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A PSA to those complaining about the lore changes.

ChickenWrap·8/31/2014, 8:26:29 AM·12 votes·2,287 views

I have a few things to say, as someone who's been around since the start and who cares about the lore of the game probably more than most of you do.

Yes, lore can be a great way to get into a game, and yes, it could be written better, and yes, Skarner shouldn't have been touched at all, but they're trying to centralize the game into a few key areas. Personally, I'm really glad Shurima is one of them. There is literally nothing known on the Plague Jungles at this time (gee rito so y dont u do it den?) It's not that simple. One person can't just churn out an entire 10 paragraphs on the Plague Jungles when hardly anything has been done on them before just to make sure Rammus still has his sentience intact. To be quite frank, his old lore was worse. Armadillo travels across Shurima (oh look Rammus lives in Shurima!) into the Plague Jungles somehow without dying. Enters a maze. Gains sentience.

Take a good long hard look at that.

Tell me that that isn't stupid.

You can't. It's awful and you know it.

In the case of Nasus and Renekton? Their base lore stays the same. Still keepers, still wants to kill the other, still has a good reason for it. These are, I would assume, tidbits of a full run-down of the lore. What you need to remember is, just like with the VU on skins, this is the PUBLIC BETA ENVIRONMENT that they're on, which means it's UNFINISHED. NOT COMPLETE. ES NO FINITO!

So take a step back, Let Riot do their thing, do an honest comparison instead of "new is bad!" and then come to a well-informed conclusion AFTER IT MAKES IT TO THE LIVE SERVERS!

Although, I'd still very much like to see the JoJ make a re-emergence. And remember, this game isn't driven by its story. If Riot wants to do that in the future, let them. They started to, but then they seem to have stopped. Let them bring it back if and when they want to on their own time. It's their company, not yours. Feel free to go out and MAKE your own company, though. Personally, I wouldn't get too upset over a lack of knowing everything about the lore f the land until we have at least two more maps to prove that RIot really wants to flesh out their world. It's clear that their focus is to get great things out first, then work on things that can be easily changed, such as the lore.

"Oh but the lore is set in stone!" No it's not. Just take a look at WoW. Nothing about anything is ever set in stone Nudges Ghostcrawler Except Frost Mage buffs.

When all is said and done, I can almost guarantee that Riot will go back an put in some stellar, detailed lore into their game, when they're ready, not when you want it. If it makes you feel better, DoTA2 employs the parallel universe clause for like, 6 of their heroes, so at least Riot isn't pulling out that card, eh?

Obligatory "It's a free game and if you don't like it you can always just stop playing"

39 Comments

Sneak Dog8/31/2014, 10:22:31 AM8 votes

I'd like to point back to Trundle, seeing how we do have the full retcon on him.

Trundle used to have a great tragic story developing his character if you took the background and the judgement combined. He was getting bullied by his clan, but got a chance to help his entire clan. Eager to gain their respect, he accepted. Seeing how the clan still saw his as the runt they once bullied angered him and he lost all compassion for them. They could have took the core of this story and just put it in the Frelljord and replaced taking on the curse with becoming leader.

Now however, he is a sadistic brute that lies if he can't just plainly win. This isn't anything close to the old Trundle. He never was sadistic (he became cynical during his background), he didn't have any references to just lie. They legitimately replaced Trundle with a new troll that also happens to be called Trundle instead of keeping the old character Trundle in a new setting. Then they saw the player feedback and still did nothing.

This is why I don't trust the lore department one little bit and I fear for what they'll do with Skarner and Ezreal.

Wheatloaf8/31/2014, 12:17:23 PM4 votes

I wouldn't be so bothered by all the complaining if they'd word their posts with a few less expletives, and far less near-baseless accusations. Is it too much to ask for people to express their displeasure in a civilized manner?

Pryotra8/31/2014, 1:59:18 PM4 votes

Um, honestly, The plague jungles did have a pretty good explanation. They were a zone that humans, in their arrogance and ignorance, had made so toxic with abuse, between Zaun dumping waste there and the Rune wars, that it was uninhabitable to humans. This was the original location for Twisted Treeline, and Home to Maokai, Trundle, Rammus, and Wukong.

Maokai was reworked with TT, as his lore ties him directly to that map. Anywhere it goes, he follows.

Trundle was victim to the Great Frejlordian Retconning.

Rammus looks like the next victim of the Great Shurima Retconning V2.0: Electric Bugaloo

Only Kong remains. I imagine he will be part of Ionia's eventual retconning.

For those who think Kong came from Ionia, you are incorrect. He came from the Plague jungles, and due to a runestone leftover from the rune wars and a happy accident involving the leader of his tribe, he became incredibly power and thirsty for greatness. He was sent north to learn from and challenge the hairless apes to the north. Finding Yi, he learned Wuju Style and became Wukong, the Monkey that joined the league.

They had a solid thing going with the plague jungles, but they have trashed it to shove the champions randomly elsewhere, in my guess to increase the body count in lore retconns. Not alot of good reasons here.

sp4419/2/2014, 12:31:34 AM4 votes

Oh, ok then, we can't complain about anything them, my bad. Riot are saints made out of pure gold, and can do absolutely no wrong, it's us, filthy playerbase, who are in the wrong for being upset about the constant retcons, the total lack of communication, and people treating us like crazy people for caring about the lore. Obviously we hate everything because it's new, and only because it's new, it has nothing to do with our tastes or our attachment to the old, it's only because it's new.

Look, it doesn't matter how you paint it, completely changing the origins and personality of a character on a dime is NOT good lore building. Why get attached to anything if the writers are just going to rewrite it completely whenever they feel like it?

Pyrrasu8/31/2014, 6:03:00 PM1 votes

I'm mostly upset at the Skarner changes and the potential change to how Renekton went mad. I'm fine with moving Renekton and Nasus to this dimension. The "brought from a random other dimension" thing was kind of boring and overused anyway.

If they're going to rework the map and keep Skarner intact but move the Crystal Scar to Shurima, then that would be fine. I'm okay with change that brings more of the universe together. But they'd better not destroy Skarner's character. He even has lines referencing events they seem to have erased.

PhailRaptor9/1/2014, 1:09:22 AM1 votes

In the case of Nasus and Renekton? Their base lore stays the same. Still keepers, still wants to kill the other, still has a good reason for it. These are, I would assume, tidbits of a full run-down of the lore. What you need to remember is, just like with the VU on skins, this is the PUBLIC BETA ENVIRONMENT that they're on, which means it's UNFINISHED. NOT COMPLETE. ES NO FINITO!

So take a step back, Let Riot do their thing, do an honest comparison instead of "new is bad!" and then come to a well-informed conclusion AFTER IT MAKES IT TO THE LIVE SERVERS!

Small hole in this theory. It would be the first time since the PBE was opened that Lore changes specifically have come in pieces. Every VU, rewrite, and new champion has had their full, completely Lore go to the PBE all at the same time, and the only changes that occur to it after that are spelling and grammar issues. It's true, they could perhaps be changing how they do things and breaking that precedent. But there is no indication that they are.

There is, however, one point that I do intend to raise hell about regardless of whether there's "more" or not. Skarner. Riot had better have a damn good explanation for severing all his ties to the Crystal Scar and making him a generic dungeon guard. Half of his VO lines won't even make any sense if his Lore changes go through.

Sadistic Cheese8/31/2014, 1:07:07 PM1 votes

Agreed, OP. They've got a direction that they're going in and it's typically best to wait to see what that direction IS before anyone starts complaining. The time it takes is also I think dictated because they want to be meticulous about keeping their options open in the future. In a situation like this, if they really do care about their lore, with a stage the size and scale of which they've went with, it could be very easy to write yourself into a corner. Especially with the way people here on the net treasure and revere continuity and their stories making sense to them.

I think both WoW and League are tales about people. Many of whom (particularly here in League) are legendary figures. Stories spring up around them, and doubtless not all of them are true. Perhaps the best thing for those of us who enjoy the lore to do is not to consider champion lore less as a direct statement of EXACTLY what happened to these characters, but to view it like....like the common story that circulates around Runeterra's League fans. This is what the fans know, or this is what they've heard from other champions in the case of things like Rengar's POV in the gnar story. The truth may be something very different, what we see as truth may change.

For example people complain about the Ezreal changes. Well, Ez is rather annoying. Let's be honest, he is. His attitude and his ego don't feel the same as Draven's. It almost feels like, I dunno, IT DOESN'T FIT. Perhaps Ezreal's exploits are summed up by one of the many memorable moments in Harry Potter:

"You make me sound a lot cooler than I was." "I've been trying to tell you guys for years that that stuff always sounds cooler than it is."

Perhaps that's what we have with Ezreal: a guy who's been caught up in some adventures, those adventures have been blown out of proportion, and now he finds himself feeling like he needs to act the part or otherwise live up to everything. So he puts on an ego that doesn't actually exist once you get to know him. He has a lot of power, and probably feels a weight of a lot of expectations. Perhaps the Ezreal we know is not who he really is, but what he thinks we want to see...