Jayce Talis

★ Character Information ★

Character Name: Jayce Talis.
Character Age: Early 30s.
Character Species: Human.
Current Health: Alive and uninjured.
Outfit: He is a fancy fellow so that will be his Academy uniform + the white coat, including his leather bracelet with the spend magic gem on it that he never takes off.

Character Canon: League of Legends - Arcane.
Link to History: Here. CW for: mentions of suicidal thoughts, terminal illness, violence, and child death.
Canon Point: End of S1.
Canon Iteration: Original canon.
Canon Iteration Explanation: N/A

★ Folkmore Roles & Attributes ★

Skills:

· Genius-level intelligence.
· Expert inventor, engineer, and blacksmith.
· Can talk your ear off about magic and magic rocks.
· Identifying and using runes.
· Uncanny ability to never realize when people are hitting on him.
· Drawing, both complex blueprints and casual pictures.
· Relatively skilled diplomat.

Canon Abilities: Jayce is just a normal human that happens to be built like a powerhouse, mainly thanks to all the time he spent at the forge building stuff. While not superhuman, just in good health and in his prime, he has notable physical strength and agility.

He is capable of swinging around the Mercury hammer, a weapon as big as he is tall, with casualness and dexterity, almost as if it were a polearm. He moves it in controlled swings strong enough to shatter bones on impact, without seemingly getting overly tired. He's also fast enough to dodge quick attacks even when carrying the hammer.

Role: Legend.

Role Qualities/Attributes:

· Typical Legend's qualities: enhanced strength, tolerance to pain, and the ability to sense nearby creatures in need.

· Color-changing eyes to reflect his emotions. They go from his usual gold to glowing robin blue if he's feeling some sort of really strong emotion, and they're more prominent if he's deeply upset or angry.

· Since Jayce is associated with that animal in canon, he will have pale yellow butterfly wings (4 of them) with a couple of golden dots, covered in tiny scales. They can change size, growing enough to allow Jayce to fly. Usually, he will just keep them small, or folded in his back like a cape, because it's more practical.

· Update: After the Fear itself event, Jayce managed to learn how to display a halo: Hovering behind Jayce's head, four circles appear. They are of different sizes, one inside the other, and the rings display sets of runes similar to the Hexgates when they are activated. They pulse and shine a bright light blue, moving slowly in a circular motion.

Role Reasoning:

Jayce's main motivation for inventing Hextech, as well as nearly everything he does in canon, is that he wants to improve people's lives, help them with his inventions and make them understand that magic is a positive force. He often displays a strong moral compass and is generally a kind, if flawed, person whose main interest lies in progress and advancement, rather than a want for power or riches. Jayce works to bring peace between the different sides of the city and to end the ongoing corruption, and  he has a deep-rooted sense of responsibility, which sometimes gets him in trouble too.

Things don't always go as planned, but at heart, all Jayce wants is to do good and protect people, which is how he will eventually become a champion for his city and gain the title of 'The defender of tomorrow'. That's what I'd like to play out in game, Jayce having the chance to settle more into the heroic side of him, even if he won't be fully sure at first if he is suited to be a legend due to the mistakes he's made back home.
 

★ Personality ★

Option 1.

In the course of the series' 3 acts, Jayce goes through multiple character developments, losing some of his initial idealism and learning how to play the political game.

At the beginning of Act 1, he's a young inventor in pursuit of a dream, dedicating his life to it to an almost obsessive degree. It's shown in extreme detail in the Council Archives/Jayce's Journal part of the wiki, when even his mother begs him to take breaks. He wants to do science and bring magic to people, so he can improve their existence because he's seen the good it could do and the lives it could save. He is a brilliant guy, a quick thinker, and a doer, but he's not great with social skills. And yet, he's tossed into the world of politics in Act 2, appointed the public image of Hextech despite his insistence that Viktor deserves half the credit as the co-creator of Hextech, and later forced to make the ugly, tough decisions.

Not to say he doesn't enjoy some attention, of course. He's got a vain side, a tempter that flares when he's truly frustrated, and he's also very emotional and stubborn at times. But under all of that, Jayce is a painfully shy, painfully self-anxious man, and someone who doesn't understand flirting when people are literally throwing themselves at him. This man's brain cells are focused on science crimes, magic rocks, and little else.

Jayce is also occasionally a people-pleaser who has a hard time putting his foot down and voicing his opinions, especially about matters he doesn't know well. When that happens, he defaults to listening to what others think about the ongoing issues and changes his points of view, which makes him easy to manipulate.

Until he isn't.

Act 3 shows his growing ability to navigate politics and make his own decisions, and it's also then that some of his biggest mistakes take place. With all the manipulative and dangerous elements all around him, the interactions with the Undercity being mostly acts of terrorism/violence/theft committed toward Piltover, and his accidental killing of a child during a Shimmer factory raid, Jayce is at his limit.

The corruption of the upper class and their disregard for Zaun's problems is something that Jayce, in lieu of noticing, feels that he had to fix or no one else would. His love for Viktor and the council's inaction prompts him to kick Heimerdinger, someone Jayce sees as a mentor/paternal figure, out of the council. He later offers a peace treaty to Silco, which might have been successful if Silco's love for Jinx weren't a factor, and practically strongarms the Council into accepting it. All because things needed to change, because his best friend is dying, and there's a war on the horizon.

Jayce continues to make difficult, unpopular decisions while considering the greater good and all the mistakes that led him to that point. He is willing to go to the frontline and fight to defend his city and the people he cares about, even though Jayce can hardly stomach the violence. He is far from a perfect man, but he always strives to learn and fix his errors, like any scientist worth his salt. By the end of the show, he is left scarred by the things he's seen and done, but still looking for solutions and ways to better himself and do right.

In game, we would use his time as a chance to set things right, to better himself, and go back to his shared dream with Viktor. Jayce is aware that they have lost their way, that in the pursuit of greatness, they forgot to do what's right, and it haunts him. Because of that awareness, he also grows more assertive as the story progresses, and I'd like to focus on that aspect as well.

Jayce's full potential lies in him learning that he can make his own decisions, and have his own thoughts, without always trying to please everyone or be liked. That he can solve problems with his hands and wit instead of the political machinations he hates, that his sense of self-worth doesn't need to depend on the approval of others. He would be strong and confident and sure of himself without sacrificing his heart and his passion, being able to do good unto others.