A failed experiment by the Black Rose, Briar’s uncontrollable bloodlust required a special pillory to focus her frenzied mind. After years of confinement, this living weapon broke free from her restraints and unleashed herself into the world. Now she’s controlled by no one—following only her hunger for knowledge and blood—and relishes the opportunities to let loose, even if reining back the frenzy isn’t easy.
 | "I don’t lose control, I free myself from control." — Briar |
 |
Background[]
Early Life[]
The magical pillory created by the 
Black Rose to restrain and control Briar.
Briar was created near the end of 
Boram Darkwill's reign by the Black Rose's hemomancers. She was designed to be a new type of living weapon created purely out of blood magic and not requiring sustenance to survive.
Though designed to be a perfect assassin, Briar was completely driven by a hunger for blood, entering a constant state of hemomania. Despite this, the Black Rose sent Briar off on her first mission which ended in a gory failure as Briar entered a frenzy and killed everyone indiscriminately. Realizing she was too dangerous to control, the Black Rose created a special pillory with a 
hemolith gemstone to both restrain and focus her mind, taming her hemomanic instincts completely.
When the disgraced general 
Jericho Swain began his coup over the Noxian empire, the Black Rose quickly deployed many of their living weapons and experiments to fight him off. Briar was deployed among them and had the special job of killing Swain himself. Once she was given to a handler to help direct her, Briar was released from her pillory and immediately devoured him and everyone around her. Unfortunately, Swain managed to escape her bloody frenzy and his guards managed to capture her, restoring Briar's pillory. Now restrained, Swain was able to transfer Briar to a holding facility, locking her in a cell with many other living experiments that had been employed by the Black Rose.
Coming to Terms with her nature[]
Alone in her cell, Briar was unable to die from starvation and simply focused on her hunger. Initially thinking the many crazed wails of the neighboring cells were her own voices, Briar came to realize they were other living weapons like her that were captured. While listening to them however, she began to realize how boring and single-minded her neighbors were. Not wishing to become like them, Briar instead decided to seclude herself in solitude within her cell.
Briar sat in solitary confinement for years, finding entertainment in eavesdropping her guards' conversations, pestering them for raw meat and agonizing whether she should race her pet spiders or eat them. She would eventually wonder about the world outside of her cell and, while toying with her restraint, managed to loosen the hemolith in her pillory. She thought about the neighboring hemomaniacs and their simple-minded hunger for blood and decided that she wanted to be something more, finding a balance between being calm and frenzied.
Escape[]
Now with a newfound purpose, Briar wanted to finally see the outside world and devised a plan to escape her prison. Though the guards were used to her calling for attention, one particular guard was lured closer to Briar's cell, allowing her to attack him and feast on his blood, giving her enough strength to break out.
Briar gleefully escaping her cell.
Eager and excited to escape, Briar quickly befriended a young janitor who she mistakenly assumed was escaping with her. When she saw the prison guards roughly shove the janitor away to safety, Briar got angry and managed to break her pillory, going into a hemomanic frenzy and brutally defeating many of the guards while trying to follow her new janitor 'friend.' Once outside of the prison gates, Briar reconstructed her pillory and gazed at the outside world, free to explore the world beyond and feast on all the blood she wants.[2] Now, she wanders the streets of 
Noxus, learning more about the world beyond her cell and wishing to make new friends. The Black Rose, curious about Briar's unexpected development, have been secretly monitoring their living weapon for currently unknown purposes.
Appearance[]
Briar is a pale humanoid girl with grey skin and white hair dyed with blood. Her eyes are cataracted with huge white pupils resembling the full moon and bright pink sclera. Briar's claws and teeth are incredibly sharp and she has pointed ears resembling a bat's. There are metal bolts on her shoulder-blades capable of emitting magical energy for propulsion. She appears very thin and almost emaciated but her bottom half is a bit heavier. She wears a black corset-like outfit adorned with many black, leather straps and some red, wax seals on the belts on her hip. Her bottom half simply has some black bandages covering her legs, leaving her feet bare with metal stakes stabbing through her ankles. She is restrained by an arch-shaped pillory adorned with many spikes and runic symbols that glow a dark red, held together by a hemolith gemstone in the middle of it.
In her hemomanic state, Briar shatters her pillory and her hair stands on end. Her face morphs into a savage expression with glowing red eyes and an extended tongue. The cuffs of her pillory form sharp red daggers, which can be empowered with blood magic to become longer blades made of blood.
Personality[]
Briar's defining characteristic is her never-ending hunger for blood, with her instincts drawing her to kill both her allies and enemies indiscriminately so she can eat them. After developing independence as a result of her imprisonment, she became excitable and carefree, always displaying a childlike sense of wonder. She has more control over her hunger and is more open to befriending others, though she is willing to unleash her hemomanic instincts if she needs to.
Abilities[]
- Blood Golem Physiology: Briar is an artificial, organic construct created through hemomancy, crafted purely out of blood magic. Though she is made of flesh and blood, she does not require food or water to live.
Hemomanic Instincts: Briar was created with the sole purpose of being a living weapon and has the innate ability to enter a state of hemomania. In this state, Briar becomes frenzied and hungers for blood, being granted increased strength and stamina in order to pursue her prey. However, Briar is completely mindless in this state and works off of pure instinct. In order to keep herself focused and control her insatiable hunger, Briar willingly keeps herself in her hemolith pillory, which negates her hemomanic instincts completely. Briar is bound to this pillory and can both remove and rebuild it at will.
Enhanced Agility: Briar is incredibly agile and flexible, allowing her to run at high speeds, leap far distances and even contort her own body.
Hemomancy: Due to her creation, Briar has innate hemomancy which allows her to manipulate blood and flesh to a small degree and consume it. When Briar consumes blood, she regenerates her body and sates her endless hunger.
- Blood Blade Creation: When Briar breaks out of her pillory, she can generate a pair of dagger-like blades on her cuffs out of blood, allowing her to viciously slash at enemies. Briar can empower and grow these blades at will.
Sonic Scream: Briar can channel blood magic into her mouth and release it, producing a sonic scream and releasing a blast of magic that pushes enemies back.
Propulsion: Using the small structures on her back, Briar can emit magical energy to propel herself through the air towards her target when she's unrestrained from her pillory.
Relations[]
Black Rose[]
Briar was created by the Black Rose's hemomancers as a living weapon. After she proved to be too dangerous to keep unrestrained after her first mission failed, they bound her in a special pillory designed with a hemolith gemstone meant to keep her mind focused and under control. She was later deployed by the Black Rose to kill Jericho Swain during his coup, but lost control and was ultimately imprisoned by Swain and his guards.
After Briar broke out of Swain's holding facility, the Black Rose continue to monitor and spy on her as she wanders the streets of Noxus, intrigued by her sudden development into a more sentient being.
Vladimir[]
Briar was created with hemomancy, a magical art strongly tied to Vladimir, a founding member of the Black Rose. Though his exact relationship with Briar is unclear, it's heavily implied that he was mainly responsible for her creation. As her creator, Briar somewhat considers Vladimir her 'dad,' though she questions whether or not to actually call him that.
The annotated sketch used for Briar splash art states that she is at Vladimir's castle, acting as a guard dog.[3] Whether this is true for the characters is unclear, however it does imply a possible relationship between the two after Briar escape.
Boram Darkwill[]
Boram Darkwill is the one who entrusted the Black Rose to create living weapons towards the end of his reign and mainly oversaw the creation of Briar as a perfect assassin. When the Black Rose deployed her to kill Jericho Swain during his coup, she failed and was captured by his guards, allowing Swain to eventually take over Noxus and kill Darkwill.
Jericho Swain[]
Briar was sent to kill Swain during his coup but proved too difficult to control as she managed to kill everybody around her except for her target. As Swain managed to escape, his guards captured and restored Briar's pillory restraint, transporting her to a secret holding facility with several other living weapons sent to kill him by the Black Rose. Eventually, Briar managed to escape the facility, killing many of the guards and now roaming the streets of Noxus.
Sion[]
Sion is another hemomancy experiment conducted by the Black Rose as they attempted to revive him using blood magic. As one of their many experiments, Sion was also imprisoned in the same facility as Briar, being held in a cell neighboring hers. Sion was one of the many experiments that annoyed Briar during her imprisonment, seeing him as boring and simple. Their exact relationship isn't entirely known, but Briar seems disappointed and annoyed to see that Sion escaped the facility as well.
Read More
Biography
Starring Champion
Alternate Universes
Trivia[]
- Briar's pillory is similar to
Riven's blade, as both are runic objects created by the Black Rose with the special ability to reassemble at will.[4] - Briar's height is 5 foot, 3 inches or 161 centimeters.[5]
- Riot August, on his stream, stated that Briar is "around late college age." However, because she was created toward the end of Boram Darkwill's reign as Grand General, she was most likely created at least a decade ago.[1]
- Though Briar's relation with
Talon isn't clear, he's described as one of the few people she considers a 'friend'.
Change log[]
| Character blurb | |
|---|---|
| September 2023 | Added. |
