Riot Games has announced that Aurora, the upcoming Champion to be introduced in League of Legends, is set to be the game’s first autistic character.
The new LoL character, who has been in development for around six years, boasts a compelling kit that blends damage-dealing abilities with effective escape and mobility options, making her a formidable solo-laner in the game.
According to the Champions Insights page for Aurora, she is the first League of Legends character to represent Autism.
“In our world, we have a term to describe Aurora: She’s autistic,” senior narrative writer Elyse ‘apothecarie’ Lemoine explains in the blog post. “But Runeterra doesn’t have a term to describe her. She’s just Aurora.”
In recent years, Riot Games has made substantial strides in diversifying representation in League of Legends. Characters such as Caitlyn and Graves have identified as LGBTQ+, and newer Champions like Neeko and K’Sante have been LGBTQ+ since their introduction to the game.
“A lot of the devs on the team are autistic themselves, and they put part of their experience into her as a champion,” Riot Games said in a statement. “In one version she’s almost like a power fantasy in a way, because she never has to live masking her autism. This is who she is, and she’s very apologetically herself, which is awesome.”
Aurora will be hitting the live servers of the MOBA around July 14, 2024, with the heavily anticipated patch 14.14 update.
