Just looking through the PROJECT skin teasers and in PROJECT: Katarina you can see not only PROJECT: Zed in the background but also Battlecast Vel'Koz. Mechanical evolution seems to be quite prominent in this universe.
Resistance.
You spit in the face of authority, calling yourselves "freedom fighters" to justify a rampant disregard for stability and quench a thirst for excessive violence. You mistake order for oppression, improvement for enslavement, professing to know the truth when you cannot even remember your own names. What is your rebellion but the fruitless tantrum of petulant child unsatisfied with the present course of events. You make claims of dehumanization, yet it is change which uplifts our species. Where would you be now without augmentation? The union of metal and flesh you so despise is the only means by which your petty act of defiance has endured.
You claim augmentation deprives us of our humanity, when we as a species have evolved beyond such an obsolete concept. And if you are so adamant in clinging to archaic notions and barbaric behavior, then you shall be left behind.
This is our future. This is truth.
If I recall correctly, last year the PROJECT and Battlecast universes were separate. Guess they decided to merge them now. Sigh. Viktor is again a flat-out villain. Hopefully, it might be considered his "evil skin", which makes classic not-so-villainous!
Perhaps PROJECT was created to fight against Battlecast. Most of the champs in PROJECT are good (Yasuo, Yi, Fiora, Leona, Lucian, Ashe, Ekko) and so maybe they were a last resort against the clearly destructive Battlecast. As for Zed and Kat being evil, maybe they either defected, or the creators of PROJECT recognized that there needed to be a balance of good and evil if they were to succeed.
I think its that the Projects are fighting for humanity's survival and the Battlecasts are Viktor's creations trying to make a machine world.
My belief is that its just an AU where several factions rose on the basic principle of scientific evolution. Viktor's movement is more complete dehumanization. PROJECT seems more oriented to just humans, and Battlecast seems to be also bringing in other species of varied intelligence.
It's also possible that many other skin lines have a place in this AU, (Eternum as full augmented voidborn and demons, Full Metal is confirmed enemy, POSSIBLY Omega Squad and Special Forces. Resistance is also an enemy to the Battlecast.)
I think "PROJECT: City" is where all the "suitable templates" Battlecast Skarner captures are put. Project City is The Creator's "perfect" city filled with augmented citizens with their memories, and last traces of their human flaws, erased. It's not necessarily certain that The Creator rules directly over the Project, but he encourages the use of augmentation and heavily discourages attempts to "free" humanity. The average citizen of the Project may not even know that Viktor is the mastermind behind it all, or that he gently nudges all decisions in the city in the "right" direction. However threats from the outside keep him distracted as humanity begins to fester in his perfect city, leading to the events of the PROJECT line.
