Ionia suffered greatly during the Noxian invasion. After Ionia wrought back their lands and became part of the League -- an order was made in secret. It was clear that the path of balance would not defend them from such a hostile invasion, and the League can only settle so many matters. The secret order began taking youths and training them to be weapons -- assassins of the greatest skill.
Katsumi is often recognized as the most gifted of these assassins. But her sister, Shiori follows close behind her. Always being in the shadow of Katsumi has made Shiori a permanent rival, and through that rivalry -- Shiori has become overly excessive in her violence. Where Katsumi chose the katana, Shiori chose dance. Channeling her energy, Shiori produces violent wakes of eviscerating magics through quick, graceful dances on the battlefield. The only thing more feared than Shiori's dances, is her temper. She has been sent to the League with her sister to test her ability to battle, and execute, legends.
Concept Game-Play
Shiori is a AD/AP hybrid stance-dance (lol) fighter who functions like Udyr. Shiori has a high focus on heavy AoE damage, high movement speed, and quick attacks. I picture her as using her arm ribbons much like Kratos (God of War) uses his blades. She would also be in constant motion as a dancer, the effect being amplified by her stance-dance abilities.
Art Direction
Shiori is the response to the community need for a Dancer-class champion, of which it has been agreed Orianna does not fit. With a viewpoint found in League, I knew that the most dynamic movements for a Dancer would be spins. Working off of that, I wanted Shiori to have a means other than her body to cause damage. So I took influence from ribbon dancers and combined it into Shiori's sleeves as her primary weapon (also fulfilling the use of cloth as a primary weapon). I chose pink tones for Shiori's appearance to convey elegance as a dancer, and to reinforce the archetype of dancers being girls/girly. At the same time, I motioned to make Shiori's sleeves much darker and aglow with energy to denote the violence in her -- the sleeves are her weapon, that's what players need to fear. Dancers are often linked to a sense of sexuality -- so I used this as an opportunity to actually make a female concept more in line of 'sexy female'.
