander Cage, Tai Lung from Kung Fu Panda, Zaheer from The Legend of Korra, Bane from The Dark Knight Rises and Sagat and Cody from Street Fighter.
- During development Hijack was tested as a skillshot but proved too unreliable.
- Neeko and Sylas were in development at similar times and would result in confusing playtests due to both Sylas and Neeko changing appearances.
- Sylas’ kit was designed around Hijack, meaning he had to have a generalist kit in order to work with every ultimate in game.
- Sylas’ placeholder models in development were LeBlanc, Ekko, Annie and Fiddlesticks.
Some of Sylas’ scrapped spells from development include:
- An ability where he would absorb any damage he took for a few seconds then detonate it against enemies.
- Blooming Burst
- A skillshot that left a glyph on the ground that could be detonated with a subsequent skillshot.
- A spell that would break all crowd control effects on him.
- An iteration of Hijack that would permanently mark Garen as the Villain if he stole Demacian Justice.
- An ability similar to Mordekaiser’s Realm of Death.
- Sylas was the most technically challenging champion developed by Riot.
- One of the potential directions explored for Sylas was an escape artist mage who purposely allowed themselves to be captured by Demacia in order to prove they could escape from any prison. However they did not account for petricite and were driven insane while incarcerated.
- Sylas’ in development name was CopyCat.
- Sylas’ placeholder visual effects include recolored Illaoi tentacles in the place of Chain Lash, Ethereal Chains in the place of Abduct and Lancer Paragon Blitzcrank’s Rocket Grab in the place of Hijack.
- His theme has sections from Demacia Rising throughout it’s duration.
Lore
Sylas was previously part of the Mageseekers, a branch of the Demacian military that arrested magic users, but was arrested himself after killing three people when he accidentally stole a young mage’s magic.
- Sylas was always torn between his desire to be a “true” Demacian and his shame for identifying his fellow mages while in service to the Mageseekers.
Sylas is around his early 30s.
Despite hating current Demacia, he has no love for Noxus as well.
Narratively, Sylas does not transform when stealing another user’s magic, it is done mainly for gameplay clarity.
He can syphon magic off the original user and use it for a time but the victim will recover and his stolen magic will deplete.
His biography originally stated that his execution was to be hung by the neck, but was changed to a beheading after Lux: Issue 3.
Sylas’s shackles were originally built by Durand, who also designed Galio, to restrain powerful demons like Tahm Kench and Evelynn. They were never intended for a human and using them on a mage like Sylas is overkill. That’s why they are so big and caused him to suffer so much, but also what makes them a fearsome weapon in his hands.
Like a lot of revolutionaries, he’s better at tearing down and has not thought much in the way of practical policy, what a non-hierarchical system would look like on a large scale.
After starting the revolution in Demacia, he is now seeking the ancient Freljordian magic (presumably that of old gods like Anivia and Ornn) and is devoloping alliance with the Winter’s Claw to help with his cause.
Quotes
- “I’M JUST A CONVICT WITH A HAMMER!” references “I’M NO HERO – JUST A YORDLE WITH A HAMMER.”
- “THE MAGE SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.” references the Gospel of Matthew. (“The meek shall inherit the earth.”)
Facts about Sylas