The Summoner's Herald, Vol. I, Issue 2 — War In Shurima!
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Read it here: The Summoner's Herald, Vol. I, Issue 2
Greetings, Summoners! I hope my words find you well.
It gave us great pleasure to announce the first edition of the Summoner's Herald. With the most regrettable demise of the Journal of Justice, many Summoners had expressed dismay at the absence of an international news journal to inform them of recent events from a pan-Valoranian perspective. We continue our efforts to meet this need with today's issue.
If only this second edition could be published in happier times! Alas, we must report the news as it is, rather than as we should like it to be. The principal subject of this edition is, therefore, the violent clash between Demacia and Zaun in the Shurima Desert, a reminder of the horrors of war which the League was founded to prevent. Though this be little consolation to the many wounded and slain, let us count it as a blessing that the combat was swiftly brought to an end, and that peace has once again returned to Valoran.
—The Editors
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Hi all! It's taken us a while to put together, but here it is: the second edition of the Summoner's Herald, an in-universe newspaper in the style of the Journal of Justice. It is part of Factions, a community game mode and lore initiative. This means that the events you're reading about in the Herald (and other Factions lore) played out the way they did because of actual matches and player decisions. Things could have happened very differently, just as (had Ionia not had the benefit of GuardsmanBob) the original Noxus vs. Ionia match that gave us the Ionian Boots of Lucidity could have easily gone the other way.
As many have pointed out, there hasn't really been much narrative progression in LoL lore for the past few years. Instead, we've been given a lot of Champions and independent plot elements. There's still quite a bit of unmet demand to see the story progress.
Factions aims to meet that demand, while simultaneously developing a fun game mode that brings in some unique strategic elements and building a fun community. The basic idea:
- We come up with a storyline, centered around a conflict before the League. Past examples include nations fighting over a powerful artifact and a new Noxian invasion of Shon-Xan. Each one features a different set of playable factions, usually about four per storyline.
- Summoners can then declare for a side in this conflict and fight faction versus faction matches using faction-specific Champion lists.
- Anyone can start a scored match anytime, as a custom match. Results are submitted to us online for scoring. We also have shoutcasted weekend tournaments and other events.
- Match outcomes, along with player decisions in interactive lore events, determine how the storyline plays out.
- Each storyline lasts about 3 months. We've done five so far; we just completed the fifth chapter, Hextech Revolution ("the Shuriman Dispute", to use the in-universe term).
The limited Champion lists give factions distinctive strengths and weaknesses, and encourage Summoners to collaborate with members of their factions to develop optimal strategies. They also give less-popular Champions a chance to shine, and encourage some quirky counter-meta gameplay — necessity is the mother of invention, after all.
Want to try Factions out? We're currently in "intermission" between storylines, but the next one should be starting up soon. In the meantime:
- Visit the "Factions" in-client chat to meet the community. (Factions is running on the following servers: NA, EUW, EUNE, OCE, BR.)
- Cast your vote for which factions you'd most like to see playable in the next arc, which will center around the discovery and exploration of a new continent.
- Play some unscored intermission matches with whatever factions you like.
- Sign up for the email list to be notified when the next storyline begins.
Give it a try! We hope you have fun. Side effects may include an enduring, irresistible urge to shout things like DEMACIA!!! and BLOOD FOR NOXUS.
