League of Legends: Warwick lore explained

Warwick has been around since 2009, when League of Legends was launched, and, like many characters in the release roster, he has suffered from some growing pains as Riot Games worked out what it wanted from the universe. Still, his status as a commonly seen champion in games hasn’t really changed.

As one of the launch characters that still maintains decent popularity, Warwick has appeared in other League of Legends adjacent properties, including Arcane and 2XKO. His appearances haven’t always been consistent, with the Warwick Arcane showing being quite different to his traditional LoL appearance. 

With that being said, let’s take a look at who the Uncaged Wrath of Zaun is and how his LoL iteration differs from the Arcane Warwick version.

As his title implies, Warwick is a champion of Zaun, known as a monster who hunts in the Undercity’s grey alleys. Despite his werewolf appearance, Warwick’s appearance is not the product of a full moon. He is the product of experimentation and alchemical machinery, but he might not be a villain.

Warwick is known for preying on the criminals of Zaun, but the results of all the experiments meant that this werewolf champion isn’t exactly the most stable. He grows mad from the scent of blood, and it is said that those who spill it cannot escape Warwick.

The Warwick League of Legends biography states that, while people only believe him a monster, he had a life before all the experiments. He was once a gangster who put down his knife for a better future, but could never escape the crimes of his past. Somehow, he ended up on Singed’s surgery table, subjected to chemicals to begin the art of transmutation. 

Singed would reveal the former gangster’s true self, the monster beneath the ‘good man’, boosting his healing so that he could be reshaped. He became more werewolf-like as the experiments continued, with a chemical chamber attached to his nervous system. Anytime he felt fear, rage, or hate, chemicals would be injected into his veins from this chemical chamber.

As the experiments went by, the pain and madness made him forget his memories, and while he continued to stubbornly resist the chemicals in his veins, his body finally gave out. Singed disposed of Warwick’s body, but death would not be the end. His chemical pump revived him, replacing his dead flesh.

He became mad, surrendering to his bestial instincts and hunted in the streets of Zaun, yet glimpses of his past haunted him. Fragments of the man he was once compelled to change his targets, and rather than killing indiscriminately, he turned his focus to the criminals of Zaun, wondering if this is what his past self would have wanted. 

Warwick is best suited for jungle, but thanks to his self-sustain, often finds himself in top lane too. As a fighter/tank, Warwick becomes more dangerous the lower his health gets, his healing increasing more and more. He is considered a low-difficulty champion and a great option for ganking.

The Arcane version of the champion is an expansion of the LoL Warwick backstory. 

Before continuing, beware of spoilers for Arcane.

We see him as his human self, Vander, who was one of the main leaders of Zaun for a period, and the adoptive father of Powder (aka Jinx) and Vi. The chemicals end up being Shimmer, and after his death, to protect his kids, Vander ends up on Singed’s operating table.

Unlike the Warwick LoL has, Vander gets some of his memories back before becoming essentially possessed by Viktor when it became time for him to become the series’ final antagonist. At this point, Warwick becomes a mindless puppet.

Warwick doesn’t survive Arcane, meeting his end at the hands of one of his daughters, Jinx, at least as far as we know. Still, throughout Arcane, Warwick never becomes the werewolf-esque monster we see in League of Legends.

Warwick has been a bit all over the place lore-wise, with his design varying massively from his Arcane and League of Legends. His appearance as part of the 2XKO roster has shown that Riot Games might perhaps prefer sticking to his wolf-like design, even if the lore of Arcane and LoL are being merged.

As far as non-human League of Legends characters go, Warwick is probably one of LoL’s most popular. His appearance in projects outside of the main MOBA likely helps this, and as backstories go, he certainly has one of the universe’s darkest.