So I think I'm getting the feel for the character down on the page now. Mostly it's about fretting over the details and with a hypothetical design like this I'm fairly happy to leave it at this stage for the most part. There are a few more things I would like to do with him though, figuring out what his abilities look like, and the way he'd move for example, as well as some colour tests.
Also courtesy of my friend James Williamson (Volcano Style) here is his final lore:
The Noxian Invasion of Ionia still has repercussions to this very day. Varus stalks the Fields of Justice, praying to find himself against a representative of those who stole everything for him. Jericho Swain still finds himself having to silence naysayers (permanently, some say) about his all too convenient absence from the final conflict which won intervention from the League of Legends in Ionia's favour. Yet, not all stories told are unfortunate tales of loss and despair. Sometimes there are tales of hope to lift people's spirits. A tale a young man returning home with a gem for his loved one, only to find the forces of desolation approaching; of that same young man, standing defiantly at the gates, still clutching that very gem - and of the man vanishing in the chaos, only for the same gift he entrusted his soul into, to find itself on his lover's doorstep the next morning.
Niat Lornheart was a prominent candidate for Summoner before his disappearance, but stories continued to be told of him. Presumed dead, yet no body ever found. His love continued her search, refusing to believe that he could be gone. After all, he had delivered her birthday present, as he had promised her - that very gem seeming to entrust her with the promise that one day, he would return. The more she looked, the more stories she would hear - of a young man clutching a lantern, appearing when things seemed their most grim. To guide those lost within the Howling Marsh to safety. To emerge from the sandstorms of the Shurima Desert and quench the thirsts of those parched. Each time, vanishing as quickly as he arrived. The stories told of Niat Lornheart, the boy who could sense a troubled spirit and appear to offer a glimpse of hope and sanctuary.
They were not stories.
The appearance of a cheerful young former Summoner appearing at the Institute of War may have been a source of great relief and joy to one Ionian girl - but others suspect it is an omen of a great calamity yet to come, that one Guiding Soul cannot overcome alone.
"A body can be trained. A mind can be sharpened. Yet the spirit remains unfathomable."
- Old Ionian Proverb.
