Legends of Runeterra reveals its first exclusive champion: Norra

polygon.com:

Legends of Runeterra is an excellent card game adaptation of League of Legends lore, expanding the game’s world with a brilliant cast of characters. But up until now, all of the game’s champions — the most powerful cards with level up mechanics — have been taken from the League of Legends roster. On Tuesday, Riot released a reveal trailer for Norra, the game’s first exclusive champion.

Fans of League lore already know of Norra. Her cat, Yuumi, joined League’s roster with the aid of her magical, portal-opening book. Yuumi, a talking cat, rides the magical Book of Thresholds across the battlefield and uses its magical powers to aid her allies. Her champion biography has had her in search of Norra; most fans weren’t expecting her to show up in Legends of the Runeterra, though. Norra is a two cost unit who creates mysterious portals in her players deck that allow the player to draw created allies. Once the player has summoned six of Norra’s created allies, Norra levels up, and her portals create much more powerful pals.

From every day folk to demi-gods and monsters, Legends of Runeterra gets to run with all of the fantastic threads hinted at in League of Legends champion biographies and cinematics. The game has tons of original characters who could work in League of Legends as champions, but this is the first character who’s been playable as a champion in Runeterra but not League.

Norra seems lovely; she’s a nice old Yordle with big rabbit ears who says nice things like “bless my socks” and offers to make you a cup of tea. It’s nice to see Yuumi’s story come to a happy resolution as well. Norra will be part of the upcoming Awakening expansion, which is set to release on Aug. 31. She’s a welcome, wholesome counterweight to