Warriors | Tanks | Assassins | Mages | Marksman | Supports
Arena of Valor counterpart: Ishar (pre-rework), Natalya (current)
Original Information: Angela is an original character to Honor of Kings. However, the spirit residing within her book is this universe's Merlin.
In-game Bio: She's a little girl who's lived in the area amongst the Holy Knights where King Arthur reigned. Angela was smitten with him but didn't make any moves. At least until she accidentally opened a grimoire and from it came the soul of Merlin the Wizard, who proceeded to hijack her body and pushed her forward to enlist as an ally/subordinate of Arthur himself to help him. The combination of Angela's crush and her own intelligence, combined with Merlin's advice, eventually enabled her to become one of Arthur's top assistants.
- Age Lift: She has a slightly more mature body in the international version, likely to avoid implications that Arthur has a 'relationship' with an underaged girl.
- Color Motif: In her default outfit, red.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Angela was supposed to be an Expy of Annie, complete with her own gigantic teddy bear, and she played much like Ishar in Arena of Valor. Thanks to her rework that updated her moveset to be more independent, her bear is nowhere to be seen now.
- Playing with Fire: Has fire powers.
- Official Couple: With Arthur.
- Shout-Out: Her introduction animation is prancing around with Caramelldansen. She doesn't do this in the international version.
- Skill Gate Characters: Most likely one of the earlier easy mages for players to use: Angela is capable of dealing incredible burst damage from afar or even as a close-range emergency defense, the burst is enough to kill those caught in the wrong time without proper defenses. Her usefulness falters a bit against experienced players that can predict where her spells are going, but given enough cover and defenses with friends, Angela still works well as an artillery hero from afar.
- Spell Book: Carries one around from which she casts her ultimate. Lore-wise, her whole life changed the moment she opened that spellbook, when Merlin popped up to hijack her body.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Mganga
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Original Information: Chang'e is the deity of the moon and betrothed to Hou Yi. After Hou Yi completed his mission to shoot down nine suns, those suns turned out to be the children of Di Jun, so the couple was punished by being stripped of their immortality. Hou Yi, however, managed to secure a potion that would grant immortality to both of them. However, out of curiosity or cornered by bandits trying to steal the potion, Chang'e instead drank the potion for herself, and she was sent straight to the moon, forever separated from Hou Yi and only having the company of a bunch of lunar rabbits.
- Age Lift: Specifically mentioned to be 14 in the game. She is older physically in myths.
- Combo: Use her first ability to root and mark an enemy, and basic attack them, the explosion from the mark will serve as a nice poke.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Her core gameplay, you are to use your second ability on an area (which is also around yourself), drain the enemy of their mana around you and that area, when their mana is zero, you will deal MUCH more damage, in-short you cast your second ability and be The Gadfly around the enemy.
- Difficult, but Awesome: She has several factors that makes her very hard to play, from positioning well to managing her mana pool. Along with a very multi-layered kit
- Flight: Has a unique recall out of all the characters. She can recall and Fly back to the spot she recalled at. However, this will disable her recall until the cooldown is refreshed (as of now it is 40 seconds).
- Goddess of the Moon: One of the most famous ones. In-game lore her ascendance is through coincidence. Coincidentally, she is not the only Moon Goddess; newcomer Hai Yue also share the spot.
- Lunacy: Fights with moonlight and moon dust.
- Magic Missile Storm: Her Ultimate to a T, she will expend a LOT of her mana in a cone formation to annihilate targets one by one with a speed buff while casting it.
- Mana Meter: Heavily relies on this for her Super-Toughness passive, as she is a categorized tank. Once the mana bar runs out, she will be squishier than an assassin.
- Official Couple: With Houyi.
- Regenerating Mana: Her kit has multiple ways to replenish her mana, such as basic attacking often, or use her second ability nearby enemy units, by Draining them.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Veera
Original Information: Su Daji was a favored consort of King Zhou of Shang, with a sadistic penchant for torture and delighting in the suffering of others. King Zhou, however, was so in love with her that he catered to all her sadistic favors and neglected the state of affairs. This led people to rebel and overthrew the Shang dynasty, and Daji was executed on the advice of Jiang Ziya. Her tale was notorious enough that she was featured in the epic Fengshen Yanyi where she was made out to be a Nine-Tailed Fox in disguise sent by Nü Wa to punish King Zhou for lusting after the goddess, but became too intoxicated in her lust for power. Regardless, her sadism, lust for torture, and eventual fate remained intact.
In-game Bio: With a body created from mechanisms and a soul gained from magic, the living puppet was gifted to King Zhou by its creator, Jiang Ziya. The king noticed that the puppet resembled his recently deceased lover, and could not resist accepting the gift. The puppet was named Daji by her new owner, but without a heart, she lacked feelings. Even though King Zhou treated her well and poured out all his hopes and grief to her, Daji was never sure if she even loved King Zhou. One day when King Zhou was out on a campaign, a mysterious voice guided her to the mausoleum of the king’s deceased lover. Upon opening it, she was possessed by the spirit of the lover, who, convinced that the king had replaced her, enacted a brutal revenge. The quarrels between the two souls eventually ended in the body falling into a long sleep. It wasn’t until much later, due to a passing summoner, that the naive Daji awoke again, determined to find herself a heart.
- Adaptational Heroism: Daji in the original myth was one of the most maliciously evil creatures in Chinese mythology. She's far less evil in this incarnation.
- Little Bit Beastly: Possesses fox ears and a tail as she was created to resemble King Zhou's deceased half-demon lover.
- Foxy Vixen: She's not foul this time... we think.
- Magikarp Power: Most of Daji's abilities are auto-targeting, but she really doesn't deal enough damage early game to be a serious threat. By end game, however, Daji gains the ability to deal high burst damage, insta-killing enemy heroes without even having to aim. In fact, Daji's mere presence can force the enemy team to trade damage and defensive items for magic resistance due to her deadly potential, if she's allowed to be well-fed. Otherwise she's the one who just ends up tickling her targets.
- Only One Name: As a living puppet, Daji has no family name and received her given name from her former owner, King Zhou.
- Robot Girl: Created by Jiang Ziya, and gained a soul through magic.
- Sharing a Body: Daji after absorbing the soul of King Zhou's dead wife. The two souls continuously fought for control over the body until the wife finally killed her former husband.
- Unwitting Pawn: In the end, the naive Daji ended up accidentally causing the death of King Zhou, which turned out to be her creator's plan all along.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Lauriel
Original Information: A fictional creation for Romance of the Three Kingdoms, based on the nameless handmaiden that caused the rift between Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo. Diao Chan was the daughter of the minister Wang Yun with a beauty that was said to be able to eclipse the moon itself. She was sent to seduce both Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo, causing a rift between the two and hopefully ridding China of the tyrannical Dong Zhuo. The plan worked, and Diao Chan also fell in love with Lu Bu for real. She traveled and stayed by the side of Lu Bu until his demise against Cao Cao, whereupon her fate became unclear, but she most likely perished. Despite being a fictional identity, she was considered so beautiful that she joined the ranks of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, alongside Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, and later Yang Yuhuan.
Diao Chan is a dancing Mage hero who beautifully dances around the battlefield spreading deadly flower petals, building up power to be an unstoppable force of magical dance at late game.
- Her passive is Explosion of Fragrance. When Diao Chan deals damage with a skill, she places a Floral Mark to her target. Once she stores 4 stacks, the mark explodes, recovering a flat HP amount to Diao Chan, dealing true damage and temporarily slowing the marked target's movement speed.
- Her first skill is Returning Lotus. Diao Chan throws a Lotus Orb (actually a big lotus flower) to a direction and returns to her like a boomerang. Both travel and return journey of the orb deals the same damage to all it touches.
- Her second skill is Petals in the Wind. Diao Chan dashes to a direction. If there are enemies near the end of her dash, she then launches three Lotus Orb petals to nearby enemies, which deals damage. As long as one petal hits an enemy, this skill's cooldown will be heavily reduced.
- Her ultimate is Flowery Potential. Diao Chan sets up a magical flower stage on the ground for a considerable time. It deals damage on its creation (not when the animation setting up the stage finishes) and when the duration ends. As long as Diao Chan stands on the stage, the cooldowns of her 1st and 2nd skills are reduced.
- Airplane Arms: For some reason, she walks with her arms spread like an airplane. Perhaps it's a dance walk to show off her long dancing sleeve?
- Color Motif: In her default costume, pink. Just so you know that she's an extremely beautiful and girly girl.
- Dance Battler: She deals damage by gracefully dancing around her enemies.
- Flower Motifs: Her attacks are shaped like pink flowers, and her ultimate summons a flower-shaped stage beneath her.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her clothes do not cover her shoulders and just hang around at the center of her considerably big boobs.
- Magikarp Power: One of the most notorious cases in the game that her successor also inherits in her own game. Early game, Diao Chan's damage output is kind of meh and she wouldn't be able to do much. Give her time, money, and items (preferably with cooldown reduction), and by the end game, Diao Chan is the dancer that obliterates everything on her path by repeatedly dancing, either untouchable or recovering the damage she received with sheer spell vamp.
- Ms. Fanservice: Of course, she's one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, but Diao Chan stands out amongst the others for her much more provocative clothing with Impossibly-Low Neckline and blatantly showing that her boobs are huge.
- Petal Power: She either launches the petals one by one, or the whole flower with all the petals intact. They don't hurt much early game, but if she has her way until her late game, you'll start fearing over her puny petals.
- Related in the Adaptation: Downplayed. In this continuity, she's related with Zhao Yun not because they're family but because they used to be in the same spy guild until they go separate ways (with Diao Chan staying in Wei's faction to spy more on Cao Cao and wait for a chance of Lu Bu's return, while Zhao Yun goes to directly oppose Cao Cao by joining Shu), their official relationship is even listed with 'old friends'. While in the novel, both of them have nothing to do with each other.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: She is one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China along with Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, and Yang Yuhuan.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Yue
- Adaptational Ugliness: Moye is probably fine, but there are no signs that originally Ganjiang was supposed to be this kind of towering monstrosity. Because of this, their alternate skins gave Ganjiang a more attractive human body.
- The Dividual: Two living beings at the same cost of one hero unit. If Ganjiang dies, so does Moye.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: This is why Ganjiang always carries Moye on his shoulder everywhere; he positively towers over her.
- Long-Range Fighter: Best known as a long range artillery mage hero. As long as Ganjiang & Moye can keep their distance and aim well, they can shoot out twin magic blasts (or more than two) from far away and deal deadly burst damage, especially when the enemies are hit on the converging point. Their only defense from enemies that get too close is a mere back-dash. Slightly mitigating this is their normal attack, which is a close range swipe by Ganjiang (unlike their Arena of Valor counterpart, who has a normal ranged attack)... but that's not what you're mostly going to use with them when you go against heroes.
- Official Couple: With each other, and additionally fulfills the quota of Ugly Guy, Hot Wife, seeing that Ganjiang has gotten a case of Adaptational Ugliness.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Jinna
Original Information: A musician living in the State of Qi and expert of the instrument zhu. Gao Jianli was friends with the crown prince/assassin Jing Ke, who tried to assassinate Ying Zheng/Qin Shi Huangdi and yet failed and was executed. For this, Gao Jianli decided to hide his identity and retreated. Unfortunately, Ying Zheng managed to locate him, and based on his talents in music, he was summoned to play for the emperor, which blew his cover. And yet, Ying Zheng spared him and still allowed him to play, only punishing him with blindness because he was a fan of music, which somehow relaxed him. Gao Jianli saw this as a chance and secretly prepared the tools to assassinate the emperor and avenge Jing Ke. Unfortunately, Ying Zheng saw through this too and executed him as a result.
- Close-Range Combatant: Despite being a mage, Gao Jianli doesn't have much range. Up close, however, he's a walking bomb, dealing high, continuous damage.
- Instrument of Murder: Channels his magic through an electric guitar.
- Musical Assassin: In history, he was a musician that attempted assassination which has nothing to do with music. Now, he's combining both aspects: He's killing his oppositions with music.
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Original Information: Hai Yue is an original character to Honor of Kings
- Accidental Murder: As Guo Ye, Jia Luo, Fei, Lanling Wang, and Sang Qi tries to stop her self-sacrificial rampage; Wei Ye tries to stop her magic and was grabbed by her, she stops once he mentions his wish but the damage was too great, she seals him into a jewel and “Not allowing him [sic] to die”.
- Bedlah Babe: Her first skin is this.
- Berserk Button: Call her master Di Jun a Deathbringer, she DARES you.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: She has a secondary motif of ghostly green butterflies, that she protects as it is a remnant of the land where her master; Di Jun, came from. In cutscenes, she summons a Swarm of these to attack the heroes above.
- Combo: Her passive as a whole, you can string around 6 differences of combos using her two non-ultimate abilities.
- Glass Slipper: Wears a pair, but they strangely covers about from her toes to half of her feet, the heels are completely exposed.
- Goddess of the Moon: The second goddess of the moon after Chang’e, she clarifies within the lore that Chang’e is an Outworld Goddess.
- Hated by All: Downplayed. Hai Yue is the only hero whose relationship web with the other heroes contains only enemies, but her character trailer reveals a non-playable character, Wei Ye, as her one and only friend.
- Lunacy: She fights using moonlight that is crystalized.
- Master of Illusion: She has a knack of this within her cutscenes, by casting illusions to cloud the heroes’ judgement. However she tend to project her past memories within these illusions as well.
- The Mourning After: She constantly finds away to get her master, Di Jun to be resurrected after he sacrificed himself protecting the Cloudlands from the goddess Nu Wa.
- Pocket Dimension: Her ultimate allows her to pull one enemy player into her pocket dimension for a short period of time. This dimension also shortens her abilities’ cooldown by half, allowing her to cast her non-ultimate abilities more often.
- Power Crystal: Her motif,The three crystalline discs behind her, using an indicator of her passive in-game, they will replenish after three seconds of usage.
- Power Floats: Always seen floating.
- Quest for a Wish: As she was unsealed by Wei Ye, who is aware she is Divine, he wishes for Hai Yue to just Shines with her own light, she thinks that it is silly for a mortal like him to wish a Divine Being so, she later promise to fulfill this wish after killing Wei Ye and putting him in a jewel.
- Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Hai Yue was a weak and sickly child who was considered useless by her village. After being abandoned in the wilderness and almost died of exhaustion and is about to be attacked by a pack of horned wolf-like beasts, she was rescued by a god named Di Jun, and granted immense power and godhood.
- Tranquil Fury: So much that it clouded her judgement, it even manifested Physically along with her memories for the team of heroes to fight her in the story.
- Undying Loyalty: To the god that saved her, Di Jun, She swears complete loyalty to him from beginning of her godhood to the present time still. She also will resurrect him by ANY means necessary. The same way Wei Ye swears to her as he unsealed her and she saving him from the brink of death.
- Unknown Rival: Her feelings towards Nu Wa, as she is “the Outworld God that buried the Cloudlands in sands”, killing her master Di Jun.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After Wei Ye was killed, lightning and thunder appears within Hai Yue’s dimension, she suspects the “Outworld Gods” have caught wind she is here, and makes a hasty exit while silently berating the team of heroes who fought her as “trash”.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Preyta (partial)
Original Information: His other name is Taigong Wang. He served as an advisor of the Shang Dynasty until he was unable to stomach the tyranny of King Zhou and his consort Daji. He feigned madness to retire from ministry affairs where he spent his time fishing and awaiting people that would seek him to overthrow Zhou. That person was King Wen, and Jiang Ziya helped him overthrow Zhou and foresaw the execution of Daji. His appearance in Fengshen Yanyi codified his portrayal as China's arch-wizard character.
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Original Information: Jin Chan is a semi-original character to Honor of Kings. He is a Captain Ersatz of Tang Sanzang/Xuanzang, the man who retrieved scriptures from the West area and brought it back to China during the Tang Dynasty. While his journey was certainly perilous, they would be retold with fantastic elements such as demons, magic, and mysticism in the classic novel Journey to the West, which also saw the debut of Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie. Unlike A Ke and Yuan Ge, the decision for Jin Chan's name has been there since the character introduction.
- Adaptational Badass: He's based on one of the most premiere Distressed Dudes of Chinese literature. In here, he's a powerful mage ready to deliver some serious vanquishing.
- Badass Pacifist: Jin Chan doesn't like killing, being a monk and all. But he's a Mage with a deadly kit. So he'll be doing a lot of 'vanquishing' of enemy heroes.
- Meaningful Name: Jin Chan is named after 'Jin Chan Zi' (金蟬子), the Golden Cicada that questioned the Buddha that he's punished to reincarnate as the monk Xuanzang. Therefore, he's not renamed at random.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: He doesn't kill people as a monk. Therefore, whenever he does something that equates to killing, the announcer modifies their announcement to make it look like he just 'eliminated' his targets.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Marja
- Achilles' Heel: One-on-One fights are a no no for her, but a simple group can murder her.
- Action Mom: She is a GRANDMOTHER, who planned and strategized war before, but through magic usage, and becoming a vamp mage herself, she is even more capable as a battle mistress.
- Animal Motifs: Crows and Ravens. Her Mythic skin replaces the crows and ravens with the Divine Phoenix.
- Art Evolution: One of the heroines to get visual overhauls, she goes from a stereotypical succubus, but toned down to a chinese styled goth with a more (or less) refined outfit.
- Casting a Shadow: She specifically performs shadow magic.
- Color Motif: In her default costume, purple. with accents of black and crimson.
- Crutch Character: The player-base deemed her early game to be extremely strong as she has sustain from the get-go, but falls off quite a bit late game.
- Dragon Lady: Although no dragon motifs, she fits the bill 9 out of 10.
- Femme Fatale: One of the Only ones in the game.
- Lady of Black Magic: Dark of Magic. Darker of Deeds.
- Lunacy: Implied by her title, her ultimate ability’s name and her Yue (Moon) name, one can assume she channels magic using the dark side of the moon.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Besides being a mage, she is classified as a Tank just like Chang’e.
- Ms. Fanservice: Dresses up no less than a courtesan, speaks like one, but oh she will Hit Hard early and mid-game.
- No-Sell: Her ultimate deals damage during the beginning cast and end cast, the in-between times will leave her fully invulnerable to anything.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She provided the resources and leeway for Xu Fu to conduct magic in her palace, this action leads him not only allowing her to get magical powers, but also later spirals down to Mi Yue severely craving youth, allowing depravities such as killing prisoners (Especially mage prisoners) to harvest their magic. Later, Xu Fu resurrected the God of War Lübu himself, who causes a massacre one night in her palace, and left without a trace.
- The Vamp: Gameplay-wise; Mi Yue can dish out a ton of single target damage while staying sustained for a Long While using lifesteal built within her kit. Narrative-wise, she was originally a late middle-aged Empress Dowager that still has a strong hand in ruling the kingdom, she was given a potion from Xu Fu that ages her way back to her prime, she later craves this more and more.
- Walking the Earth: She is now somewhere, seeking the wizard Xu Fu, now armed with strong vampiric magic to try to get a sense of immortality.
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Original Information: Milady is an original character to Honor of Kings
In-game Bio: The consul and de facto leader of Navenia. On the outside, Milady looks like a refined, if a bit stern and cold, noblewoman. However, she hides the fact that she has been afflicted with a curse of crystalization that not only affects her, but will also affect the whole region of Navenia, her domain. She is desperate to lift the curse for her and her people, and will take any action, no matter how cruel it makes her, to break the curse. She commands mechanical constructs controlled with her own magic, all to strike her enemies or observe the movements of anyone she suspects to be a threat.
- The Baroness: She comes close enough as a Sexpot type: She's certainly not old enough to be called unattractive, and she also dabbles in a more gray area than completely dark. To further down this, she walks in a classy noble baroness manner with her cane.
- Eyepatch of Power: Aside of most likely hiding certain parts of her that has been cursed, the eyepatch certainly shows that Milady is the boss of Navenia.
- Foil: In a crossover manner, thanks to Allain crossing over, Milady serves as this to Quillen. Both put Allain under their services when he's without memories, but...
- Milady looks cold, domineering, stern, but is at least fair and treats Allain well and like a human being. Generally, Allain has a good time when serving under Milady.
- Quillen looks affable as a politician, but underneath that, he's utterly ruthless and racist. He treats Allain like just a pawn for his goals and encourages actions that will make him lose his humanity. Tellingly, it doesn't take a memory recovery for Allain to desert Quillen.
- The Minion Master: Milady's mechanical constructs can be summoned en masse and easily swarm her targets without her having to directly attack her enemies. She's known as a great tower demolisher for this.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Gildur
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Original Information: Nü Wa is the goddess that created humanity. Along with her husband Fu Xi, she fixed the pillars of heaven after the wars between deities ruined them, and eventually took on several muds and molded them into what would become humans.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Zata
Original Information: Shangguan Wan'er was the granddaughter of Shangguan Li, an official of the Tang dynasty. Her family was abruptly put to death when her grandfather was framed for planning to depose Empress Wu Zetian. Shangguan Wan'er and her mother were spared, but in exchange became slaves to the palace, and yet Shangguan Wan'er never stopped studying. This eventually piqued Wu Zetian's interest who acknowledged her talent. The empress promoted her as her personal secretary and continued to value her talents and advice and tended to avoid executing her. Even after Wu Zetian's deposition, Shangguan Wan'er continued to hold influence within the court of her successor Emperor Zhongzhong, serving as the Imperial Consort that completed most of the administrative tasks. However, after Emperor Zhongzhong's death, Shangguan Wan'er was caught in a succession crisis coup and then was executed by one of its members.
- Art Attacker: She wrote a lot of edicts in her time. Therefore, she's using her magical paint to attack you with magical ink and writing strokes.
- Badass Bookworm: She's equally a studious lady and a devastating mage. Being a bookworm is what elevated her from a slave girl to Wu Zetian's Number Two.
- Boring, but Practical: As opposed to her spectacular, high-risk ultimate, the combo of her first and second skill provides safe range (getting someone close to her is practically a death sentence) and good burst damage that it's more often to become Shangguan Wan'er's go-to killing skills, and then her ultimate is used for repositioning or escape. Sometimes being acrophobic has its merits.
- Color Motifs: In her default costume, the combo of black and white. Also pretty symbolic to her as a secretary that uses black ink on white paper a lot.
- Difficult, but Awesome: In her earlier builds, in order to deal even more massive damage, Shangguan Wan'er is required to have her ult dashes hit five times note . Even if she can hit her own skills, it's still easier said than done to avoid getting ridiculed as 'Acrophobic Wan'er' and pounded by the enemy. A Shangguan Wan'er that can consistently make her fly a lot, however, is a well-known terror. After her 2023 rework, this is lessened a bit: If Wan'er misses a dash after executing 3 dashes at minimum, she can still fly, but the less times she dashes, her flying attack will be shorter and deals less damage, which is still better to temporarily dodge incoming attacks than doing absolutely nothing.
- Gender Flip: She still gets the S-Dreamer skin based on her AOV counterpart, Zata, only modified to look like a full blown girl rather than a very pretty boy.
- Revenge: Aside from serving Wu Zetian, Shangguan Wan'er is driven with how she wants those causing her grandfather to be unjustly executed (Wu Zetian wasn't involved this time) to pay for their crimes. In her written story, she managed to present the case to Di Renjie (the resident judge/detective) to be a successful one.
- Warrior Poet: There's a considerable, yet set, delay in her quotes, meaning that her quotes are mostly poems. In real life, Shangguan Wan'er was also a poet in addition to a secretary.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Iggy
Faction: Chonokh (Northern Realm)
Arena of Valor counterpart: Diao Chan
Original Information: A legendary beauty that was said to have the looks to distract birds to forget flapping their wings and dropping them from flying. Born as a beautiful and yet intelligent girl, Wang Zhaojun was handpicked as a harem candidate for Emperor Yuan of Han. Confident in her own beauty, she refused to bribe the artist Mao Yanshou to enhance her picture with even greater beauty, and feeling insulted, Mao instead added a mole to Wang Zhaojun's picture, making her look uglier and dismissed by the Emperor, reducing her to a lady-in-waiting. Later on, the Xiongnu tribe prince Huhanye requested to be an imperial son-in-law, but the Emperor refused to give up his own concubine and instead asked the plainest girl to be given over and Wang Zhaojun accepted. Finally revealing herself to the Emperor, he finally realized Zhaojun's true beauty and was too late to prevent her departure to Xiongnu, only able to retaliate by executing Mao Yanshou for tricking him. Regardless, Wang Zhaojun lived a content life within Xiongnu, being involved with its politics briefly while marrying Huhanye until he died, and was told to stay in Xiongnu instead of returning home to China, a proposal she accepted. Her tale was picked up in many Peking operas and she stands as the second of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, along with Xi Shi, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan.
In-game Bio: The Central Plains have been on a constant siege against the northern warrior tribe of Chonokh. To appease that with a treaty, they sent a beautiful princess: Wang Zhaojun. Taken to their home at the Winter Ocean, Wang Zhaojun was offered as a bride to their tribal deity in hopes that the deity would come down to protect them. With that, her life force was taken and she was put in deep sleep, encased in a coffin of ice. The Chonokh ended up not enjoying their peace for long as other tribes, including the Central Plains themselves, broke their treaty and slaughtered the people of Chonokh especially during their sacred wedding day, and then they planned to raid the burial grounds. In that very time, Wang Zhaojun awakened. Imbued with the power of ice, she laid waste to the raiders and was greeted back by the people of Chonokh as their official guardian. Despite the sorrow in her eyes, Wang Zhaojun has taken it upon herself to protect the people of Chonokh, but still hopes to go home and revisit her homeland one day.
- An Ice Person: Can both damage and freeze enemy heroes with her ice magic.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: The global version, if not referring her as Frost, instead just omits the 'Wang' in her name, rendering her as just 'Zhaojun'.
- Blue Means Cold, Color Motif: Is dressed in blue and white to reflect her ice powers.
- Closest Thing We Got: Wang Zhaojun is amongst the northern Wolf Banner based on her eventual departure to Xiongnu. Thing is, there is no Xiongnu equivalent of the game, so the closest hero she's most related to is... the Mongolian Genghis Khan. And they're not married.
- Deep Sleep: For a very long time after being taken to the Winter Ocean, Wang Zhaojun is put in deep slumber and never to wake up... until her burial grounds were about to get desecrated and her new people being threatened. Afterwards, she stays awake all the time instead of sleeping again until the next threat comes knocking.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Exclusively on Wang Zhaojun, instead of sticking with the formula set by Crystal Maiden, her ult later can be cast somewhere else outside the center of herself and she no longer needs to channel.
- Exposed to the Elements: Despite all of her ice-conjuring and generally hailing from a snowy area, Wang Zhaojun has no problems and makes no comment on how her outfit bares her shoulders and back. Looks like the cold never bothered her anyway.
- Exaggerated in her old design, with her wearing a two-piece.
- Expy: Her set is a lot more based on Crystal Maiden, since she at least has the area freeze blast as well as a disabler-damage skill and her ultimate rains down a blizzard in an area. However, while her successor in Arena of Valor sticks with the formula, Wang Zhaojun ends up having a slight Divergent Character Evolution after a few updates.
- Guardian Entity: The ritual of Winter Ocean turns Wang Zhaojun into a ice-powered guardian entity who protects the Chonokh in time of need.
- Human Sacrifice: She got her life sacrificed for the deity of Chonokh, but in return, she can come Back from the Dead with deadly ice magic whenever the Chonokh tribe is in peril.
- Tragic Ice Character: Aside of being part of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, where having a tragic life is practically the second primary requirement after being drop dead gorgeous, Wang Zhaojun's ice powers also signify that she still had it rough in this verse: Taken away from her original homeland, getting sacrificed and put into a deep sleep, not being able to go home often, and having absolutely no significant person to converse and relate with. She really leads a lonely life being an ice maiden.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: She is one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China along with Xi Shi, Yang Yuhuan, and Diao Chan.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Ilumia
Original Information: The only empress in the history of Imperial China. Wu Zetian began as a young concubine of the revered Emperor Tang Taizong, before eventually betrothed to the next emperor, Gaozhong. Due to his sickly stature despite his sagely rule, Wu Zetian showed her savvy and ruthless side, gaining power on her own until she effectively became the person with most power in the ruling court. She deposed her own son Zhongzhong and temporarily replaced the Tang Dynasty with her own Zhou Dynasty. She's known for her extremely ruthless method for dealing with her oppositions, but it was known that she secured an age of peace and stability while promoting both meritocracy, women emancipation and gender equality. After she made a mistake of bringing the Zhang brothers into her court during her old age, a coup was staged and Wu Zetian handed over her rulership to Zhongzhong, bringing the Tang Dynasty back while she passed away in retirement.
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Original Information: Xi Shi was a natural beauty, going from a non-assuming village girl to a girl good at sexpionage. Her beauty was said to make fish forget how to swim and drown if her reflection was to appear on the water. She was approached by King Goujian of Yue, who was bitter that his state was subjugated and made into a tributary state for King Fuchai of Wu. On the recommendation of minister Fan Li, Xi Shi and her best friend Zheng Dan were handpicked to seduce King Fuchai, who couldn't resist beautiful women, in order to weaken him. The plan worked, with King Fuchai becoming more neglectful of his own states, which weakened his nation and gave King Goujian the chance to rebel and completely destroyed the State of Wu. Xi Shi retired afterward, some said that she married Fan Li, having fallen in love during their journey to King Fuchai and swore to reunite once her mission was done, and roamed together in the misty wilderness of Taihu Lake with no one ever seeing them again, but some (like Mozi) said that Goujian executed Xi Shi by drowning her in a river, fearing that she'd mesmerize him the same way she did to Fuchai. Her tale was inspiring enough for people to refer to her as the first of the Four Beauties of Ancient China (together with Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan later down the line), and yet nothing was heard of her best friend that helped her complete her task, Zheng Dan.
In-game Bio: Growing up in the Southern Wildness, Xi Shi spent her childhood running for her life. Once while escaping the pursuit of a creditor, she strayed into an abandoned ancestral hall and found a magical silk veil with great power. This power helped Xi Shi solve many problems in the following years, but also attracted people who coveted it. They entangled her under the guise of creditors and devised a trap. With the help of Zhuang Zhou, Xi Shi fled to Jixia Academy, began to learn to use her power, and aimed at the Guixu Mengyan Competition that offered handsome prizes.
- Color Motif: In her default costume, blue.
- Girl Next Door: As opposed to her fellow Four Beauties' design that could get a bit extravagant, Xi Shi's clothing style is relatively simpler and evokes the image of an approachable girl next door or a classmate if the setting is in a school (and she is a student of the Jixia Academy). Most likely because she's the only one who had complete peasant origins, others had more privileged childhood (Wang Zhaojun was handpicked as a harem lady in the age of 13, Diao Chan was the daughter of a Han minister, Yang Yuhuan was born princess).
- In Name Only: Xi Shi in this incarnation seems close enough to be an original school girl character who shares the same name with her (including her alternate name Shi Yiguang), none of her original history tidbits (as a female spy of Goujian) and relations remain. This is most likely because Xi Shi was introduced after Tencent became more wary about including historical/mythological characters after many Chinese parents complained about their designs misinforming youths, but they still feel obligated to complete the quartet of Four Beauties of Ancient China.
- People Puppets: If someone is hit with her first skill, then Xi Shi temporarily gains a skill to force them to move somewhere else on her own bidding. An enemy hero just runs off from a team fight or a delayed AOE skill? Not if Xi Shi forces them to walk back to the team fight and get further pounded or to the AOE area and get caught in the blast. Lore-wise, this ability helped her escape creditors throughout her childhood.
- Ship Tease: Her relations with Dongfang Yao is played like two high school best friends or pseudo-dating. This is mostly to downplay their former Official Couple status where it might misinform the youth about the historical Xi Shi, since the game doesn't have the other figures in Xi Shi's life (Fan Li, Goujian, Fuchai, Zheng Dan).
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: There are only two women amongst the Jixia Academy faction, and Xi Shi fills in as the girly mage as opposed to the tomboyish bruiser Zhong Wuyan.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: She is one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China along with Wang Zhaojun, Yang Yuhuan, and Diao Chan.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Krixi
Original Information: Xiao Qiao is the second half of the Two Qiaos, one of the great beauties of the Three Kingdoms period, along with her big sister Da Qiao. She's betrothed to the Wu advisor Zhou Yu. It was said that Zhou Yu was provoked into declaring war against Wei when he heard rumors that Cao Cao was lusting for Xiao Qiao, although the war would end up being known as the Battle of Red Cliffs, where Wu emerged victorious against Wei.
- Age Lift: Like Angela, she gets an older body (while still younger than Da Qiao) in the international version to avoid implications of 'Zhou Yu's wife is an underaged girl'.
- Blow You Away: While most of her attacks takes imageries of a flower petal storm, it's implied from her quotes that she has control over winds. She just chooses to put up flowers around it for reasons.
- Non-Indicative Name: Xiao Qiao's English name, Breezy, refer to a state of a calm, soothing wind. While Xiao Qiao isn't too hyperactive, her play style involve dealing huge burst damages (unless someone gets to her first) and generally creating destruction like a storm would... and 'Stormy' is the English name of the even calmer, more supportive Da Qiao, her sister.
- Color Motif: In her default costume, pink.
- Combat Hand Fan: Carries around a large one that she throws at enemy heroes.
- Odango Hair: Oddly, in a series chock full of Chinese characters, Xiao Qiao is the only one who has double hair buns like the most common portrayals of Chinese girls.
- Official Couple: With Zhou Yu.
- Totally Radical: In the global version, she's shown using a slang to refer to Zhou Yu, to show that despite the Age Lift, Xiao Qiao is still kinda childish."Hurry up and win! I wanna get back to my boonote !"
Arena of Valor counterpart: Sephera
Original Information: Yang Yuhuan, otherwise known as Yang Guifei, lived through the Tang Dynasty, a few generations after Wu Zetian. She was born a princess, but then became a Taoist nun named Taizhen, until she ended up being handpicked as a concubine of Emperor Xuanzong, who showered her with a lot of love thanks to her great beauty that was said to put flowers in shame, despite being apparently chubby. However, the political drama of the court around her eventually erupted into the An Lushan Rebellion, and Yang Yuhuan was accused to be one of the chief causes due to the overly disproportionate affection she received everywhere and how An Lushan was able to rise to power and initiate his rebellion because of Yang Yuhuan being favored. Advisors claim that her execution would hopefully stabilize the situation. The Emperor reluctantly ordered so and after her death, he retrieved her body and granted her a lot of posthumous honors. Yang Yuhuan's legacy was secured in that she's not only the last of the Four Beauties of Ancient China (joining Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, and Diao Chan) but her life story was immortalized in the poem "Chang hen ge/Song of Everlasting Sorrow", which somehow also gained popularity in Japan and became the basis of another epic: The Tale of Genji.
- Adaptational Curves: Despite the beauty standard of her time (that she set herself) was more of a Big Beautiful Woman, Yang Yuhuan here possesses a slimmer build, more befitting as a normal adult lady.
- Brown Note: Her abilities, along with healing allies, hurts enemies as well.
- Combat Medic: Just like the Brown Note she plays, she can heal using her ultimate ability, along with her healing stance.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: She can constantly poke you continuously with her first ability and a follow-up basic attack, it may not matter early but it will hurt when her build is online.
- Emotionless Girl: Not sure specifically if she can feel any emotion or not, but Happiness is one of the emotions she cannot tell or feel.
- Flower Motifs: The peony flower, shows up many times on her clothes and hair, especially in her lobby animations where a petal falls on to her shoulder to awaken her.
- Hidden Depths: Yi Xing is her disciple, he calls her Master.
- Instrumentof Murder: Channels her magic through a Chinese lute.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: All her skins puts her in beautiful dresses, this does not stop her from walloping the enemy with her Magic Music.
- Magikarp Power: Weak early, will spam every heal ever by late game.
- Not the Intended Use: To the point of being memed upon, she can play as a tank, earning an interesting nickname for being Chunky.
- Power Floats: She hovers on the ground in every appearance.
- The Red Mage: With her kit she can stay in the Mid Lane, or be played as a support in the Duo Lane. Because her kit is built with healing and damage at the same time.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: She is ‘man-made’, but she looks incredibly lifelike, and she can in-fact; on-screen, eats a bit of Gongsun Li’s nasty food and visually tried not to gag.
- Robot Girl: Like Daji, Yang Yuhuan is 'man-made', although her origins are much more mysterious, with her creators currently unknown.
- Spam Attack: And Spam Healing, as her cooldowns are quite short.
- Stance System: One of her traits that she does not transfer to Sephera. Yang Yuhuan has an offensive stance, where her skills deal damage, and healing stance, where her skills heal damage. She can only activate one stance for a time and both stances have to be switched on manually. This actually makes her more similar to Sona.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: She is one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China along with Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, and Diao Chan.
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Arena of Valor counterpart: Kahlii
Original Information: Born during the state of war, Ying Zheng became the head of the Qin state and eventually embarked on a great campaign that ended with him uniting China under his own rule, with him as its first Emperor. And thus, he started bearing the name he's most known as: Qin Shi Huangdi. Depending on who you ask, Ying Zheng would be either a cruel despot or a just, yet extravagant ruler who nonetheless also worked hard to improve his Empire. From his orders, the Great Wall of China was constructed, and he immortalized his loyal soldiers in form of the Terracotta Army statues located in a museum within his Empire. Some other things he's known for were his paranoia with death causing him to research immortality to no avail; as well as how he hated scholars that he persecuted Confucians and initiated many book burnings to erase history before him, for he's the only Emperor China needed at his time.
- The Emperor: Between the ruler-type heroes (such as Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Ce, Wu Zetian), Ying Zheng holds the greatest intimidation factor and influence. Fitting because he leads an empire, and he's (based on) the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi.
- Expy: Ying Zheng still carries the arrogant air of being the first Emperor. Combined with his tendency to spam a Storm of Blades, he looks like he's based on Type-Moon's rendition of Gilgamesh.
- Storm of Blades: A lot of his skills revolve around opening a portal and many swords gets thrown from that.
Arena of Valor counterpart: Aleister
- Spell Book: Casts his abilities with one.
Faction: Three Kingdoms - Wei
Arena of Valor counterpart: Azzen'ka
Original Information: Zhenji is officially the wife of Yuan Xi, son of Yuan Shao, a warlord in the Three Kingdoms era. Unfortunately, Yuan Shao and her husband would perish in the Battle of Guan Du. When the Wei army raided her home, Cao Cao's son, Cao Pi had a glimpse at Zhenji and took a liking to her. Zhenji was taken to the Wei kingdom and became Cao Pi's wife, effectively making her Cao Cao's daughter-in-law. However, Cao Pi's poet brother, Cao Zhi, also took a liking to her, making a poem to praise Zhenji to be equal to the Goddess of Luo River. The two brothers argued about her ownership, and after Cao Pi declared himself Emperor, Zhenji lost favor from him despite bearing his first son Cao Rui, and tragically was ordered to commit suicide. Her son, however, managed to make Cao Pi regret his actions and posthumously made Zhenji Empress, while Cao Zhi's poem spread from word to mouth and she truly became linked with the identity of the Goddess of the Luo River.
In-game Bio: Zhenji is a member of a clan who specialized in a magic that controls the flow of water, with her being the clan's prodigy. All her life, she was taught to never step out of her village. However, one day, she met a charming man from the Cao clan. She was enraptured with the feeling of love, and because of it, she broke the clan's rules and eloped with him to experience the world outside. Unfortunately, this man turned out to be an abusive Manipulative Bastard and only in the marriage because it was the will of his father, Cao Cao, to gain someone from her clan to his services. This shattered Zhenji's outlook in life, all she could do was just to go with the flow, but her heart remained in sorrow and despair.
- Broken Bird: Zhenji is not a happy woman. Her life has shattered the moment she realized her fiancee was pretty much a manipulative Overlord Jr. and the Overlord Sr. (Cao Cao) actually arranged the marriage just so he could take advantage of her own water magic.
- Color Motif: In her default costume, dark blue.
- Love Hurts: Does it ever. Zhenji's horrible life started because she fell in genuine love and realizing too late about the two-faced fiancee of hers.
- Making a Splash: Uses water magic due to her historical counterpart's association with the Luo River.
- Ice Magic Is Water: Her passive allows her to temporarily freeze enemy heroes.
- Shout-Out: One of her quotes in the globalized version is "Whoever falls in love first is the one who loses." Of course, in case of Zhenji, the premise is Played for Drama at her expense.
- Tragic Ice Character: While her primary element is water, she still counts because Ice Magic Is Water in her case. She's a tragic lady trapped in a loveless marriage that she realized too late.
Arena of Valor counterpart: N/A
Original Information: One of the chief strategists of the Wu Kingdom in the Three Kingdoms era. Zhou Yu is the best friend of Sun Ce and he showed his intellect by helping Sun Ce claim the land of Wu. When Sun Ce passed away, Zhou Yu was entrusted with advising his brother Sun Quan, and eventually led Wu to a victory against the massive army of Wei in the Battle of the Red Cliffs, by aligning with the visiting Liu Bei and his entourage and taking advantage of the wind's blowing direction. He acknowledged the talents of Zhuge Liang, but historically, he wasn't as venomously jealous as Romance of the Three Kingdoms made him out to be. He died from the wounds procured from battle but has set up a line of successor strategists that would help out Wu in time of need, such as Lu Meng and later Lu Xun.
- Blow You Away: Unlike in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhou Yu doesn't need prayers from Zhuge Liang to summon winds, he'll summon them himself! Not only do the winds blow enemy positions away, but it also spreads the burning ground he sets up.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: As usual, Zhou Yu is a Bishōnen with long hair, even if he still loses out in handsomeness to Lanling Wang or the other four handsome men (Competition was pretty tight).
- Official Couple: With Xiao Qiao.
- Playing with Fire: Being the main man behind the victory of Wu in the Battle of Red Cliffs seems to associate Zhou Yu with fire.
Faction: Three Kingdoms - Shu (formerly Jixia Academy)
Arena of Valor counterpart: Tulen
Original Information: The genius statesman/strategist of the Three Kingdoms nicknamed 'Sleeping Dragon'. After learning strategy from Sima Hui, Zhuge Liang lived a life as a hermit until he was recruited by Liu Bei who was in need of a strategist against Cao Cao. After a few strategic successes, Zhuge Liang oversaw the administration of the Shu Kingdom, a job that he excelled at, and Liu Bei trusted him enough to manage Shu after he passed away. Zhuge Liang then launched multiple campaigns to expand the territory of Shu but found rivalry with Sima Yi and he overworked himself to death in an effort to unify the land under Shu. The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms exaggerated his otherwise-mediocre military strategy skills into a supreme genius master strategist with varying devices to help Shu and strong prediction skills, as well as giving him his trademark feather fan.
In-game Bio: An alumnus of the Jixia Academy, particularly the one who scored the highest in every subjects. Every teachers praised him and believed that he'd be the successor of Lao Fuzi to run the Academy. Yet, Zhuge Liang focused more on uncovering the secrets within the world. Within his research, he discovered various secrets, in particular about the super beings who created civilization and came in contact with the "origin of knowledge". Eventually he settled in the Shu Kingdom, generally being distant but enjoying visits from a certain Liu Bei.
Zhuge Liang never cared for war and politics, not even Liu Bei could sway him to join his cause, but eventually he discovered that the knowledge of the Superbeings can be used for both good and evil and in case of the latter, it would bring disaster, and he detects that someone is using that knowledge to influence the course of history. Shortly after, he heard more and more disastrous news: The return of the dark alchemist Xu Fu within the Qin palace, and then the sudden slaughter of archaeologist Cai Yong and his entourage by his beastly bodyguard (Dian Wei).
At this point, Zhuge Liang knows that he cannot just sit idly and let things flow to a dark turn; he has to take action. Leaving his seclusion and finally agreeing to serve as the chief strategist of Liu Bei in his campaign against Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang prepares to bring his genius intellect to turn the tide of history.
The genius Zhuge Liang is a mage hero who launches magical spirit objects via technology-based magic to greatly damage his foes, make surprising evasions and to finish off his target as he planned.
- His passive is Time for Tactics. Zhuge Liang can gather up to 5 stacks of marks as he hits a target with his skills. When he has gathered 5 stacks, Zhuge Liang summons 5 orbiting energy prisms for 10 seconds, they automatically attack hostile units, prioritizing enemy heroes, dealing magic damage. Jungle monsters take less damage, but minions take more damage.
- His first skill is Arcane Assault. Zhuge Liang launches three prisms in a direction of his choosing, dealing damage to enemies in the path. Multiple prisms hitting the same target will reduce the subsequent hits' damages.
- His second skill is Time Shift. Zhuge Liang teleports in a short distance. His departure and target location leaves a magic field that deals damage to nearby enemies. If the enemy takes damage twice with this skill in a short time, they will be slowed temporarily. If an enemy take damage from multiple fields in the same time, the second one deals less damage. Zhuge Liang can store this skill for up to 3 charges.
- His ultimate is Winning Strategy. Zhuge Liang picks a target and charges a spirit bomb. After a few seconds, he launches it to his target, in which it deals massive damage, and more based on their lost HP percentage. Non-hero enemies in its path will also take damage and be launched temporarily. However, other heroes can cover for his designated target. If the spirit bomb kills the target, Zhuge Liang gains full stacks of Time for Tactics and his ultimate's cooldown is massively reduced. If his target dies before his spirit bomb arrives, then he only receives the latter benefit.
- The Ace: He graduates the Jixia Academy with basically a summa cum laude score in everything that doesn't involve physical activities.
- Badass Boast: A lot of his quotes revolve around making sure the enemy knows that he's a genius and he's already got plans to win his battles a thousand miles away.
- Calling Your Attacks: Subverted. Using Arcane Assault may make him shout out attack names... that aren't accurate to the skill he's using."Red Cliff Storm!"
"Eastern Winds!" - Child Prodigy: A young graduate of the Jixia Academy and the best there is, and by the time he graduated, he's already decrypting various ancient knowledges that dates back to the beginning of time, relating to the "origin of knowledge", before finally agreeing to become The Strategist for Liu Bei before he even grows a facial hair (he has none).
- Combat Hand Fan: In a way that he doesn't throw it, but it acts as his conduit for magic. It's unique in a way that aside of being shaped like his historical/novel self's signature feather fan, it's made by technological construct and only appears when he feels like it rather than having to carry it and letting others see all the time.
- Neutral No Longer: At first, Zhuge Liang prefers to be just alone further researching about the origin of knowledge rather than picking a side in the war. However, he then decides to join Liu Bei in his campaign against Cao Cao because Cao Cao's ambition ends up being a visible threat for what Zhuge Liang fears about the misuse of knowledge.
- The Smart Guy: One of the smartest heroes in the game's whole roster. Naturally, because he's based on one of the best strategist in Chinese history/fiction.
- Techno Wizard: He summons computer interfaces out of thin air to type things and prepare for his magic, and using it to materialize his fan.
- Teleportation: Comes with three charges of short teleportation. Perfect for quickly stepping away from an unfavorable fight or juking his enemies.
