I joined not to long ago and can someone explain the lol lore?

PenguinOverlord8·Jun 4, 2015·4 votes·926 views

I've been playing for a couple months now and I really love this game. I havn't played much ranked because it's kinda stressful but yeah anyways. I like the lol lore and seem to only be able to play champs whose personality I like. But there is one thing I don't understand and it's this big retcon thing. What was the story before and how did it change? I know certain bits and pieces like The institute of war and the rune war but none of it makes sence to me. Tl;dr what was this big retcon thing.

9 Comments

ShínyJun 4, 20156 votes

Once upon a time there were summoners, these summoners started devastating wars which destroyed great tracts of land.At the end of the last great rune war some countries and summoners came together to create the IoW which had the goal of stopping any conflict that would result in more rune wars.

The IoW created the fields of justice to settle political matters, where summoners and champions would work together to represent various city-states in a sort of gladiatorial combat.There were various story-lines involving corruption of Institute , Freljord's struggle to become a full fledged nation, etc. There was political intrigue, character pieces, and a very decent amount of goofy stories also. Blitzcrank had a dating service at one time(which found rammus' one true love was a cactus.)Some of these stories were released through an in-universe newspaper called the "journal of justice".

About 9 months ago,Riot announced that the game and lore would be separate entities, in the process making summoners, the Institute of war and many other things non-canon now, meaning they were deleted from the world as if they were never there.

At the moment some things that are likely not to change drastically are characters associated with the freljord Ashe Sejuani Lissandra , characters associated with the shurima event Azir Nasus Sivir Xerath and characters associated with noxus Swain Sion Katarina .

TL;DR There were summoners they stopped world war 3 through gladiators, Rito removed them and now everything is in a grey limbo of uncertainty.

Its kind of a weird hour, so let me know if my explanation was satisfactory. I'm sure you might have some follow-up questions.

Vistha KaiJun 4, 20154 votes

You forgot about the reasoning behind the retcon:

"It limits our possibilities for delivering stories." and in small font: "No, we haven't done anything about delivering stories yet."

PenguinOverlord8Jun 4, 20153 votes

Oh wow thanks for replying. Now it all make sense. That's kind of unfortunate and no wonder people always get mad over this retcon thing . I always liked the lore, for instance orianna was very heartbreaking and interesting and amumu's personality will always stick with me. But the whole fact that champions story kind of like stand still and what not kind of stinks.

GreenLoreJun 4, 20151 votes

Yeah currently the lore is in a bit of a mess.

Originally the story was that the different nations nearly destroyed Valoran(the continent where everything is taking place),which is why a group of powerful mages called summoners created the institute of war,which led the League of Legends,which was an alternative to war,where nations send their heroes to the league and the outcome of these games would determine the outcome of the conflict.

However it was now announced that they are retconning the league of legends,as the narrative team thinks it is too much of a hindrance for storytelling. So now the game is completely seperated from the lore(except for its characters).In most cases the Lore of the characters are largely the same,except that they never joined the league of legends. However some champions have currently no lore because of that,since their story was directly tied to the league.These champs are: Chogath LeeSin Fiddlesticks Nocturne Jax Malphite Taric Morgana Kayle Hecarim (not that hecarims lore ever told us much about him) And well to some extent Nautilus (his ship was hired by the institute of war,but other than that,his lore probably remains the same)

However,the lore of older champs might be still retconned even if they aren't tied to the league of legends.As a rule of thumb,most people consider the lores of every champ that was released after Darius as safe,as well as the lores of the champs who already received a lore update. Also if you want to read about a champions lore,I'd recommend the LoL-wiki,as they give a quick overview of the champions lore and the official site/ingame client only has the short lore(which are meant as just a quick introduction for the champs) for certain champs avaliable.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends_Wiki

And overall there is no central plot,instead there are the stories of the individual champs and their nations.

GenoXxJun 4, 20151 votes

"Hecarim is a towering, armored specter whose name is whispered fearfully across the length and breadth of Runeterra. He patrols the Shadow Isles, running down anyone foolish enough to set foot upon its cursed soil. As the vanguard of undeath, Hecarim rides forth from the Black Mist, laughing mockingly as he tramples the living beneath his iron-shod hooves. "

GreenLoreJun 4, 20151 votes

yeah meant the full lore. Generally I wouldn't consider the full lores of the SI-champs really retconned,since the short lores don't contradict them at all.

PenguinOverlord8Jun 4, 20151 votes

That clears things up. Thanks for replying. And yeah I remember fiddle's lore about being like in a room in the Iow and how he was an executioner...yeah I guess it did screw stuff up.

James StoneJun 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

That clears things up. Thanks for replying. And yeah I remember fiddle's lore about being like in a room in the Iow and how he was an executioner...yeah I guess it did screw stuff up.

Fiddle's old lore was the perfect example of "spooky mystery" done right. He came to be from a recently forbidden ritual, an extra-planar summoning. He's essentially a being from a completely different plane of existence (not dimension, plane), meaning he's even more alien than the Voidborn. When the High Summoner Istvaan, the man who conjured him into our plane, didn't report back, they send a small exploration team to see what's up. Fiddle killed most of them and drove the survivors mad with fear.

When the Institute wanted to execute someone, they'd simply send the poor bastard into Fiddlestick's chamber. He's at his strongest inside, and refuses to leave. When asked what exactly it is that he does, his writer simply replied "He Waits".

PenguinOverlord8Jun 7, 20151 votes

Yes I agree. I always thought fiddle was kind of a silly champion though... HAPPY BIRTHDAY- Fiddlesticks xD