In League of Legends, your character is in fact a CHAMPION who has been SUMMONED to do battle in the arena of the League by a powerfull magic user dubbed a SUMMONER (who is supposed to be you as a person). The minions of the arena we know, are mindless soulless constructs.
The champions however, are real living breathing people in the games lore.
What happens to say, Katarina for example, if Karthus (also for example) slays her in a League Match?
P.S. –
I dont mean in real life, because I know your champion will respawn after a set time, I meant in the game's lore. Does Katarina actually die? Or somehow get whisked from death to respawn in the game's lore as well?
Best Answer
This has been hinted at in sever issues of the now discontinued "Journal of Justice" (still available by clicking the feather icon in the game client).
As far as I remember the champions are magically bound to the active field of justice, which also allows them to exist twice during a fight. They can get hurt and they feel pain, but they also don't really die "completely" (magic keeps their soul from disappearing/ascending/whatever if you want so) and their body is restored by the platforms. Outside the fields of justice they're as mortal (or immortal) as they'd be and they can be hurt permanently, like Lee Sin's blindness for example.
The player doesn't actually become the champion, he controls them like a string puppet. These bindings are temporarily and they lose their strength, which also explains while champions have to level up again from level 1 each round. As such the respawn time (greyed out screen) could be considered the time it takes for the platform to rebuild the champion as well as "reestablishing" the link to the summoner.
JoJ Mail Bag on "Why to retrain every time?" (end of page)
JoJ Mail Bag on "Traumata after dying over and over again?" (end of page)