Hi!
I am a new player, and I would like to read all the lore, about all champions and regions. How should I go about this? What should I read and in what order? Keep in mind I would like to read ALL that is out there, not just character bios. Thanks!
OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH I HAVE A THING FOR THIS All the stories are on the Universe page, but if you want you can also use this list organized by region that tells what champions are featured in each story, if any (I made this before the Universe page existed, and I've been updating it out of habit ever since). Tbh, this list is probably redundant, but I'm proud of it and will use any excuse to post it.
I've sorted them into sections based on area or allegiance and listed the champions in the story. If you see that I’m missing a story, please mention it.
I know that some stories appear more than once. For example, Kalista's stories are under Shadow Isles AND Independent, because she has ties to the Isles, but she also regularly operates outside of them.
I only put things here if they are in story format, so no champion backstory, just actual stories.
Bandle City From the Journal of Professor Cecil B. Heimerdinger (Donger A Quiet Night (Tristana
Bilgewater Burning Tides (TF, Graves, Gangplank, MF, Illaoi Shadow and Fortune (MF, Shad Isles Crew, Olaf, Lucian, Illaoi The Burden (Illaoi, Gangplank Trial of the Kraken Priestess (Illaoi The River King (Tahm Kench Blood in the Water (Gangplank One Last Shot (Graves Double Down (Twisted Fate Down Among the Dead Men (Miss Fortune Surrender (Miss Fortune Fortune Smiles (Miss Fortune
Demacia A Hero’s Calling (Poppy Quinn’s Journal [No longer normally accessible, likely non-canon](Quinn, Jarvan, Garen Journey into the Freljord [No longer normally accessible] (Quinn, Ashe, Sej, Liss, Trundle The Slayer (Poppy None Shall Pass (Jax, Fiora A Matter of Honor (Fiora Last Light (Lux The Soldier and the Hag (Garen Ivory, Ebony, Jasper (Jarvan IV The Winged Beast (Shyvana Monsters (Vayne Rules of Survival (Quinn (and Valor) Flesh and Stone (Lux, Galio A Hero Wakes (Galio For Demacia (Lux, Garen
Freljord Journey into the Freljord [No longer normally accessible] (Quinn, Ashe, Sej, Liss, Trundle The Feats of Braum [No longer normally accessible] (Braum An Old Friend (Ryze Tomb of the Troll Boy (Braum Enter the Freljord (Lissandra, Ashe, Sejuani Fear (Darius The Lost Tales of Ornn (Ornn, Volibear, Anivia, Lissandra The Voice from the Hearth (Ornn, Volibear
Independent Shadow and Fortune (MF, Shad Isles Crew, Olaf, Lucian Lucian: The Purifier’s Resolve [Only like, the first 30 seconds] (Lucian Invocation (Kalista The Pledge (Kalista Twin Dawns (Aurelion An Ancient Mystery in Runeterra [No longer normally accessible, no longer fully canon] (Ezreal, Aatrox, Lux Forest for the Trees (Kindred A Good Death (Kindred (If this link ever gets taken down, use this one instead) Bard: Mountain (Bard The Wonder Above (Bard The River King (Tahm Kench Spirit Guard Udyr [No longer normally accessible, may still be canon in Udyr’s future] (Udyr Rek’sai: Scourge of the Desert [You might need to zoom out] (Rek’Sai The Terror Beneath (Rek’Sai Shadows and Reflections (Lucian An Old Friend (Ryze Gift of Venom (Ivern The Elixir of Uloa (Ezreal None Shall Pass (Jax, Fiora Sai Khaleek (Rek’Sai The Hunter Hunted (Gnar, Rengar One Last Shot (Graves Double Down (Twisted Fate Where the Drakalops Roam (Kled, Skaarl Discovering the Link [No longer normally accessible] (Gnar Instrument of Destruction (Vel’Koz The Elixir of Uloa (Ezreal Into the Abyss (Nami Origins (Annie
Ionia A Sword without a Sheath (Yasuo The Road to Ruin [No longer normally accessible] (Yasuo Bard: Mountain (Bard I,II, III, IV (Jhin, Shen, Zed, Akali The Bird and the Branch (Taliyah, Yasuo (If this link ever gets taken down, use this one instead) Spirit Guard Udyr [No longer normally accessible, may still be canon in Udyr’s future] (Udyr All That Glitters (Lee Sin True Neutral (Shen Eduard Santangelo’s Vastaya Field Journal (Ahri The Puboe Prison Break (Xayah, Rakan, Zed Nothing Rhymes with Tubebow (Rakan, Xayah Wild Magic (Xayah, Rakan, Zed Death Mark (Zed The Blade of Millenia (Kayn, Zed Heartlight, As We Fall, Retribution (Varus Dark Kin (Varus
Mount Targon The Spear of Targon (Pantheon The Light Bringer (Leona Night’s Work (Diana Twin Dawns (Aurelion The Uninvited Guest (Taric The Ascent (Taric Meet Zoe (Zoe
Well, as a new player, there is something you should be made aware of. The Lore of Legends underwent a major retcon a few years ago, so a whole lot of the stories and biographies you might find online are not part of the true story anyway, and honestly don't make any sense. If you read anything mentioning an "Institute of War", ignore it.
The Universe website has all the useful stuff. There is no necessary order, but my recommendation would be to go through the lore one region at a time. Pick a region (Shurima would be a fine start) and read the bio's and short stories for all the champions. Then, once you know all the characters, you can read the longer, more exciting stuff, like Progress Day or Shadow and Burning Tides.
Welcome to League! :-)
Some great advice already in this thread, but I'd always suggest that you start in the LoL game client on the Collection pages, as the short bios will give you a snapshot of a champion's most current lore (in <100 words)... and then you can pick up the ones you like the sound of most on the Universe website.
And, as has also been stated by others here, we're in the process of tidying up the way we present lore to players. If anything looks particularly wrong, broken or confusing to your fresh player eyes, please do let us know!
Universe page is your place to start. It has the majority of canon lore.
https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_GB/
From here you can read most of the extended lore for champs and event lore such as Bloodline via the region pages.
Some of the comics are great too, personally really liked the style of Nami's.
As for order, that's up to you. Champ bios and stories (those that have them) can be read in any order, yet many are related. I mean, Jhin has a large connection to Zed and Shen yet reading them out of order won't hurt the story telling yet reading Shen and Zed's bio first might give more insight to Jhin stories for example.
Wikipedia or whatever has old no longer tied to story stuff.
The universe page on this site has most recent stuff.
Part of the problem with League's lore at the moment is that the lore is halfway through a major retcon to how Runeterra functions. So... start wherever you want, it doesn't really matter.
My recommendation is to pick a Champion that interests you and go to their Universe page. They'll have a bio, and in many cases will also have a color story (this is especially true for recently released or reworked champs). Most of the regions also have their own overarching story. You can also go to Universe's main page and just pick one of the recently released stories (Varus just got his lore redone, for example, and Swain is releasing soon.)
As it was pointed out already, the Universe page is the best place to start, however if a link to a story is broken look for the story in the Lol Wiki since there are a few missing links in the Universe page.
Great, I am genuinely excited for you!
The first thing I will say is get everything off the League of Legends "Universe" website. Everything there is canon (yet still subject to change) everything not on there is likely retconned.
Go to the regions tab on the universe page and choose one, read the summary of the region then read every champion's biography and short stories. After reading them all, read the "Region story(s)". These serve to flesh out the region more and a lot of times include several champions that you've previously read about. Once you are done with a region, move on to the next.
Which region you start in really doesn't matter in the end, but I do have suggestions now that I try to look back in the eyes of a new comer:
First, I would avoid starting in regions with "un-updated" lore. The game went through a retcon and while all the lore on the universe page is "friendly" to the retcon, a lot of it WILL change down the road, not to mention that the old lore was a lot more "simple" to put it kindly. Considering this, I would put off reading lore from these regions: Freljord, The Void, Ionia, and Bandle City (especially this one, It will likely completely change), and Noxus (Noxus will be updated very soon though). There is no harm done in reading them after the others, but I wouldn't want your first lore experience to be something that might be retconned. It is pretty easy to tell what has been updated and what hasn't, if the character has a long story, probably their permanent lore.
As for which one you Should start in, I would recommend reading Piltover --> Zaun. These regions are heavily related and the champions that inhabit them are numerous and diverse, and this diversity allows for these two regions to have many strings connecting to other regions.
Again, I am super excited for you, I would love to read your impressions of each region on this board if/when you finish a region!
Edit: Champions may also have supplementary material like comics or shorts that flesh out their character and they are usually amazing.
Yo, so I know you're probably not expecting this, but I have something to tell you.
I was going through a "routine" check of my story-archive and found that an unacceptable amount of the stories listed had dead links or something like that, so I went through and cleaned everything up. The updated list has been re-posted here, but editing a comment doesn't notify the OP, so here's your notification. Have a good one.
