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:( Why did you do that to him, Riot?

Sett Fangirl··24 votes·1,918 views

Xerath

Why? Xerath's backstory was one of the best pieces of lore you had. A man with ambition beyond his body, torn between knowledge and love, was retconned into a cliche cookie cutter villain reminiscent of Jafar from Alladin.

One of the things that go me into the game were the interesting things behind each and every character - Xerath's loss and following suicide/ascension into a being of almighty power, Graves and Twisted Fate's little feud, Diana's exile... The list could go on. It gave each of these characters a relatable and human element, and you took that away. Part of the reason I played Xerath (who was, coincidentally, the first champion I remember purchasing a skin for) was because I was just fascinated by him, and I'm sure there are others there out there like me. That's not to say that I don't like the other tidbits of lore included with these changes, however - the Nasus and Renekton changes are things I welcome, as their past 'aliens from a different universe woooo' didn't really fit in with the rest of the game. Renekton being retconned to a hero gone mad after years of solitude caused by his brother? That's decent storytelling. However, unlike those two, Xerath did NOT need this. He was perfectly fine before, and now his lore is just absolutely... well, let's just say it's not good. At all.

Now, we haven't read the full story - perhaps his ambitions for becoming Ascended have something to do with the love of his life, and we're just jumping the gun? But, right now, it doesn't seem that way, and I'm not the only one who is sorely disappointed.

25 Comments

ChaosThief15 votes

I quote:

"RiotRunaan Hey, look! Stuff I wrote! :O Blast from the past. Xerath was actually the first character I wrote for entirely (Talon's judgment >was my first), so this is a fun flashback. :)

So, no spoilers, but look at it this way: the Shurima event is largely going to be Azir's story, from Azir's point of view. Events will be colored in a way that may paint Xerath as the "villain" in this scenario, but that doesn't necessarily tell you the whole side of his story.

Imagine what the mages who imprisoned Xerath in his original lore thought of him: a guy who more or less betrayed his people, nuked their civilization, all for what? For power? They didn't have all the information that you guys have from his Judgment, for example. To them, he was also a very clear-cut "villain."

We always wanted Xerath to have a sympathetic backstory, even if he does cross a moral event horizon at some point. Remember when you hated Severus Snape for most of the Harry Potter series, only to have "his side" revealed much, much later, and how game-changing that was? Keep in mind that a story isn't always told with 100% of the information front loaded. Just because it's not immediately there, spelled out, doesn't mean it doesn't exist within the character, or we've forgotten about it."

Unquote.

Flintfall6 votes

People jump the gun way too fast, as if that's all Riot has in plan for that champions, as if one blurb or one perspective speaks for the full extent of the champion.

Worgslarg3 votes

This. I am quite unhappy with the dumbed down lore, as the removal of the league didnt necessitate it, but I am reserving judgement until riot releases the final product.

LeeDark4 votes

So... "I don't like what they are doing with the lore... but I'll just keep my mouth shut until it is far too late to convince them to change their minds."

Congratulations, you win the award for dumbest thing I've read on the forums today.

Quanatan3 votes

The problem is that Riot clearly said that they won't change their mind. Basically they said that we are the minority and everyone else is happy about it, and a also the thing is under production and we won't stop it because of some nerds.

Khodexus1 votes

Even though those nerds are the ones writing their paychecks...

LeeDark1 votes

"Everybody else is happy about it" only means that the majority of the playerbase doesn't care about lore at all. Nothing changes for them. Riot isn't going to sell any RP off the back of the lore change. I, for one, however, will stop buying RP because of it. And I got Adblocker to use when I watch LCS streams. Because screw Riot. They no longer have my support.

Khodexus3 votes

The thing that upsets me is how terse they have been with the new lore. We had alot of lore already on Xerath and the other champions. They can't expect to rip that all away and replace it with a one-liner and NOT get an outcry from people who thoroughly enjoyed their lovingly crafted lore only to see it replaced by... frankly garbage. I don't care if this is from Azir's point of view or not. Why would they just delete everything like that? If nothing else, why not ADD Azir quotes to the champions, but keep their lore intact (or at least give us a comparable AMOUNT of lore so we can judge if it stands up to what we had before).

Flintfall1 votes

I agree in that I am part of the demographic who could consume massive amounts of lore and still ask for me. But to someone just starting League, they might just need a few lines to get them interested.

What those few lines should translate into (imo) is a richer, more in-depth resource that players can use to really feel connected to their champion.

For example, if I read Kha'zix just came from the void to consume to adapt, and felt absolutely awesome to play, I would look for other material on Kha'zix such as cool images, guides, and possibly more lore options.

Now Kha'zix might be limited, but reading a poorly written self-kept diary would be entertaining, or maybe some more background on the Rengar vs. Kha'zix.

All I'm saying is these options are still within Riot's reach, so I doubt we've seen all they have to offer.

Khodexus1 votes

So post these half-***ed bite sized blurbs on the 'overview' tab, and give us actual LORE on the lore tab. And then also 'direct' people to where to find more.

That's what I say. And I'm sure hundreds if not thousands of other players agree with me. But does Riot EVER listen to their players?

Rozzeta3 votes

With all due respect to our good friend Runaan, who kindly revised Jayce's lore, I never believe until seeing it when Riot is involved. Several have been the times when a rioter has said something about future changes that never happened, or questionable decisions which were delayed until things were calm enough to be ninja'd in the following patch. Frankly speaking, over the about 3 years I have been playing LoL and takking part in the forums, I have come to understand that time is not only a resource for Riot, but also a weapon they can use to reduce the push of the community over a certain item. As well as he might say what he says now, there is no guarantee that neither Xerath's story will ever be explored; or that, if explored, will describe him as a "villain" instead of a villain.

Never take a rioter's word for granted, specially if they are given time.

Shokah1 votes

I quote:

"RiotRunaan Hey, look! Stuff I wrote! :O Blast from the past. Xerath was actually the first character I wrote for entirely (Talon's judgment >was my first), so this is a fun flashback. :)

So, no spoilers, but look at it this way: the Shurima event is largely going to be Azir's story, from Azir's point of view. Events will be colored in a way that may paint Xerath as the "villain" in this scenario, but that doesn't necessarily tell you the whole side of his story.

Imagine what the mages who imprisoned Xerath in his original lore thought of him: a guy who more or less betrayed his people, nuked their civilization, all for what? For power? They didn't have all the information that you guys have from his Judgment, for example. To them, he was also a very clear-cut "villain."

We always wanted Xerath to have a sympathetic backstory, even if he does cross a moral event horizon at some point. Remember when you hated Severus Snape for most of the Harry Potter series, only to have "his side" revealed much, much later, and how game-changing that was? Keep in mind that a story isn't always told with 100% of the information front loaded. Just because it's not immediately there, spelled out, doesn't mean it doesn't exist within the character, or we've forgotten about it."

Unquote.

Go read it. Go read the facebook, tell me it's written in Azir's voice. Tell me it's written in his perspective. It's not. It's the voice of a narrator - someone giving an overview.

Thanotos Omega2 votes

The story of the Shurima event will have Azir as it's protagonist, So all the story will be slightly biased in his favor, That's a simple piece of story telling, the story is colored by who your putting at the center of it.

Sett Fangirl8 votes

As usual, Runaan's shares some information that actually makes sense that I cannot find by myself. Thanks a ton, this makes me feel SLIGHTLY better about the whole thing, but not much.

MrBuffington2 votes

A lot of things get mixed between forums and boards; Red Tracker is usually helpful for these things :)

Thanotos Omega3 votes

To be fair, This mostly just takes his old story and makes him a clever son of a gun who played Azir, he was always at least indifferent to everyone but his own interests, Also this is a huge step up in quality for Renekton's background,

dialMARK4acti0n3 votes

The crocodile shall get his love

BroteinSupreme2 votes

They fucked over my main champion too many times to count, first with the rework, then with the nerfs, and why not fuck him up more with the lore.

Yeah, Riot. That's a great idea.

ChaosThief1 votes

He wasn't really your main if you didn't like all of these changes.

BroteinSupreme1 votes

Yes. He was.

dialMARK4acti0n2 votes

Dude. How did they change his old lore in any way? Man that wants power. Check. Uses questionable means to pursue that goal. Check. Loses humanity and becomes a being of pure arcane energy. Check. Locked away because he's dangerous. Check.

Elmekius2 votes

I love Xerath story, now its simply stupid...

where is Tabia!!!!!!! Xerath's love

2000boxes1 votes

i dont see how people are getting sneak peeks at the new loer

SecretAgentHulk1 votes

It was on Facebook.

SecretLore1 votes

Overall they said that Xeraths character will get more exploration later on.This lore piece merely describes Shurimas downfall.

For now I'd actually consider Xerath to be basically the same except for these changes: 1.He was Azirs underling(his old lore never mentioned what kind of job he had,so that could actually count as an expansion of his old lore) 2.He needed to trick azir in order to pull of his ascension ritual,because he needed the sun disc(again his old lore never talked much about his ritual,so this might be as well another addition to it) 3.He wasn't imprisoned by random mages,but by nasus and renekton and Renekton was sealed together with Xerath(this is basically the only part that got really retconned by this new lore piece) 4.Obviously everything summoner-related(not because of this lore piece,but because the IoW gets removed)

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