[Long post] Riot, could we take a moment to talk about Karma's lore?

Hello Riot, bear with me as I lay my thoughts down about your lore qualities, starting with a champion that I'm heavily passionate about - .I understand ever since you guys have abolished the presence of Institute of War, many of you planned to improve lore by going in the direction of a champion, meaning to say that the story is developed from the champion themselves, and it breathes life in to them.

I may be one of the minorities here who care about lore qualities, I did some research/survey here and there amongst league players and found out that many, for most parts did not care about the fashion in which lore are told. Many of them were just interested in playing the game, watching competitive league, waiting for new champions to be released and repeating the cycle again. Whenever a new champion is released, I take a look at their abilities and kit, BUT, I also made sure that I read the stories, just to feel how well their stories/background connect to their characters and their kit, sadly, most champions these days lack the same attraction that was present in older champion. Why? Because the newly released champions are all about visuals, and less about their personality, character or the way they are presented. So let's talk about Karma first.

This post is first and foremost about Karma, but I also wanted to talk about the lore in League. Unfortunately, I can't think of a better way to convey my intended meaning or pen my thoughts with ease without using an example that I am comfortable with. so I apologize that you have to go through Karma's lore in order grasp what I intend to talk about.

> Even in her youth, Karma exhibited almost superhuman composure. While her peers explored the torrent of emotions that came with adolescence, Karma meditated in the Lotus Gardens. She was convinced that the true path to enlightenment was a journey inward, to a place within the self, overlooked by most. She exuded such inner contentment that she quickly became a go-to mediator and confidante in her village. Her instructors used to say: That girl can not only weather a storm, but calm it. Karma did not live extravagantly; her parents owned a local business selling antiques in the Navori province and they often struggled to provide for themselves, though they did so with cheery optimism. Her most prized possessions were two exquisite fans taken from her family's shop.

>When Noxian troops invaded southern Ionia, her village was one of the first to fall. The villages who survived the assault were captured by Noxian forces. It was then that Karma found her calling. By exploiting the insecurities of the Noxian commander, she negotiated the safe release of the villages to the northern lands. She was present at the Placidium, where the Elders had considered surrender until Irelia's impassioned last stand renewed the Ionians' hope.** Karma used this hope to solidify the Elders' commitment to remain defiant against the Noxian onslaught. For her devotion and charisma, Karma was made the figurehead of the Ionian resistance.** She never compromised, and she shared every hardship with her people, even when it came to combat. By tapping into her inner resilience, she discovered that she could bring great force to bear against her foes on the battlefield. She modified her fans into lethal implements, and was tutored by Janna Janna to enhance their effects. The Noxians called her, The Enlightened One, a nickname she embraced, and one which they would come to dread. She joined the League to represent Ionia in the ultimate political arena.

> Her fan technique is a deadly art of grace and poise, but her truest strength lies in the hearts of those willing to die alongside her. ― Irelia

Karma's old lore was one of the stories that truly captured my attention when I first started out in League, just with two paragraphs of story, it told me a lot about Karma as a champion and that inspired me to pick her up as a champion. There was another reason why lore were so attractive back then, because it was written with such intricacy, yet simple enough for people to appreciate and understand its meaning. Notice the bolded lines, which I felt were beautifully written sentences, there were beautiful words used in every single sentence that it felt like I was reading a book. The thing about storytelling is, I'm sure you all know as a writer, is to appeal to readers using beautiful words to mesmerize your readers. Story telling is essentially reading, which in a way, feels like you're attending an English language class, but only much more fun and interesting because it is related to something that you like.

Furthermore, Karma's old lore tells me a lot about her character

• She is a compassionate figure who shared her people's hardship

• She is a beloved individual by those who know her

• She is an inspiring individual (reflected in her tone, using words like hope, togetherness, resolve to convey)

• She is, peaceful by nature but is willing to defend herself (not by force, but wit and will a.k.a Resilience or Inner Flame)

• She uses a pair of fans as her weapons (this is portrayed in her character)

• Karma's old kit is reflected in her lore (her truest strength lies in the hearts of those willing to die alongside her, think Spirit Bond., Her old kit was essentially about working in tandem with her allies, she is strong alone, but stronger with her allies)

• She is a normal girl that everyone could relate to (in other words, she was affable)

• She has a family

Most importantly though, Karma..

• Did not lose her serenity & calm, which was the focal point of the champion's personality

> Now.. let's look at New Karma's lore..

> Karma is a woman of indomitable will and unbound spiritual power (???). She is the soul of Ionia made manifest and an inspiring presence on the battlefield, shielding her allies and turning back her foes.** A strong leader torn between tradition and revolution, Karma seeks to protect the peace of Ionia – by force if necessary. ** (!????) > Karma once lived a tranquil life in a small Ionian village. Led by elder monks, the villagers practiced a tradition of benevolent magic and pacifism (???). Known for her powerful connection to the spiritual realm and beloved as a just mediator amongst her people, Karma embraced these traditions as an essential aspect of the enlightenment sought by all Ionians. (???)

>** Her inner peace was tested when the armies of Noxus invaded Ionia.** (???) While the village's elder monks insisted their peaceful ways would spare them from violence, Karma had heard enough tales of Noxian cruelty to openly question the elders' wisdom. (......) Stern and unmoving, they told her to trust in tradition. When the invaders marched on the village, the elder monks rode out to negotiate a bloodless end to the battle. The Noxian general was offended by their show of weakness and slaughtered the monks himself as he ordered his soldiers to strike the village.

> As the Noxians advanced, the villagers prepared to accept death, bound to their peaceful vows. **But Karma would not accept death and instead saw another way: sacrificing a single life to spare many others. To save her people, she drew upon the power within and summoned the full force of her will. ** (........) A burst of spirit fire emerged from her body and spiraled towards the Noxian general. The flame took the form of twin dragons, the symbol of Ionia itself. It was the first time Karma had ever used her powers to harm instead of protect, and neither she nor the villagers had ever seen anything like it. When the magic subsided, the general had fallen before her and his soldiers had scattered. The opposing forces surrendered to Karma's strength leaving her people, and their traditions, untouched.

> While the war raged on, Karma became a formidable leader of the Ionian resistance, but the conflict did not end when Noxus's armies fled the Ionian shores. Ionia became divided between the resistance fighters who craved vengeance and the monks who demanded a return to spiritual tradition. Karma saw a third path, one that combined the strength Ionia found in war with the peaceful traditions the nation still held dear. (???) She now seeks to return her ravaged land to an enduring peace.

> **"Your spirit is something no one can take from you. Use it wisely."** (....)

I bolded certain lines from the lore because I felt that it wasn't representative of Karma, nor was it beautifully told. 2 years ago when I first read her reimagined lore, I felt unimpressed because the storytelling seemed forced, as if written by a narrator who lacked the experience of storytelling and ultimately wanted to change Karma's character in to something unfitting (or as Runaan calls it, (hollywood) "badass"). In her reimagined version, Karma is..

• Soul of Ionia???

• Magic practitioner!?

• Forceful?

• Now a respected figure than an individual who would willingly put aside her status and place herself among commoners?

• What happened to her family?

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I am resistant to change, but I personally found that it didn't fit Karma's character as a whole. There were many complete different directions the team took, from transforming an ordinary character that the fans love to making her a regal-esque character that didn't bring any relatable value for readers. It seemed like an overnight change when she went from an "Enlightened" individual to becoming an individual who was trying to find enlightenment, the enlightenment being that she managed to carve a third path between war and peace. Whereas Enlightenment in the old Karma meant sharing her hardships with her people, through thick and thin and inspiring people through her calm, serene and hopeful disposition. People trusted Karma because their hearts are with her, she had successfully captivated her people's trust and their strength are with her. For the New Karma, it was a Karma who was respected by force, she went from being serene and calm, hopeful to becoming steely, forceful and hardened. She had people who disagreed and agreed with her, her enlightenment came not from herself, but from the events of Noxus invading her village. Enlightenment refers to self-actualization, meaning to say that being self-actualized is a personality rather than an experience. Old Karma was enlightened in the sense that she was contented with what she had, never complained and was willing suffer with her people, sharing the hardships and growing together, that's how enlightenment is, its at the stage where when you are self-actualized, you care about others' welfare, transferring your knowledge to the rest, putting yourself down and being engaged with the people around you, placing little emphasis on materialistic possessions, status or power and regardless of situations, remains hopeful and ever optimistic.

The current Karma on the other hand feels more like an individual who has found enlightenment in one issue. I think when the narrators wrote her story, they confused the Buddhism concept of Enlightenment with Western Enlightenment, meaning insightful/deep understanding. At her conceptualization, Karma is meant to depicted as a self-actualized individual whereas her current version sees her finding an insight from the Noxian invasion, thus making tough calls and hard decisions, that means she is not enlightened to begin with.

This is evident from Danielle McRae and Rashida Clendening's too. Danielle managed to convey a self-actualized tone while Rashida's leaned towards being forceful, as if telling you that conflict can only be ended with conflict and she sees no way in peace unless bloodshed takes place. Some of her quotes "Never become a monster to defeat one." ,"Peace, no matter the cost" contradicts her character, indicates she is indeed, becoming a monster in order to defeat a monster, through aggression and force (Her skills Inner Flame and Focused Resolve reflect that, both dealing damage without a defensive component that benefits others as opposed to Heavenly Wave/Spirit Bond). I like that the narrative team tried to make it happen, but I'll say that they failed, their failure in lore began with Karma's reimagined story, followed by Trundle and the rest crumbling down, and as more lores are updated and changed, it will continue to worsen until someone fixes it.

As it stands now, the lore are overly focused on developing a character through actions rather than words, in every lore, it seems like there needs to be an elaborated storytelling on a fight/ some force of great magic to make a champion seem more appealing (Ashe was ambushed by assassins, Fiora killed her father with style, Azir fought with Xerath, Karma summoned weird twin dragon fire spirit ). The current stories are more focused on how the characters are strong - strong in the sense that they killed people to be a champion. But strong can be presented in several ways, like Zyra's steely resolve to save her kind from becoming extinct, or Karma's resilience to stand strong against Noxus rather than using mystical force, or Braum's determination to save the troll boy trapped in a mountain cursed with Lissandra's magic.

As a reader, I think its important we develop characters starting from their personality or backstory, not telling the story of a character from an event that they are involved in, like how Fiora's entire background involves throwing her right in to the situation of having her defending her family honor, while leaving little explanation (a few lines only) as to why she has to defend her honor. The way I see it, you can introduce a character via their personality and backstory, and use it to develop in to something more interesting, like League Journals! If we look at Fiora as an example again, we can introduce her using her old story, but we can expand her character with using ideas like her current story, think of it as an expansion to champion's identity, like how Old Karma was introduced as a person, and in League Journals, the storytelling was about the events surrounding her (and then the elaborated fighting can come in to story, like Karma vs. Warwick).

I'm using Karma's reimagined lore as a way to convey the message our lore quality currently is overly rushed and lack substances. Comparing the old lore (the ones unchanged) and the newly written ones, the old lore still has a flair that appeals to readers (even if IoW is mentioned in the story). While the new ones seemed like writers tried very hard to cramp in everything in to one story, so you have a story that explains a quarter of this, a quarter of that and it leaves readers feeling empty and confused. It also takes away a lot of unique archetypes and personality that Riot has tried to give to the characters all over the years of creation, "strong" for the narrative team currently means being badass, having great force and that's a really dull concept. I wouldn't mind seeing something more like Amumu (crybaby), Lulu (whimsical, hyperactive champion), old Ashe (resolved, determined and smart), Irelia (passionate, zealous), Zyra (cunning, yet anxious), Malzahar (malevolent, cruel), Elise (fanatic, cult), Old Karma (devoted, resilient, relatable), Zilean (Eccentric but good natured), Riven (merciless but dares to question her purpose). It doesn't have to be X and Y champion fought, X champion killed someone, Y champion is hell bent on revenge or Z champion appeared in his/her lore in a third party manner(Kalista).

To end this off, I apologize for the superbly long post. But I wanted to say that even if the lore no longer matter as much to Riot now than it did years ago, since now most people only care about the competitive scene, I just wanted to point out there are readers who love the lore that the narrative team has put forth and it's a shame to see how the team has taken a turn for the worse when writing lore. Right now, the qualities are a matter of hit-and-miss, a number of current lores (like Braum's) turned out fine but a majority of them (Kalista, Ekko, Fiora, Vel Koz, Bard, Tristana to name a few) turned out horrible and didn't capture readers' interest. It's hard for me to put it in words because there are so many things to consider, but the fact is, if you've been reading every lore like I did as early S2, you will the current lore lacking a flavor that the old ones did. And I want to say that you can't rush good things, even for lore. Ultimately, I guess Riot's intention now is to continue expanding the fanbase and establishing itself as a top MOBA game so things like lore can be neglected. But such acts will only push away those who like League for being more than a generic MOBA, when I first played the game, I thought to myself that the reason why League is so popular is because everything is well thought, ranging from character designs to lore. But now it seems one-dimensional, more about character and gameplay and less about stories. I guess, when you guys focus on what you do best ie: writing great lore even if 75% of the player base didn't care, people will still notice your efforts and it will attract a different crowd, and in time, the number of players will grow for sure, not because Riot is just fun to play, but because it has very very interesting stories to tell.

Once again, I apologize for this long post, but I hope my meaning is (at least) partially understood.