A sudden decrease in character lore

Nyaxxy··7 votes·1,747 views

I know there are many others who have discussed the lore changes on here, many are more knowledgeable of the characters they are discussing than perhaps I am. But I am not going to be rehashing the same arguments, points of view or claims. I want to talk about something that has crept up with all of the recent changes. The extreme drop in quality lore. Now, I am not claiming the current lore team are poor at their job. I am just curious as to why the sudden shift has occurred.

Ok, so lets take a look at the three most recent champions, Braum, Gnar and Azir.

Braum Braum has interesting and engaging lore, told in the form of a story from grandmother to grandchild. It is told as a a bedtime story, a tale of Braums heroic deeds, and it is a genuinely interesting read. In terms of statistics, it has 709 words.

Gnar Gnar's lore, told from Rengar's point of view is more vague as to Gnar's background and history. It is a story of an encounter, not really something that I would consider lore for a character, though it is interesting and the the way it is written is appealing. On the wikia, there is a "short bio" tab, which does address the vagueness of the encounter described in the "lore" tab. Though it is short and doesn't make me interested in the character 'Gnar' himself. Gnar's lore (including the short bio) comes to a total of 588 words.

Azir Azir's lore is an interesting look into the history of the character, addressing a specific event which led to his disappearance. While it is structured better than Gnar's lore, I do feel confused at the content. If he was "obliterated in an instant" how did he survive. I am sure this will be answered later but I found it odd. Azir's lore has a total of 231 words (wikia).

Now, as you can see there is a trend in the length of the lore writings of these recent champions ending with an underwhelming 231 words of lore for Azir, an emperor of Shurima which Riot seem to be basing a lot of upcoming content around (Azir: Emperor of Shurima, Ascension game mode, shurima kha'zix skin, lore changes for characters with Shurima at their core). Personally, if the lore team cannot seem to garner more than 231 words for a character of such importance to a region which is being brought to the forefront of League of Legends, then I cannot foresee future lore being developed with the same depth as the past.

Another one of my main gripes with the lore is that in client, for whatever reason, Riot has decided to only use an excerpt of Azir's lore, a mere 46 words of lore. 46. Now, I would like to think this would be changed, but it just looks to me like they are dumbing down the lore of other champions into cut-down versions of their lore. Examples of these can be found below.

  • Ezreal had 273 words worth of lore replaced by a watered down version with 75 words.
  • Cassiopeia had 287 words of old lore before the lore changes. Now she is left with a pitiful 65 words.
  • Nasus had 317 words of lore, though in client it has been cut down to a mere 64 words.
  • Renekton had 313 words of lore, though this has been drastically cut to 53 words.
  • Xerath had 302 words of lore. Though on the client it has been reduced to 52 words.

If the team are going to tl;dr the lore of all the characters into a <75 word paragraph, then that can hardly be advertised as lore under the "Lore" tab in client. It is a cut down, simplified and brief version of the characters lore. If anything it is a description and should be labeled as such. If not, then the full lore should be displayed. Perhaps someone can tell me why they seem to be cutting the lore apart into little chunks, because the answer to that question eludes my grasp.

Answers on a postcard.

13 Comments

VardenSalad6 votes

Can't make people read too much, man. Kids these days don't want to read. A whole paragraph is clearly too hard. Just take the lore nerfs like everyone else and get bitter. Not like they're going to listen to feedback on this matter anyways.

The team that makes character bios under 100 words thinks they can churn out novels and have them not be garbage. This is going to be a fun ride.

Crazycatperson3 votes

It's not a nerf, it's a rework.

Thanotos Omega4 votes

The new lores are brief character summaries meant to quickly familiarize a player with the champions core personality and traits, the big stuff is more likely to be done else where, these are just so casual players can learn a little about the champs without reading to much.

Khodexus1 votes

Then why are they in the lore tabs instead of the 'overview' tab?

Thanotos Omega1 votes

Because that's where people will think to look for them, They may also plan to ad more later, when it's revealed, They said they don't want to just throw out info, they want to tell stories,

Khodexus1 votes

I have no problem with them 'telling stories'. My problem is that's NOT what they are doing. They are doing the opposite of telling stories, they are destroying/deleting stories... And good ones at that.

Thanotos Omega1 votes

I know, While i have been snappy with folks over all this, I get that for those invested in it this is all a big kick in the head, But i truly believe that in the long run this is the best direction, I can't magically prove that to you, So i have no comfort to really offer, I doubt Rioters enjoy this either, but for the long term viability of the franchise and for best possibilities to expand it, the old lore had to go, I hope you all start feeling better soon.

Khodexus1 votes

I can understand that reasoning too. But why did the 'old lore have to go' before the new lore was ready/finished? This seems really half ***ed, and unfinished, even for 'just the beginning of the story'. If the purpose of the beginning of the story is to hook you into reading the rest of the story, Riot has failed fantastically.

They also seem to have failed in preserving those few interesting parts of their original character stories that had nothing to do with the IoW or LoL, such as Tabia in Xerath's background, or the fact that Cassiopeia had LITERALLY no combat skills before being cursed. This was why she became so good at seduction and manipulation. Or how about Amumu being a yordle? We're back down to 11 Yordles... again... seriously, wtf?

The only good I've seen come out of this so far is Nasus and Renekton gaining solid ties to Runeterra, instead of being aliens. But even that could have been handled better.

Also... Azir is supposed to be a minion-mancer... so why doesn't he actually have minions?

Thanotos Omega1 votes

I can understand that reasoning too. But why did the 'old lore have to go' before the new lore was ready/finished? This seems really half ***ed, and unfinished, even for 'just the beginning of the story'. If the purpose of the beginning of the story is to hook you into reading the rest of the story, Riot has failed fantastically.

They also seem to have failed in preserving those few interesting parts of their original character stories that had nothing to do with the IoW or LoL, such as Tabia in Xerath's background, or the fact that Cassiopeia had LITERALLY no combat skills before being cursed. This was why she became so good at seduction and manipulation. Or how about Amumu being a yordle? We're back down to 11 Yordles... again... seriously, wtf?

The only good I've seen come out of this so far is Nasus and Renekton gaining solid ties to Runeterra, instead of being aliens. But even that could have been handled better.

Also... Azir is supposed to be a minion-mancer... so why doesn't he actually have minions?

The Preview comic thing and decent into the tomb have both been pretty successful, So they are doing pretty good at getting people into the new stuff,

For all we know that girl was just something Xerath made up, remember the only source on his back story is him, and he had all the reason in the world to lie, Cass hasn't shown a whole lot of skill, since all she did was wait for Sivir to turn her back then stab her,

They were probably not trusted to be to close during the ritual, I bet Xerath pointed out the risks of having anyone but him to close, and now he calls them up from the sand into which they were turned,

Khodexus1 votes

If it was something that he made up, then it's terrible writing, because frankly that was basically the main thing that made his character deep/interesting. "Once something has been done, it's easy to follow." Xerath was not a follower, at least according to his old lore. And I much prefer that version.

Peridition4 votes

I kinda have to agree. Certain elements of the Shurima event seem like they've been really rushed. I would have prefered if they waited and made the event more impressive.

Azir is a great addition, but the event seems very watered down from the Freljord event we had in 2013 or the Harrowing in 2012.

  • No visual update for the Crystal Scar, even though they changed the location to Shurima
  • Only 1 new skin
  • New lore for Shurima champions, but its extremely abridged
  • Amumu VU missing
Phrixscreoth3 votes

Quality over quantity. If I can get the gist of who a character is and what motivates them in 65 words rather than have to read 287 words to get the same basic information, then all I need is 65 words.

Also, do you count all the words in the new video detailing what appears to be "part 1" of the rerise of shurmia? Because that's all backstory too, for a number of characters.

Despotist2 votes

Quality over quantity. If I can get the gist of who a character is and what motivates them in 65 words rather than have to read 287 words to get the same basic information, then all I need is 65 words.

Also, do you count all the words in the new video detailing what appears to be "part 1" of the rerise of shurmia? Because that's all backstory too, for a number of characters.

I agree with this, Riot might have shorter Lores for the champs, but they have instead released videos explaining those champions. Instead of being told everything on one page, we are left to discover more about these champions. Plus everyone seems to forget that they are only in Chapter 1 of the new lore change. As new Chapers (or episodes) are released, the lore of those champions will grow.

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