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The new "lore" retcons

Lord Dusteon·8/30/2014, 3:48:38 AM·63 votes·6,230 views

EDIT Link: http://www.surrenderat20.net/2014/08/829-pbe-update.html#more

The new 'lore' is out, and I can safely say I did NOT see Riot murdering the lore. But they did! The Shurima event is being celebrated as the Frejlord event was, with a lot of retcons and destruction of any lore left in the game.

So far, Amumu, Ezreal, Nasus, Rammus, Renekton, Sivir, Skarner, and Xerath have had their lore changed.

Out of these, Amumu and Xerath had their lore stay consistent.

Nasus and Renekton are no longer from a different world, and are instead apparently centuries old Shurimans. In addition to this, Renekton's reason for hating Nasus has been removed.

Rammus has had his sentience gaining part of the lore removed, with his new lore saying "k armordillo smart guis"

Sivir is now a **ing heir to Shurima.

Skarner has had his entire kind removed, his ties to the Crystal Scar removed, and is now "random evil monster in Shurima ruins"

And finally, Ezreal has turned into a modest person.

I'm sorry Riot, but having Rammus and Amumu wards is NOT compensation for utterly ruining even more lore.

EDIT2 New Cass lore. http://www.surrenderat20.net/2014/09/93-pbe-update.html#more

"Cassiopeia is a terrifying creature - half woman, half snake - whose slightest glance brings death. The youngest daughter of one of Noxus' most influential families, she was once a beautiful and cunning temptress capable of manipulating the hardest heart. Transformed by the venom of an ancient Shuriman tomb guardian, she continues to serve Noxian interests as she always has, just in a more... visceral way."

80 Comments

Arby0998/30/2014, 4:03:09 AM34 votes

Skarner "The Crystal Scar is weeping. I miss my kind"

Voidzilla8/30/2014, 6:40:37 AM26 votes

Honestly, and I say this as a lore-junky myself, people are exaggerating/exaggerated with these retcons. Will I say I'm pleased with them? Not really, they're knocking down many aspects of the lore we've come to love. However, I think Riot's lore team has taken just a bit from the criticisms we gave them last time from the Freljord event.

& : I expected they would retcon Nasus and Renekton to be Shurmiman at some point in time. That's a little disappointing; however, maybe we can just tell ourselves the part of Shurima they inhabited was cast away long ago to another world and, due to astral bloodlines, they were summoned back to Runeterra, or something like that? I believe that was a theory said in a discussion about Azir's lore, and I can take solace from that to retain their original backgrounds why staying with this new one. I'm not happy about it, but it'll suffice.
: Rammus' backstory has always been vague, and I think that's always been a trait of his character. He's basically a sentient, monotonous, straight-forward armadillo for the sake of being a sentient, monotonous, straight-forward armadillo. The major thing I dislike about this new background though is not the affect on Rammus himself, but rather it makes no mention of the Rune Wars like his original one, an integral part of this game's cannon as it explained why the League was made in the first place.
: Like Rammus, we didn't know a whole lot about Sivir to begin with. I can appreciate the dynamic they're trying to make with her, juxtaposing two very different lifestyles she's faced with, but I personally don't think she needs to be a heir to Shurima or whatever. It just doesn't make that much sense. Her current lore is fine. She has ties to Shurima, but is still the freelancing mercenary she's been painted out to be. I don't see why we need to have her be a long lost princess or whatever, especially considering other places can fulfill the plot/arc/trope much better ("Ruined Queen" from the Shadow Isles anyone?)
: Okay Riot wtf? I can stomach Nasus & Renekton being ancient Shurimans. I can handle Rammus' lore not directly mentioning the Rune Wars. I can cope with Sivir being a heir to Shurima. But this proposed Skarner update? I'm throwing my no's at the screen hoping this won't happen. First off, Skarner has been integrated into the lore of this game since nearly the beginning, with the conflicts of Kalamanda and whatnot. He is the embodiment not only of magical crystals that imbue the land, but the wrath of nature when mankind oversteps its boundaries and perverts the world with their arrogance & power. He is an ancient creature as fierce as he is wise, as tragic as he is noble. Don't take that away from him, as it's a great story. Second, where does that leave his race, the Brackern? Are they a race of Shuriman guardians now, because that space already seems to be occupied by Nasus and Renekton. I think many people would've loved and hoped to see another Brackern in this game, and if this retcon is going where I fear it is, that hope may be extinguished. Third, if this goes though, the majority of Skarner's personality via quotes wouldn't even make sense. He's a fierce monstrous guardian, yet he says things like "The Crystal Scar is weeping."? And if they're going to give him an entirely new VO eliminating any semblance to things like that...just no. I love how Skarner is so inhuman looking, yet inside he's actually very human, and one that deserves sympathy at that. The conflict of monster to humanity was rather nice; is he going to be turned into another cliché "giant ancient monster" that we've already seen so much of in fantasy settings? Also, if Skarner is in the end being retconned to be an inhabitant of Shurima, can the whole Kalamanda/Crystal Scar lore at least be moved over there with him? As said, it was a very important story for League as a whole with still much potential to be explored, and it'd be a great shame to see it all thrown away.

Starlighte8/30/2014, 5:32:32 AM22 votes

Oh look, another event that has no actual effect on the world of Runeterra, will have no resolution whatsoever, and unnecessarily retcons champions who didn't need it. Sounds like the Freljord event.

I'll be blunt, if this is the best you can do Riot, you have severely disappointed me. You need to start owning up to these blunders, listening to your community, and most of all, communicating with us about the direction of Lore. Fuck the NDA's, talk to your bosses and get them waived on Lore direction. You guys are dropping the ball, and you have a chance to catch it before it shatters on the ground. Don't just ignore this and assume it will go away.

Ironclad Dragon8/30/2014, 5:12:57 AM16 votes

I don't mind Nasus and Renekton being Shuriman. I loved the idea. Sivir and Skarner? I have nothing but contempt for.

sp4418/30/2014, 3:56:05 AM12 votes

To play devil's advocate, Ezreal's feelings regarding how people saw his new status as a hero were never properly defined, Sivir's heritage was already implied, and these are probably short versions, with the full versions coming up soon.

Now to step off the advocate stand, RIOT, STOP SCREWING WITH THE LORE, STOP RETCONNING EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF IT, STOP TRYING TO WRITE THE LEAGUE OUT OF THE GAME!

And while you're at it, either give us at least a hint of what you're working on under the sheets already, or just admit that you were lying to us the whole time and you just don't care anymore. There's no way you've kept the world stagnated for over two years without having something concrete somewhat ready. If you don't want to write lore anymore and just want for this to exist in a metaphysical state of being like Super Smash Bros, come out clean and admit it already.

PurpleKingCrazy8/30/2014, 1:35:47 PM12 votes

Rammus "Ok. Armordillo smart Guis."

TerraRising8/30/2014, 4:04:28 AM11 votes

Well, if this is "showing some TLC to the lore," then Riot has failed big time in that aspect. I guess this is what we're to expect in getting our hopes slightly up.

Baxter9008/30/2014, 2:28:24 PM8 votes

I personally think all of them are fine except:

Renekton's reason for hating Nasus, "He's insane and blames Nasus..." It's fine if they're from shurima, I even think that's a good idea, but Renekton needs a reason to hate Nasus, and ideally if you want to avoid a good vs evil scenario, Nasus should have wronged him at some point, Renekton should hate him for that, and Nasus hates him back. This allows you to essentially let Renekton play the bad guy while still letting people have sympathy for him, and Nasus can be the good guy, but you won't necessarily root for him cause he is/was a jerk.
I personally liked Rammus being tied to the rune war, instead of re-locating his origin, instead keep his origin and let him have traveled to the Shurima desert in search of something. Since his origin's related to magic it even makes sense, maybe he's naturally attracted to some strange artifact. Also, keep his spikiness natural, it makes sense in the context, much more than "oh yeah, and he found/made this awesome armor which let's him roll super fast in it and hurts people."
Skarner was another rune war champion, and an interesting one at that. He was intelligent, he was the last of his kind, and he was alone in the world. Making him into a "mindless monster" guarding things is a really bad call. It's not interesting, it's not unique, it's by far the biggest change in these lore changes. There are several ways you could bring him into the conflict in Shurima. You have this nice time mage called Zilean who originates from Shurima, guess who want's to bring his race back guess who can do it with the help of relics from shurima's past . Alternatively if you really want Skarner guarding something, maybe he found something that could help resurrect his kind and is guarding it fiercely. Maybe Nasus, Renekton, or Azir promised him (truthfully or not) that they could bring back his race if he just does this one little thing for them.

The things you should be focusing on in the lore in my opinion are these things:

What's the champions driving force? If they have one, preserve it, if they don't give them one. This is Xerath's "take over the world", Nasus' "stop renekton at any cost", and skarners, "bring back his people". They will complete this at any cost to themselves or often others.
What is the champions origin? Just going to tell you this, it really upsets people if you change a champions origin when it could be avoided with the same result. The examples in these changes are Skarner and Rammus. Nasus and Renekton you had a good reason, they needed histories in the world, otherwise their conflict would never get past Renekton sides with the powerhungry side and Nasus sides against him. Skarner had a history in the world and it's easy to imagine that his goals would end up bringing him to Shurima. Rammus would likely roam the world, and it wouldn't be very hard to imagine a reason for him to come to Shurima.
In any given situation, how would a champion act? This should rarely ever change. Sivir is selfish, her motives are always selfish, her quotes are selfish, everything about her is selfish. How is she going to act to responsibility? Sivir won't change her ways suddenly, she won't essentially be "oh I'm descended from beings of great power, I'm gonna help them!". She'll join the conflict if and only if there's a large reward, or she wants revenge. It's ok for her to be a "heir to Shurima" but she doesn't care about that and under no circumstances would suddenly start to care. This is the only big example of this in this update (and you might have planned to have something along the lines of Cassiopeia played Sivir so now Sivir hates Cassiopeia's guts) as long as it's clear that Ezreal doesn't want to be a hero because all he want to do is explore.

Just my opinions on these, thanks for putting up the previews so we could give feedback before you did full lore changes!!!!

The Red Warden8/30/2014, 5:51:23 AM7 votes

You have to realize that riot doesn't care about the lore anymore. Instead of fitting events into the already existing lore they completely change the lore to fit the new mode

Pryotra8/31/2014, 1:41:46 PM7 votes

Trundle Hey Skarner.

Skarner What do you want, troll?

Trundle Looks like you and I shall be brothers.

Skarner WHAT!?!?! BROTHERS? WITH YOU? Don't insult me!

Trundle I'm guessing you haven't heard then.

Skarner Heard what?

Trundle You are from Shurima now. You also are the only one of your kind, and you are just some random monster in some random ruins over there.

Skarner No, I'm a Brackern, the only one you see. My kind is buried below the Crystal Scar, in an area once known as Kalamada. I'm from there myself.

Trundle Not anymore. Riot has decreed that is to change.

Skarner WHAT! Impossible, you can't just decree that!

Trundle Oh yeah? Then how am I a frost troll now, brother?

Skarner Oh... oh no! My Kind! My Home! My Struggle! NOOOOOOOOOO!

Trundle It's Ok bro, I got your back. I understand.

Skarner That... isn't exactly conforting...

Trundle I know, but what do you want, a Hug?

Skarner Isn't that the mummy child's shtick?

Trundle Oh yeah, about that....

-TO BE CONTINUED-

AlbireoAzure8/31/2014, 2:52:03 AM7 votes

i can't recognize the league anymore, when was the last time we knew why any Champion joined the league? when the word Summoner was part of any Lore? where is the motivation of any champion to fight the other? the League of Legends still existing in Runaterra? yeah we could now have those retconned champions all tied to shurima...and then what? to be continued? all i can see here speaking of lore, is riot saying "this champion is from here and these are his friends, there is a story behind them, but we wont tell you" :trollface:

Ezreal Ezreal is not embarassed about anything "It's all skill" Rammus Rammus gained sentience because of magic of the rune wars Xerath Xerath wanted power over all, not "destroy and conquest" Skarner Skarner is not extracted from "Bosses from rpg and other monsters" page 153" Renekton was consumed by madness from the evil of people from he protected the library, not "because of time" Nasus Nasus wanted to kill Renekton because him was beyond redemption Amumu Amumu is still a mysterius sad mummy, but is he still a yordle?? Sivir I'm fine with Sivir, if she isn't revealed a generic hidden princess

Riot, please listen to your players, to your summoners, to the fans of your game, we care about Lore, stop making mysteries without answers and start developing this characters, you had a powerful rich background and now you are throwing it away for this inconsistent model that isn't going anywhere.

Sorry for the bad english.

Noctis Lunaris8/30/2014, 10:04:22 PM6 votes

Honestly Riot, if you wanted to involve Rammus in the Shurima conflict, just say he's there to protect his Waifu, A cactus. It's not a joke either. Blitzcrank, being the bro that he is, hooked Rammus up with the best possible result in his entire database: A cactus.

Hell, you could've made the Cactus a champion and you'd also fill in the "Female Monster" niche. You could've built on the lore you had, but instead you threw it all away.

CupcakeTrap8/30/2014, 10:19:00 PM6 votes

I was a little scared, because these lore shifts often require some kind of retcon for Factions purposes. However, most of these are quite manageable.

I'm reminded of the Freljord rework. TBH, we had Olaf and company listed as Freljordians for Factions rosters long before they were "officially" made Freljordian, because (e.g.) Olaf is a freaking Viking.

Similarly, from a thematic point of view, it was pretty clear that Nasus and Renekton belonged on a hypothetical Shuriman roster. Even Sivir wasn't that surprising — she has that Xena thing going on, and somehow that fits with a desert background.

I do wonder if we're going to see a last-minute fix to Ezreal, though: Ezreal as a bashful, shy, modest person just seems really strange to me. "IT'S ALL SKILL." The PBE draft might have been one of those "that came out differently than I meant it" moments, like with Viktor and Jayce. If I had to guess, the author was going for a sort of Han Solo idea, with a self-centered rogue being a bit embarrassed about being treated like a hero. I don't think that really fits with Ezreal, though: I feel like he'd love playing the hero. Lux is really into heroism.

Anyway, new voicework incoming:

Ezreal "Thanks, but it was really just a lucky shot."
Ezreal "Noxians? I feel like we disagree on some things, but I'm sure they have their reasons."
Ezreal "Sounds dangerous! I should probably get some help." Ezreal "I think I might need a map."

CupcakeTrap8/30/2014, 9:30:51 PM4 votes

Can someone link me the new lore? I don't see it on the front page.

WexAndywn8/30/2014, 4:58:59 PM4 votes

It appears that The Crystal Scar is moving to Shurima too.

Astropanda8/31/2014, 11:28:03 PM4 votes

I'm not diggin' the Skarner changes or the Sivir ones. I reaaaaaaally hating the destiny bit with Sivir, they built a mercenary character and then realized OMG mercs are boring as fuck they don't do shit for money lets make her a princess! Or whatever they are planning like shiiiiit. Sivir could have been a random insert character in any story since she a mercenary and does shit for moneys. Anyway I don't much care for this implied destiny everything is connect style story they seem to be working on...

Now with Skarner if this thing he protecting is actually the rest of his people that would be cool if it's like Xerath or something else that will suck. x_x

mi ramfan8/30/2014, 5:21:52 AM3 votes

Well, at least they're producing some lore, even if the way they're doing it is horrific. I'd understand a lore reboot if the universe they were working with was something like DC/Marvel's comic universe where there are so many different established storylines and so much set in stone that there's literally nothing new they could possibly do without reverting.

But unless you're that deep into a universe, retconning is lazy writing and should be avoided at all costs.

I suggest getting your "official" lore from headcanon and fanfictions from now on. It's so much more enjoyable then watching Riot stumbling over themselves time after time and still not resolving any events or developing any characters.

John Berserk8/30/2014, 5:35:19 AM2 votes

They may be retconning things, but like they did with the Freljord event and with champions like Udyr and Trundle, they're reworking some champions to have more lore-based interactions and relationships with other champions. While their original beloved backgrounds are being rewritten, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It could be good for the long-term, which I'm sure they're prepping for.

Honestly the only lore-change they made I dont really care for is Skarner's, because yeah, they did take away his connection to the Crystal Scar (unless they change the Crystal Scar to be closer/in Shurima? And maybe he still is the last of his kind, the last guardian of some ancient Shurima place?). But, these lore updates are rather short.. I highly doubt these are their full lores. There's got to be more to them. Just wait and see for now.

Hellioning8/30/2014, 4:26:51 PM2 votes

I don't mind retcons, necessarily, but they're the only lore we're getting, and that makes me very sad.

Stacona8/31/2014, 8:24:59 PM1 votes

Renekton has never had a reason for wanting to kill Nasus, Renekton fell under dark motives from influence of dark creatures trying to get in to Nasus' teachings and Renekton being the body guard for his brother, Nasus, eventually became corrupted himself after always being around corrupt creatures. So Renekton has absolutely no reasonings behind wanting to kill Nasus outside of just being corrupt. Anyways, the lores have not changed the characters at all, the only lore that was ruined was Trundle's because the old Trundle lore was much better because it made Trundle a hero to look up to instead of the douche bag that his new lore made him into.

Riot did state they wanted to remove the alien lores and want every champion to be localized to either the Void or Runeterra- Shurima has not changed at all outside of it being an area on Runeterra rather than another planet. This being said, I still want more phoenix champions, even with the planet of the phoenix being no more and Anivia being native to Frejlord, she is still a protector of the land and creatures in it so Anivia's birthplace changed but her character remains, they are doing this with the Shurima champions as well, their birthplace changes but their characters remain the same, with the one exception to Trundle (R.I.P.).