When our narrative writers and editors work on champions, their characteristics and personality are carefully built from the ground up, as part of the design process (along with art and gameplay). The way those champions speak and use language to convey ideas is very important in players “getting a feel” for them, as quickly as possible.

At Riot we work in English, from a North American point-of-view, and accents are an additional shorthand way to get complex ideas about a champion across, beyond the words they actually use. Fiora is the Grand Duelist, and so by giving her a fantasy version of an accent that sounds broadly French, it can imply several things about her:

She is from a Demacian noble family with a slightly aloof attitude to those beneath her, possibly referencing the idea of the pre-Revolution aristocracy.

She is highly skilled in what you or I might call modern sword fencing styles, with the three main disciplines of épée , foil and sabre all having French names (and even ‘en garde’ is a French term!) in the real world.

She considers herself an artist… and France has been very closely associated with art movements since the Medieval period.

Imagine how different she would sound with a broad US accent, or Australian, or British—each of those carries associations that could help with other very specific character types, but not Fiora as we currently know her.

However, it’s important to remember that this is only true from a western, English-speaking perspective, with our cultural preconception of what being French means. Accent shorthands are not universal across all the regions and servers that League covers, and we work closely with localization teams to find ways for them to make a champion just as relevant in their own, specific cultural view. An “aristocratic swordswoman” might sound very different in Japan, or Germany, or Brazil, for example.

From an in-world perspective, such ideas are much looser. There is no single Noxian accent, or Ionian, or Freljordian. You’ll just as likely hear a sailor from Bilgewater speaking in a rural Russian style accent as a yo-ho-ho English stereotype! It’s all about what fits the character best, in the context you’re hearing them.