Let's Talk about: The Institute of War and Summoners

Hello, thanks for reading first off. I wanted to make this thread so that we could discuss what exactly the Institute of War and Summoners are and what they do. I'm also reposting a post I made on another thread I feel isn't going to be looked at much anymore (plus what I posted didn't exactly pertain to the subject of the thread) Like many, I was shocked to see these things retconned out of existence so suddenly. Now that i've gotten past my shock (and anger/sadness) I feel like we should all talk exactly about what we think these things are and how they aren't as story restraining as Riot thinks they are. I invite everyone to post ideas and comments towards all the things we're going to talk about. I also want to elaborate more on what I said on the other thread. So without further ado, let's begin.

For reference this is the thread where I posted before: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/TQeLaNU4-update-lore-forum-redirect-removal?comment=00010000000400020005

and here's what I said: I think Riot and the Lore fans have VERY different interpretations of what exactly the Institute of War, Summoners, and "Why did X Champion join the League. I'm pretty sure most of us Lore fans saw the Institute and the Summoners as peacekeepers that only intervened when ABSOLUTELY necessary along with maintaining the League of Legends summoning to the Fields of Justice and whatnot. Summoners are not omnipotent beings that can stop war with a snap of their fingers. Summoners are people, they would have to discuss things with various world leaders in Runterra (Jarvan, Swain, Karma, etc.) In the old JoJ, the Kalamanda incident was stopped when DOZENS of Summoners along with assistance from worked together to stop the conflict before it escalated into another full fledged war.

The Institute can do more than just be a place where people talk about politics and fighting. Think about it, this is the one place in all of Runeterra where people can come from all over into a more or less safe fire zone. Think of all the people that can exchange their ideas and philosophies without worrying about the others trying to kill them. It could be considered a cultural melting pot of information, rather than just a building where war is discussed. (Hell rename it from Institute of War to something else if you need to) But what really gets me the most is that despite all our protests and explanations given as to how we think the world can function easily without retconning the entire League of Legends, you all seem to just be ignoring us. And it breaks my heart to see everything i've grow to love about League of Legends lore just practically shatter apart and we're left trying to pick up the pieces.

I love the character centric things like the Shurima event and Sion's Reborn thing, but they could easily have happened with the League of Legends still in existance. Without it, almost all of these characters have no reason to even associate with each other. Why would care about what happens to and in the Freljord now without the League? At least when it was still there, she knew them as fellow champions and may have even gotten the chance to talk to them and learn something outside of the jungle she lives in. Now she's just there. And this applies to lots of Champions. Please listen to us and our ideas. I get you have some awesome character centric stuff coming up, but you've got to have a world to put them in, and we liked this world having a centralized place to meet and associate with each other. Please and thank you for reading all of this.

Sorry for wall of text, i couldn't get the quote thingy to work correctly.

The Institute of War

The building which houses the League of Legends, Summoners, and various other things was a central point where all the Champions of the League could interact with one another. While perhaps most of these topics involved war and politics, that's not all it had to be. It is not a building in which Champions are kept on leashes and have to bend to the will of Summoners telling them what to do. To me, what this building did was allow all of the champions to interact with one another and give them a reason to do so. All of the champions probably at least know of each other. Becoming a Champion isn't easy, so welcoming another into the ranks is a big thing. This building becomes a safe fire zone where all of the champions and people that come there can speak their minds without worry of someone killing them. This allows the Institute to become a hub of centralized information from all over Runeterra. Think of all the possibilities of Ionians discussing their beliefs in Balance, or the Freljord people discussing their culture to others. While some may not really care coughnoxianscough there may be many who find what they have to say incredibly interesting.

Without this building, a lot of champions become very isolated. Like I said in my post on the other thread, why would who lives in a jungle far to the south away from most civilizations, care about any other Champions and what happens in their cities? Why would she even leave the jungle if she's comfortable living there? Without the Institute for her to fight/live/etc in, she would never encounter any other people besides the ones that dare to venture into the jungle she calls home. If she could go to the Institute, she would at least know of a great deal of her fellow champions, and perhaps even get to converse with some of them. Without it, she's just some girl who lives in the jungle and and turn into a cougar. And that's...a tad bit stale. (As with everything on this thread, please comment below if you have something to add, or would just like to say anything pertaining to the subjects.)

Summoners

Somewhere along the line, Riot began to think of Summoners as these omnipotent beings of extreme power that used the Champions like puppets, and can stop all conflict with a thought and a snap of their fingers. I don't know where that came from, but I certainly didn't see them as that. Summoners are people (we are the Summoners.) In universe, they are specialized mages who have joined the League of Legends as Summoners so that they can help protect their world from being ripped apart by powerful magic used in wars that have already ravaged the land. The entire reason the League of Legends was started was so that this wouldn't happen.

While some Summoners may be more gifted than others, (think of it as a Level 1 compared to a Platinum ranked player if you want to go meta with it.) none of them have the power to just simply stop conflict. As I said in my other post, in the old Journal of Justice it states it took DOZENS of Summoners along with the assistance of to stop the conflict between Demacia and Noxus in Kalamanda. No one summoner (or small group of Summoners) could stop a war simply because they willed it to be so. Summoners are just people. They use the Fields of Justice to resolve most conflicts, and those that don't require it could be talked out between the Summoners and the leaders of various city-states in Runeterra (Swain, Jarvan, Karma, etc.)

As for the whole puppet master argument, I never saw it as such. While yes we as players must control the champions, in universe I'm certain that no champion is simply mind controlled by a Summoner. Even in the old JoJ, there was a question answered by an in universe Summoner explaining the process of what exactly happens in Summoning. (I couldn't find the exact issue of the JoJ that explains it, if any one could find it that would be marvelous.) Anyways, he explains that Summoning involves a sort of melding of the minds between a Champion and their Summoner. They don't tell the Champion exactly what to do and when, but act more as a guide and give them assistance whenever they can.

If you want to put it in a meta perspective, think of it like this. We the Summoners are looking down on the Champion and see a bird's eye view of the Fields. We can tell them where enemy champions are because other Summoners can see them and we are able to warn the champions of incoming danger (like using Pings) and give them an extra boost (Summoner Spells). So we act more of a Supporting role and the Champion does whatever they want. I also remember from the same article it explained why we start at level 1 at the beginning of each match. It was because the link between the Summoner and their Champion was weak and grew stronger over time. So a weak link at level 1 and a perfect link at level 18, makes sense to me.

I wanted to add another meta/in universe example to explain how Summoners get to choose who they summon. (Buying champions :P) I thought of this today actually and thought it was a pretty neat idea. When you are an apprentice Summoner, you obviously have little influence over anything, so the champions you can summon are much more willing to assist apprentices. Such champions include Ryze, Annie, Ashe, etc. (AKA the 450 Influence Point champions) As a Summoner grows in experience, they gain more influence and can get other champions to agree to be summoned by them. Now, Summoners can also arrange contracts between champions to summon them earlier. (Buying with RP essentially) This was just a fun little blurb I thought of that can make another link between story Summoners and player Summoners.

That's pretty much all I have to offer right now. (This post is massive enough as it is) Please try to keep all comments and suggestions civil and intelligent. I want us to discuss, not play the shame and blame game. We're better than that, it's time we proved we are. Thanks again for reading!